Colonel Cassad (in English) - War crimes of the junta: torture and abuse

War crimes of the armed forces and security forces of Ukraine: torture and inhumane treatment. Second report

The second report about the war crimes of the armed forces and security forces of Ukraine by The Foundation for the Study of Democracy (the director – M. S. Grigoryev), in which the data is given about large-scale and systematic violation of the European convention of human rights by the representatives of the Ukrainian armed forces, the National Guard, and other units of the Ministry of the Internal Affairs, and also of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). We give some quotes from the report that we obtained.

Cover photo: Ukrainian citizen Alexander Agafonov, tortured to death by SBU officers in Izyum on 14 November 2014.  (Below)

Yana, victim’s wife on SBU officials:
They have beaten him to death simply. When they came — they took him away to torture him. When they brought his body back — the heels were blue, the feet were blue. He’s got some traces of punctures on his hands... I don’t know... what they did to him, punctured him or drove the needles under his nails — there were holes on his hands. Each bone has a hole in it. They tortured him like... when there was a real war no one has tortured people the way they tortured him.

The data that has been accumulated since the first report by the Foundation for Democracy Studies provides ground to conclude that torture and inhumane treatment inflicted by the Security Forces of Ukraine (SBU), by the Ukrainian armed forces, the National Guard and other formations within the Interior Ministry of Ukraine, as well as by illegal armed groups, such as Right Sector, have not only continued but are gaining in scale and are becoming systematic.

Complete story at - Colonel Cassad (in English) - War crimes of the junta: torture and abuse

EU accuses Kiev of torture | Ukraina.ru

Kiev should "carry out a prompt, independent, thorough and comprehensive inquiry from the central level into how Colonies Nos. 25 and 100 [in Kharkiv] function," the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) said in a report

The report follows a visit by a CPT delegation to Ukraine on September 9-16, 2014.

"The delegation urges the Ukrainian authorities to take appropriate measures to ensure that prisoners in the two aforementioned Colonies are not subjected to any retaliation for having spoken with the delegation," the document said.

The delegation noted that "the situation has not improved at all in Colonies Nos. 25 and 100 since the previous visits to the establishments (in 2012 to Colony No. 25 and in 2005 to Colony No. 100)."

"Although instances of torture did not appear to be widespread, the delegation gained the distinct impression that the two establishments were managed through a system of intimidation and violence and that physical ill-treatment was used as a tool to maintain internal order. There was a widespread perception among prisoners that any disobedient behavior would be immediately sanctioned with severe corporal punishment," the report said.

Complete story at - EU accuses Kiev of torture | Ukraina.ru

Horrific Torture Report Shows Why Much of the World Considers America to Be the Nazis of the 21st Century | The Daily Sheeple

Good guys do not sadistically torture people. Good guys do not threaten to sexually abuse the family members of their prisoners, and they certainly do not forcibly ram things up the rear ends of those in their custody. One of the greatest dangers that our country is facing is the fact that we are not passing on what it means to be “American” to future generations.

Once upon a time, Americans were the good guys. But now, instead of fighting the Nazis we are behaving just like them. The details of the Senate torture report that was just released are almost too horrifying to talk about. We must talk about them though because we are losing our soul as a nation. So please be warned – this article is going to be quite graphic. The reason for this is so that we can all take a long, hard, honest look at what we have become. After everything that has happened, top politicians from both political parties are still standing up and defending those that conducted and authorized this torture. The rest of the world is watching this and the number of people that are absolutely convinced that America is pure evil is growing by the day. By not loudly condemning this torture and bringing the perpetrators to justice, we add fuel to the fire of those that hate this country, and we make it more likely that Americans will be targets of violence all over the planet.

There are very few people that are more outspoken about the evil of Islamic terrorism than I am. But there is no way that we will ever defeat Islamic terrorists by becoming just like them.

When I was growing up, I was taught that Americans never torture their prisoners. That was something that the Russians, the Nazis, the Chinese and the North Koreans did. We were the “good guys”, and so I was taught that we always treated our prisoners humanely.

Oh, how things have changed.

The following is a summary of some of the details from the Senate torture report that just came out. As a nation, we should be deeply, deeply ashamed of what our government has been doing…

Complete story at - Horrific Torture Report Shows Why Much of the World Considers America to Be the Nazis of the 21st Century | The Daily Sheeple

HARDLY ZEN: Top 5 Obama War Crimes Since His Nobel Peace Prize

21st Century Wire says…

In the aftermath of the US Senate Intelligence Committee’s bombshell Torture Report, both Democrats and Republicans are now jockeying for position to occupy the moral high ground. On one side you have apologists for CIA torture, and on the other are half-hearted partisan Democrats desperate to protect their own administration’s sins overseas – and in the middle is a small minority who still believe in doing what’s right in trying to preserve America’s waning integrity internationally.

It’s times like this which really separates the wheat from the chaff…


ABU-GRAIB: US military engaged in sick games with detainees in Iraq.

A bevvy of so-called ‘military experts’ are cued-up on all the major TV networks to give their assessment as to ‘What constitutes torture?’, as well as arguing over what passes for ‘intelligence’ these days. The conversation is as banal as it is Orwellian. The pro-torture crowd, including CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, seems like the Pentagon’s embedded anchor and torture advocate, are all currently rallying around GW Bush’s inner circle, while the CIA stooges continue to sound a lot like Dr. Josef Mengele’s assistants testifying at Nuremberg.

They are all keen to tout their successes in their expensive ‘War on Terror’, although they’ve still yet to present anything besides anecdotes, opinion and hyperbole. Even proponents of the ‘Afghan Surge’ are being wheeled out of the Pentagon’s basement, as military buffoons continue to claim credit for it’s’success’, but who seem to be getting their military strategies from the film Starship Troopers. In other words: throw as much men as you can at the problem until the insects are killed off. They apply the exact same illogic to the torture argument, which is to dole out as much physical and psychological punishment to their ‘high value detainees’ until the subject tells them what they want to hear. This is what pretty much what passes for ‘military genius’ in the post-Bush world of ethical vacuums and moral black holes.

Even Senator John McCain sobered up from his usual mode of NATO-jihad just long enough to admit to the US, and the world this week – that torture aka ‘enhanced interrogation’ doesn’t actually work at all when it comes to gathering meaningful intelligence, and moreover, that it paints the US in a bad light internationally. 21WIRE will add to that and say: the same goes for Washington obsession with domestic spying starting with the whole NSA surveillance (see 21WIRE NSA Files) and data harvesting operation – a monolithic, 21st century digital monstrosity that’s literally wasting billions per month in scarce US taxpayer funds.

Although the Senate report was spearheaded by Democrats, that’s not to say that this White House should be given a free pass on its own outsourcing of violence. The Obama Revolution in foreign policy terms, has been all about making US militarism, especially in places like Africa, seem acceptable and almost fashionable to his young left supporters. But tell us what is really fashionable about sanctioned 2,400 murders through JSCOC and CIA covert drone programs.

The bottom line is that killing and torture has become political. If they were not, the Obama would have already closed his own government’s Guantanamo Bay torture facility a long time ago

Complete story at - HARDLY ZEN: Top 5 Obama War Crimes Since His Nobel Peace Prize

M of A - Obama Excludes "Black Sites" From Torture Prohibition

Obama to United Nations Committee Against Torture: "We tortured some folks. We'll keep our options open to do that again and again."

The Obama administration, after an internal debate that has drawn global scrutiny, is taking the view that the cruelty ban applies wherever the United States exercises governmental authority, according to officials familiar with the deliberations. That definition, they said, includes the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and American-flagged ships and aircraft in international waters and airspace.

But the administration’s definition still appears to exclude places like the former “black site” prisons where the C.I.A. tortured terrorism suspects during the Bush years, as well as American military detention camps in Afghanistan and Iraq during the wars there. Those prisons were on the sovereign territory of other governments; the government of Cuba exercises no control over Guantánamo.

Obama says that the convention against torture does doesn't apply where torture by U.S. goons is most likely.

Is there anything which tells us that the Obama administration is not using this self-defined exclusion?

Complete story at - M of A - Obama Excludes "Black Sites" From Torture Prohibition