February
9
2011
(from YoutTube)
http://playingforchange.com – Hello everyone, today we are honored to share with you all the first video from our new CD/DVD titled, “Songs Around the World, Part 2″. This video is a version of “Redemption Song” performed around the world in honor of Bob Marley’s birthday. We have reunited Bob with his son Stephen and the support of the entire planet. In this song there is a felling of rising above the past and moving forward with love in our hearts and hope in our eyes.
Follow the link below to pre-order the album and support Playing For Change by telling all your friends and family to join the movement.
Pre-Order “Songs Around The World, Part 2″ now on Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/PFCsatw2
February
5
2011
WRITTEN BY TOMI LAINE CLARK
COMMENTARY
(To read more of Tomi’s writing, go to her bog: Disenchanted Princess, Peace through truth)
The U.S. has lost all credibility, as well as the opportunity to be relevant, in the region.
Tomi Laine Clark
Since the days of Eisenhower, our government has striven to make democracy our #1 export, in the perhaps mistaken belief that any democratic country would be our ally. Israel was the first country in the Middle East to get the American stamp of approval and, since its inception, this tiny state the size of New Jersey has received a total of $140 billion of aid (source), $53 billion of which was military aid (source). This is a symbol of America’s “special relationship” with Israel.
But what about our special relationships with the dictatorships of Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, and the monarchies of Morocco, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia? Are we “supporting” them to the tune of billions of dollars annually in the innocent hopes that they will voluntarily enact democracy in their countries? Since 1987 (the year Tunisia’s Ben-Ali took power), the U.S. has sold $349 million worth of weaponry to Tunisia (source). US military aid to Egypt totals over $1.3 billion annually (source). We gave Jordan $666 million worth of military aid in 2007 alone, spending $80 million of that on an anti-terrorism training center (source). All these countries either have rigged elections or no elections at all and we have propped up their governments with billions of dollars worth of military aid for decades. We even provided the gas with which Saddam Hussein committed an act of genocide against his own citizens (source), an act we apparently didn’t consider reprehensible until 20 years later.
In fact, during the Iran-Iraq war, we provided weapons not only to Iraq, but Iran as well, and even sent the proceeds of that arrangement to the Nicaraguan Resistance, which resulted in a little scandal called Iran-Contra. And now we lambaste Iran for providing funding and weapons to the Lebanese resistance, Hezbollah. We call Hezbollah Iran’s proxy and say “no fair”, and meanwhile we have dozens of our own proxies that we fund and equip on a fantastically larger scale.
And now the citizens of all these countries call us hypocrites (like here), and we have the gall to build anti-terrorism training centers that are supposed to shield us from the results of our own actions.
Once upon a time, the U.S. had a chance to be truly relevant in the Middle East by brokering a lasting peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians. We said we wanted peace, we sent our ambassadors and negotiators jaunting back and forth between Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and elsewhere. But, more than ever, it seems like that was play acting, what many political analysts refer to as “stagecraft” rather than statecraft. And now, with the Palestinian Authority seeking recognition from UN countries directly, without America’s support, it is even clearer that we are no longer needed.
The Palestinian cause is the poster child of injustice in the region. Everybody from Morocco to Qatar knows that the Palestinians are increasingly subjugated and abused in myriad ways by the U.S., who continues to fund the Israeli military machine at the rate of $8 million a day while expecting the citizens of our ally countries to believe that we are doing so because Israel is under threat (source). If Israel were to be attacked, the chances are staggering that it would be bombed with our missiles, dropped from our planes, by soldiers whose salaries are paid by our tax dollars.
We are financing war because it is more profitable than peace, and the Middle East, at least, is tired of the status quo.
We have lost our chance to be relevant. If we want a chance to survive at all, with any moral dignity, we need a drastic change of plans.
Tomi Laine Clark is currently doing research for her degree in Middle Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley. She lives in San Francisco.
February
3
2011
BY AMAL SEDKY WINTER
To see more of Amal’s writing, go to her blog: “My Eye on Egypt.”
A CODEPINK delegation of women is in Tahrir (Liberation) Square with the democracy demonstrators. CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin is on the right. CODEPINK is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the wars and redirect resources into healthcare, education and other life-affirming activities.
My 26-year friend, Adham Bakry, a graphic artist protesting in Tahrir Square was interviewed by BBC on Monday Feb 1st, 2011. Some of you, as I did, may have heard him. His said he was demonstrating for social justice; his words were not inflammatory. Yesterday, Mubarak’s goons chased him down, separated him from his American companion, Christina, roughed him up and took her to the American Embassy. They shoved Adham in a cab and dropped him in a Cairo slum district, Bulaq Durfur. They flaunted his passport with its entry visas to many countries and accused him of being involved in a foreign conspiracy. The ignorant, misinformed and manipulated residents beat him up until a young man on a motorcycle rescued him. Adham got home 8 hours after he left the square.
I suspect he will find a way back despite rumors that today the protesters will be even more roughly treated.
The protesters are holding 35 men whose identity cards prove they’re employed by internal security. They also have people who admitted to being paid by the government to beat up the demonstrators.
Ahmed Shafik, Prime Minister, rumored to have threatened to resign over yesterday’s government attack on the anti-Mubarak demonstrations, at a news conference today apologized for the clashes and promised to meet with the protesters and investigate the violence. Current and past cabinet members have been prevented from leaving the country.
He claimed the government didn’t have enough police to control the situation. (Egypt has 1 policeman for every 37 citizens.) In another turning of logic on its head he said the terrible way in which our young are behaving, are embarrassing the country and allowing a country only 200 years old tell — we who invented government — how to govern ourselves.
The propaganda machine is at full-throttle but all else has come to a halt. Sympathy for the man, who fought against Israel, loves his country and wants only to die in the land where he was born, spreads easily. Dignity is important. It’s estimated that the Egyptian economy has lost 35 billion dollars in the past 10 days and money is streaming out of the country with a tap of a computer key. People are confused and frightened and rumors are rife—most planted by the propaganda machine.
Amal Winter is an Egyptian-American psychologist in Seattle who currently lives in Cairo, Egypt during the academic year where she is Visiting Professor of Practice at the American University in Cairo’s Graduate School of Education. She is a member of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, the Arab American Community Coalition in Seattle, and the Arab American Institute’s Pacific Northwest representative. Her numerous consulting positions include the U.S. Department of State where she trains women in the Middle East to run for public office and the creation of training programs for panels of mediation specialists in over 450 Egyptian family courts.
Previous posts by Amal:
Thousands taking to the streets of Egypt’s major cities despite government crackdown
From Cairo: ‘For the first time in my life, I see real pride in their faces
Egypt in Revolt: People who have been disgusted by their country are standing up for it
February
2
2011
WRITTEN BY AMAL SEDKY WINTER
To see more of Amal’s writing, go to her blog: “My Eye on Egypt.”
CAIRO, Egypt — Last night (President Hosni) Mubarak promised that the current parliament would study the two constitutional articles that limit the rights of people to run for elected offices including the presidency for which he promised not to run again.
The military told people to go home.
Today, Mubarak and his regime mobilized a counter-revolution and sent hundreds of ‘pro-Mubarak’ demonstrators (There is clear evidence in the form of ID cards that these are the regime’s police accompanied by armed bands of their notorious thugs) to attack the thousands of anti-Mubarak protestors in Tahrir Square. Having defined the issue as stability (a matter very close to the Egyptian heart) and chaotic violence (of which people are terrified), they proceeded to create the conditions with which they threatened the country.
Anti-government supporters held their ground, calling for army protection.
Two and a half hours of clashes, many injured, but yet the military stood aside. Although it had plenty of tanks and armored vehicles in place, it let hundreds of people mounted on roughly 60 horses and camels which definitely posed a safety risk enter the square. They were accompanied by police officers from state security and “escaped” criminals (reportedly released by the regime) carrying signs “Daddy Mubarak and Mommy Suzanne, we apologize for the past days’ demonstrations.” Pelting them with rocks and cracking heavy whips, the riders rammed the protesters.
There was nothing spontaneous about this attack. Organized groups joined them, a hundred at a time. These people were well coordinated; their signs and placards preprinted. They blocked every entrance to the square so that people could not join the anti-Mubarak demonstrations. No one could leave, so they dug up paving stones.
Fears of a blood-bath to follow, they are praying in the square. If the military is not going to protect the people I hope international pressure will work.
The regime propaganda machine, especially government television, has been in full swing mostly frightening the populace while calling for calm. Meanwhile there’s no attempt to contain the violent confrontations.
Unfortunately, the combination of unprecedented concessions, the campaign of disinformation, and the staged confrontations have had their effect. Those less sophisticated — and this applies to many of the poor and uneducated — are switching from opposition to Mubarak to supporting him, and the stability and personal safety he promised.
P.S. Rumors that Ahmed Ezz, parliamentarian and Gamal Mubarak’s friend, has been prevented from leaving Egypt. Habib Adli, minister of Interior has been held for investigation by the army (which hates him).
Amal Winter is an Egyptian-American psychologist in Seattle who currently lives in Cairo, Egypt during the academic year where she is Visiting Professor of Practice at the American University in Cairo’s Graduate School of Education. She is a member of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, the Arab American Community Coalition in Seattle, and the Arab American Institute’s Pacific Northwest representative. Her numerous consulting positions include the U.S. Department of State where she trains women in the Middle East to run for public office and the creation of training programs for panels of mediation specialists in over 450 Egyptian family courts.
February
1
2011
WRITTEN BY AMAL SEDKY WINTER
To see more of Amal’s writing, go to her blog: “My Eye on Egypt.”
Cairo, Egypt
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
“I used to call them the spoiled brats of the internet,” one Cairo woman confessed. “Now I kiss their feet,” she said, referring to young men who broke the Egyptians long record of endurance under a dictatorial regime.
Today, the seventh day of the revolt against President Mubarak and for democracy in Egypt, 2 million people are said to be protesting in Cairo. Some have estimated 8 million nationwide; that’s ten percent of the population and that, technically speaking, is a revolution.
In Alexandria, the people are standing shoulder to shoulder from one end of that long city to the other.
It’s not the usual protestors; everyone knows them – like the Kifaya party (Enough) and the April 6 movement people.
No. This is everyone: we see huge clusters of women in their bright colored scarves – like a meadow in spring – and the men don’t even flirt with them because the ethic of protest is respect.
Crowds open up for people in wheelchairs and assist those walking with canes.
The people, once assured that the Army’s interest was in protecting them, fell into easy cooperation. Troops and people parade side by side, Egyptian flags raised. They work together to check people for weapons.
People who live near Tahrir Square cook for the protestors. In Helwan, south of the city, supplies of cooking gas ran out. Some of the young men in the area located supplies in a neighboring area and delivered them back to Helwan, door-to-door.
In the upsurge of pride, some protesters have pulled framed photos of Gamal Abdel Nasser, president of Egypt from 1956 until his death in 1970, off the walls of their homes and wave them above the heads of crowd – reminding their fellow Egyptians of the last time, during the pan-Arab movement, when they felt such self-respect and promise.
Everyone uses the same words of protest. Everyone is on message.
There is no doubt that Mubarak is leaving.
Power of the Army.
It’s true that the army has tremendous economic power in Egypt and that they may be thinking of their own interests as well as those of the people in allying with the protesters. But, in this country, the army is highly respected; it’s considered the institution of last resort and so far, they are deserving of that respect.
Furthermore, from a realistic standpoint, a revolution without their blessing wouldn’t succeed, if only because they hold that tremendous economic power.
Muslim Brotherhood, not.
The Brotherhood will not assume leadership. Contrary to what many westerners believe, they don’t have the influence – a fact seriously distorted by President Mubarak, who wanted to keep his U.S. allies nervous.
Amr Moussa interim leader?
Amr Moussa, whose term as head of the Arab League ends on Wednesday, could be the best choice for an interim leader. He’s 73, has spoken for the people for decades and has been treated accordingly by the regime.
The people know him and respect him. During the Africa Cup finals, President Mubarak appeared on the big screen to take credit from the players’ success. The crowds turned their flags down. When Moussa appeared, the flags flipped up.
America not looking good.
America is not looking good on the streets. If Secretary of State Clinton had spoken one day earlier, it would have been acceptable. Now the U.S. is seen as too little, too late.
We hear that the Americans are meeting with Mohamed ElBaradei, a big mistake. Here he’s perceived as being too far removed from the lives of the people, an impression he exaggerated by speaking to the people on television from the lush gardens of his residence.
Endurance of Egyptians
It used to be said that Egyptians can endure anything. If one revolution fails, the joke goes; Egyptians would shrug and say, “There’s always next century.”
This time is different. They’re using their capacity for endurance for their own benefit. Yes, food has run out in some places but, as with the cooking gas, people from other neighborhoods share.
Yes the doors of the shops are closed to prevent looting, but if you knock politely and say hello, they’ll let you in to shop.
Each challenge is met with a solution.
Each political disappointment is greeted with the response. “We’ll just stay longer.”
The mood is absolutely celebratory. People who have been disgusted by their country are standing up for it. They’ve stopped quarrelling among themselves for the few available spoils. In a class- and gender-segregated society, this is a stunning achievement.
Amal Winter is an Egyptian-American psychologist in Seattle who currently lives in Cairo, Egypt during the academic year where she is Visiting Professor of Practice at the American University in Cairo’s Graduate School of Education. She is a member of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, the Arab American Community Coalition in Seattle, and the Arab American Institute’s Pacific Northwest representative. Her numerous consulting positions include the U.S. Department of State where she trains women in the Middle East to run for public office and the creation of training programs for panels of mediation specialists in over 450 Egyptian family courts.
January
31
2011
This article by Ryan Grim originally appeared at The Huffington Post, and is used by permission of the author.
WASHINGTON – Canadian television viewers looking for the most thorough and in-depth coverage of the uprising in Egypt have the option of tuning into Al Jazeera English, whose on-the-ground coverage of the turmoil is unmatched by any other outlet. American viewers, meanwhile, have little choice but to wait until one of the U.S. cable-company-approved networks broadcasts footage from AJE, which the company makes publicly available. What they can’t do is watch the network directly.
Other than in a handful of pockets across the U.S. – including Ohio, Vermont and Washington, D.C. – cable carriers do not give viewers the choice of watching Al Jazeera. That corporate censorship comes as American diplomats harshly criticize the Egyptian government for blocking Internet communication inside the country and as Egypt attempts to block Al Jazeera from broadcasting.
The result of the Al Jazeera English blackout in the United States has been a surge in traffic to the media outlet’s website, where footage can be seen streaming live. The last 24 hours have seen a two-and-a-half thousand percent increase in web traffic, Tony Burman, head of North American strategies for Al Jazeera English, told HuffPost. Sixty percent of that traffic, he said, has come from the United States.
Read more here.
January
30
2011
By Amal Sedky Winter
To see more of Amal’s writing, go to her blog: “My Eye on Egypt.”
January 30, 2011
Cairo, Egypt
Today, the fourth day of what must now be called an Egyptian revolution, 100,000 people showed up in Tahrir Square, the political center of the people’s protest against President Hosni Mubarak and his government and for democracy and government respect of the people. Not a bare spot was to be found.
The size of the gathering was unaffected by the government’s shutdown of the internet and cell phone services. Nor the fact that it shut down Al Jazeera in Arabic, the county’s main source of news.
That fact is, that in spite of the tremendously rapid growth in internet and cell phone use in Egypt, the major pathways for news are mosques – whose messages sound throughout the city each day and which provide public gathering places for the people, and word of mouth.
Neighborhoods are extremely tight-knit; people help each other, lending money, bartering for services, adjudicating quarrels, offering aid and spreading news. Since very few move houses, the ties are long, complex and meaningful. Neighborhoods tie the country together. Word travels efficiently.
Mohamed ElBaradei
At some point, Mohamed ElBaradei, former Nobel Peace Prize winner and spokesman for authentic democracy in Egypt, announced that he would be willing to form an interim unity government.
The people’s opinion of ElBaradei is mixed. He’s been out of the country for decades, most recently as head of the IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and many see him as an interloper and there are others with long established reputations for leadership and opposition to the government.
Still, in my opinion, it’s important now that a titular leader emerge. The people will get tired; they need people to replace those who were in positions of power and who are leaving the country in droves. Among many others, President Mubarak’s son, Gamal, often mentioned as a likely successor to his father, much to the people’s disgust, is said to be in London with his brother and their respective wives.
Meanwhile, the police have returned to the streets and protesters keep the pressure on one of main sites of oppression, like the Ministry of Interior (known locally as the Ministry of Torture). Today shots were heard from inside the building and there are rumors that the Minister abandoned the country.
F-16s over Cairo
Early this evening, my apartment rattled violently. Two F-16 fighter jets coming in low to buzz Tahrir Square. The people shout louder. In a phrase which rhymes in Arabic, they yell, “You fly; we stay!”
Army tanks rolls toward square while rumors spread that they had been ordered to use live ammunition and that they had refused.
I suspect that’s true. In Egypt, the army is thought of being on the side of the people. It would simply be “unEgyptian” of them to shoot.
Egyptians’ distaste for violence
People here are terribly upset by the violence. They genuinely hate to see people being hurt. They avoid confrontation. In fact, a major turning point in the revolt was provoked by government violence. In the beginning, the protest was mostly young middle-class men; but when the police started bruising, bloodying and in some cases killing, the lower classes joined up en masse.
And now, as this very dignified rebellion progresses, people are proud. For the first time in my life, I see real pride in their faces. They are proud of the consistency and restraint in the protest, proud of protecting their own neighborhoods.
I believe we’ll see a lasting change in the Egyptian psyche.
As an Egyptian-American myself, I am proud; I get shivers thinking about the folks out there.
Dr. Winter is an Egyptian-American psychologist in Seattle who currently lives in Cairo, Egypt during the academic year where she is Visiting Professor of Practice at the American University in Cairo’s Graduate School of Education. She is a member of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, the Arab American Community Coalition in Seattle, and the Arab American Institute’s Pacific Northwest representative. Her numerous consulting positions include the U.S. Department of State where she trains women in the Middle East to run for public office and the creation of training programs for panels of mediation specialists in over 450 Egyptian family courts.
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January
29
2011
From Al Jazeera, Saturday:
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has appointed the country’s head of intelligence to the post of vice-president, in a move said to be a reaction to days of anti-government protests in cities across the country.
Omar Soliman was sworn in on Saturday, the first time Mubarak appointed a vice-president during his 30-year rule. Ahmad Shafiq, a former chief of air staff, was also appointed prime minister.
But Al Jazeera’s correspondents in Egypt have said that many of those on taking to the streets have demanded a total change of guard, as opposed to a reshuffling of figures in the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).
Tens of thousands of people in the capital Cairo gathered on Saturday, demanding an end to Hosni Mubarak’s presidency.
The demonstrations continued in defiance of an extended curfew, where state television reported will be in place from 4pm to 8am local time.
A military presence also remains, and the army warned the crowds in Tahrir Square that if they defy the curfew, they would be in danger.
Al Jazeera’s Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Cairo, said that soldiers deployed to central Cairo are not intervening in the protests.
Read the full report here.
Also, according to Al Jazeera, there are reports that the Egyptian President’s wife Suzanne Mubarak has left for London. Al Jazeera reported earlier that Mubarak’s two sons, Gamal and Ala, have fled to London with their families.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported Saturday that Egyptian security officials say at least 62 people have been killed nationwide over the last two days of mass anti-government protests.
The officials say an additional 2,000 people have been injured in the demonstrations, that have included violent clashes between police and protesters. They said Saturday the figures include injuries and deaths of both protesters and security forces.
The Associated Press is also reporting that relations between the army and the protesters are good right now. The 500,000-man military, which has given Egypt all of its four presidents since the monarchy was toppled in 1952 has enjoyed the respect of citizens who perceive it as the country’s least corrupt and most efficient public institution, particularly compared to a police force notorious for heavy handedness and corruption. It is touted as having defeated Israel in the 1973 Mideast War, and revered for that role.
The military, for its part, sees itself as the guarantor of national stability and above the political fray, loyal to both the government and what it sees as the interests of the general population.
But it remains to be seen what will happen if the troops are ordered to clear the streets.
Video of the street demos created by Tamer Shaaban, from You Tube:
“We will not be silenced, whether you’re a Christian, whether you’re a Muslim, whether you’re an Atheist, you will demand your goddamn rights, and we will have our rights, one way or the other! We will never be silenced!” – Protester in video
“Last night the Egyptian Dictatorship killed at least 53 protesters with Weapons given to them by America. That kind of “stability” is not worth protecting. Obama and Hillary are hypocrites. They’ve supported this murder for years and will support Mubarak until the day he is forced from power. As an American I am ashamed of my government. Long live the struggle of the Egyptian people!” – Comment on video’s YouTube page
From Russia Today online via You Tube:
Also today, Amnesty International sent out the following:
Thirty years of repression is spilling out onto the streets of Egypt in the forms of tear-gas, blood and bitter demonstrations. For four days, Egyptian protestors have suffered at the hands of President Mubarak’s security forces.
At least 14 protestors have been killed and scores more have been injured. The crackdown on freedoms is intensifying as authorities have cut all Internet and phone communications.
There’s no telling how long the violence will continue or how many people will suffer in the end.
The number one request we’re hearing from our fellow Egyptian activists is to have their voices heard at various Egyptian embassies and consulates.
We intend to do all we can to make that happen, but Egyptian authorities are making it very difficult. Our emails are not getting through and it will take far too long for our letters to reach anyone who can make a difference.
That is why we’re asking you to place an urgent call to the Egyptian embassy (202) 895-5400 and dial “1″ to speak to a real person about the State of Emergency in Egypt.
Ask the person who answers the call to pass on this important message – and don’t take “no” for an answer: “Please urge the Egyptian government to respect human rights, rein in the security forces, and restore access to all communications in Egypt.”
Help us make the Egyptian embassy’s phone ring off the hook! Then tell us how your call went.
Three decades of living under the harsh and oppressive State of Emergency is unacceptable.
The people of Egypt deserve to have their voices heard and to organize peacefully. They deserve human rights.
January
27
2011
(Sherwood Ross is a Miami-based public relations consultant and columnist. He has reported for the Chicago Daily News and worked as a columnist for wire services. His articles once appeared regularly in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. This article originally appeared on the website of Media with Conscience and is used by permission of the author.)
The corrosive, solitary confinement being inflicted upon PFC Bradley Manning in the Quantico, Va., brig is no exceptional torture devised exclusively for him. Across the length and breadth of the Great American Prison State, the world’s largest, with its 2.4-million captives stuffed into 5,000 overcrowded lock-ups, some 25,000 other inmates are suffering a like fate of sadistic isolation in so-called supermax prisons, where they are being systematically reduced to veritable human vegetables.
Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of leaking information to Wikileaks.
Not surprisingly, Manning is attracting global attention to the Pentagon’s sadism. If anyone did not believe the Pentagon’s ruthless treatment of Iraqi prisoners when the Abu Ghraib torture photos were released, they believe it now that it is torturing one of its own. In this assault upon the body and mind of a 23-year-old American soldier, all of the Pentagon’s arrogance and clumsiness is revealed to the world. Perhaps not even the French military – when its frame-up on treason charges of Jewish Colonel Alfred Dreyfus was exposed – attracted to itself the global searchlights of opprobrium now bathing the walls of a Marine Corps brig at Quantico.
The kind of isolation torture Manning is enduring in recent years has spread itself quietly throughout U.S. correctional facilities like a deadly gangrene. According to one reliable report, by 2003 between five and eight percent of the prison populations of Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island, and Virginia were rotting in isolation. In some federal prisons the cells are referred to euphemistically as “Communications Management Units” and are, incidentally, “disproportionately inhabited by Muslim prisoners,” according to an American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU) law suit challenging them. In another suit, the ACLU has accused the Texas Youth Commission of “throwing children (girls) into cold, bare solitary confinement cells…” and told the TYC bluntly its “reliance on solitary confinement has to stop.”
Dr. Stuart Grassian, a veteran of 25 years on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, wrote in a law school journal of his interviews with prisoners in solitary. He said almost a third of them experienced impaired brain function. They “described hearing voices, often in whispers, often saying frightening things to them.” In an article published in “The Long Term View” magazine of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover, Grassian wrote that about a third succumbed to “acute psychotic, confusional states” in which they saw objects “becoming larger and smaller, seeming to ‘melt’ or change form.” And this was only one of the syndromes experienced.
In a related article published in the same issue (Volume 7, No. 2), Dr. Atul Gawande of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, cited the findings of psychology professor Craig Haney of the University of California at Santa Cruz on isolation’s impact. Some inmates in the Pelican Bay supermax, Haney found, even after just months of isolation, suffered “Chronic apathy, lethargy, depression, and despair often result…In extreme cases, prisoners may literally stop behaving, becoming essentially catatonic.” This, of course, is what the Pentagon apparently seeks to inflict on Manning. In June, 2006, the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons recommended ending long-term isolation of prisoners but the so-called “House of War” wasn’t listening.
In the 2008 presidential race, Gawande wrote, both Obama and McCain came out firmly for banning torture and closing Guantanamo Bay prison where hundreds have been held in years-long isolation, yet neither “addressed the question of whether prolonged solitary confinement is torture.” McCain spent two of his five years as a POW in Viet Nam in solitary, later stating: “It’s an awful thing, solitary. It crushes your spirit and weakens your resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment.”
The U.S. willingness to hold prisoners in isolation for years “made it easy to discard the Geneva Conventions prohibiting similar treatment of foreign prisoners of war, to the detriment of America’s moral stature in the world,” Gawande wrote, adding, “In much the same way that a previous generation of Americans countenanced legalized segregation, our (generation) has countenanced legalized torture. And there is no clearer manifestation of this than our routine use of solitary confinement – on our own people, in our own communities, in a supermax prison…”
“This conduct (solitary confinement) by the U.S. Federal and State governments constitutes torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of the Convention Against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both of which are treaties to which the United States is a contracting party,” says international legal authority Francis Boyle, professor of the subject at the University of Illinois, Champaign.
Boyle believes, “As citizens of America and human beings in the world, we must do all in our power to terminate such illegal and criminal practices that are daily perpetrated by our own governmental institutions in our name against our fellow citizens and human beings.” Boyle is the author of “Defending Civil Resistance Under International Law”(Amazon).
Those supporting Manning need to recognize he is an icon for the bizarre, systemic destruction of tens of thousands of other human beings locked away in perpetual silence by their tormentors, often for mere infractions of prison rules, without the review of any judge or jury. As the ACLU told the TYC, this must be stopped.
What action will you take in your community to put an end to it?
January
26
2011
(This is Part 10 and the final story in this series. Gerri Haynes, a former president of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, has been sending back reports from inside blockaded Gaza. As she did twice before, Gerri organized a team of doctors and other health care providers to work in hospitals and clinics in Gaza in an effort to directly help the people there and to bring attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis that the Israeli blockade has created.)
Members of the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility delegation to Gaza
Our last day of this visit in Palestine/Israel moved us from Bethlehem to the Old City of Jerusalem and on to Tel Aviv to meet with members of Gisha and then Physicians for Human Rights, Israel. Before leaving for the airport, a young reservist lieutenant from the Israeli military joined us briefly. While on active duty, this thoughtful young woman had helped to expedite our permission to enter Gaza in October, 2009 and May, 2010. She is now enrolled in college. We thanked her for her help and wished her well with her studies.
Also, we visited with a young woman who has greeted us several times during our trips to the region – a woman we talk with in general terms about the views of moderate Israelis. Her views contrast with the views of Gisha and PHR, Israel. From representatives of these agencies, we heard strong Israeli concern about the situation in Gaza – recognizing that medical care is deeply compromised and that access to rebuilding the economy to afford better medical care is not now possible.
Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem. (Bob Haynes photo)
Tania, of Gisha, tells us that they are “working to give people the option to do what is right.” Neither Gisha nor PHR Israel holds political positions. Both agencies work on accessing assistance for the people of Gaza – with Gisha concentrating on movement of people and goods and PHR, Israel focusing on better access to medical care – for the people of Gaza and for immigrants to Israel.
Tania relates that Gisha provides legal and public advocacy i.e. provision of individual legal assistance with travel out of Gaza and public advocacy in the right/need to bring goods into Gaza. They are seeking to expand Israel’s criteria for movement.
In the past few years, Gisha has been successful in helping to bring some students out of Gaza to study – their publication of the ban on Gaza’s Fulbright scholars being unable to leave Gaza created awareness in the Israeli public and the ban was lifted.
Staff from Physicians for Human Rights Israel discuss the problems with getting increased medical care for Palestinians. (Bob Haynes photo)
After the Flotilla in May, 2010 disaster, Israel announced a loosening of the ban on the entry of construction materials. Since June, 2010, a high of 137 construction-material trucks/month are entering Gaza – but all of this material is designated for use by international agencies such as the UN. Cement, steel and gravel are still not available through the crossings between Israel and Gaza for public use. This affects housing, schools, business, and employment – life in general for the people of Gaza. On the export side, there is an agreement for 400 trucks/day to leave Gaza i.e. with produce. The average before the siege was 70 trucks/day. This had dwindled to zero. Since June, with Israel’s announced loosening of the siege, 4.5 trucks/day have been allowed to leave. Again, the context of the numbers is important to consider.
There is an announced increase in permits for business people to move back and forth between Gaza and Israel. In context, each time one individual moves in or out of Gaza, this movement is counted as a permit. So, for example, if one official from the UN goes back and forth to Jerusalem every day for one week, this is counted as five permits – giving the impression that the number of permits has increased well beyond the actual number of people receiving permits.
Most students still go through the arduous (and frequently failed) process of transit through Rafah to Egypt. Most movement through Erez to Israel is for patients with critical medical needs and their companion i.e. a baby and mother. General travel between Gaza and the West Bank is almost completely banned.
Physicians for Human Rights, Israel worked in and out of Gaza until prevented by the siege. Their partners in Gaza provide PHR with information about medical needs and they work to assist with movement of patients. They also focus on the need to improve the environment of Gaza – the impact of polluted water, air and soil on the health of Gaza is of continuing concern.
The ultimate solution to the critical problems facing Gaza, they maintain, will be freedom of movement, access to needed goods and services and the ability of the people of Gaza to heal and care freely for their own population.
Members of this delegation are available to give presentations about this work. Please contact Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility at 206-547-2630.