Jeff Kaye

The Washington Post’s Walter Pincus reports on the non-coercive interrogation of an Al Qaeda suspect without noting that the interrogator involved, Stephen Gaudin, was a participant in the torture interrogation of Abu Zubaydah.

Despite being listed on the U.S. list of states that sponsor terrorism, the CIA is training the security forces of Sudan, who are themselves implicated in a domestic campaign of arbitrary arrests, killings and torture. What gives?

Glenn Beck has kept his promise to bring 100,000 plus “teabaggers” and other assorted right-wing and racist reactionaries to Washington, D.C. in a supposed commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington, which culminated in Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I have a dream” speech. the right-wing can mobilize tens of thousands and bring them to D.C., while the left is mired in electoralism, i.e., concentrate everything on elections, and leave the streets to the demagogues.

On August 15, I reported that the New York Office of Professional Discipline (NYOP) had rejected a complaint against BSCT psychologist Major John Leso for his participation in the planning and implementation of torture at Guantanamo. The rejection used specious arguments to deny that NYOP had any jurisdiction over the Leso case. Today, the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) issued a press release in answer to the NYOP decision, and has also asked the American Psychological Association “to expel Dr. Leso from its association and to recommend revocation of his license.”

A 2003 decision by the Board of Veterans Affairs found that SERE mock torture techniques had caused PTSD in a serviceman. This directly contradicts the Bush-era OLC claims that there were no reports of “prolonged mental harm” from exposure to the SERE program. SERE techniques were reverse-engineered for torture purposes by both the CIA and the Department of Defense.

Coalition for an Ethical Psychology has put out a press release charging the American Psychological Association with complicity in the supporting military and CIA psychologists in the development and implementation of the U.S. torture program. While the APA has released a letter ostensibly in support of a licensing complaint against CIA contractor-interrogator-torturer James Mitchell, a look at the letter itself and the context surrounding it presents a different story.

As government reaction grows against the whistleblower website Wikileaks, in the aftermath of the release of tens of thousands of Afghan War Logs, showing the real face of the Afghan war, a group of prominent activists has started up a petition to defend Wikileaks, and point out that it is the U.S. government that with the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan that has “blood on its hands.” The article includes the full petition text.

The Obama administration had been cleared to effect the deportation of cleared Guantanamo prisoner Abdul Aziz Naji by no less than the Supreme Court, who rejected a lower court order blocking the action. What hasn’t been reported thus far is the role of Congress, who was mandated to have advance notice of the transfer. Meanwhile, in Algeria, Naji told the press about torture and the drugging of prisoners at Guantanamo.

The full text of Omar Khadr’s letter to his attorney from Guantanamo, with commentary. “Dennis you always say that I have an obligation to show the world what is going on down here and it seems that we’ve done every thing but the world doesn’t get it….”

While the UK Guardian and other press are reporting that Wikileaks logs are showing over 2000 people on an elite task force’s “capture or kill” hit list, the New York Times is reporting a figure of only 70.