[Pretorian]

I'd prefer they sendthem back to China however yes they will be tortured there and US torturers can't even hold a candle in front of Chinese ones. So I guess , all those years in gitmo paid off after all. For them anyway.

[ralfy]

Related:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008 ... act_kramer

[Isochroma]

November 18, 2009: Secret CIA 'Torture' Prison Discovered
ABC News Finds the Location of a "Black Site" for Alleged Terrorists in Lithuania
http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e24010.htm

Nov. 18, 2009 "ABC News" -- The CIA built one of its secret European prisons inside an exclusive riding academy outside Vilnius, Lithuania, a current Lithuanian government official and a former U.S. intelligence official told ABC News this week.

Where affluent Lithuanians once rode show horses and sipped coffee at a café, the CIA installed a concrete structure where it could use harsh tactics to interrogate up to eight suspected al-Qaeda terrorists at a time. A full report on the prison can be seen on ABC's World News with Charles Gibson tonight.

"The activities in that prison were illegal," said human rights researcher John Sifton. "They included various forms of torture, including sleep deprivation, forced standing, painful stress positions."

Lithuanian officials provided ABC News with the documents of what they called a CIA front company, Elite, LLC, which purchased the property and built the "black site" in 2004.

Lithuania agreed to allow the CIA prison after President George W. Bush visited the country in 2002 and pledged support for Lithuania's efforts to join NATO.

"The new members of NATO were so grateful for the U.S. role in getting them into that organization that they would do anything the U.S. asked for during that period," said former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant. "They were eager to please and eager to be cooperative on security and on intelligence matters."

Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite declined ABC's request for an interview.

ABC News first reported that Lithuania was one of three eastern European countries, along with Poland and Romania, where the CIA secretly interrogated suspected high-value al-Qaeda terrorists, but until now the precise site had not been confirmed. Read that report here.

Until March 2004, the site was a riding academy and café owned by a local family. The facility is in the town of Antiviliai, in the forest 20 kilometers northeast of the city center of Vilnius, near an exclusive suburb where many government officials live.

A "Building Within A Building"

In March 2004, the family sold the property to Elite, LLC, a now-defunct company registered in Delaware and Panama and Washington, D.C. That same month, Lithuania marked its formal admission to NATO.

The CIA constructed the prison over the next several months, apparently flying in prefabricated elements from outside Lithuania. The prison opened in Sept. 2004.

According to sources that saw the facility, the riding academy originally consisted of an indoor riding area with a red metallic roof, a stable and a cafe. The CIA built a thick concrete wall inside the riding area. Behind the wall, it built what one Lithuanian source called a "building within a building."

On a series of thick concrete pads, it installed what a source called "prefabricated pods" to house prisoners, each separated from the other by five or six feet. Each pod included a shower, a bed and a toilet. Separate cells were constructed for interrogations. The CIA converted much of the rest of the building into garage space.

Intelligence officers working at the prison were housed next door in the converted stable, raising the roof to add space. Electrical power for both structures was provided by a 2003 Caterpillar autonomous generator. All the electrical outlets in the renovated structure were 110 volts, meaning they were designed for American appliances. European outlets and appliances typically use 220 volts.

The prison pods inside the barn were not visible to locals. They describe seeing large amounts of earth being excavated during the summer of 2004. Locals who saw the activity at the prison and approached to ask for work were turned away by English-speaking guards. The guards were replaced by new guards every 90 days.

Former CIA officials directly involved or briefed on the highly classified secret prison program tell ABC News that as many as eight suspects were held for more than a year in the Vilnius prison. Flight logs viewed by ABC News confirm that CIA planes made repeated flights into Lithuania during that period. In November 2005, after public disclosures about the program, the prison was closed, as was another "black site" in Romania.

Lithuanian Prison One of Many Around Europe, Officials Said

The CIA moved the so-called High Value Detainees (HVD) out of Europe to "war zone" facilities, according to one of the former CIA officials, meaning they were moved to the Middle East. Within nine months, President Bush announced the existence of the program and ordered the transfer of 14 of the detainees, including Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, Ramzi bin al Shihb and Abu Zubaydah, to Guantanamo.

In August 2009, after ABC News reported the existence of the secret prison outside Vilnius, Lithuanian president Grybauskaite called for an investigation. "If this is true," Grybauskaite said, "Lithuania has to clean up, accept responsibility, apologize, and promise it will never happen again."

At the time, a Lithuanian government official denied that his country had hosted a secret CIA facility. The CIA told ABC News that reporting the existence of the Lithuanian prison was "irresponsible" and declined to discuss the location of the prison.

On Tuesday, the CIA again declined to talk about the prison. "The CIA's terrorist interrogation program is over," said CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano. "This agency does not discuss publicly where detention facilities may or may not have been."

Former CIA officials told ABC News that the prison in Lithuania was one of eight facilities the CIA set-up after 9/11 to detain and interrogate top al-Qaeda operatives captured around the world. Thailand, Romania, Poland, Morocco, and Afghanistan have also been identified as countries that housed secret prisons for the CIA. President Barack Obama ordered all the sites closed shortly after taking office in January.

The Lithuanian prison was the last "black" site opened in Europe, after the CIA's secret prison in Poland was closed down in late 2003 or early 2004.

"It obviously took a lot of effort to keep [the prison] secret," said John Sifton, whose firm One World Research investigates human rights abuses. "There's a reason this stuff gets kept secret."

"It's an embarrassment, and a crime."

[rangerone314]

Rumor: East Europeans have a need to preserve their expertise in middle-of-the-night abductions and torture that they learned under the Soviets. (never know when that might come in handy!)

American-can-do-spirit and entrepreneurism rush in to meet a need!

Yawn.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')ilitary given go-ahead to detain US terrorist suspects without trial

Barack Obama has abandoned a commitment to veto a new security law that allows the military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay.

Human rights groups accused the president of deserting his principles and disregarding the long-established principle that the military is not used in domestic policing. The legislation has also been strongly criticised by libertarians on the right angered at the stripping of individual rights for the duration of "a war that appears to have no end".

The law, contained in the defence authorisation bill that funds the US military, effectively extends the battlefield in the "war on terror" to the US and applies the established principle that combatants in any war are subject to military detention.

The legislation's supporters in Congress say it simply codifies existing practice, such as the indefinite detention of alleged terrorists at Guantánamo Bay. But the law's critics describe it as a draconian piece of legislation that extends the reach of detention without trial to include US citizens arrested in their own country.

"It's something so radical that it would have been considered crazy had it been pushed by the Bush administration," said Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch. "It establishes precisely the kind of system that the United States has consistently urged other countries not to adopt. At a time when the United States is urging Egypt, for example, to scrap its emergency law and military courts, this is not consistent."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/15/americans-face-guantanamo-detention-obama

[Satori]

as far as I am concerned,this is grounds for impeachment
Obama and every Senator and Representative who voted for this
should be dressed in orange and sent to Gitmo

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Obamanable President

Even though he said he would veto it, President Obama has announced that he will sign the National Defense Authorization Bill that gives him and the military the authority to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens suspected of supporting terrorist activity. I am not surprised because Obama lies all the time about everything and he already claims to have the power to order any person in the world assassinated, no matter where situated and whether or not a U.S. citizen, if he decides that person is a terrorist or has provided material support for terrorism.

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides:

"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
http://my.firedoglake.com/mason/2011/12/15/the-obamanable-president/

[Hoops_Mckann]

Fu*K and I voted for Obama. If this bill passes, it makes me wonder if times are about to get real hard for us in America as this would be a perfect opportunity to round up the dissenters of the current political system for "the good of the country". Where is the Tea party on this? Are they not for the constitution and the bill of rights, ect as they claim to be? Why are they not up in arms over this? If Bush was in office right now the left and liberals would be shitting in their pants right now.

Sorry die hard americans, but this country is not "the shit" as hank williams junior will have you believe.

Forget voting, I vote with my money and labor.

[careinke]

I bet I know, (without looking), that Ron Paul voted against this. You guys are calling the wrong people crazy. A libertarian would NEVER vote for this. So go ahead and vote for these fascists war criminals like Obama, and the members of congress that approved this abomination. You deserve what you got. Have fun being free range slaves.

Plagiarizing from the TV series Jeremiah; "Even God can't go against the truth."

[scas]

Perhaps they are expecting a near term collapse of foreign countries (Middle East/Africa/Asia) and increased global war, so they are getting ready to respond to more domestic terrorism/violence.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('scas', 'P')erhaps they are expecting a near term collapse of foreign countries (Middle East/Africa/Asia) and increased global war, so they are getting ready to respond to more domestic terrorism/violence.

[scas]

I didn't say anything about rights.

But I suspect we are at "Peak Rights".

What is happening should not be a surprise to anyone - at least anyone who reads Chris Hedges. His last two books are really revealing.

[Satori]

this move towards fascism in this country and other Western democracies comes as no real surprise,as the effects of peak oil kick in,as the economy crashes,the potential for real civil disobedience increases
they're tightening the screws,militarizing the police,criminalizing peaceful dissent,violating the Constitution on a daily basis by illegally intercepting emails and phone calls etc etc etc
it's only going to get WORSE
soon we will be living the novel 1984

[EnergyUnlimited]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Satori', '
')it's only going to get WORSE
soon we will be living the novel 1984

[Novus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', 'I') bet I know, (without looking), that Ron Paul voted against this. You guys are calling the wrong people crazy. A libertarian would NEVER vote for this.

[rangerone314]

To paraphrase former Interior Secretary James Watt:

"If the troubles from fascists cannot be solved in the jury box or at the ballot box, perhaps the cartridge box should be used."

[EnergyUnlimited]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Novus', '
')People better wise up quick and vote for Ron Paul. The final days of the Republic are at hand. If he loses it is over for America.

[Novus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnergyUnlimited', '
')Window of opportunity is already closed.
Next election results will be fabricated
You should vote for Ron Paul in the past, but for some reasons you (as a nation) preferred some corporation controlled clowns promising pears on the pine tree.

[mattduke]

"I am happy to express from this darkness and draw a true picture of the condition in which I exist. I am moving towards a dark cave and a dark life in the shadow of a dark prison. This is a prison that does not know humanity, and does not know anything except the language of power, oppression and humiliation for whoever enters it. It does not differentiate between a criminal and the innocent."
-Guantanamo inmate Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif in a letter to his lawyer, dated December 26th, 2010

Two weeks ago, the Pentagon quietly released a statement that another Guantanamo detainee had died in custody, the ninth since the prison was opened in 2001. Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, a 32-year-old man from Yemen who had spent eleven years incarcerated, was found dead in his cell on September 8.

The cause of his death has been recorded as unknown and may never truly be known, but Latif had long suffered from feelings of extreme depression during his time in jail, having made several suicide attempts in the previous years.

Latif had long complained of abuse by prison staff and of his deteriorating physical and mental condition during his imprisonment. Two years earlier, he had written that guards "entered my cell on a regular basis. They throw me and drag me on the floor... they strangle me and press hard behind my ears until I lose consciousness". In 2009 he slit his wrists in an attempt to end his life, writing about the incident later to his lawyer to say that his circumstances in Guantanamo "make death more desirable than living".

Latif was initially captured by Pakistani bounty hunters in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks when a mixture of confusion and desire for vengeance resulted in the effective labelling of any military age Arab males found in Afghanistan and Pakistan as potential terrorists.

"They throw me and drag me on the floor... they strangle me and press hard behind my ears until I lose consciousness."

He had been receiving medical care in Amman, Jordan for chronic injuries he had received from a car crash in Yemen that had fractured his skull and caused permanent damage to his hearing. Lured to Pakistan by the promise of cheap healthcare, once the war started he ended up caught in the dragnet of opportunistic bounty hunters who detained him, proclaimed him a terrorist and handed him over to the US military in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Later it would come out that such bounty hunters had been unscrupulous, detaining individuals and labelling them as terrorists baselessly in order to collect large cash incentives from the US military for their handover. No evidence was ever found connecting him to terrorism or violent militancy of any kind, and later medical examinations taken of him upon intake into military custody would corroborate his story regarding the nature of the head injuries he had come to Pakistan to treat. Indeed, when he was apprehended he was found not to be in possession of weapons or extremist literature of any kind - what he had with him were copies of his medical records.

While during all his years in custody Latif has never been charged with nor convicted of any crime related to terrorism or any other offence, his death now is made even more tragic due to the fact that he had been recommended for release from Guantanamo by the Department of Defence since as early as 2004, and again in 2007, which said at the time that it had determined that he "is not known to have participated in any combatant/terrorist training". In 2009 a special task force commissioned by the Obama administration also ruled that Latif should be released, a decision which its internal mandates specified could only be reached by the unanimous consensus of all US intelligence agencies. However despite being cleared for release he remained in military custody as a decision had been made not to repatriate any prisoners to Yemen due to ongoing political instability in the country, effectively leaving him and others like him in a state of indefinite detention.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinio ... terAccount