The Clarion Project posts a brutal summary of the beating and torture of military personnel by Turkey's Islamist police in the aftermath of the supposed coup attempt last week. It finishes off with this:
Since 1952, Turkey has been a member of NATO, which is supposed to
defend freedom and democracies. However for decades, Turkey has been a
center of torture and other human rights abuses of the worst magnitude.
If the Turkish government authorities, police officers and so many
average citizens are capable of torturing, starving and raping even
their own soldiers and citizens, how can they be worthy of being
recognized as a Western ally and partner?
Moreover, we can only imagine that if
this is what they do to their own soldiers, imagine what they have been
doing to their minority citizens, who they fundamentally see as
“enemies” -- Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, Jews, Kurds, Alevis and
others.
By the way, is their EU application still live? And what on earth is the President of the United States doing hugging Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan?
How Britain's MI6 helps the 'Palestinian Authority' torment suspects
It's widely known here that the 'Palestinian Authority' arrests and tortures 'Palestinians.' But until now, no one who was part of the torture apparatus had admitted it. Now, a former 'Palestinian Authority' officer has admitted that the 'Palestinian Authority' does what we always thought that they do. In a lengthy expose in London's Daily Mail, he describes and attempts to justify what's been done. And Britain, along with the Untied States and the European Union, is paying for it (Hat Tip: Shy Guy).
Nowadays, he adds, the preferred method is termed ‘shabeh’ – the hooding and tying of the prisoner in a variety of agonising positions for up to eight hours. He does not elaborate on the details, but claims: ‘It works with 95 per cent of the subjects.’ It also takes considerable skill: ‘You have to deal with it as if you were playing a guitar. Each case has its own speciality.’
This extraordinary interview is the first admission by a former perpetrator of the widespread torture of Palestinians – not by Israel, but by the Palestinian Authority (PA) which governs the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
It was given to me last week in a dusty Palestinian city. Across the table was a well-dressed, middle-aged family man with an infectious smile – a former PA official.
He spoke only on the strictest condition of anonymity as he feared becoming a torture victim himself should his identity become public. But he wanted to speak out because he was sure that the ends – a Palestinian state and the defeat of extremism – justify the means.
But perhaps the most shocking revelation is that torture sessions still being perpetrated by his former colleagues are financed with Britain’s help. Our taxpayers give £33 million direct to the PA, while £53 million is donated by Britain for various aid projects – more UK aid per head than we give any other nation.
Then again, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, which has officers based in Jerusalem, works closely with the Palestinian agencies that carry out the torture, seeing them as sources of valuable intelligence.
The UK also provides and pays for the training of middle and senior ranking officers from every PA security agency, including the General Intelligence Service or Mukhabarat, the Preventive Security Organisation, Military Intelligence and the ordinary police force. Ironically, the training includes courses on the need to respect human rights and the rule of law.
Yes, the British are very interested in human rights,’ adds the Palestinian security man.
‘They say, “We can’t convince British taxpayers [to continue to fund the PA] if you violate them.” So we do our best. But it happens.’
Just what ‘it’ means was described by a very recent victim, a professional man in his 40s who was freed without charge two weeks ago after more than a month in Mukhabarat detention.
‘For most of the time I was held, they gave me shabeh every day,’ he says. ‘Always I was hooded, and sometimes they tied my arms in front of me and attached me to the wall, leaving me like that for long, long hours, on tiptoes. You have pain in the arms, in the legs and in the body, and swelling in your muscles. Often I could also hear screaming from the prisoners.
‘But it was worse when they suspended me with my arms tied behind me. Your body is curved, like a banana. Most of the time they do not let your feet touch the ground.’ He showed me his arms and hands – they were still puffy and swollen. ‘During the shabeh, they looked much worse,’ he added.
In another variant, the suspect was hog-tied – laid on his back on top of a chair with his wrists and ankles lashed together beneath the seat. Usually the torture happened at night: ‘When you’re exhausted, they take you back to your cell.’
...
It’s not just Britain that keeps the PA running – the US and EU are also major contributors to a £800 million a year aid package (15 per cent of the EU’s donation of £133 million comes from UK taxpayers).
The reason why a territory with fewer than 2.5 million inhabitants gets so much money is political. The Israel-Palestinian peace process has produced no sign of a breakthrough for the past 20 years, but the international community believes the only way to create a Palestinian state is to build on the PA, which is also Israel’s negotiating partner.
But with about a third of the PA budget being spent on its security agencies, the consequence of Western generosity has been the creation of a police state.
...
British Consul-General Sir Vincent Fean, who leads Britain’s diplomatic mission to the PA, has raised concerns with President Mahmoud Abbas and the PA prime minister, Salam Fayyad. But there have been no warnings that if the situation does not improve the flow of cash will stop.
Mohammed Jamil, head of the UK-based Arab Organisation for Human Rights, which has published several reports on PA abuse, said such visits were futile. ‘They have been going for years, but nothing has changed. Britain has the power to stop the torture, but it will require much tougher action,’ he said.
The ICHR’s Ms Siniora added: ‘There is no doubt things are getting worse. Last year, we inspected one prison where there was clear evidence of shabeh – we saw the hooks on the walls. But as our 2012 report will say when it is published, not one of the cases of torture that came to light has been properly investigated.
‘There is no accountability. There is a culture of impunity – there has not been a single case of an official involved in torture being prosecuted.’
On Wednesday, she added, she was visited by a senior British official from Jerusalem. ‘I told him, “You are supporting the security agencies and you are training them. You have a very big responsibility for ensuring that your taxpayers’ money is not spent on torture.” ’
But PA torture does not often make UK headlines. And liaisons are close between MI6 and the Mukhabarat, the very agency responsible for the worst abuse.
This is nothing compared with what they would do to Jews if God forbid they are ever given the opportunity. And you wonder why we don't want them to set up their reichlet on our borders?
This is how a 'Palestinian state' - if God forbid one ever comes into being - would look.
AOHR monitored the practices
of the PA’s security agencies from January to July 2012 and used information
from victims detained by the PA, their families, eye-witnesses and local NGOs in
its report.
It accused the PA of arbitrary actions against Palestinian
civilians in the West Bank – including torture, detentions, interrogations and
firing people from their jobs.
From June 2007 until the end of 2011, PA
security forces detained 13,271 Palestinian citizens and 96 percent were
subjected to various methods of torture, the report said. This resulted in the
death of six detainees and caused “chronic illness” in others.
Between
January and July 2012, PA security agencies detained 572 people and sent
summonses to 770 more.
“Among them women and old people, who were often
forced to wait from early morning to the evening before being
interviewed.
Some were summonsed daily for weeks on end, others were kept
under virtual house arrest. The period also witnessed raids against
universities, hospitals and houses in order to arrest people wanted for
protesting against the Israeli occupation. PA officers confiscated equipment and
personal cash, which often went missing after the searches,” the group
said.
It also said the PA was guilty of torture and degrading treatment,
with 18.7 percent of a sample of 300 former detainees stating that they
experienced “severe torture” and 99.7% claiming that they were exposed to
degrading treatment.
“With regards to the effect of detention on the
lives of the detainees, 60% of those in the study explained that they now suffer
from chronic diseases due to torture and the poor conditions in which they were
held in detention.
On another level, 60% confirmed that repeated or
extensive detention reduced them to a state of acute poverty,” the report
stated.
But of course, they're blaming Israel.
It also said that the PA has not learned from its
experiences with Israel, and called to halt military cooperation with the Jewish
state.
“The PA’s human rights violations against the Palestinian people
have amplified their suffering under the Israelis and undermined their national
[unity] and struggle for selfdetermination.
It is clearly obvious that
the PA hasn’t learnt from its experiences with the Israelis. On the contrary, it
remains firmly committed to its campaign of detention and destroying national
solidarity while serving foreign agendas which strike the Palestinian national
freedom project at its core,” the report stated in its conclusion.
Part of growing up is learning to take responsibility for your own actions. Sadly, the 'Palestinians' and their Arab brothers have still not learned to do so.
The Muslim Brotherhood operates a carefully controlled network of
torture chambers designed to violently dehumanize opponents of Egyptian
President Mohammed Morsi, according to a journalist who exclusively
toured the facilities this week.
Mohamad Jarehi, writing for the privately owned Egyptian newspaper
Al-Masry Al-Youm, described imposing iron barriers and armed government
guards who stand watch in front of the Brotherhood’s central torture
facility, which is located in the Egyptian suburb of Heliopolis.
“The torture process starts once a demonstrator who opposes President
Mohammed Morsi is arrested in the clashes, or is suspected after the
clashes end,” Jarehi wrote, according to an English translation of Al-Masry Al-Youm’s Arabic-language article completed by the Middle Eastern media website Al-Monitor.
“Then, the group members trade off punching, kicking and beating him
with a stick on the face and all over his body. They tear off his
clothes and take him to the nearest secondary torture chamber.”
According to Jarehi, who spent three hours in the torture chambers
with other Egypt-based journalists, the captors then begin demanding
answers from their detainees.
...
“Before the interrogation process starts, they search him, seize his
funds, cellphones or ID, all the while punching and slapping his face in
order to get him to confess to being a thug and working for money,”
Jarehi wrote.
“They ask him why he took to the street [and] whether he got paid to
take part in the protest. … As long as this person denies the
allegations, they beat him and insult his parents. After that, a person
will videotape the interrogation and contact the Misr 25 TV channel to
tell them about the interrogation and arrest.”
Jarehi claimed to have observed numerous detainees in dire physical
condition: Some were unable to speak, while others were covered in
blood. Few, Jarehi claimed, received any form of medical assistance
during their stay in the torture chamber.
I'm amazed Jarehi had the guts to write about this, knowing he could be arrested and sent there again as a result. Or maybe the Brotherhood wants people to know about it as intimidation.
I wonder how many Egyptians are wishing they had Mubarak back....
'Palestinian': Syrian detention facilities are human slaughterhouses
A prominent 'Palestinian' writer who spent three weeks in detention in Syria describes Bashar al-Assad's detention facilities as 'human slaughterhouses.'
Salameh Kaileh, 56, a prominent Palestinian writer who was jailed in Syria for just under three weeks from April 24, described the detention facilities there as “human slaughterhouses” in an interview with the Associated Press.
“I felt I was going to die under the brutal, savage and continuous beating of the interrogators, who tied me to ropes hung from the ceiling,” said Kaileh.
He said security agents beat detainees with batons, crammed them into stinking cells and tied them to beds at night. “It was hell on earth,” Kaileh said after being released and deported to Jordan. He had bluish-red bruises on his legs, which he said were the result of beatings with wooden batons that were studded with pins and nails.
US Supreme Court guts Torture Victim Protection Act
On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court effectively gutted the Torture Victim Protection Act, agreeing with the Obama administration that only individuals can be sued under the Act, and not the PLO and the 'Palestinian Authority.' The case involved a naturalized US citizen who was tortured and murdered by the 'Palestinian Authority' in 1995.
The ruling involved a lawsuit against the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority by the widow and sons of a naturalized US citizen, the Palestinian-born Azzam Rahim, who was raised in the West Bank.
The lawsuit alleged he was tortured and killed in 1995 at a prison in Jericho while in the custody of Palestinian intelligence officers. The PLO has denied the allegations.
A US appeals court dismissed the lawsuit and ruled that the law adopted by Congress said that it only applied to individuals, not political groups or other organizations. The Supreme Court agreed.
"We hold that the term 'individual" as used in the act encompasses only natural persons. Consequently, the act does not impose liability against organizations," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the court's opinion. She added that Congress made that clear in the law's text.
Sotomayor said the ordinary, everyday meaning of individual referred to a human being, not an organization, and Congress gave no indication it intended anything different.
She said the arguments by those who brought the lawsuit were not persuasive. Their lawyers argued that precluding liability by organizations may foreclose effective remedies for victims and their relatives. But Sotomayor said Congress appeared well aware of the limits it had placed on the lawsuits.
The court decision was unanimous.
What do you think the odds are that any individual 'Palestinian' torturer not named Arafat or Mazen has enough assets so that someone who wins a lawsuit against him will at least be able to cover his legal expenses?
Patients tortured in Syrian hospitals (with video)
What a humane country. What a shining example of 'human rights.' I'd like to show you what's going on in Syria, a country that until recently was nearly a member in good standing of the United Nations 'Human Rights Council' with a spotless record in that council's proceedings - the subject was barely even raised. And on Britain's Channel 4 last night, video was shown of pictures of Syrians being tortured in a hospital in Homs.
Let's go to the videotape.
Given how they treat their own people, imagine what the Assad regime and others in the Arab would do to Jews if ever - God forbid - they were given the opportunity.
I'm sure you will all be shocked - just shocked - to hear that the 'moderate,' 'westernized' 'Palestinian Authority' has been torturing reporters (Hat Tip: Instapundit).
Documenting seven instances of journalist detention and abuse, Human Rights Watch concludes that the effect has not only been active censorship but also a “chilling effect” of self-censorship by journalists in the area.
“Security forces of the Palestinian Authority have arbitrarily detained scores of West Bank journalists since 2009, and in some cases abused them during interrogation in a manner that amounted to torture,” the report reads. “Like other Palestinian victims of abuse by the Palestinian Authority’s security services, these journalists confront a virtual wall of impunity when they try to hold their abusers accountable, leaving the victims feeling vulnerable to further harassment and abuse.”
Human Rights Watch points out that donations from the United States and Europe make up a large portion of the Palestinian Authority’s budget. Last year the State Department gave the Palestinian Authority $150 million to help close their budget deficit. The New York Times reports that over the past few years the Palestinian Authority has received an estimated $400 million from America.
Human Rights Watch advises the United States and Europe make any future funding decisions contingent on the Palestinian Authority taking responsibility and correcting their actions.
So who is going to protest this? J Street? Reporters without Borders? I'm actually kind of surprised to see 'Human Rights Watch' protesting it. Hmmm.
'Palestinian' journalist tortured for insulting Abu Bluff, Britain: PA torturing for years, EU deplores Israeli rights violations
This all fits together. A 'Palestinian' journalist has been arrested and tortured for insulting 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen on Facebook. A British group called the Arab Organization for Human Rights in Britain has issued a report accusing the 'Palestinian Authority' of torturing prisoners for 'years' (and no, that torture does not consist of looking at photos of Catherine Ashton - we'll come to that). At the same time, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton reacts by 'deploring' Israeli violations of 'activists' rights.'
Let's start with looking at some of the types of torture to which 'Palestinian' journalist Mamdouh Hamamreh of al-Quds TV was likely subjected, as described by the JPost's Khaled Abu Toameh.
Torture techniques used in PA prisons included shabh (hanging) of all kinds, beatings with cables, pulling out nails, suspension from the ceiling, flogging, kicking, cursing, electric shocks, sexual harassment and the threat of rape, the report found.
A top PA official in Ramallah dismissed the report as “unreliable” and “full of lies.”
The official claimed that the Arab Organization for Human Rights in Britain was affiliated with Hamas and other Islamic fundamentalist groups.
At least six Palestinians have died under torture in PA prisons and many former detainees have permanent physical disabilities, the report found.
The human rights organization said that it has documented such “crimes” for three years – from October 2007 to October 2010.
During that period – the report said – PA security forces in the West Bank detained 8,640 Palestinians at a rate of eight arrests per day.
“Every one of those detainees has been subject to humiliating and degrading treatment and stayed in cells for more than 10 days,” the report said. “The analysis shows that an astonishing 95 percent of the detainees were subjected to severe torture, others feeling the detrimental effects on their health for varying periods.”
The report also found that 77% of those who had been detained by the PA security forces had been arrested in the past by Israel.
Representatives of the organization met with victims, or their relatives, and distributed a questionnaire, in secret, to detainees who were held in PA prisons.
“Men and women from all sectors of Palestinian society have been subject to arrest and torture,” the report said. “These include students, workers, teachers, doctors, engineers, university professors and lawyers.”
The study quoted detainees as complaining that the torture most were exposed to was shabh in its various forms (some reported that they were hung from the second floor, upside down, like a slaughtered animal). It said that many others also complained about severe beatings with sticks and hoses, threats of rape and sleep deprivation for lengthy periods.
“In order to put pressure on detainees, close relatives, even minors, are brought to the interrogation center, where they may be tortured in front of the detainee in order to try to force a confession of guilt,” the report said. “Charges laid against detainees by the PA are often the same as those used by the Israeli occupation forces, namely membership in a militia, terrorism, sedition and organizing against the PA.”
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton issued a second statement Friday, on the case of a Bil'in activist detained by Israel, calling the recent decision to extend his sentence "deplorable."
Abdallah Abu Rahma, head of the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Bil'in village, had his sentence extended from 12 to 16 months by Israel's Military Court of Appeals at Ofer on 10 January, after the prosecution argued that his initial sentence was too lenient.
...
Speaking out again when the sentence was extended, Ashton said she "deplores the decision of an Israeli military court to increase to 16 months the sentence of Mr. Abdallah Abu Rahma, a peaceful Palestinian activist committed to non violent protest against the route of the Israeli separation barrier through his West Bank village of Bil'in."
Her statement also recalled "legitimate right of the Palestinians to engage in peaceful demonstrations."
You can bet that Abu Rahma is safer in an Israeli prison than he would be in a 'Palestinian' one. Meanwhile, the English group has called on the EU to pay attention to torture committed by the 'Palestinian Authority' and not just to 'rights violations' by Israel. But if Jews aren't involved, the EU couldn't care less.
The organization called for bringing to trial all those alleged to have committed acts of torture. It also urged the donor countries, particularly the EU, to act accordingly.
“However, political considerations and influence means that little is being done in this respect,” the group’s report charged.
“The EU’s response is not consistent with the obligations of states on both the legal and moral levels, where its support for the PA, despite the prevalence of torture, is contrary to international law and the Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms Convention in Europe of 1950.”
The report pointed out that the PA had admitted practicing torture when, at the beginning of October 2009, it announced that it was stopping torture in its prisons.
But, the report said, “it turns out that torture has not been stopped; rather, it has grown more frequent and intense. The PA’s announcement was window-dressing and deception.”
The United States' 'Palestinian' Frankenstein monster
Some 'Palestinians' are complaining that the US-trained Dayton Forces, who are supposed to maintain law and order within the 'Palestinian Authority,' are quickly becoming a Frankenstein monster.
“I feel real concern that we are reaching the level of a police state,” according to Ramallah-based human rights group director Shawan Jabarin, quoted by the Financial Times.
The United States has taken pride in its training PA ”policemen,” avoiding use of the words "armed forces" in order not to violate Oslo agreements. General Keith Dayton, who recently stepped down as director of the training program in the PA, has said the forces have been instrumental in eliminating Arab terror.
However, most of the terrorists and their supporters who have been arrested belong to Hamas, which threw its bitter rival Fatah out of Gaza in a bloody military war more than three years ago.
The Financial Times noted that PA politician Badr Abu Ayyash was arrested in September by the “Preventive Security Unit,” which allegedly tortured him to the point that he can hardly walk today. Other prisoners were quoted as saying that Hamas members are routinely beaten and tortured.
Human Rights Watch last month stated that “reports of torture by Palestinian security forces keep rolling in.” Randa Siniora, the director of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights, told the Times, “We are looking at a very gloomy situation. I am afraid that this will become systematic.”
The anti-Hamas actions may prevent inroads by fundamentalist Muslim members of Hamas, but European countries, which generously fund the Palestinian Authority, have openly questioned whether their contribution justifies the PA becoming a police state.
...
Ahmed Salhab, who said he was tortured in a PA prison, told the Times, “I had to eat lying on my back. I had to pray on my back and other inmates had to carry me to the toilet. I never broke the law. In the past, nobody would have believed that the PA would torture its own people. But now everybody knows that they do not respect human rights.”
Hamas charged on Monday that continuing arrests of its members in Judea and Samaria “are poisoning the atmosphere. A statement from its Damascus headquarters stated, “More than 50 armed men of the security services of the Palestinian Authority on Sunday night raided the home of MP Fathi al-Qarawi, arrested one of his sons and confiscated computers." It also charged that a preacher was “kidnapped” from her home in Shechem.
I have two problems with this. First, these kinds of tactics can be, and probably are and will be used on opponents of the 'Palestinian Authority' who are not Hamas. (I am amazed every time I hear that Khaled Abu Toameh, the JPost reporter who is a 'Palestinian' but is highly critical of the 'Palestinian Authority,' goes to Ramallah. Then again, he may be too prominent to be touched at this point).
Second, if this is what they do to other 'Palestinians,' imagine what they would do to the Jews if God forbid they got the chance.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
