Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Torture not acceptable on anyone: Community!

Peter Faris, QC: " It would be acceptable to use torture in criminal investigations."

Australia: A former chairman of the National Crime Authority has spoken out in favour of torture for John HoWARd and the Neo-Cons no doubt, saying it should be used against terrorists and in domestic criminal situations but not against QC's?


Peter Faris, QC, today 'welcomed' the debate sparked last week by the head of Deakin University's law school, Mirko Bagaric, who said torture was acceptable in some circumstances?

The fish always rots at the head

The head of Deakin University's Law School, Professor Mirko Bagaric, and fellow Deakin lecturer Julie Clarke have written an article supporting their view. In the article, they argue that when many lives are in danger, "all forms of harm" may be inflicted on the suspect, even if this resulted in "annihilation".

Bagaric, who said torture, was acceptable in some circumstances?

The article - Not Enough Official Torture in the World? The Circumstances in which Torture is Morally Justifiable - is soon to be published in the University of San Francisco Law Review.

But the Australian Government has been caught with its pants down over many human rights abuses including torture and now seeks to justify the official truth!

Shame HoWARd Shame! What a shame!

Who would welcome this debate? Non other than the war criminal HoWARd himself and his mates the 'Mean Men in Black'.

Faris chaired the national crime body from 1989-1990, has acted as a senior prosecutor and has represented high-profile clients, but that doesn't give him the right to welcome a discussion about torture in our community because it suits some group of religious right wing fanatics.

It just shows you some incite in the warped minds of some of these people who probably regard themselves as law abiding citizens but have really got no idea where to draw the line on the punishment system. Because they're deeply evil inside, have no limits or standards when it comes to others and no empathy for the treatment of prisoners, because they see themselves as better than everyone else.

They remind me of drug addicts who've become bored in life and want to find new parameters to make life more exiting but don't consider what it would be like if they were to be tortured.

The question is how much was he paid to say it? Or is this person just the vindictive criminal he always was?

Having legal knowledge and understanding I'd say his motive is more likely cunning and manipulative!

Faris said it would be acceptable to use torture in criminal investigations.

"A psychopathic murderer has buried a teenage girl alive and he is captured by the police," an example on Mr Faris's blog website says.

"He refuses to say where she is. He taunts the police with his knowledge. Torture is acceptable to find the girl and to save her life."

Mr Faris said his example was taken from the film Dirty Harry.

And the answer to that one is he watches too much television and torture won't reveal the truth but any answer as long as it relieves the pain.

In the case of terrorism, Mr Faris says: "A militant Islamic group in Iraq is holding a hostage in an unknown location and is threatening to kill the hostage.

"A member of that group is captured, but refuses to disclose the whereabouts of the hostage and the rest of the group. Torture is acceptable."

Ouch!

He said there were no guarantees that torture would work? - "if you don't get the information, you don't get the information"?

But shame about the pain that wasn't inflicted onto him?

However, "to pull out a fingernail of a terrorist in order to save a couple of million lives" was morally right, he said.

As above! Ouch!

"I'm not saying 'let's legislate immediately'," Mr Faris said.

He's saying lets cover-up for the HoWARd Government!

"What I'm trying to establish is that this is a legitimate issue to be on the table for debate ... but people start saying you're a Nazi because you want to debate it."

I'd say he needs mental treatment either that or he gets paid too much and offered too much prestige by a bunch of stooges who still want HoWARd to pat himself on the back for his war crimes against humanity.

In short he wants to make torture right. Right?

Far from and Ideal situation

Mr Faris said legislating for torture was not an ideal situation.

"It's certainly not a society we want, the problem is these problems are thrust upon us by war ... they may be thrust upon us by a psychotic individual." Like you!

Who started the war? THE COALITION OF THE KILLING!

On his website, Mr Faris says, "we are at war with terror and militant Islam in the Middle East. We are at war with Islamic terror in our homeland.

"From time to time, circumstances will occur where it is necessary to use physical force on a captured person to obtain critical information."

BUT WE ARE AT WAR WITH IMPERIALISM AND OILS AIN'T OILS!

United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Torture of Prisoners?
United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners? Or Standard guidelines for corrections in Australia?

Mr Faris said standards of acceptable torture would have to be set if it were to be used. "Some sort of standard would have to be developed for the reasonable application of pain," he said.

Experiment on Mr Faris?

The National Crime Authority was replaced by the Australian Crime Commission in 2003.

Meanwhile, Professor Bagaric last week attracted an avalanche of criticism, after revelations of his support for torture.

Torture survivor groups, civil libertarians and some of Professor Bagaric's university colleagues reacted with dismay at news of a paper co-authored by him, which would soon be published in the United States.

The paper, also written by Deakin law lecturer Julie Clarke, argues the case for the torture of suspects - even to the point of death - in a bid to obtain information.

By Torture Never Acceptable 25 May 05

Related:

Torture can never be justified
I am forwarding the following statement issued by AMCRAN in regards to a paper: "Not Enough (Official) Torture in the World? The Circumstances in which Torture is Morally Justifiable" written by Professor Mirko Bagaric, Head of Deakin Law School & Julie Clarke, Lecturer, Deakin Law School, in which they justify torture.

Torture okay: propaganda paper
Mean in Black John HoWARd and Pastor Peter Costello with Professor Mirko Bagaric, and fellow Deakin lecturer Julie Clarke, torture okay for them. Question?

Association for the Prevention of Torture
What needs to be done now? All States Parties to the UN Convention against Torture should seriously consider ratifying the OPCAT as soon as possible. National Institutions and others promoting the human rights of people deprived of their liberty need to be informed of their potential role as national preventive mechanisms under the OPCAT.

PRISON ACTION & REFORM INC: Tas Prison Complaints
TASMANIA: Prison Action & Reform was formed in response to the five deaths in custody that occurred between August 1999 and January 2000. Chris Wever, Vickie Douglas, Rose Macaulay, Judith Santos and others came to together to fight for reform in an outdated, increasingly cash-strapped and uncaring system. Of the original members, three lost loved ones to the Tasmanian prison system.

Chronology of a Tasmanian Prison System: A Documented Report
Prison Action and Reform is dedicated to progressive reforms in criminal justice and to the humane treatment of inmates in our prison system.

ICOPA XI International Conference on Penal Abolition
We are excited to announce that ICOPA X1, the eleventh International Conference on Penal Abolition will happen in Tasmania, Australia from February 9 - 11,2006. Please pass this onto all networks.

CUBA: A letter to Amnesty USA
I write as an Australian prisoners' rights campaigner who has been watching Amnesty's interventions over the arrests and jailing of several dozen "dissidents" in Cuba over the past two years. I have also visited Cuba on two occasions.

Unlock the Box:
Unlock the Box is a product of many years of struggle to shut down the Security Housing Units in California. During this time, the United Front to Abolish the SHU was created as a forum to coordinate the actions of everyone involved in this campaign.

Baxter,'akin to the time in Nazi Germany'
I went to Baxter this Easter just past, and became more aware that this time is akin to the time in Nazi Germany when the concentration camps were being set up.

Decade after inspector left in disgust, report tells of filth
UK: Dirty, mice-infested cells, high levels of self-harm, and widespread bullying over drugs and medications were just some of the damning findings of a report into conditions at Holloway, Britain's largest women's prison.

Overhaul Department of Justice: Reform Group
WA: The Prison Reform Group of WA is calling for a complete overhaul of the Department of Justice following recent events which have compromised its integrity, placing prison staff, prisoners, their families and the community, at risk. We call for the Minister to publicly apologise for last week's debacle which has seen the public badly let down by the Department of Justice yet again.

Breakthrough in prison revolt
Philippines: The Un-Australian: "NEGOTIATORS last night made a breakthrough in the 12-hour standoff with al-Qa'ida-linked militants?, (suspected and imprisoned people) who staged an escape attempt from a Philippines prison that left six people dead."

Control order flaws exposed
UK: First interview with ex-detainee reveals a regime that leaves him in despair : Ex-detainee exposes flaws in terror control orders.

CIA defends terror suspect transfers?
Suspected terrorists [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killings's resource wars in the Middle East] in US custody have been transferred to third countries for the past 20 years, CIA director Porter Goss told the US Senate armed services committee.

Noble Cause Torture?
AUSTRALIA: The Labor Party has decided not to support a Senate inquiry into new allegations made by Mamdouh Habib that the Australian Government cooperated with Egyptian intelligence authorities who he insists tortured him.

Detention Centres, Solitary Confinement
On Friday night the NSW Council for Civil Liberties awarded Sydney solicitor John Marsden honorary life membership. Julian Burnside was invited to make the speech in Marsden's honour. In the course of his speech, Burnside referred to the unregulated use of solitary confinement in Australia's immigration detention centres, criticising it as inhumane and also as unlawful.

Youth 'murdered for officers' pleasure'
UK: An Asian teenager was murdered by a white racist after they were placed in the same cell as part of a game to fulfil the "perverted pleasure" of prison officers, a public inquiry heard on Friday.

Deaths in isolation as prison segregation increases
The use of segregation [solitary confinement] of prisoners as punishment has been increasing recently in Australia, the US, and the UK. Segregation can be used for protection or punishment, but in both cases it results in extreme psychological stress. An indication that segregation is being over-used is the appearance of deaths in custody from suicide of those placed in segregation.

Fascist Australian Govt torture exposed
The fascist Federal Government has been exposed for the torture of Australian Mamdouh Habib and the US Government's allegations against him (if they were true) would have been made under duress.

Put in the way of self-harm in a place intended to protect others
UK: Sarah Campbell, 18, spent the last hours of her life in the segregation unit of Styal prison, Cheshire. "The seg", as those places are referred to, used to be known as "the block", short for punishment block. [ Seg is a bullshit word for Punishment, Solitary Confinement, Torture, Mental Illness, Self-Harm, Human Rights Abuse and that is State Terror.]

Where the Norm is Not the Norm: HARM-U
In the absence of public policy, this paper is an attempt to shine a light through the rhetoric and test for coherency in the policy and function of NSW’s only supermax prison, the High Risk Management Unit. Its present use will be compared with the ‘vision’ flogged by the Premier and the Department of Corrective Services (the Department) at its inception in 2001.

Downer won't press US for 'torture' report?
The Australian Government says it has tried and failed so far to get a copy of a report by the International Red Cross which claims psychological and physical coercion of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba?

UK solitary confinement
UK: Segregation units are prisons within prisons - the places where the most unchecked brutality is meted out to prisoners. In recent years conditions in high security segregation units have deteriorated, and the use of long-term segregation as a control mechanism has increased.

Inquiry must root out prison racists
UK: It is difficult to imagine a more brutal murder than that of Zahid Mubarek. The 19-year-old was clubbed to death by his cellmate at Feltham Young Offender Institution in the early hours of 21 March 2000. He was due to be released just a few hours later.

Justice Denied In NSW Corrective Services
There used to be a (VJ) or Visiting Justice who would go into the prison and judge any claim or accusation that was made by any prisoner or prison guard. If it were found that a prisoner had offended then punishment was metered out.

Torture, the British way
Great to be British, isn't it? Time was, we were really uptight, but now we can talk about anything - sex, religion, politics. No matter how personal and complex the subject, we'll discuss it with Richard and Judy, or slap our private Polaroids of it on our websites. Which leaves me puzzled about our silence, even shyness, over this whole torture thing.

Prison suicides soar as jails hire 'babysitters'
UK: Prison officers are being taken off suicide watch and replaced by unqualified 'babysitters' because the system is overwhelmed by an epidemic of self-harm.

Concern as UK prison suicides hit record level
UK: More prisoners took their own lives in English jails in August than in any other month since records began, prison reformers said today.

Abu Ghraib inquiry slams Aust Government
A US inquiry into the Iraqi prison abuse scandal has been highly critical of Australian, Major George O'Kane, for glossing over early warnings about the treatment of detainees.

Guantanamo abuse claims prompt new inquiry calls
New claims of abuse at Guantanamo Bay Cuba have prompted fresh calls for an Australian inquiry into the treatment of detainees David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib.

Justice Action: NSW Corrective Services undermine prisoner contact For nearly 20 years, Justice Action has been corresponding regularly with individual prisoners without seeking approval from the Commissioner of Corrective Services for each individual letter sent to them.

Mamdouh Habib: Taunted and Tortured!
Habib came to ASIO's notice when he fell out with the ADF obviously someone had it in for Mamdouh and the ADF tipped off ASIO and the AFP to taunt him. By the sounds of it he was declared a wog. That's Aussie slang for get the bastard he's not one of ours and we can discriminate against him he is an easy target. Aussie race hate!

Habib to face US military trial
The United States Government has given the go-ahead for the Australian Guantanamo Bay inmate, Mamdouh Habib, to go to trial for being innocent. Mr Habib could now be granted access to a military and civilian legal team.

US tortured Habib in Egypt: report
Australian terror suspect Mamdoub Habib was allegedly tortured in Egypt before being sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, according to the Pakistani Government.

There is no justification for torture
In the weeks since the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison were revealed, evidence continues to seep out of similar mistreatment of prisoners in other US military detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay.

End of years of despair as Holloway closes its doors
But now Holloway prison in north London - where Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in Britain, was hanged in 1955 - has been earmarked for closure, along with several other women's prisons, which have been hit by a spate of suicides.

Abu Ghraib, USA
When I first saw the photo, taken at the Abu Ghraib prison, of a hooded and robed figure strung with electrical wiring, I thought of the Sacramento, California, city jail.

On Solitary Confinement
There has been much written about solitary confinement by some of the world's leading psychiatrists, but very little written by victims of solitary themselves. I believe that the 32 years I have spent in solitary qualifies me for the task.

Rumsfeld had approved abuse
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorised hoods, the stripping of prisoners and the use of dogs to terrify inmates at Guantanamo Bay almost two years ago, documents released yesterday revealed.

Failure to condemn prison abuse risks lives: Kenny
The Prime Minister is morally bankrupt stay "alert and alarmed"

Prisoner's identity concealed to prevent Red Cross access
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, acting at the request of the CIA, ordered that a suspected Iraqi insurgent leader be detained off the books to conceal his identity from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Pentagon has confirmed.

US has secret prisons: rights group
The United States is holding terrorism suspects in more than two dozen detention centres worldwide, about half of which operate in total secrecy, according to a new human rights report.

Prisoner Abuse Not Just in Iraq
The shocking revelations of abuse of prisoners by US prison guards in Iraq have been denounced by politicians around the world, including our own Prime Minister.

How detox and self-help brought suicide jail back from the brink
UK: Six suicides in 12 months made Styal jail notorious and the Prisons Ombudsman criticised the prison and its staff for serious failures. But things are changing.

Belmarsh detainees consider suicide, says freed man
UK: The first of the Muslim detainees released from Belmarsh high security prison after being held on suspicion of terrorism has told the Guardian his fellow prisoners are suffering such severe mental problems that they constantly consider suicide.

Maoist Internationalist Movement
March 6 -- Protesters took to the streets in cities across the state of California to demand California prisons shut down the Security Housing Units (SHU). Like other control unit prisons across the country, the SHU are prisons within a prison. They are solitary confinement cells where prisoners are locked up 23 hours a day for years at a time. The one hour a day these prisoner sometimes get outside of their cell is spent alone in an exercise pen not much larger than their cell, with no direct sunlight.

The Nagle Report 25 years on
In 1976 the New South Wales Government invited Mr Justice Nagle to head the Royal Commission into NSW Prisons. The Royal CommissionÕs Report was tabled in Parliament in March 1978.

REPORT CARD ON NSW PRISONS
Former Royal Commissioner Justice John Nagle and Professor Tony Vinson are the keynote speakers at a seminar this week marking 25 years since the landmark Nagle Report into NSW prisons.

From Terrell Unit in Texas to Abu Ghraib Doesn't It Ring a (Prison) Bell If the president wasn't so forthright about his disinterest in the world, it would have been hard to believe him Wednesday when he said the abuse in Abu Ghraib prison "doesn't represent the America I know."

High court keeps alive case of inmates held in solitary
NEW ORLEANS: The nation's highest court refused Monday to kill a lawsuit brought by two prisoners and an ex-inmate at the Louisiana State Penitentiary who spent decades in solitary confinement.

High Risk Management Unit (HRMU) INSPECTION
The Special Care Unit (SCU) at Long Bay Correctional Centre was inspired by Barlinnie. The SCU was opened in 1981 to replace the Observation Unit, which was strongly criticised by the Nagle Report. The SCU was closed in 1997 because of lack of record-keeping which could give a measure of effectiveness. The SCU was replaced by the Four-Stage Violence Prevention Program, which is housed within the Metropolitan Special Programs Centre (MSPC).

Watchdogs slaughtered in NSW
On Tuesday the Carr Government reduced transparency and accountability yet again and New South Wales is in danger of becoming entrenched with cronyism and intimidations with the Carr Labor Government that continues to slaughter the watchdogs.

Escape proof but not so the prisoners mind
Fewer prisoners escape from prison these days because they're "cemented in" by materials that do not break and by legislation that can keep prisoners in jail until they die.

Suicides and unrest have soared, admits Home Office
UK:The already overcrowded prison population is set to go on rising and will top 80,000 within the next three years, a senior Home Office civil servant warned yesterday.