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For more news on "Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre" visit the Italian-English site of Rainews 24 at http://www.rainews24.rai.it/ran24/inchiesta/en/body.asp It's rich in videos, interviews and articles.

	http://www.notwithourmoney.org/02_about/history.html - You can also read the "History", and more, here

"WE DO NOT TORTURE" AND OTHER FUNNY STORIES By FRANK RICH November 13, 2005 http://select.nytimes.com/2005/11/13/opinion/13rich.html?hp you can also read it here

13.10.05

22.6.05
From: Doug Tjapkes
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2005 11:14 AM
Subject: PRISONER ABUSE

I have a horrendous story of prisoner abuse at a psychiatric facility in Michigan. The story was written to me by an inmate whom I have known for years, and would have no reason to lie about this.
He was temporarily housed in this facility, and witnessed horrible beatings of the patients by guards. When the patient was rendered immobile, he would be given an injection by a male nurse standing by.
Knowing that he faces personal danger by revealing this information, the inmate has a conscience! He is willing to sign the necessary statements before, as he puts it, someone in that facility gets killed.
The descriptions are not for the weak at heart, so I shall not pass them on. I am merely reporting that INNOCENT made the first contact within the Michigan legislature, and we believe an investigation will follow.
We were informed, from within the State of Michigan by a person who asked to remain anonymous, that if we pursue this we should be aware, up front, that there may be personal risk! This is one of those special cases where we must heed the words of Proverbs 31: Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.
Thank you for your thoughts, gifts and especially prayers!
Doug Tjapkes
INNOCENT!
20 W. Muskegon Ave.
Muskegon, MI 49440 USA

12.6.05 Son Tran is a guy in the Polunsky Unit looking for a pen pal. Here's a letter of his:
Son Tran writes on behalf of those who were, as he was, under 18 at the time of the crime. On March 1, 2005 a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled that convicted killers who were under 18 at the time of their crimes cannot be executed.
These are Tran's thoughts as he sits on the row thinking about his execution, waiting, sitting around, staring at the walls. Now, after the Supreme Court ruling that the state can no longer execute those who were juveniles at the time their crime was committed, Tran will find himself staring at the walls without death hanging over his head. Tran writes just a few questions: Have you ever stopped to wonder about the life of a prisoner, a death row prisoner? Or being confined in a 6'x10'cage 23 hours a day? Think you could handle it? Can you even begin to imagine the roller-coaster ride of emotions and hardship they must endure, knowing they will one day be killed - euthanized like some animal - while strapped to a gurney; with poison coursing through their veins, chasing away every flicker of hope and condemning them to walk through the Valley of Death? Could you accept something like that happening to a friend, a family member, any loved one; saying goodbye and watching as tears fall from the eyes of someone no longer able to laugh and smile? Could you deal with that? What would you say if I told you I know the answers to these questions?
Hello, my name is Son Tran. I am a Vietnamese male, who has been incarcerated since 1997,the year I turned 17. I was sentenced to death by a Harris County court at the age of 20, and shortly thereafter arrived on death row.
This month (October 2004) makes the seventh year of institutional incarceration for me. It's not like I'm keeping track, yet I can't help but reflect on the lost years. During these years I've fought, survived the brutality of the guards, endured the dreadful conditions, and experienced firsthand the inhuman existence of prison life. My eyes have witnessed so much that I am no longer surprised by what they see.
I awaken each day with a heavy burden - this scythe blade upon my neck - fighting to gain relief from the court of appeals. I strive daily to maintain my composure and a positive outlook. And I hope to never let this incarceration plant the seeds of bitterness and hatred, which could fester and smother my spirit. At times it's tough, but I've learned to live and adapt to each situation I face. I still laugh, I still smile. Even in the worst of times. I even hold strong to my dreams and beliefs. I can't -I won't - give in to self-pity, nor will I give in to the system's design: the enslavement and reprogramming of my mind, the breaking of my spirit, the destruction of what makes me who I am: me. I face life's trials with my head held high, ever improving myself and trying to convince those who believe my sentence is just that I'm not the monster I've been painted to be; l am not the person they need me to be in order to justify their actions, their senseless killing. So who am I?
I am a father. I am a son. I am someone who would like to make a difference. I am a human being. And I am on death row now, eager to share with you my life. I am Son Tran. Never could I have imagined that my writing would become a voice these merciless walls cannot silence - no matter how hard they try - for I am struggling to bring to light the injustice visited upon me by the state of Texas.
I was charged with capital murder and found myself facing the death sentence at the age of 17, a juvenile; in December of 2000, three years later, the possibility of a death sentence became a reality, which truly sank in when I arrived on death row shortly thereafter.
I've come to realize I can do only so much in here. Alone in this cage, my voice is but a whisper, easily absorbed by these walls, the state of Texas itself. I ask you to join me in this struggle, my plight, to save my life; together, "our" voice will be heard, it cannot be ignored. But only with outside support can this happen. do I even stand a chance against the Texas killing machine - the death penalty. Due to the desperation of my situation, the unavoidable reality in which I must exist, I implore your help, and ask you to contact me, to lend your voice and show me "someone" still cares. Any amount of support could prove to be exactly what was needed to prevail against these incredible odds and save my life, the life of a fellow human being. Time is short, though; every day, every moment, brings me that much closer to the goal Texas set for itself in December 2000: my death.
In the struggle I remain, Son Tran
My contact address:
Son Tran # 999372
Polunsky Unit
3872 FM 350 South
Livingston, Tx 77351 USA

31.5.05 THE FBI, THE TORTURE AND MURDER OF KENNETH TRENTADUE AND ADVANCED KNOWLEDGE OF THE OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING UNCOVERING A DOJ COVERUP
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

[Used by permission]
In 1995 Kenneth Trentadue was murdered by federal agents in a federal prison in Oklahoma City. A coverup immediately went into effect. Federal authorities claimed Trentadue, who was being held in a suicide-proof cell, had committed suicide by hanging himself,
but the state coroner would not buy the story.
Prison authorities tried to get family consent to cremate the body. But Trentadue had been picked up on a minor parole violation, and the story of suicide by a happily married man delighted with his two-month old son raised red flags to the family.
When the Trentadue family received Kenneth's body and heavy makeup was scraped away, the evidence (available in photos on the Internet) clearly shows a person who had been tortured and beaten. His throat was slashed and he may have been garroted. There are bruises, burns and cuts from the soles of Trentadue's feet to his head, wounds that obviously were not self-inflicted.
As the state coroner noted at the time, every investigative rule was broken by the federal prison. The coroner was not allowed into the cell, and the cell was scrubbed down prior to investigation.
The federal coverup was completely transparent. A US senator made inquiries, but the US Department of Justice (sic), knowing that it would not be held accountable, stuck to its fabricated story.
That was a mistake.
Trentadue's brother, Jesse, is an attorney. He believes that federal officials, like everyone else, must be held accountable for their crimes.He has been battling the Justice Department and the FBI for a decade.
Jesse Trentadue has amassed evidence that his brother was mistaken for Tim McVeigh's alleged accomplice in the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. Federal agents, believing that they had Richard Lee Guthrie in their hands, went too far in attempting to force him to talk.
Jesse Trentadue learned that the FBI had informants planted with two groups on which McVeigh may have relied: a white supremacist paramilitary training compound at Elohim City and the Mid-West Bank Robbery Gang. The implication is that the FBI had advance notice of McVeigh's plans and may have been conducting a sting operation that went awry.
The FBI has documents that name the informants. Teletypes from then FBI director Louis Freeh dated January 4, 1996, and August 23, 1996, confirm that the FBI had informants imbedded with the Mid-West Bank Robbery Gang and in Elohim City. In these documents, Freeh reports to various FBI field offices that the Elohim City informant (possibly explosives expert and German national Andreas Carl Strassmeir) "allegedly has had a lengthy relationship with Timothy McVeigh" and "that McVeigh had placed a telephone call to Elohim City on 4/5/95, a day that he was believed to have been attempting to recruit a second conspirator to assist in the OKBOMB attack." The FBI denied to federal judge Dale Kimball that any such documents existed. But someone had leaked the teletypes to Trentadue, and he put them before the judge along with an affidavit of their genuineness. Caught red-handed lying to a federal judge, the FBI was ordered to produce all documents Trentadue demanded. Judge Kimball gave the FBI until June 15, 2005, to deliver the incriminating records. Needless to say, the FBI doesn't want to deliver and is attempting every possible dodge to escape obeying the judge's order.
In his effort to uncover the DOJ's coverup of his brother's murder, Jesse Trentadue may have uncovered evidence of the FBI's failure to prevent the bombing of the Murrah Building. It is bad enough that the murder of Kenneth Trentadue is covered over with many layers of DOJ perjury and the withholding and destruction of evidence.
Evidence that the FBI was aware of McVeigh's plan to bomb the Murrah Building and failed to prevent the deed would be an additional heavy blow to the prestige of federal law enforcement.

PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration.
He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com

2.5.05
From: "Victor Martinez"
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 10:38 PM
Subject: Prison nation US. Prison grew by 900 inmates per week in AMERIKA 2004!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7622824/

PRISON NATION USA: IN THE "LAND OF THE FREE AND HOME OF THE BRAVE,"
PRISONS GREW BY 900 INMATES PER WEEK IN 2004.
GOVERNMENT REPORT SAYS 2.1 MILLION AMERICANS BEHIND BARS IN 2005!
U.S. Associated Press,
Viewed on Tuesday, May 3, 2005

(Read here the Martinez version of the article followed by the original version by The Associated Press)

1.5.05

EXPERTS SAY US PRISONERS ARE SUBJECTED
TO IRAKY-STYLE ABUSE

Published on Tuesday, June 8, 2004 by The Wilmington Journal (North Carolina)
by Hazel Trice Edney

WASHINGTON - As Americans continue to recoil at the sight of photographs and videotapes showing handcuffed prisoners piled naked on top of one another, being bitten by dogs, being sexually exploited and subjected to other forms of debasing abuse at the Abu-Ghraib prison in Iraq, human rights advocates say similar constitutional violations occur on a regular basis in United States prisons.
"In recent years, U. S. prison inmates have been beaten with fists and batons, stomped on, kicked, shot, stunned with electronic devices, doused with chemical sprays, choked, and slammed face first onto concrete floors by the officers whose job it is to guard them. Inmates have ended up with broken jaws, smashed ribs, perforated eardrums, missing teeth, burn scars, not to mention psychological scars and emotional pain. Some have died," states a report, published last month by Human Rights Watch, titled, "Prisoner Abuse: How Different are U. S. Prisons?"
The report, written by Jamie Fellner, director of the Human Rights Watch U. S. Program, observes: "Correctional officers will bribe, coerce, or violently force inmates into granting sexual favors, including oral sex or intercourse. Prison staff have laughed at and ignored the pleas of male prisoners seeking protection from rape by other inmates."
It continues: "A culture of brutality has developed in which correctional officers know they can get away with excessive, unnecessary, or even purely malicious violence…Perhaps if photos or videotapes of abuse in U. S. prisons were to circulate publicly, Americans would be galvanized to protest such treatment as they have the treatment of Iraqi prisoners. Absent such graphic and unavoidable evidence, it is all too likely that abuse will continue to be a part of many prison sentences."
Children are not immune, the report concludes. "They too are kicked, beaten, punched, choked, and sexually preyed upon by adult staff."
President Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Senate Arms Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-Va.) and many others have deplored the abuses in Iraq.
''The actions of these few people do not reflect the hearts of the American people,'' Bush told Al-Hurra, a U.S.-sponsored Arab-oriented television station. "People in Iraq must understand that I view those practices as abhorrent."
But Human Rights advocates say Bush doesn't have to leave the U. S. to find examples of similar abuses.
''What we see is rape by prison guards, sexual assaults by prison guards. We have clients who have gone through extreme emotional trauma and physical pain because of the abuses they've endured here in the United States,'' says Kara Gotsch, public policy coordinator for the national prison project of the American Civil Liberties Union. "When the president and officials in Congress say they are shocked and embarrassed by what's going on in Iraq at the hands of our U. S. military, I have to point the finger and say, 'Why aren't you expressing the same outrage and shame at the same conditions going on in your home states?'"
The U.S. has the largest per capita prison and jail population in the Western industrialized world, with approximately 2 million inmates.
Shifts in law enforcement and sentencing practices during the ''war on drugs'' over the past two decades have caused a dramatic growth in inmates convicted of low level, non-violent drug offenses, reports the Sentencing Project, a Washington, D. C-based prison research and policy development organization. Sixty-percent of federal prisoners are incarcerated on drug charges. A fifth of all state prisoners are in for drugs and most state prisoners have no prior criminal record, according to the Sentencing Project.
Over the past two decades, the number of women in prison has increased at nearly double the rate for men, making them the fastest growing segment of the prison population in local jails and state and federal prisons. Approximately 93,000 women are behind bars.
Although African-American women over the age of 10 are approximately 12 percent of the U.S. population, they represent nearly half of the women incarcerated, according to the Justice Department.
Abuse of prisoners, both men and women, is especially difficult to stop when prison authorities refuse to acknowledge the problem, says Fellner.
"In Florida, a man died with boot marks on his back, not to mention all the many broken bones in his body," recalls Fellner in an interview. "The staff said, 'Oh, he flung himself on the floor,' or 'we just used regular force.' They used many stories. They were criminally prosecuted because the man died. But there was no conviction. The internal management backed up its staff."
These incidents happen more often than people like to admit.
"Sadly, there is no real surprise in the horrific photos from Iraq," says NAACP Chairman Julian Bond. "Americans of color are all too familiar with incidents of prisoner abuse stretching from the distant past to the present day. It begins when the person held prisoner is considered less 'human' than the prison guard; it happened in Iraq and it happens all too often here.''
To reduce some of the abuse that is commonplace, President Bush signed the ''Prison Rape Elimination Act'' last September, promising the "analysis of the incidence and effects of prison rape in Federal, State and local institutions, and for information, resources, recommendations and funding to protect individuals from prison rape."
Punitive violence is another issue raised by the Human Rights Watch report.
In a 1992 Supreme Court case, Hudson v. McMillan, an inmate was hog tied to the floor of a Louisiana prison and severely beaten by three prison guards. The court held 7 to 2 that the beating amounted to a violation of the 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Justices Clarence Thomas and Anthony Scalia dissented.
In his minority opinion, Thomas argued that the beating by three prison guards was not cruel and unusual punishment although the beating left Hudson with loosened teeth, facial bruises, and a cracked dental plate. ''A use of force that causes only insignificant harm to a prisoner may be immoral, it may be torturous, it may be criminal ... but it is not 'cruel and unusual punishment,''' Thomas wrote.
An Amnesty International report, published last year, "The Pain Merchants," outlined other examples of what it called official misconduct.
In one example, the report said: "In August 2000, a lawsuit on behalf of District of Columbia prisoners housed at Sussex 11 State Prison in Virginia alleged they were routinely stripped to their underwear and strapped to a steel bed by the wrists and ankles, with an additional strap across their chests. The prisoners alleged they were held immobilized for 48 hours or more, and that because breaks to use the toilet were grossly inadequate, they were forced to lie in their own waste."
Some experts fear that abuse of prisoners in U.S. correctional facilities is widespread.
"The cases and newspaper reports and instances that are documented by Human Rights Watch and others of abuse in U. S. prisons is just the tip of an iceberg," says Fellner. "What we don't know is how big the ice burg actually is."

Source: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0608-09.htm

30.4.05

TOP OFFICERS IN ABU GHRAIB CASE CLEARED: OFFICIALS

Four top officers, including Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, have been cleared by the U.S. Army over allegations of wrongdoing in the abuses at Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq. U.S. officials, on condition of anonymity, said a new inquiry found no evidence of wrongdoing by Sanchez and three officers who were among his top deputies when the abuse occurred in fall 2003. Only an Army Reserve one-star general has been found guilty and reprimanded, according to reports. Sanchez, who became the senior U.S. commander in Iraq in June 2003, has not been accused of criminal violations.

Photos of Iraqi inmates being abused by American soldiers in the Abu Ghraib prison sparked international criticism of the U.S. Army last year. Five U.S. soldiers have since been convicted and three are still facing trial. The Pentagon has held nine major inquiries into the scandal, with two more expected. The Army's inspector general Lt. Gen. Stanley E. Green concluded the allegations are unsubstantiated after examining the claims against Sanchez, according to officials.
Green has also determined there should be no punishment given to Sanchez's former top deputy, Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski; to Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, Sanchez's intelligence chief in Baghdad; or to Col. Mark Warren, Sanchez's top legal adviser at the time.
The officials who released the findings did not want their names released because the information on Sanchez and 11 other officers who were the subject of the probe have not yet been publicly disclosed and U.S. Congress has not been fully briefed.
Among the mitigating circumstances in the Sanchez case:
Initially, U.S. military commanders in Sanchez's organization in Iraq were short of senior officers.
An upsurge in insurgent violence after he took command.
The intense pressure the military faced to find ousted leader Saddam Hussein.
The question over who must be held accountable on Iraq detention and interrogation policy has been hotly debated in Congress. Some Democrats have accused the Pentagon of pinning the blame on low-ranking soldiers and making them the scapegoats.
In a separate probe, former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger concluded that Sanchez should have taken stronger action in November 2003 when he realized the extent of the problems at Abu Ghraib prison.
Another Army investigation determined that although Sanchez and his most senior deputies were not directly involved at Abu Ghraib, their "action and inaction did indirectly contribute" to some abuses.
(With files from The Associated Press)
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1114258688720_109667888/?hub=TopStories

20.3.05

	Unbelievably sick, and these are our own troops! I wonder if it is possible for people on earth to sink any lower. Yes, do keep this information in your files.
	Sherry Swiney www.patrickcrusade.org ----- Original Message ----- From: Judy Cumbee judysi@mindspring.com To: Sherry Swiney taoss@worldnet.att.net Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2005 9:25 PM Subject: [montgomerypeace] STORY ON US DETENTION & TORTURE SYSTEM IN AFGHANISTAN http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1440836,00.html

13.3.05

USA - TURNING THE SPOTLIGHT ON PRISON CONDITIONS Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2005 11:01:21 -0600 http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/20017.html

12.3.05

Army Details Scale of Abuse of Prisoners in an Afghan Jail By DOUGLAS JEHL

Read the article here

8.3.05 OUTRAGE: THOUSANDS WRONGLY CONVICTED EACH YEAR
BY OVERZEALOUS DAS!
Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2005 09:15:10 -0600
Read the article here

27.1.05

I welcome you to: America the Beautiful. We simply export our Terrorism! A PLEA FOR HELP By Patrick Swiney Read the article (Italian-English) here. To support Patrick and the other inmates in Alabama against the tortures they suffer, sign the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/swiney12/petition.html also visit the web site http://www.patrickcrusade.org and leave a message in the guest book.

Vedi anche - See also Archive 2000 - 2001 - Archive 2002 - Archive 2003 - Archive 2004