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Israel transfers Marwan Barghouti to solitary for planning uprising, media reports

MEMO | February 15, 2024

Israel’s Channel 13 reported yesterday that the occupation’s prison administration transferred prominent Fatah leader, prisoner Marwan Barghouti, to solitary confinement.

It said that the prison administration “took measures against Barghouti claiming he is pushing for escalating resistance in the West Bank.”

It explained that “Barghouti was transferred from Ofer Prison to solitary confinement in another prison,” without specifying which prison, after the prison administration “received information that Barghouti is encouraging the escalation of acts of resistance against the occupation in the West Bank.”

The occupation authorities claimed that “Barghouti is working through several channels to break out a Third Intifada in the West Bank, due to the continued Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.”

Barghouti is a prominent politician and leader in the Fatah movement. He participated in the First Intifada in 1987 and was one of the most prominent faces of the Second Intifada in 2000. He was arrested and exiled on several occasions and was subjected to failed Israeli assassination attempts. He has been sentenced to five life sentences and has been held in detention since 2002.

In spite of his incarceration he has a large following and numerous polls show that, should Palestinian elections be held, he would likely be chosen president of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

February 15, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , | Leave a comment

Palestinian arrests in West Bank exceed 7,000 since 7 October

(Photo Credit: Anadolu Ajansı)
The Cradle | February 14, 2024

The number of Israeli arrests in the West Bank since 7 October has risen to around 7,020, multiple institutions concerned with the rights of detained Palestinians reported on 13 February. 

According to the human rights groups, 18 arrests were made in the West Bank overnight, including two women from Jericho alongside other children and former prisoners. 

Overnight arrests made by the Israeli forces were mainly carried out in Hebron and Qalqiliya, while other arrests were made across Jericho, Nablus, Jerusalem, and Ramallah. 

The Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), and the Addameer Prisoner Care and Human Rights Association released a joint statement revealing that the total number of arrests – including individuals from the 1948 territories – amounted to approximately 220 women and 440 children.

The number reported includes those arrested in their homes, at military checkpoints, those taken hostage, and those forced to surrender under pressure.

The statement added that 53 journalists had been detained since 7 October – 36 of whom remain imprisoned – with 21 others under administrative detention without charge or trial.

The detention campaigns are accompanied by escalating instances of abuse, beatings, and threats against the detainees and their family members. This includes the destruction of homes as well as the confiscation of vehicles, money, and jewelry. 

They also reported executions targeting members of detainees’ families.

The data given by the prisoner rights groups does not include those arrested from Gaza due to Israel’s refusal to disclose such information. 

The total number of Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons is estimated to exceed 9,000 individuals. Among them, there are 3,484 administrative detainees and 606 individuals classified as “illegal fighters” from Gaza. 

February 14, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , | Leave a comment

Euro-Med: Detainees kidnaped from Gaza faced grave Israeli violations

Palestine Information Center – February 6, 2024

GENEVA – New testimonies received by Euro-Med Human Right Monitor from recently released Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip, including women and children, have revealed their exposure to torture and ill-treatment by the Israeli occupation army.

Euro-Med Monitor cited revelations of crimes such as forced nudity, sexual harassment, and threats of sexual torture, and called for urgent international action to stop these violations.

“Testimonies from a group of recently released detainees who spent varying lengths of time in Israeli jails and detention centers were provided to the Euro-Med Monitor team. These individuals confirmed that they were subjected to severe beatings, dog attacks, strip searches, and denial of food and bathroom access, among other cruel practices that amount to torture.”

The most disturbing testimonies Euro-Med received concern female detainees who were directly sexually harassed.

Euro-Med quoted those female detainees, who preferred to remain unidentified due to safety concerns, as saying that “Israeli soldiers had harassed them by touching their genitals as well as making them remove their headscarves.”

Additionally, Euro-Med confirmed that “the soldiers forced the female detainees and their families into providing information about others by threatening to indecently assault and even rape them.”

A 70-year-old man who requested anonymity spoke with a Euro-Med team as well. “[Israeli soldiers] took me from my house in the neighborhood of Al-Amal in Khan Yunis,” the man, identified only as “M.N,” stated. “I told them that I was sick and could not move, but they did not care. They forced me to take off my clothes. They took me to a demolished house; I had the impression that I was used as a human shield.”

M.N. explained that the Israeli soldiers made more arrests later on and “led us to a detention facility that was nothing more than an iron cage for severe torture”. He spent 10 days confined to the prison.

“We were subjected to daily insults and beatings,” M.N. added. “We went four days without drinking [anything]. They poured water on the ground in front of us as a form of torture. We were made to sit on our knees, given little food, and only allowed to use the restroom once.”

“They asked us to evacuate, so I left with my family west of Khan Yunis,” reported another man, identified only as “K.H.N.” due to safety concerns. “[Israeli soldiers] arrested me at the checkpoint and forced me to take off my clothes. I was severely beaten. Blankets soaked with water were draped over us. We did not drink any water and were abnormally cold.”

K.H.N. stated that the Israeli army “later transferred us to another place, where we were subjected to another form of torture. Every new place had a unique method of torture. I was struck in the head by an officer, who continued to hit me after I complained.” The severe cold prevented him from falling asleep, he told Euro-Med.

“They arrested me from Beit Lahia, and forced me to completely undress,” a third man, identified as “M.W.”, told Euro-Med. “They detained me in an open area and severely beat me; I felt their hands scour my body. After severely beating me with rugs and rifle butts, they hung me by my legs. I was exposed to severe beatings for 4 to 6 hours [per day].”

He added: “They threatened to rape my family, and asked for information that I did not know. They forced us to insult certain factions and personalities, to support Israel, and to say that the dog that was attacking us was ‘a crown on our heads.’”

“They arrested me at the checkpoint on Salah al-Din Road,” a woman, identified as “G” told Euro-Med. “They asked me to head to a sand berm, where they blindfolded me, searched me with their hands, and asked me about Hamas and the tunnels.”

“Then they moved me to an open area, then [transferred] me to a detention center, where I was forced to take off my clothes,” G said further. “They provided me with nothing but [house clothes] and no underwear.”

The woman told Euro-Med that she was questioned multiple times while in custody. “Every time I was stripped nude, with the female soldiers putting their hands on me, while male soldiers occasionally made rude comments, harsh insults that I cannot [repeat], and rape threats.”

According to Euro-Med, a recent report by Israel’s own media on the detention center housing Palestinians from the Gaza Strip shows that Israel practices systematic torture, in violation of human rights agreements that were explicitly designed and implemented to prevent torture. The report shows detainees being shackled and forced to sit on the ground in iron animal-like cages — in accordance to Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant’s October 2023 remarks that the Palestinians in Gaza are “human animals.”

Euro-Med accused the Israeli occupation forces of forcibly hiding Palestinian detainees and subjecting them to brutal violence and even severe torture from the very first moment of their arrest right up until the moment of release.

Euro-Med also accused the Israeli occupation authority of refusing requests from multiple human rights groups, including Israeli ones, seeking information about Gazan detainees.

“Detainees from the Gaza Strip are being held in newly-established Israeli army detention facilities scattered throughout the Negev and Jerusalem, where they endure severe abuse, torture, and starvation,” Euro-Med said.

Euro-Med pointed out that the number of detainees from Gaza is not known accurately. “The Israeli army recently claimed that there are 2,300 detainees in Gaza; however, estimates based on the testimonies of those released suggest that the actual number of detainees is much higher. One detainee said that Israeli officers had personally informed them that there are thousands of Gazan detainees.”

“Israel’s Sde Teman army camp, located between Beersheba and Gaza, has been turned into a Guantánamo-like prison,” Euro-Med said. “Detainees there are held in extreme conditions akin to open-air chicken cages, without access to food or drink for long periods of time.

Euro-Med highlighted testimonies it had received about the death of two detainees, one of them with an amputated foot, inside the Sde Teman camp.

Euro-Med called on Israel “to promptly reveal the names, whereabouts, and fate of all forcibly disappeared detainees, and to immediately stop its policy of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees.”

Euro-Med emphasized that “Israel’s ruthless assaults on Palestinian detainees, which violate their dignity and purposefully cause them great pain and suffering, are tantamount to crimes against humanity and/or torture, which fall under the purview of war crimes and crimes against humanity as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”

Euro-Med stated that “these breaches are related to Israel’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, which began on October 7, 2023. Specifically, the killing of Palestinian detainees inside detention centers is considered to be a crime of premeditated murder and an extrajudicial execution. This type of killing is prohibited by international law, especially international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law, which considers intentionally killing civilians a war crime, according to the Rome Statute.”

“International law also prohibits arbitrary arrest and unlawful imprisonment, and considers them to be war crimes,” Euro-Med noted. “International law forbids detaining and arresting someone and depriving them of their freedom by failing to provide any information about their whereabouts or fate in an effort to deny them legal protection for an extended period of time. According to the Rome Statute, enforced disappearance is considered a crime against humanity.”

The Geneva-based rights group called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to shoulder its responsibilities and work on confirming and exposing the detention conditions of Palestinian detainees in Israeli detention camps and jails.

Euro-Med also called on the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to launch an urgent and impartial investigation into Israel’s egregious violations in Gaza. “This investigation is needed to probe the Israeli army’s liquidation of Palestinian civilians after their arrest in different areas of the Gaza Strip, to hold those responsible accountable, and to provide justice to all survivors as well as the families of victims.”

February 6, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Released Palestinian prisoners recount torture in Israeli jails

Press TV – February 1, 2024

Palestinians from Khan Younis kept by Israeli troops and released in Rafah after weeks have recounted their suffering due to inhuman treatment and abuse at the hands of the regime’s jailers.

The Palestinians displayed their injuries at a hospital in Rafah on Thursday. They suffered as a result of beatings by the Israeli forces.

The Palestinians were held without any charge. Arbitrary detention is used by Israel as a tool to persecute the Palestinians.

The Gaza crossings authority said 114 people, including four women, were released through the Kerem Shalom crossing on Thursday.

Khaled al-Nabrisse, 48, a resident of southern Khan Younis, was hit in the neck. He was wearing a neck brace. Palestinians have been “tortured relentlessly,” he said. “During the first 72 hours, drinking, eating or using the restroom was banned, and we were handcuffed and blindfolded,” Nabrisse said.

“The situation was really tough and we suffered torture like we never saw before.”

Nabrisse said the regime’s troops also used dogs to intimidate them.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the released Palestinians included Mohammed al-Ran, head of the surgery department at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza. Ran was taken by the Israeli military when they stormed the hospital two months ago, the ministry said.

Abu Khamis, from the Bureij refugee camp, said he had to undergo “torture, hits and insults” while he was held by the Israeli military. “As you see, these (wounds) happened in prison. My hands were hurt and are going to be treated,” said the 50-year-old, with a blanket around his shoulders.

Another person released on Thursday was lying on a trolley struggling to even lift his head, a black zip tied around one of his wrists.

Harrowing testimonies by the released Palestinians as well as human rights lawyers, and several pieces of video footage illustrate some of the worst forms of torture and ill-treatment by the Israeli forces since October 7.

Similar accounts of torture have already been documented from decades of Israeli hostility across the occupied West Bank.

The United Nations human rights representative in the Palestinian territories told reporters last month of the “horrific” conditions the Palestinians kept by the regime face.

Ajith Sunghay said the Palestinians held by Israel “reported being blindfolded for long periods – some of them for several consecutive days.” Sunghay said he was unable to give an exact figure of the number of the Palestinians the regime is holding but it was “believed to number in the thousands.”

February 1, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Israel refuses to provide information about Gaza detainees, rights group says

MEMO | January 31, 2024

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said the Israeli occupation refuses to disclose any information about detainees taken from Gaza, Quds Press reported.

In a statement issued yesterday, the rights group said the Israeli occupation is carrying out “the crime of enforced disappearance” against Gaza detainees, following a number of military orders and laws specifically enacted for them.

The Israeli Knesset has recently ratified regulations depriving “Gaza detainees” of meeting with a lawyer for another four months.

Images from Gaza show Palestinian men being rounded up from shelters, stripped to their underwear and made to wait in the cold while naked and blindfolded. They are later seen being taken away on trucks to undisclosed locations.

Those who have been released bear signs of torture, exhaustion and malnourishment.

January 31, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Israel allows 8 trucks of aid into Gaza City ‘then shoots at them’

MEMO | January 23, 2024

A MEMO correspondent in Gaza City has reported that eight truck loads of aid arrived in the besieged city today with Palestinians rushing to collect the much needed food, however occupation forces quickly opened fire at them.

“The Israeli occupation allowed the entry of eight truckloads of humanitarian aid, then gave five minutes for starving people to collect them and then opened fire at them. People were forced to flee,” Motasem Dalloul said.

As little aid has trickled into northern Gaza over the past few months, people have been forced to walk long distances to reach the aid trucks and to carry the goods on foot back to their shelters.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said yesterday that Israel has prevented three out of every four humanitarian missions heading to the northern Gaza Strip.

It had earlier warned that since the beginning of 2024, Israel has doubled the restrictions imposed on the arrival of relief missions to the Gaza Strip.

Gaza Testimonies; Destruction in Al-Maghazi Camp

Al-Haq | January 22, 2024

“The entire Al-Maghazi Camp is destroyed. No homes are left, no column left. The corpses are thrown around on the ground in front of us.”

Gaza Testimonies; Paramedics Targeted

Al-Haq | January 23, 2024

”As we approached the ambulance, we were surprised to see the bodies of people killed near the ambulance. Those killed included our dispatched crew of four paramedics, along with two injured individuals. Six people were killed in this attack.”

January 24, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, Video, War Crimes | , , , | 2 Comments

Israel Rounds Up Thousands of Palestinians Without Charge or Access to a Lawyer

By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | January 18, 2024

The Israeli Knesset has approved legislation that allows holding Palestinians deemed security prisoners for up to 180 days without access to a lawyer. Since October 7, Israel has placed thousands of Palestinians in administrative detention.

On Monday, the Israeli Knesset approved a law that extends “the emergency regulations that have allowed Israeli authorities to deny security prisoners, detained since October 7, the option to meet with their lawyers,” Haaretz reports. “The regulation will be valid for an additional three months, and will allow the state to prevent prisoners from meeting with a lawyer for up to 180 days.”

Since October 7, Israel has rounded up thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. The number of Palestinians held in administration detention has increased from around 1,200 to over 3,300 in just three months. A total of 8,600 Palestinians are now in Israeli prisons.

Israel has severely restricted all communications with those in detention. Family members often report even struggling to locate their loved ones after getting arrested by Israeli occupation forces.

Since October 7, Palestinians have been beaten, tortured, and killed in Israeli prisons. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a member of the extremist Jewish Power, has significant influence over the conditions of Palestinian prisoners.

Ben Gvir, who has called for disloyal Palestinians to be expelled from Israel, has already degraded the conditions detainees are subject to using over-crowding as an excuse. The Knesset is considering legislation that will give the minister further authority to erode the rights of Palestinian prisoners.

Conditions are horrible for those men indiscriminately rounded up by the Israeli soldiers in Gaza. The Tel Aviv-based +972 Magazine conducted an investigation into the treatment of detained Palestinians and concluded, “systematic abuse and torture by Israeli soldiers against all of the detainees, civilians and combatants alike.”

“According to these testimonies, Israeli soldiers subjected Palestinian detainees to electric shocks, burned their skin with lighters, spat in their mouths, and deprived them of sleep, food, and access to bathrooms until they defecated on themselves.” The outlet added, “Many were tied to a fence for hours, handcuffed, and blindfolded for most of the day. Some testified to having been beaten all over their bodies and having cigarettes extinguished on their necks or backs. Several people are known to have died as a result of being held in these conditions.”

January 18, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Gaza Testimony

Al-Haq | January 17, 2024

Journalist Dia Al Kahlout was arbitrarily arrested by the #Israeli Occupying Forces from his home in Beit Lahia & detained for 33 days.
Upon his release, family members of others arbitrarily detained desperately try to get information about their loved ones

January 18, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, Video, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

US journalist jailed and ‘tortured’ by Ukraine has died – family

RT | January 12, 2024

Chilean-American blogger Gonzalo Lira has died in a Ukrainian prison, his family said on Friday.

Lira, 55 at the time of his death, lived in Kharkov and blogged as ‘CoachRedPill,’ but switched to YouTube commentary after the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022. He was arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) last May and accused of “discrediting” the Ukrainian leadership and the military.

“I cannot accept the way my son has died. He was tortured, extorted, incommunicado for 8 months and 11 days and the US Embassy did nothing to help my son. The responsibility of this tragedy is the dictator Zelensky with the concurrence of a senile American President, Joe Biden,” his father Gonzalo Lira Sr. wrote in a note published by The Grayzone.

Lira Sr. also reached out to X host Tucker Carlson, confirming the death of his son in Ukrainian custody. He had spoken to Carlson about the case in early December.

Lira resurfaced from custody in late July with a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), revealing his torture in jail and attempts by the SBU to extort him for money. He said he was trying to flee to Hungary and seek asylum. “Either I’ll cross the border and make it to safety, or I’ll be disappeared by the Kiev regime,” he wrote, in his last public message.

Two days later, a source confirmed to RT that Lira had been caught and imprisoned by Ukrainian authorities.

According to a handwritten note Lira’s sister received on January 4, provided to the Grayzone by her father, Gonzalo Lira Jr. had severe health problems caused by pneumonia and a collapsed lung, which began in mid-October. Ukrainian prison authorities only acknowledged the issue on December 22, and stated he would undergo surgery.

Following his father’s appearance on Carlson’s show, X owner Elon Musk personally inquired about Lira’s case with both US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, apparently to no effect.

Lira was a national of both the US and Chile. According to his thread from last July, the Chilean Embassy in Kiev at least tried to help him, while the US mission gave him only “empty bromides.” Lira suggested that this was because Victoria Nuland – currently the acting deputy to Secretary of State Antony Blinken – hated him personally.

January 12, 2024 Posted by | Full Spectrum Dominance, Subjugation - Torture | , , | 2 Comments

How Britain invented modern torture

By Kit Klarenberg | Al Mayadeen | January 6, 2024

On January 2, Frank Kitson, a lifelong British Army officer, writer, and military theorist died peacefully in his sleep at the grand age of 97. It was an undeservedly dignified exit for an individual who directly and indirectly inflicted misery upon untold people for much of his lifetime. It is likely many will continue to suffer adverse consequences as a result of his teachings for decades to come.

Kitson was a pioneer in the field of counterinsurgency, defined as “the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces.” His assorted views on the topic were informed by Britain’s experience of brutal, asymmetric wars against nationalist rebellions and attempted revolutions throughout the Global South, as its Empire rapidly disintegrated following World War II. In several cases, he was on the literal frontline of these bloody disputes.

Kitson wrote a series of books about counterinsurgency, which were hugely influential internationally. Most notoriously, his proposed strategies for “defeating irregular forces” were deployed throughout “the Troubles” – London’s secret dirty war against the Catholic population of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Ever since, these methods have been deployed over and again to devastating effect in theatres of war domestic and foreign, by multiple governments.

Even sympathetic mainstream obituaries of Kitson were forced to acknowledge this highly controversial legacy. The Times of London noted how in his final years, “he was still dogged by litigation” from his time leading Britain’s war on Catholics throughout the Troubles. “Threats to his personal security and that of his family continued to the end” as a result of his posting, the newspaper recorded.

Absent from these eulogies was any reference to a core, clandestine component of Kitson’s patented counterinsurgency credo – a very specific, uniquely British form of torture. Actively practiced and exported abroad by London for decades, these techniques of maltreatment have been adopted by countless militaries, security and intelligence agencies, and police forces. Just as the primary casualties of battles against “irregular forces” are invariably innocent civilians, average citizens of the world have been the ultimate victims of this mephitic push.

‘Propaganda Cover’

In the Autumn of 1969, Kitson’s British Army superiors personally tasked him with an extremely sensitive mission. He was to enroll at Oxford University and produce a thesis “to make the army ready to deal with subversion, insurrection and peace-keeping operations” over the next decade, if not beyond. The 42-year-old lieutenant colonel was an ideal candidate for the role.

Pyrrhic victory over the Nazis severely weakened London financially and militarily, prompting populations of her colonies and imperial holdings to rise en-masse against their oppressors. This produced bitter end-of-Empire wars on every continent. Kitson was a veteran of two – the 1952 – 1960 Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya, and the 1948 – 1960 Malayan Emergency. There, he witnessed first-hand the British innovate new, vicious ways of dealing with unconventional threats, in real-time.

Kitson was dispatched to Oxford at a time when London struggled desperately to contain another popular civilian rebellion. Escalating tensions between indigenous Catholics and Protestant colonizers in Northern Ireland resulted in the British Army’s formal deployment to the province in August 1969. Initially welcomed as protectors, the situation rapidly spun out of control. The “peacekeepers” became embroiled in endless, unwinnable street-to-street battles against IRA insurgency and hostile Catholic civilians.

In September 1970, Kitson took command of the British Army’s 39th Brigade, responsible for keeping the peace in Belfast and much of the east of Northern Ireland. Serendipitously, his thesis was published as “Low Intensity Operations: Subversion, Insurgency and Peacekeeping” not long after. Received with some relief by soldiers, military chiefs, and government officials wrestling with how to deal with “the Troubles”, its contents provoked an outcry in certain public quarters.

Of particular concern were passages in which Kitson argued against conducting counterinsurgency efforts “against those practicing subversion” under typical civil, legal, and political conditions. Instead, he contended that standard freedoms, protections, and rights should be suspended, before launching military operations against “irregular targets”. In such contexts, laws could not “remain impartial and [be administered] without any direction from the government.”

“Law should be used as just another weapon in the government’s arsenal…a propaganda cover for the disposal of unwanted members of the public. For this to happen efficiently, the activities of legal services have to be tied into the war effort in as discreet a way as possible.”

Elsewhere, Kitson likened counterinsurgency to catching a fish, with civilian populations of areas where enemy groups operate as “the water in which the fish swims.” He argued that if a fish could not be caught via traditional means such as a net or rod, “it may be necessary to do something to the water which will force the fish into a position where it can be caught. Conceivably it might be necessary to kill the fish by polluting the water.’’

‘Five Techniques’

In August 1971, Operation Demetrius commenced in Northern Ireland. British soldiers went home-to-home across the province, mass-arresting IRA suspects and their family members, frequently based on outdated or outright false intelligence, in service of “internment”. This policy was entirely in keeping with Kitson’s counterinsurgency pronouncements and executed under his direct watch. It meant detention without trial for hundreds of “terrorism” suspects, over lengthy periods.

While jailed, internees were subjected to some or all of London’s “Five Techniques” of torture to make them talk. These methods, in keeping with Kitson’s counterinsurgency philosophy, evolved over the course of Britain’s assorted end-of-Empire conflicts. Catholics were spared the absolute worst excesses of the horrors meted out to indigenous populations. For example, while women were victims of internment, broken bottles, gun barrels, knives, snakes, and hot eggs were not routinely thrust into their genitalia, as was done with female Mau Mau suspects in Kenya.

Still, what was done to detainees can only be considered barbarous in the absolute extreme. In November of that year, a senior commandant within the British Army’s Intelligence Corps sketched an official history of the development of London’s military interrogation methods since World War II. Its contents were so sensitive and shocking that senior government officials wished for the report to remain secret for a century. As it was, the document was declassified after just three decades.

In brief, Britain had devised a system of torture, combining prolonged stress positions, subjection to white noise, sensory deprivation, and cessation of food, drink, and sleep. The Five Techniques could be applied to anyone in almost any context, cost little or nothing to employ, and would not leave physical marks on victims. As such, public exposure, scandal, or prosecution for human rights abuses and/or war crimes was extremely unlikely, if not impossible.

Physical pain and psychological devastation inflicted by the Five Techniques were nonetheless dependably gargantuan. In stress positions, detainees were stripped, then forced to wear buttonless boiler suits and hoods, before being forced to stand with their legs spread apart, leaning forward with their arms held high against a wall, supporting all their weight with their fingers alone. Simultaneously, relentless white noise was pumped into their cells. If a prisoner did not maintain the stress position, they were beaten into compliance.

‘Very Simple System’

The Intelligence Corps report notes these methods had been applied over the past three decades to prisoners of war, refugees, guerrilla fighters, and spies. Contained therein is a lengthy section documenting the deployment and refinement of the “Five Techniques” in numerous counterinsurgencies, while discussing their efficacy and the results gained by usage. For example, the author cites how Mau Mau “terrorists” in Kenya “were persuaded under interrogation to switch their allegiance and subsequently guided British patrols against their erstwhile comrades.”

In British Cameroon 1960/1, “members of a subversive group from the neighbouring Cameroon Republic were arrested on British-controlled territory, which they were using as a base.” An Army team set up shop in a “converted hotel annex” to interrogate 20 “high grade subjects”, of which 15 “cooperated fully” as a result of torture.”

“Information elicited included full details of rebel training camps in Morocco and other north-west African countries – even course syllabi.”

In June 1963, British Army interrogators flew to Swaziland, a protectorate of London, after 1,500 workers at a British-owned asbestos mine went on strike, demanding a basic wage of £1 a day. In a perverse irony, “it was thought that the labour problem [was] created by [a] subversive organisation,” rather than legitimate and reasonable grievances over grossly exploitative low wages paid by their colonial overlords.

After the Five Techniques were liberally applied to strikers – and, given their racial extraction, surely more gruesome methods too – “no subversive organisation was found” to be behind the strikes. This “negative result” was considered “valuable”, as “it quickly established that local grievances were the cause of unrest.” The effort was also “successful in clearing up the labour problems,” the report commended. But of course – when industrial action results in torture, workers quickly learn to stay in line.

Fast forward to March 1971, a British Army interrogation center was set up in a “disused camp” in Northern Ireland. The site “was not perfectly adaptable to the task, but was the best available,” the report records. The stage was thus set for Catholics to be subjected to the Five Techniques with total impunity. Savage tactics tested and honed against Africans, Asians, and Latin Americans were being brought “home” to British soil.

The report’s author understood the monstrousness that had been created. They noted the importance of training British soldiers to withstand comparable interrogation techniques and to know “what to expect at the hands of an unscrupulous enemy.” It is nonetheless likely that British trainees were spared the indignity of being beaten, kicked in the genitals, and having their heads smashed into walls, as many Catholic internees suffered.

The result in every case was prolonged pain, physical and mental exhaustion, severe anxiety, depression, hallucinations, disorientation, and repeated loss of consciousness. No detainee ever fully recovered from their internment – long-term psychological trauma was universal. Yet, it appears only 14 prisoners were subjected to every single one of the Five Techniques. They became known as the “Hooded Men”, and in 1976, their case was considered by the European Commission of Human Rights. It ruled that the Techniques amounted to torture.

The case was then referred to the European Court of Human Rights, which astoundingly ruled two years later that while the Five Techniques were “inhuman and degrading” and breached Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, they did not amount to torture. In 2014, after it was revealed that British government ministers had expressly greenlit the use of the Five Techniques in Northern Ireland, Dublin asked the ECHR to review its decision. Four years later, the Court declined.

The declassified British Army Intelligence Corps report notes many foreign countries “show considerable interest” in the Five Techniques, with students from the US, Netherlands, Jordan, Belgium, Germany, Norway, and Denmark regularly attending training sessions convened by London. “Our European allies look to the UK for advice… our very simple system is admired,” the report boasts. This surely explains why the Five Techniques cannot be formally recognized by the most influential and powerful human rights court in the world.

January 8, 2024 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

40 Years in Jail for a Marijuana Offense

By Jacob G. Hornberger | FFF | January 5, 2024

When I read an article yesterday by a man named Edwin Rubis, I sat there, shook my head, and asked myself how any government could do such a thing to anyone.

The reason that Rubis’s article caught my attention is captured in the title of his article: “I’m Serving 40 Years in Federal Prison. Here’s a Glimpse Into My World.” That title intrigued me because I have often wondered what daily life is like for prison inmates. Do they sit around all day reading books? Do they work out? Do they have jobs inside the prison? What type of food do they eat? Are they constantly getting harassed by prison guards? Are they raped or beaten up by other inmates?

That “40 Years” in the title of the article also caught my attention. Imagine: 40 years in jail! As a former criminal-defense attorney, I figured that Rubis had most likely been convicted of a serious federal offense, such as bank robbery or kidnapping, perhaps even felony-murder.

Not so. After describing what his daily life in prison is like, Rubis included a tagline at the bottom of his article that stated that he was serving a 40-year jail sentence for a non-violent marijuana offense.

Yes, you read that right! 40 years! For … a … non-violent .. marijuana … offense.

That’s incredible. After all, we’re not talking Turkey or North Korea. We are talking about the United States.

40 years for a non-violent marijuana offense. Just let that sink in. Not heroin. Not cocaine. Not fentanyl. Not opioids. Just marijuana.

What would motivate any federal judge to issue such a horrific jail sentence for a non-violent marijuana offense? I did some online research but I could not find the name of the federal judge who issued that sentence. But whoever he is, he ought to hang his head in shame. In fact, if he’s still serving as a federal judge, he ought to resign his position and return to practicing law. It would be the right thing to do.

My research did reveal that Rubis was convicted in Houston of distribution of marijuana rather than possession.

Ever since the start of the war on drugs, possession of drugs has been considered less grave than distribution of drugs. But that always has been a ridiculous distinction. Both possession and distribution are entirely peaceful acts. Unless one is growing his own marijuana, in order to possess a drug, one must receive it. So, why should the one who is selling or delivering the drug be treated more harshly than one who receives or possesses the drug?

The purpose of meting out high jail sentences to marijuana distributors is to dissuade people from distributing drugs. If people are deterred from distributing drugs, the argument goes, then people won’t be able to consume or possess them.

How’s that working out for you drug warriors, including you federal judges who are convinced that you have the responsibility of helping “win” the war on drugs? I’m sure that that federal judge who meted out that 40-year jail sentence to Rubis figured that he was doing his part to “win” the war on drugs. That’s certainly what federal judges were doing back when I was practicing law on the U.S. Mexico Border back in the 1970s. It’s one thing for a judge in the 1970s to have such a mindset. But how in the world could later judges — and judges today — have that same mindset? Their obtuseness boggles the mind.

Edwin Rubin began serving his jail sentence in 1998. He’s been in jail for some 25 years. For a non-violent marijuana offense. He is set to be released in 2032.

How in the world can the American people permit this drug-war madness to continue? How many more lives must be destroyed before a nationwide crisis of conscience forces federal officials to bring it to an end?

January 5, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Subjugation - Torture | , | 2 Comments

Gaza Testimonies; Torture and Abuse in Israeli Detention

Al-Haq | January 4, 2024

“If you lift your head, the soldier would hit you with the rifle butt or whatever he has in his hands. They also had knuckle punches to hit you whenever you move. If you move, complain or utter “ouch”, you get tased – forms of torture we have never seen.”

#CeasefireNOW

January 5, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, Video | , , , | Leave a comment