torture

Bush Signs Torture Law

Yesterday President Bush signed the infamous Military Commissions Act of 2006 (fulltext pdf).

In case you have missed this one it is the law that grants the CIA legal right to continue operating torture facilities in undisclosed, foreign countries. It also allows individuals designated as â??enemy combatantsâ?? to be held without habeas corpus.

Habeas Corpus is basically the right that guarantees that the courts should decide whether a person is lawfully imprisoned. By removing this right the CIA now can legally detain people indefinitely without having to seek court permission.

The law also â??establishes military tribunals that would allow some use of evidence obtained by coercionâ?? â??  In the legal systems of most sane countries evidence obtained by torture is not considered good evidence. This is because the point of law is justice. Torture a person long enough and they will admit to anything just to make the torture stop. Only weak-minded incompetent fools can think that the use of torture is a good idea to obtain the truth.

So now the US has reached an all time low. It joins the company terror dictatorships like Stalin’s Soviet Union, Hitler’s Germany, Mao’s China or Pol Pot’s Cambodia where anyone deemed an enemy of the state can be picked up, hidden in a foreign jail, tortured until they admit to anything and then sentenced.

The point is, of course, that this move also removes any legitimate moral standpoint the US might have had. While the bill was being signed, protesters outside the White House shouted, â??Bush is the terroristâ?? and â??Torture is a crimeâ??. Those who refused to move were arrested by police. (Times).

To add a bit of the surreal to the event: the table where the president signed the bill had a notice with the words â??Protecting Americaâ?? written on it. If that were true then you wouldnâ??t need the sign would you?

Land of the free, home of the brave? Not likely. Nice one Georgeâ?¦

Posted on by mklang

What is torture?

George W. Bush has admitted to the existence of secret CIA prisons. But in the same speech he says “The US does not torture. I have not authorised it and I will not.”

The fact that Bush admits to the prisons is an important step. But his defence that torture has not been used is strange. Naturally it sounds good but it raises the question whether Bush knows what the definition of torture is.

The Bush administration has been struggling with the definition of the word since, at least, August 2002 (Washington Post).

Lets lend a hand – here is a definition in line with customary international law (ICTY, 10 December 1998, Prosecutor v. Anto Furundzija [1998] ICTY 3, § 160)

The UN Convention against Torture definition provides that torture is â??any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctionsâ??.

But even if we ignore legal definitions. An easily understandable idea is that the presence of secret prisons is not good and borderline torture since secret prisons must cause undue stress to those who are interned.

Posted on by mklang

Blog against torture continues

The blog against torture campaign asked people to write posts against torture on their blogs during the month of June. Obviously such a campaign did not end the problem – even if it did create awareness. The organisation is attempting to continue the campaign. Here is an email I recieved on the subject:

…One of our bloggers, Heathlander, has generously
volunteered to go 24 hours without sleep — blogging continuously the
whole time — to raise money for Amnesty International USA. It’s all
part of Blogathon 2006 (http://www.blogathon.org/), which will be held
across the globe on 29th July.

Would you like to help us out? Here’s some things that you can do:

– Join Heathlander and stay up with him for 24 hours of continuous blogging!

If you’d like to help Heathlander stay awake and write posts, leave
a message here.

Why not! Its for a good cause…

Posted on by mklang

Death Vans

In a move that is eerily echoes the mobile Nazi gas chambers China has begun to use specially designed busses as mobile centres of execution where they administer death by lethal injection. It is no secret that China has capital punishment, but the amount of capital punishments undertaken remains undeclared by the Chinese government.

Death Van

Product Specifications (via USA Today):
Cost: $37,500 to $75,000, depending on vehicle’s size
Length: 20 to 26 feet
Top speed: 65 to 80 mph

The van is divided into three sections:

Execution chamber: in the back, with blacked-out windows; seats beside the stretcher for a court doctor and guards; sterilizer for injection equipment; wash basin
Observation area: in the middle, with a glass window separating it from execution area; can accommodate six people; official-in-charge oversees the execution through monitors connected to the prisoner and gives instruction via walkie-talkie.
Driver area


Banality of Evil
In an earlier post I wrote about the banality of evil â?? here is another excellent example. How does it feel to design such a vehicle? Does the designer add this to his/her CV? What about the company that sells them? What does the sales rep think when he/she wakes up in the morning? Is it a good thing that they are selling well?

This is an excellent example of the responsibility of the designer which I hope to make use of in my teaching. The main point is to problematize around designer responsibility and the issue of whether it is right (ethically & morally) that the designer does his/her best to solve the needs and meet the requirements of the customer.

Death in China
Amnesty International writes that capital punishment can be used â??â?¦for as many as 68 crimes, including non-violent crimes such as tax fraud, embezzlement and drug offences. 1,770 executions were reportedly carried out in China during 2005.â??

USA Today report that the majority of these executions are by firing squad but death by lethal injection is growing. China has introduced mobile execution vehicles where lethal injections are administered as a

â??â?¦civilized alternative to the firing squad, ending the life of the condemned more quickly, clinically and safely.â??

It has been speculated that one reason for the transfer to lethal injection is that the method keeps the organs in better condition for removal and sale. For a longer report on the Chinese death penalty read this Amnesty report (March 2004)

(via Space and Culture)

Posted on by mklang

Guantanamo – banality of evil

When Hannah Arendt wrote about the banality of evil she was criticised for her thesis that people who carry out unspeakable crimes are not be crazy fanatics, but ordinary individuals who simply accept the arguments of their state and voluntarily participate in the evil â?? they are indeed good bureaucrats, simply following orders. Arendtâ??s example was a key administrator in the Nazi death camp system (Adolf Eichmann).

It seems to me that this is the only way in which to understand the statement of Rear Admiral Harris that the Guantanamo suicides on 10th June: “This was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetric warfare committed against us.” (The Time, June 11). He is the good bureaucrat – dutiful, unquestioning and supportive. Absolutely terrifying.
The three detainees committed suicide by using nooses made of sheets and clothes. One of the men was first detained when he was a juvenile. They had been in prison up to four years, but never charged a crime. This means that they have no way of knowing if and when they will ever be released.
Before June 10th there had been 41 suicide attempts at the camp. About the detainees at Guantanamo Amnesty International writes:

None of the detainees have been granted prisoner of war status or brought before a â??competent tribunalâ?? to determine his status…The US government refuses to clarify their legal status, despite calls from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to do so. Instead, the US government labels them â??enemy combatantsâ?? or â??terroristsâ??, flouting their right to be presumed innocent and illegally presuming justification for the denial of many of their most basic human rights.

Next week (23 June) the documentary Road to Guantanamo will be in the movies the website contains both the trailer and information about the infamous prison. Amnesty International has a broschure to accompany the film: The Road to Guantanamo Action Guide.

The banality of evil is in part the ability of the state to accept compromises such as Guantanamo – yet maintain they care about human rights. In addition to the general public opinion’s ability to forget that the evil is taking place…

Posted on by mklang

blogg against torture

Yesterday (June, 12) the American Medical Association took an important ethical policy decision against medical participation in interrogations “Physicians must not conduct, directly participate in, or monitor an interrogation with an intent to intervene, because this undermines the physicianâ??s role as healer.â??
The UN has declared that the 26th June is the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture – what are we going to do about it?
There is no single face of torture. Unfortunately there happens to be several examples of the cruelty and heartlessness of men (no gender bias intended). Examples include the statement by Rear-Admiral Harris about the three suicides of prisoners under his responsibility was â??â?¦not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfareâ?¦â?? or the comment of Nick Harvey when faced with the news that after WWII British troops had starved prisoners and tortured them with equipment taken from Gestapo prisons, says â??Itâ??s too late for anyone to be held personally responsible, or held politically to accountâ?¦â??

Ok so issues such as time, energy and emotional baggage tend to get in the way of a more active support. There is however a way of supporting without much effort. This is not a trivialisation – on the contrary it is the promotion of information to raise awareness. Not to let uncomfortable information slip into oblivion.

The group known as Torture Awareness Month has a blogrole going. By going to http://blogagainsttorture.blogspot.com/ and do two things:

All you need to do to join is (1) promise to do a blog post about torture in the month of June, (2) link to Torture Awareness Month somewhere your blog. Do both of these things, and we will link to you from our blogrolls.

Donâ??t forget to go to Torture Awareness Month to learn more about what is, and can be done, to raise awareness against torture. But don’t stop there. The information about torture, its causes, effects and how to work against it.

Some background…

The United Nations has declared the 26 June to be International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. The UN position against torture is based primarily on article 5 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states, â??no one shall be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishmentâ??

This is further qualified by the 1984 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the sentiments are echoed in conventions such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which adds that: â??No one shall be subjected without his [or her] free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.â??

Posted on by mklang