Image taken from: The Comic News
“The history of U.S. involvement in torture goes way back. The CIA wrote a torture manual. The School of the Americas in the United States (US) trained many dictators from Latin America and military leaders in the art of torture, and the CIA pursued a program of research on psychological torture. It didn’t start with the Bush administration. It was a continuation of a long policy in the US of not just engaging in torture personally but also supporting, training and financing repressive governments that torture and abuse their people,” Marjorie Cohn, co-author of The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse.
Two days of runoffs in the first stage of Egypt’s first parliamentary elections since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak ended Tuesday.
Round one of voting went to the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and Salafist Al-Nur who garnered nearly 65 percent of last weeks vote.
In response, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent a friendly nudge to the Islamist parties to remind them to respect Israel, religious freedom, women’s rights and to protect protestors.
Interesting.
Well here are some bits that Mrs. Clinton forgot to mention, and the mainstream media for that matter.
Torture: A Lovely US Export
Nicely packaged in a well-scripted television or movie script, the media and the US continue to deliver the fake message of democracy.
All the while, funnelling money to ensure that democracy isn’t the end result. Basically, it’s like the friend who smiles in your face while talking shit behind your back. Or better yet, seeks to destroy your credibility.
The United States sends Egypt $1.5 billion per year, most of which goes to the military. The US has always known about the egregious human rights violations by the Egyptian government.
In fact, Omar Suleiman, who moved to vice president and was being groomed to take over Mubarak’s role at the end of January, was the linchpin for Egyptian torture when the CIA sent prisoners to Egypt in its extraordinary rendition program.
Deemed Egypt’s top spy chief, Suleiman was in charge of the country’s General Intelligence Service. He oversaw the torture by the secret police, and he’s a very close friend of the U.S. government, including the Obama administration.
In the mid-90′s, he worked closely with the Clinton administration in devising and implementing its rendition program, which involved kidnapping terrorist suspects and transferring them to a third country for trail. Or better yet, torture.
Well, here are some stories of individuals who have paid the price for demanding their rights as humans.
Cases of Torture
Student, 15 years old from Helwan
I was coming from Sharkeyya on the 10 Feburary at 4 a.m. with my dad. We were in front of the Fateh mosque in Ramsis. We were on our way home after we failed to visit my sister because of the curfew.
At some point, four tall guys came with sunglasses and dressed in black. They approached us and beat us with the back of the gun, blindfolded us and continued beating until we fainted. They put us in a car and took us to a place called ward 1 in Abdeen palace.
They made us run while they whipped us, they beat us with their hands as well. There were two rows of soldiers who would extend their legs so that we trip and fall. Then they would beat us again. Then two tall people came again with sunglasses, they would put electric wires onto us for half a minute, then stop for a few minutes and then repeat.
After three days they removed the blindfold. The cell walls were black and there was a small 20 x 20 cm window.
Student, 18 years old
I was arrested on Thursday 3 February. They locked us up in the museum until they blindfolded us and put us onto microbuses and took us to the intelligence building in Madinet Nasr.
There they stripped us, beat us and whipped us. I was suspended from my feet for two days. They were asking me if I was with Baradei, with Muslim Brotherhood, with Mortada Mansour. Then they took us, still blindfolded, to the military prison. They stripped us again and made us sleep face down and beat and whipped us.
There was a lawyer in his forties. His name was Osama Abdel Moneim Allam. They beat him until he died. There was also a blind man and they beat him brutally
Male, 26 years-old, arrested 9 March in Tahrir Square
On Wednesday, we approached the museum and chanted the people and the army are one. Suddenly they took the girls to one side and dragged me to the opposite direction. Inside the museum I found more than 100 bodies all over the floor. I had never seen anything like this.
I was beaten with every possible thing – clubs, stick, whip, hose and electric wire. I was totally ruined that day. They blindfolded me and tied my hands behind my back. They were beating us with anger and hatred.
The officer would tell the soldiers mind you we are permitted 50% losses. If somebody dies he can go to hell. They were inciting soldiers against us. We were about 173 men and about 30 girls. We went to a place called the army compound and then the next morning to the military prison.
I had cancer in my lungs and had an operation when I was 14. Two of my ribs were removed and it left a scar. When the doctor saw the scar of the operation, he said: “not this one.”
They filmed us for the media and portrayed us as thugs. My half-brother martyred on the 28 January. He was 12 years old and was shot in the chest and I was shot in my leg.
I used to admire the army very much. Now I hate the uniform
Ain Shams University Student
On the 28 January, my friend and I driving along the corniche until we reached a military check point. After checking our lisences and letting us go, they attacked us and destroyed the car. Then army officers took us in a small truck while handcuffed. We arrived at Qobri El Qobba for investigations. They said you’ll stay only for half an hour and then we will let you go.
I told them that I was a student. All of a sudden a man walked up behind me and started stabbing my leg with a knife and then beating me on the back of my head. My head bled and they sent me to have it stitched: 20 stitches. Hardly the doctor finished his work I was blindfolded and handcuffed and taken to another place for more beating, electric shocks and stripping. For 17 days I endured this.
Accountant, 47, from Mansoura
We were blindfolded when taken to and during interrogations. Interrogators asked about our political affiliation and links with the protests. I denied that I was taking part in the protests. They threatened to rape and kill me.
What’s The Point?
First off, knowledge is power!
Second, it shows the true face of the US administration, which always uses a diplomatic poker face while pulling every card in the book to keep their empire running.
As I wrote in a post during the revolt, the Obama administration cut aid by 50 percent in 2010. At the onset of the protests in January, not a word was said from the administration to halt the violence. Once again, last month, silence remained.
This is the voice of the streets: “The international community needs to tell their leaders, especially the US, to stop paying the pay checks of the Egyptian leaders and the military,” says Sami
The Obama administration has yet to nudge the military about making sure that torture doesn’t proceed, that people who were being arbitrarily held were released. And, despite the force used on peaceful protestors in November, the U.S. continues to fund the government, which is really a military government.
I see Egyptians risking their lives for a free future. So why does the west, which champions democracy and freedom, still continue to support dictatorship?
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