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#torture

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Shame on ProPublica for calling ABA a "gold standard".

ABA is torture.

ABA is not designed to help autistic kids.

ABA is designed to keep autistic kids in line so that they don't annoy their parents.

UnitedHealth denying ABA coverage is akin to them denying conversion therapy aimed a making an LGBTQ+ person straight.

I gave to them for the first time this year. Well, it may very well also be the last.

If only they had read the Wikipedia page on it, and talked to autistic people:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_

propublica.org/article/unitedh

@ProPublica

en.wikipedia.orgApplied behavior analysis - Wikipedia

Before I head out for the day ->
Recommended #documentary film.

Between 1952 and 1960, Britain fought a vicious war in Kenya against the anticolonial Mau Mau movement. It was an exceptionally bloody conflict, with atrocities committed on both sides. For decades, many of the worst abuses by British colonial forces were kept hidden. Piecing together survivor testimonies and expert analysis from British and Kenyan historians, this film tells a complete and detailed story for the first time of how Britain was involved in systemic torture – including accounts of murders, rapes and forced castrations.

A Very British Way of Torture is a film by Ed McGown and produced by Rob Newman.

Document archive is courtesy of the UK National Archives.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=K4sSGd2w

Today in Labor History December 11, 1981: Over 800 people were slaughtered by the Salvadoran military in the village of El Mozote in one of the largest 20th century massacres in Latin America. Men, women and children were tortured and systematically executed by the U.S.-supported regime, which was trying to wipe out unions, leftists and peasant activists. The Atlacatl Battalion carried out the massacre. The Battalion was created in 1980 at the U.S. Army's School of the Americas and trained by U.S. military advisors.

I don’t know all that much about Syria, but I do know some things about Nazis. So here’s a relatively small, but not inconsequential bit of context for the despotism of the Assad regime.

Alois Brunner was a sadist and a rabid antisemite who worked closely with Adolf Eichmann to carry out the “Final Solution.” In the very few interviews he gave, decades after the war ended, Brunner said he regretted nothing except maybe failing to kill more Jews.

Brunner was able to stay in West Germany until the mid-1950s, then left (likely with an assist from the Vatican – it’s a whole thing) and settled in Syria, where Bashar al-Assad’s father Hafez knew exactly who he was hosting. Hafez knew well enough that he took Brunner on as an “advisor,” which is to say that the Syrian regime received training in torture methods from one of the most wanted and notorious Nazi war criminals in the world, while denying Nazi hunters entry into the country.

Brunner outlived Hafez al-Assad and was still living in Syria for probably about the first ten years of Bashar al-Assad’s reign. He would’ve been rather old by then (and missing an eye and a few fingers due to Mossad assassination attempts), so I’m not sure how much “advising” he was still doing once Bashar was in power, but he obviously wasn’t turned over to The Hague, and finally died peacefully around 2010/2011 in Damascus, where he is buried. And if campist dumbfucks want to pretend that Bashar’s rule was some kind of reset, after which the Baathist regime no longer utilized what it had learned from a Nazi war criminal, then I’d like to talk to them about a lucrative (for me) real estate deal.

Some more details at the link below. Best wishes to the people of Syria.

theatlantic.com/international/

The Atlantic · Nazi Alois Brunner Lived Out His Life in Syria, Advising RegimeBy Adam Chandler
Continued thread

The relief and borderline bewilderment I feel at seeing Assad's demise can only be a tiny fraction of what those who knew his victims must be feeling. I hardly dare to believe it. This man is responsible for some of the most heinous atrocities committed against civilians this century. It's quite incredible. Words cannot overstate how evil this regime was.

His name was not #Navalny so when #Israel kidnapped him from his #Hospital in #Gaza and #raped him to death, no western leader mentioned his name.


He didn't become front page news.

His wife didn't become the new love of the #CIA and #EU and a celebrity.

Neither EU nor #US or #Canada, condemned his murder, or called for investigation, nor did they send any fact checking delegates to Israel. They simply ignored it.

An of course no sanctioned were imposed on his killers, nor the leaders of Israel or companies helping and supporting them to commit war crimes.

#inhumanity #torture #warcrime #RapeIsNotSelfDefence #SanctionIsrael
@israel @palestine

The #PalestinianPrisonersMovement : the struggle behind bars.

The issue of #prisoners is a cornerstone of the #Palestinian #liberation struggle and a driver of major uprisings against the #IsraeliOccupation.

Over 10,000 Palestinians are currently imprisoned in #Israel. The issue of Palestinian prisoners has come to the fore amid the ongoing #genocidal violence in #Gaza, becoming both a central demand in the on-and-off #ceasefire talks and a tool for #Israeli forces in their attempts to suppress #resistance in Gaza and the #WestBank. Hand in hand with this history of #repression stands the vibrant Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement, which has mobilized the masses, shaped public opinion, and contributed to pivotal #political, cultural, and social events, including Operation #AlAqsa Flood on October 7, 2023.

Over the past year, reports from Palestinian political prisoners have highlighted ongoing #abuse and #torture by Israeli soldiers. Despite this, the prisoners’ movement remains resilient, drawing strength from its long history in the liberation struggle. This article explores the movement’s history, the repression it has faced, and Israel’s decades-long efforts to dismantle it.

peoplesdispatch.org/2024/11/22

#FreePalestine
#HumanRights
#ICC
#ICJ
#WarCrimes
#IsraelIsATerroristState
#IsraelWarCrimes
#RacistIsrael
#IsraelRogueState
#ArmsEmbargoOnIsrael
#USAFundsGenocide
#BoycottIsrael
#BDSMovement
#BoycottIsraeliApartheid
#StopGenocide
#ApartheidIsrael
#SanctionIsrael
#ZionismIsACult
#WarCriminals
#MiddleEast

Great, that only took horrible acts of torture and 20+ years of the victims' lives. Still and all, big ups to the survivors and their supporters for sticking with this for so long. Abu Ghraib and the insane system of Bush-era "private contractors" (i.e., mercenaries) should never be forgotten or rehabilitated -- which includes, you know, not running for office on the support of the Cheney family.

====

Today, in a landmark verdict, a jury in a federal court found a Virginia-based government contractor liable for its role in the torture of Iraqi men at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003-2004 and ordered it to pay each of the three plaintiffs $3 million in compensatory damages and $11 million in punitive damages, for a total of $42 million. The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed in 2008 against CACI Premier Technology, Inc., on behalf of three men who endured the sorts of torture and abuse made infamous by leaked images that horrified the world twenty years ago. The jury in an earlier trial last April was unable to reach a unanimous decision; today’s verdict comes from a retrial with a new jury.

The jury found CACI liable for conspiring to torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of Suhail Al Shimari, a middle school principal, Asa’ad Zuba’e, a fruit vendor, and Salah Al-Ejaili, a journalist. The men were all held at the “hard site,” the part of the prison where the most severe abuses occurred. Along with hundreds of other Iraqis tortured at Abu Ghraib, they have suffered long-standing physical and emotional effects.

ccrjustice.org/home/press-cent

Center for Constitutional RightsAbu Ghraib Verdict: Iraqi Torture Survivors Win Landmark Case as Jury Holds Private Contractor CACI LiableFirst of its kind to make it to trial, lawsuit delivers rare accountability for U.S post-9/11 tortureNovember 12, 2024, Alexandria, VA – Today, in a landmark verdict, a jury in a federal court found a

[#Podcast] #LawAndDisorder, September 9, 2024

#September11, 2001: Lessons Learned And Overlooked

"It has been 23 years ago this week since the attacks on September 11, 2001 in New York City, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, PA, killing nearly 3,000 people and injuring more than 6,000. On that day, the United States had a choice: The #GeorgeWBush administration could have treated the attacks as a violation of US and international law, launched a criminal investigation, and brought the perpetrators to justice in accordance with the rule of law. Instead, President Bush waged #EndlessWars against #Afghanistan and Iraq, pushed through Congress the USA #PatriotAct, opened the notorious detention center at #GuantanamoBay which remain to this day, rounded up Muslims and South Asians for #IndefiniteDetention, initiated a wave of civil liberties and human rights violations, and committed wholesale torture against detainees and others.

"To assess the legacy of 9/11 and the lessons learned and the lessons overlooked, we’ve invited someone who was at the center of Bush’s #WarOnTerror. John Kiriakou is a journalist, former CIA counterterrorism officer, former senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and former counterterrorism consultant for ABC News.

"In 2007, Kiriakou blew the whistle on the CIA’s torture program, telling ABC News that the CIA tortured prisoners, that torture was official U.S. government policy, and that the policy had been approved by President George W. Bush. He knew what he was talking about. In 2002, he was responsible for the capture in Pakistan of #AbuZubaydah, then believed to be the third-ranking official in al-Qaeda.

"He became the sixth #whistleblower indicted by the #Obama administration under the #EspionageAct of 1917 — a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his revelations.

"In 2012, the #RalphNader family honored #Kiriakou with the Joe A. Callaway Award for #CivicCourage, an award given to individuals who 'advance truth and justice despite the personal risk it creates.' He won the PEN Center USA’s prestigious First Amendment Award in 2015, the first Blueprint International Whistleblowing Prize for Bravery and Integrity in the Public Interest in 2016, and also in 2016 the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence, given by retired CIA, FBI, and NSA officers."

Listen:
lawanddisorder.org/category/cr

#CIASponsoredTerror #CivilRights, #CriminalizingDissent #ExtraordinaryRendition #FreeSpeech #HumanRights #IraqWar #BushAdministraiton #HumanRights #HumanRightsViolation #TargetingMuslims #Torture #WarResister #Whistleblowers #CivilLiberties #CivilLibertiesRadio EndlessWar

lawanddisorder.orgCriminalizing Dissent | Law and Disorder Radio
Replied in thread

We met healthcare personnel in #Gaza who worked at #hospitals that had been raided and destroyed by #Israel. Many of these colleagues of ours were taken by Israel during the attacks.They all told us a slightly different version of the same story: in captivity they were barely fed, continuously physically and psychologically abused, and finally dumped naked on the side of a road.Many told us they were subjected to mock executions and other forms of mistreatment and torture.Far too many of our healthcare colleagues told us they were simply waiting to die.

The 99 signatories to this letter spent a combined 254 weeks inside Gaza’s largest hospitals and clinics. We wish to be absolutely clear: not once did any of us see any type of #Palestinian militant activity in any of Gaza’s hospitals or other #healthcare facilities.

We urge you to see that Israel has systematically and deliberately devastated Gaza’s entire healthcare system, and that Israel has targeted our colleagues in Gaza for #torture, disappearance, and murder.
An astonishingly high % of our surgical incisions became infected from the combination of malnutrition, impossible operating conditions, lack of basic sanitation supplies such as soap, and lack of surgical supplies and medications, including antibiotics.
gazahealthcareletters.org/usa-

Gaza Healthcare LettersUSA Letter | October 2 — Gaza Healthcare Letters

Today in Labor History November 8, 1923: Hitler led a failed coup d’etat in Munich, known as the Beerhall Putsch. Inspired by Mussolini’s march on Rome, roughly 2,000 Nazis marched on Munich, but were repelled by police, who killed 16 Nazis in the process. Hitler escaped, wounded, but was eventually caught and imprisoned. The putsch brought Hitler to the attention of the German public for the first time, and his trial gave him his first significant public platform. In prison, he dictated “Mein Kampf” to fellow prisoners, Rudolf Hess and Emil Maurice. Nearly 11 years later, on May 2, 1933, in one of his first acts after coming to power, Hitler abolished all labor unions. Storm troopers occupied union offices across Germany. Union leaders were arrested, beaten, tortured and imprisoned, or sent to concentration camps. In the coming months, thousands more communists, anarchists and labor activists were arrested and murdered.

Today in Labor History November 4, 1780: The Rebellion of Túpac Amaru II against Spanish rule in the Peru began. The Spanish captured and executed Tupac in 1781, but the rebellion continued for another year. Many women participated in the rebellion, including Tupac’s wife, Micaela Bastidas, who commanded her own battalion, and who many claimed was even more daring than her husband. The uprising began because of “reforms” by the colonial administration that increased taxes and labor demands on both indigenous and creole populations. However, there was also an ongoing desire to overthrow European rule and restore the pre-conquest Incan empire. And though this would merely replace one feudal power with another, there were also Jacobin and proto-communist elements to the rebellion. Most of the Tupamarista soldiers were poor peasants, artisans and women who saw the uprising as an opportunity to create an egalitarian society, without the cast and class divisions of either the Spanish or Incan feudal systems.