The Deeds of the Antichrist (detail: Antichrist and the Devil)
Luca Signorelli
circa 1501
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Don’t be fooled by appearances… the American “Religious” Right is anything but that… they SUPPORT imprisonment without trial, torture, “greed is good”, and “permanent warfare”… that’s not very Christian, is it? Remember… the Antichrist will be so “good” that he’ll fool the “elect”, let alone self-appointed Sectarians…
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A Commission of Inquiry appointed by the Government of Afghanistan said that a prison under the control of the American military near Kabul violated prisoners’ rights, including the possible use of torture…
On Sunday, according to Reuters, the commission visited the prison in Bagram at the US airbase in Parwan Province. Gul Rahman Qazi, the head of the commission, said at a news conference in Kabul, “During our visit to detainees at Bagram, some of them reported ill-treatment to us. Some claimed that they were tortured”. He went on to say that the prisoners complained that they were beaten, forced to undergo humiliating personal searches, and held in extremely cold quarters. In particular, Qazi described a 71-year-old prisoner Abdul Jabar, saying that the Americans imprisoned Jabar in a cell “in pitch darkness”. Jabar said that he lost a tooth after one of the Americans hit him. Qazi said, “There didn’t appear to be evidence of torture on the prisoners, but they said that they were tortured”. The US Embassy in Kabul reported that they’d received a copy of the report of the Afghan Government Commission of Inquiry and would “carefully study it”.
In turn, the BBC, with reference to the Commission of Inquiry, reported that some of those in Bagram were in custody without any evidence of their guilt in any crime. This week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged the US to turn over the prison at Bagram airbase to Afghan control within the month. The commission published its report on violations of prisoners’ rights at Parwan two days after Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded that the USA immediately transfer the prison to the the control of local authorities. The US and Afghans reached a preliminary agreement in early 2010, but in the middle of 2011, spokesmen for the US forces in Afghanistan said that the Afghan legal system still isn’t reliable enough for them to trust it in cases involving suspects from the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and proposed that the US postpone the transfer of control over Parwan until 2014. Karzai said that the delay allowed the US military in Parwan to violate and infringe on the sovereignty of Afghanistan. After the publication of the report, a spokesman for the US embassy in Kabul said that they’d investigate all allegations of torture in Parwan, and reiterated that the Americans will give the Afghans control Parwan, but they’d do so using the “greatest responsibility” {is that what happened to Gul Rahman, he was treated with the “greatest responsibility?”: editor}.
Parwan Prison (named for the province in which it’s located) is officially in under the joint administration of the Afghan government and the US military, but in fact, the Afghans control only a small part of it, which holds about 300 people indicted under Afghan law. The Americans hold the remaining prisoners, approximately 2,700, on suspicion of involvement in terrorism on the basis of US intelligence reports, which they can’t use as evidence in an Afghan court. However, the Americans insist that these people are too dangerous to let go, whilst the Afghans insist that those who don’t have formal charges against them must be set free. US military authorities have repeatedly faced accusations that they imprison terrorism suspects without charges and without sufficient evidence, as well as torturing them. The most serious were the scandals around the prisons at Abu Ghraib in Baghdad (transferred to Iraq in 2006) and Guantánamo Bay in Cuba (still operating).
8 January 2012
Voice of Russia World Service
http://rus.ruvr.ru/2012/01/08/63521133.html
Editor’s Note:
Many younger Americans are unaware of how degenerate our country has become in thirty years. Yes, Virginia, the slide started under Slobberin’ Ronnie. It got worse under Bush I (remember Silverado and Neil Bush?), it deepened under Clinton (as in the rape of Federal Yugoslavia and welfare “reform”), and it sank to its lowest levels under Bush II (the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the TSA). GWB presented Barack Obama with a pretty dish (two wars and a raging recession caused by crackpot “economics”)… which he did little to put right. Perhaps, he couldn’t do much more than he did do… but he did pass healthcare reform in the teeth of the most well-financed hate campaign in American political history (made possible by the Supremes in their Citizens United decision). That’s no small beer, kids. It’s why the GOP’s so angered at him… single-payer healthcare IS on the way, and it’ll impoverish some of the GOP’s most strident rightwing backers (hence, all the Sturm und Drang).
Let’s keep this short… al-Qaeda and the Taliban are fictive bogeymen of the Far Right. “Terrorism” will end as soon as the USA stops its unconditional support for the State of Israel and its violent expansionist policies (at least under the Likud… HaAvoda (Labour) isn’t so bad). The USA needn’t support the Arab cause… it need only step back from Israel and demand that none of the arms sold to it are used in internal repression of the Arab population. There’s NO “Terrorism Central” and the killing of Osama bin Laden solved nothing. The Afghan fighters aren’t “terrorists”… they’re patriots fighting a major power with “asymmetrical tactics”, for that’s the only means open to them. The grunts on the ground know this… their immediate commanding officers know this… but the government apparat keeps the propaganda machine going… it has as much truth as the Totaler Krieg speech did, and, perhaps, a bit less.
This isn’t how America has been, traditionally. Shall it return to its roots or shall it take the Antichrist’s shilling and bow before raw power? Should I mention that the main apologists for this are the Left Behind crowd? Interesting, ain’t it? The most passionate advocates of “might makes right” are American Evangelical Sectarians… look at Pat Robertson, Franklin Graham, and James Dobson (with Rick Santorum in the peanut gallery and Jonas Paffhausen in the cheap seats). Who woulda thunk it… the Jayzuss Jumpers are the most vocal supporters of the Antichrist and his tawdry simulacrum of Christ and His Church. Bite the coin before accepting it… take no wooden nickels… appearances ARE deceiving. Make certain that you’re not being sold “Florida real estate“… you’ll not get a second chance…
BMD
