- In recent days there is mounting evidence of the advance
of totalitarianism in the political and media mainstream. The entire Western
world, led by the United States, has embraced a Georgian regime, which
invaded South Ossetia totally demolishing its capital city of 50,000 residents,
assassinated 1500 men, women and children and dozens of Russian peace keepers.
The US has mobilized a naval and air armada off the Iranian coast, prepared
to annihilate a country of 70 million people. The New York Times published
an essay by a prominent Israeli historian, which advocates the nuclear
incineration of Iran. All the major mass media have mounted a systematic
propaganda campaign against China, supporting each and every terrorist
and separatist group, and whipping up public opinion in favor of launching
a New Cold War. There is little doubt that this new wave of imperial aggression
and bellicose rhetoric is meant to deflect domestic discontent and distract
public opinion from the deepening economic crises.
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- The Financial Times (FT), once the liberal, enlightened
voice of the financial elite (in contrast to the aggressively neo-conservative
Wall Street Journal) has yielded to the totalitarian-militarist temptation.
The feature article of the weekend supplement of August 16/17, 2008 - "The
Face of 9/11" - embraces the forced confession of a 9/11 suspect elicited
through 5 years of hideous torture in the confines of secret prisons. To
make their case, the FT published a half-page blow-up photo first circulated
by former CIA director George Tenet, which presents a bound, disheveled,
dazed, hairy ape-like prisoner. The text of the writer, one Demetri Sevastopulo,
admits as much: The FT owns up to being a propaganda vehicle for a CIA
program to discredit the suspect while he stands trial based on confessions
obtained through torture.
-
- - From beginning to end, the article categorically states
that the principle defendant, Khalet Sheikh Mohammed, is the "self-confessed
mastermind of the September 11 attacks on the US." The first half
of the article is full of trivia, designed to provide a human-interest
feel to the courtroom and the proceedings - a bizarre mixture discussing
Khaled's nose to the size of the courtroom.
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- The central point of departure for the FT's conviction
of the suspect is Khaled's confession, his 'desire for martyrdom', his
assumption of his own defense and his reciting the Koran. The crucial piece
of the Government's case is Khaled's confession. All the other 'evidence'
was circumstantial, hearsay and based on inferences derived from Khaled's
attendance at overseas meetings.
-
- The FT's principle source of information, an anonymous
informant "familiar with the CIA interrogation program" states
categorically two crucial facts: (1) How little the CIA had known about
him before his arrest (my emphasis) and (2) that Khaled held out longer
than the others.
-
- In other words, the CIA's only real evidence was extracted
by torture (the CIA admitted to 'water boarding' - an infamous torture
technique inducing near death from drowning). The fact that Khaled repeatedly
denied the accusations and that he only confessed after 5 years of torture
in secret prisons renders the entire prosecution a case study in totalitarian
jurisprudence. Having been subjected to unspeakable torture by US judicial
investigators, facing accusations based on a confession extracted through
torture, it is no wonder that Khaled refused a court appointed military
lawyer - a lawyer who is part of a system of secret prisons, torture and
'show trials'. Rather than portray Khaled as a fanatic seeking martyrdom
for rejecting a lawyer, we must recognize that he is completely in his
right mind to at least preserve the limited space and time allocated to
him to state his beliefs and to relate his willingness to die for those
beliefs. Confessions extracted from torture, have no validity in any court,
especially after 5 years of solitary confinement. What the FT calls "the
super terrorist" based on his stated "desire for martyrdom"
is the admission of an individual who has suffered beyond human endurance
and looks to death to end his horrible sub-human existence.
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- The FT's embrace of the CIA and military's coerced evidence
and therefore their use of torture, puts them squarely in the camp of the
totalitarian state. The right-turn of the FT mirrors the European turn
toward US military confrontation with Russia, and the military build-up
in Poland, the Czech Republic, Kosova, Iraq and Georgia. The FT by legitimizing
torture has opened the door to making totalitarian judicial practices,
arbitrary arrests, secret prisons, prolonged solitary confinement, torture,
show trials and cover-up feature stories part of normal Western political
life. Genteel British criminality is no less ugly than its blustery
US version.
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- Read:
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- http://www.gnosticliberationfront.com/seasonable_sayings_of_calvin_coolidge.htm
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- http://www.gnosticliberationfront.com/draft_the_corporations__Harding.htm
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- jpetras@binghamton.edu
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