- How hypocritical governments are for their �war on terror�
- when those very governments end up terrorizing civilians.
- http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2014/05/13/global-survey-reveals-citizens-around-world-fear-their-own-governments-would-torture-them/
- Worldwide, a global survey conducted by Amnesty International reveals
- that tens of thousands of citizens from twenty-one different countries
- believe if they were �taken into custody� by their government they
- would probably be tortured.
- From December 2013 to April 2014, Amnesty International interviewed
- 21,221 citizens from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile,
- China, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria,
- Pakistan, Peru, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom
- and the United States.
- Citizens were asked if they agreed or disagreed with the following
- statements: (1) If I were taken into custody by the authorities in
- my country, I am confident that I would be safe; (2) Clear rules
- against torture are crucial because any use of torture is immoral
- and will weaken international human rights; (3) Torture is sometimes
- necessary and acceptable to gain information that may protect the public.
- On average, �more than four in ten people� indicated they would not
- �feel safe from torture if taken into custody.� The highest rates of
- fear were found in Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Pakistan and Kenya.
- Thirty-two percent of Americans surveyed feared they would be tortured.
- Overwhelmingly, those interviewed favored �international rules against
- torture.� The rate of those who favored rules was highest in South
- Korea, Greece, Canada, China and Australia. Eighty-two percent of
- Americans interviewed favored rules.
- But around a third of global citizens surveyed indicated �torture
- can be justified in some cases to protect the public.� This view
- was highest in China, India, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan.
- Forty-five percent of Americans surveyed agreed that torture could
- be justified. Fifty-three percent disagreed.
- The survey was conducted to call attention to how torture is flourishing
- around the world. In recent years, Amnesty International has received
- reports of torture from 141 different countries.
- While a �comprehensive and categorical statistical assessment of
- the global scale of torture is impossible� because �torture takes
- place in the shadows,� horrific stories of dehumanization and suffering
- continue to surface.
- Here are all the torture methods Amnesty International has become
- aware of in recent years: beatings, electric shocks, stress positions,
- prolonged isolation, having needles pushed under their fingernails,
- cigarette burns, stabbing, forced drinking of dirty water, urine or
- chemicals, sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, forced abortion
- or sterilization, rape or threat of rape, humiliation, threats of
- violence to a prisoner or their family, forced administration of
- drugs, inhumane detention conditions, deprivation of food or water,
- judicial corporal punishment, forcible shaving of Muslim men�s beards,
- prisoners made to endure long periods of extreme hot or cold, boiling
- water poured onto prisoners, prisoners having their joints drilled,
- denial of medical care and melting plastic poured on prisoners back.
- A significant percentage of those methods were or have been employed
- by CIA agents or US military interrogators in the US �war on terrorism.�
- Amnesty International declares, �Although governments have prohibited
- the dehumanizing practice in law and have recognized global disgust at
- its existence, many of them are carrying out torture or facilitating
- it in practice.
- �The political failure by governments is compounded and fueled by a
- corrosive state of denial. Those who order or commit torture usually
- escape justice. Torture is mostly carried out with impunity, with no
- investigation and no one prosecuted.�
- �Rather than respecting the rule of law through zero tolerance of
- torture,� according to Amnesty International, �governments persistently
- and routinely lie about it to their own people and to the world. Rather
- than ensuring effective safeguards to protect their citizens from the
- torturer, instead they allow torture to thrive.�
- Amnesty International calls attention to �maximum security isolation or
- segregation facilities� in the US where thousands of inmates are kept
- in solitary confinement for 22 hours a day or longer. �Many have little
- access to natural light or out-of-cell recreation time which amounts to
- cruel inhuman or degrading treatment.�
- The human rights organization also takes issue with the US government�s
- failure to hold any person accountable for the �use of interrogation
- techniques such as �waterboarding,� prolonged sleep deprivation and
- stress positions� in CIA secret prisons. It protests the fact that a
- Senate intelligence committee report on CIA torture remains classified.
- A fair amount of anger is directed at European Union countries for
- being complicit in abuses or torture that occurred during US-led
- counterterrorism operations since 2001. EU countries helped facilitate
- rendition flights and hosted black site prisons. They conspired with
- government officials to ensure that victims seeking justice would be
- denied �full disclosure of the truth.�
- �Governments across the EU are still failing to initiate effective
- investigations into their participation in the CIA program of rendition
- and secret detention, where torture and other ill-treatment was rife
- between 2001 and 2007,� Amnesty International reported.
- However, the organization does cheer a �rare victory for justice�
- where US and Italian agents were convicted in Italy for their role
- in the kidnapping of Abu Omar in 2003. They also acknowledge the
- European Court of Human Rights held Macedonia responsible for
- �ill-treatment, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance and
- torture� of Khaled el-Masri, which gave him a modicum of justice
- few victims have achieved.
- In countries where it is well-known that the US has active
- counterterrorism operations or has had active counterterrorism
- operations, torture can often go on quite brazenly without any word
- of protest from US government officials, who are more concerned with
- military-to-military relationships than humanity.
- As the organization recounts, the Yemeni government �enacted an
- immunity law in January 2012 that granted former President Ali
- Abdullah Saleh and all those who were employed by his government
- immunity from criminal prosecution for �politically motivated acts
- carried out in the course of their duties.�
- Police in Pakistan have engaged in forced confessions. In the
- North-Western tribal areas, where drones are known to populate the
- skies and conduct attacks, �thousands of men and boys� have been
- �arbitrarily arrested by the Armed Forces and held in secret
- detention centers, where reports of torture are widespread.�
- �Niaz (not his real name) who was held in one such detention
- center, described his experience in 2013: �For the first five
- days they beat us constantly with leather belts across our backs,
- the pain was too much to describe. [The soldiers] would threaten
- to kill me if I didn�t confess to being part of the Taliban.�
- Niaz�s brother died in custody.
- Torture is widespread in Iraqi prisons and detention centers. In
- Libya, torture is �rife in both state and militia-run facilities.
- Amnesty International has documented 23 cases of deaths under torture
- since the end of the 2011 conflict.�
- Gulf countries with close counterterrorism relationships with the
- United States, such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United
- Arab Emirates, have tortured and abused activists.
- One of the most horrible effects of the global war on terrorism
- has been how it has promoted the normalization of torture or
- encouraged complicity. The reason why some of these citizens
- believe torture is justified is because the US has exported this
- mentality to regions where it is committed to waging war.
Copyright © 2007-2011, n3t-t3z Team 
Posted by How Governments on May Wed 14th 3:49 AM - Never Expires
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