WHO are the REAL 'TERRORists' ?
ANTONIA FEITZ
... Europe and the US
are the major manufacturers and exporters of torture
equipment. The US particularly enjoys a brisk trade in
torture technology. A chilling report for the European
Parliament titled "An Appraisal of Technologies of
Political Control" (1998), lists the police torture
exports licensed by the US Commerce Department 1991-1993.
Interestingly Yugoslavia was one of the very few
countries of the world that did not appear as a customer
on the list of 110 countries.
Every tin-pot dictatorship in Latin America,
Africa, the Middle East and Europe was on the list,
along with most of the more 'respectable'
nations, including Australia. So much
for humanitarian principles. US companies freely
advertise thumbcuffs, thumbscrews, leg irons and
shackles, whips, electroshock devices, suspension
equipment, immobilisation guns, shock batons and even
'specially designed implements of torture'. And
as noted, they don't care where they go. Business is
business.
But that's old fashioned stuff. Research
in torture technology and crowd control is booming in US
nuclear laboratories such as Oak Ridge, Lawrence
Livermore and Los Alamos. Thanks to
their research, the world's police forces already have
available for 'crowd control' such devices
as:-
- ultra-sound
generators which cause disorientation, vomiting,
involuntary defecation, and disturbance of the
ear thus causing loss of balance. Apparently the
system which uses two speakers can target
individuals in a crowd. Handy to nab the
ring-leaders.
And that's
just for starters. Among the exciting new toys
for the world's police are:-
- human
capture nets which can be laced with chemical
irritants, or even electrified to pack an extra
punch.
- foam-spreading
gun with the fun name of "lick 'em and stick
'em technology" which glues people's hands
and feet to the footpath.
- foams
with pepper spray;
- blinding
laser weapons;
- microwave
and acoustic disabling systems.
R
& D in the US and Europe is directed towards
developing more efficient 'mark-free' interrogation and
torture techniques and technologies. These
'technologies' have been developed for crowd control, but
Amnesty International is not alone in claiming they are
being used for torture. In any case, nothing
better illustrates the tyrannical nature of most
governments than the fact they plan to use such crowd
control systems on their own citizens.
And they do. Under the guise
of prison discipline, the US
tortures its own citizens according to the previously
mentioned report which documented the use of the Remote
Electronically Activated Control Technology (REACT)
stunbelt on US prisoners. The belt can
be activated from 300 feet away and inflicts a 50,000
volt shock for 8 seconds. The high-pulsed
current enters the prisoner's left kidney and travels
along the blood channels and nerve pathways. As
targeted prisoners lose control of bladder and bowel
functions, the makers proudly
promote the belt for its "total
psychological supremacy" of
prisoners. Indeed. The prospect
of being made to involuntarily defecate and urinate in
public is not something most people would risk....
As of 1996, sixteen US state correctional
agencies had obtained these appalling and degrading
devices. Stun Tech of Cleveland Ohio wants
the belts introduced into the chain gangs of Alabama,
Florida and Louisiana. Yes, Virginia, the
'humanitarian' US has re-introduced chain gangs too.
There's not much in the mainstream media about
that either.
Because of its massive incarceration rate,
the US increasingly 'warehouses' its prisoners in
huge complexes. With the
privatisation of prisons, cost constraints are paramount
and simple control has increasingly replaced any idea of
rehabilitation. Judge Thelton E. Henderson
reported that prison officers at the huge Pelican Bay
prison in California - with a population of 3,000
inmates - routinely assaulted prisoners in
their cells with batons and high voltage taser guns. As
well, they chained them in 'fetal restraints' - wrists
bound to ankles - for 22 hours a day. This
happened as recently as 1995. This brutality was
even encouraged by the prison management as effective in
maintaining discipline.
US prisons also use drugs for immobilising
inmates - and for testing. In
the trade this is called 'liquid cosh'. The
drugs range from tranquillisers and anti-depressants to
powerful hypnotics and drugs which produce fear and pain
which are used in 'aversion therapy' to induce behaviour
modification. The report noted that US prisons
are the "new laboratories for developing the next
generation of drugs for social reprogramming".
The pharmacology labs of the universities and the
military produce "scores of new psychoactive drugs
each year".
The EU parliament has expressed concerns that
with the increasing privatisation of prisons in Britain
and Europe, such alien 'management' techniques will
replace the Europeans' more benign approach. They
fear that big US consortiums will take over the running
of prisons worldwide, and that
subsequently there will be very little government
scrutiny of their operations...
(Reprinted extract from "Propaganda, Hypocrisy and
the Torture Trade", Antonia Feitz,Đ 23/6/99)
Cartoon(1);Australian
Chaingang/Etching(2);Delacroix(3);The Bastille(4)
U.S.
Moves to Undermine New Torture Treaty
Bush
Administration Again Defies Allies on Human
Rights |
(New York,
20 July) The United States is set to defy
its allies on another critical human rights
treaty, warned Human Rights Watch as the United
Nations debates a new treaty to prevent torture. The U.N.
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the
organization's governing body for human rights,
will next week debate a draft Optional Protocol
to the Convention Against Torture. The new treaty
would establish an international system of
inspection visits to places of detention, but
would only apply to those countries that ratify
it.
The
current text has been put forward by Costa Rica
and enjoys wide support from ECOSOC members,
including members of the European Union and many
Latin American, Caribbean and African states. But
the United States has signaled its opposition and
wants negotiations on the text re-opened.
Yet
again the Bush Administration is on a collision
course with its allies over an important new
mechanism to protect human rights, said
Rory Mungoven, Global Advocacy director for Human
Rights Watch. Last week, it was the
International Criminal Court, this week, it's the
prevention of torture.
Human
Rights Watch said the draft Optional Protocol
represented the best compromise possible after
ten years of difficult negotiations. It addressed
many of the concerns previously raised by
governments, including the United States.
The U.S. government has objected to the proposal,
claiming that prison visits by an international
body would be too intrusive. But the system of
visits has many checks and balances, ensuring
consultation with governments, prior-notification
of visits and the confidentiality of reports. It
can be adapted to different legal cultures,
including federal systems. And if the U.S.
government didnīt ratify the new treaty, it
would not face any inspections at all.
Human
Rights Watch warned that the U.S. proposal to
re-open negotiations on the draft would be the
kiss-of-death for the treaty. Abusive
governments, many of which have not even signed
the Convention Against Torture, would use further
negotiations to water down or block the adoption
of the protocol.
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