Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Archive for February 2013

Why I Fight Against Torture: The Tipton Three

This is a series of diaries written about torture written from the perspective of the one enduring it, with as many first hand accounts as I can find.

This is the first diary, in which I talk about my husband, Dan, who was a Vietnam Vet who survived torture:

http://www.motleymoose.com/dia…

The second diary, giving the first part of the experiences of Murat Kurnaz, who spent five years, as an innocent man, in captivity.

http://www.motleymoose.com/dia…

The third diary, giving the second part of the experiences of Murat Kurnaz.

http://www.motleymoose.com/dia…

The fourth diary, explaining the experiences of Binyam Mohammed

http://www.motleymoose.com/dia…

Today, I will tell the first part of the story of three British citizens, Rhuhel Ahmed, Asif Iqbal, and Shafiq Rasul.

Tipton Three photo ShafiqRasulAsifIqbalRhuhelAhmed.jpg

Rhuhel and Asif Iqbal, friends from high school, and Shafiq Rasul, a slightly older friend, are from Tipton, England. They were taken into custody on November 28th, 2001.

These are excerpts from their combined affidavit:

They were loaded into a container with a bunch of other detainees and transported in the container, to Sherbegan Prison.

According to information they were given later, there were US forces present at the point they were packed into the containers together with almost 200 other prisoners. Asif became unconscious and awoke to find that in an attempt to allow air into the containers Dostum’s forces had fired machine guns into the sides of the containers. Asif was struck in the arm by a bullet as a result. The journey to Sherbegan took nearly 18 hours and the containers were not opened until they reached the prison. All three men remained in the containers amongst the dead and the dying throughout this time. Asif reports that to get water he had to lick the side of the container or wipe a cloth on the top of the container where the condensation had collected and squeeze the drips of water into his mouth. On arrival in Sherbegan of the 200 originally in the container only 20 were alive, some seriously injured.

Conditions at Sherbegan were appalling, Asif says;

“in the first week the only food we got was a tiny portion of bread per day and a very small amount of water. This was to last us the whole day.”

Arrival in Kandahar

Shafiq says:

“The cargo plane had no heating and given the flimsy clothes we were wearing I believe I was close to hypothermia.”

This time Shafiq says:

“I had to run as fast as I could with my legs shackled and I was bent over with a sack over my head. We were taken to another tent. There they cut off all of my clothes and forcefully shaved our beards and heads. I was taken outside. I was completely naked with a sack on my head and I could hear dogs barking nearby and soldiers shouting ‘get’um boy’. Although I couldn’t see I had a sense that there were a lot of soldiers around. I was taken still naked with a sack on my head for a so called cavity search. I was told to bend over and then I felt something shoved up my anus. I don’t know what it was, but it was very painful.”

Tonight, I will leave it there, because I want it to sink into your heart, into your being, what was done to those in that container. 70 years ago my grandpere parachutted behind the lines to organize the French Resistance. He earned a Croix de Guerre. After World War II, we, as a world community, said, “Never Again !” And yet we turn a blind eye.

Can you continue to turn a blind eye ?

Without holding those at the top who authorized and ordered torture inflicted by the US since 9/11 to legal account there will be more and worse torture, with more impunity.

Please stand up and tell your President, tell your Senators, tell your Congessional Representives: “NOT IN MY NAME!” Demand JUSTICE and ACCOUNTABILITY !”

                  In abundant tears,

      Standing for justice and accountability,

                       For Dan,

                        Heather

Forward on Climate: The Problem with Novel Technologies

Crossposted from the Forward on Climate blogathon at Daily Kos. There is a schedule of diaries and info about the blogathon at the end of the DK diary.

This week, we’ve had an impressive crop of diaries about the Keystone XL project — an pipeline that hooks us more deeply into one of the more damaging fossil fuel extractions we’ve ever seen. Selling oil from the tar sands promises to make Canada a player in the fossil fuel game…

Margaret Atwood, a Canadian, who recently observed that Canadians with The Tar Sands are Hobbits with The Ring. All of the riches in the world belong to he who holds that power. What Canada decides to do with the tar sands will affect energy policy for most of the next century.

With that against all of us — we who want to slow the rate we are pulling carbon out of the ground and putting it into the sky — there are few things we can control directly about Canada’s decision to mine the tar sands. What we can do is address the horse apples. Slowing the process enough could grind it to a halt. Slowing the process will have an impact.

For today’s horse apple, let’s have a few words about what happens when we try to regulate novel energy technology.

Venting About Congress

I fear I have been naive, for I have thought that the behaviors of our Congress (specifically, the Republicans therein) had hit rock bottom, that the limit of asshattery has been reached. Not so! Today’s Senate shenanigans over Chuck Hagel’s nomination may have been the straw that broke this weary old camel’s back. Seeking relief in humor, I have compiled a brief list of unflattering remarks about our legislative branch by famous people. Please add as you see fit.

Note: I don’t have strong feelings about Hagel one way or the other. I do have strong feelings about dysfunctionality.

The Truth Comes Out … John McCain’s Fee-fees are Hurt

Surprise!  John McCain didn’t do an about-face and vote “no” on cloture to move Chuck Hagel’s SecDef nomination forward because of any lingering questions regarding Benghazi.  He’s not really looking for more information on Hagel’s financial records like Ted Cruz.  Nope.  He finally told the truth to Fox News and … WAAAHHH!

photo wahmbulance_zps55489aa8.jpg

Sen. Lautenberg (D-NJ) Retiring

It’s not too surprising, but Sen. Frank Lautenberg, Democratic Senator from NJ, has announced he will not seek re-election in 2014.  He’ll be 90 by then, and has had cancer during this most recent term (although he’s been cancer free since 2010), so it’s not entirely surprising.  However, Sen. Lautenberg is one of the more liberal voices currently in the senate, and it’s hard to say if any of the contenders for his seat will be able to fill his shoes on that account.

According to the article on NJ.com:

While Booker is the leading Democratic candidate for Lautenberg’s seat, he is far from the only one. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th Dist.) has privately told party leaders he intends to run if Lautenberg retires. Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) has also expressed interest. In addition, Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) has set up an exploratory committee.

The Making Location: Feb 14 w/ Photos!

Welcome again to your weekly open thread!  I kept looking at last week’s and NO ONE chatted after the first day.  That gives me a sad.  So I took pictures of 5 active projects!  

Here is a ruffly scarf I just finished knitting last night, and it needs the ends sewn down and can go live with its new owner.  

IMG_3187

The yarn is Sashay in color Boogie, and I used 6 stitches and knit every row, keeping the ruffles all on one side.  This short row length curls into a tube when worn.  

Thursday Coffee Hour: Morning Has Broken

(Cross posted from Street Prophets)

Welcome to Thursday Coffee Hour. This is an open topic thread so help yourself to the goodies and sit a spell and let us know what is going on in your life. Today I am really happy about some art that I’ve done.

On July 31, 2003 I did a picture I called Morning Has Broken. It turned out to be my favorite picture. As the models and textures improved over the years I wanted to go back and revisit the picture and fix the ring around the planet and the tree. The tree models available in 2003 were pretty primitive. They have greatly improved over the years. The problem was that my computer would crash every time I tried to bring the picture up. I figured I would just have to leave it the way it was. I was looking for a different picture on the computer and realized it had never been transferred over from my old workhorse computer. While transferring it onto a CD I decided on the off chance that it might work if I transferred the Bryce file for Morning Has Broken. Much to my delight I was able to pull the file up on the new machine and fix my planet and tree.

I can’t say for sure what makes this picture so special to me. It does have some of my favorite things in it though. I love mountains and water and pine trees and ringed planets. I think that the sense of peace that this picture conveys may be what I love the most about it. It is a place where I would definitely love to live.

Morning Has Broken2 photo MorningHasBroken2_zpsf4d0280d.jpg

The Daily F Bomb, Thursday 2/14/13

Good morning

Questions! The first I found on Twitter and traced back to Reddit. The second is one kids always ask each other.

If you were granted access to Wikipedia of 100 years in the future for ten minutes only, what would you look up? Would you rather be able to turn invisible or fly? Would you rather cook dinner or clean up after? What’s easier for you, folding laundry or ironing it? Is your preferred car an automatic or manual transmission? Do you prefer your chee-tos baked or deep fried to a crackly crunch?

The Twitter Emitter

First the leftover SOTU stuff:

And more recent:

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