Tag Archives: Atrocities

Tortured Guantánamo Prisoner Ramzi bin al-Shibh Unfit for 9/11 Trial, Says Military Judge

“This decision by the military judge today does mark the first time that the United States has formally acknowledged the CIA torture program produced profound and prolonged psychological harm,” said al-Shibh’s lawyer.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 9-22-2023 by Common Dreams

Ramzi bin al-Shibh holds a document while posing for this 2010 photo.
(Photo: International Committee of the Red Cross)

A U.S. military judge on Thursday found Guantánamo Bay prisoner Ramzi bin al-Shibh—who stands accused of being a key 9/11 organizer—unfit to stand trial because he suffers from mental illness his attorney says was caused by CIA torture years ago.

Air Force Col. Matthew McCall severed al-Shibh, a 51-year-old Yemeni, from the conspiracy case involving four other defendants who allegedly organized the cell of militants in Hamburg, Germany who hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and flew it into the north tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan on September 11, 2001. Al-Shibh had been charged as an accomplice in the case.

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Ethics Group Asks SEC to Probe Musk Claims About ‘Gruesome’ Neuralink Monkey Trials

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“It seems obvious to everyone but Elon Musk that Neuralink’s device is unsafe,” said one critic. “Now he is deliberately misleading investors and the public by outright lying about the company’s monkey experiments.”

By Brett Wilkins. Published 9-21-2023 by Common Dreams

After obtaining records showing a dozen monkeys were euthanized in “gruesome” trials, a national physicians group on Wednesday asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate claims made by Elon Musk, owner of the biotech firm Neuralink, about the company’s experimental brain implants.

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) requested an SEC probe into possible securities fraud committed by Musk when he claimed that “no monkey has died as a result of a Neuralink implant” during testing of the company’s implantable brain-computer interfaces (BCI), and that the animals who died were all already terminally ill when chosen for experiments.

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Actions Across US Urge Biden to End ‘Cruel’ Immigration Detention and Deportations

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“Our tax dollars need to be used to strengthen our families and communities and uphold our human rights, not for the militarization of our beloved borderlands,” said one activist.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 9-15-2023 by Common Dreams

Migrant rights advocates rally outside the White House in Washington, D.C. on September 15, 2023. Photo: SBCC/Twitter

A coalition of over 80 advocacy groups on Friday co-sponsored demonstrations in eight U.S. states and Washington, D.C. as part of a national day of action demanding the Biden administration close all federal immigration detention centers, release all migrants in custody, and end deportations.

Throughout his campaign, President Joe Biden “pledged to create an immigration system that is just and humane, including ending for-profit immigration detention,” the coalition—which is organizing under the Defund Hate and Communities Not Cages banners—said in a statement.

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‘Important Step’: Biden Admin to Track Foreign Forces Killing Civilians With US Weapons

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“Of course, its impact will come down to the details of implementation,” said one expert.

By Jessica Corbett Published 9-13-2023 by Common Dreams

Child Observing Sana’a Ruins. Photo: Felton Davis/flickr/CC

Human rights advocates and some congressional Democrats on Wednesday cautiously welcomed Washington Post reporting that the Biden administration has created a program to track and investigate allegations of foreign forces harming or killing civilians with weapons provided by the United States.

“The United States clearly has a vested interest in knowing what harm its weapons sales and security assistance cause to civilians,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) deputy Washington director Nicole Widdersheim told the newspaper. “Let’s see if the Biden administration puts political will behind this good idea.”

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Trump and Big Tech are setting the tone for a violent 2024 election season

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Tech giants’ hands-off approach to disinformation does not bode well at a time of growing political violence

By Chrissy Stroop Published 8-30-2023 by openDemocracy

Donald Trump turned himself in at Fulton County jail in Georgia on Thursday last week, where he was fingerprinted and had a mugshot taken – just like any other accused felon. Obviously, unlike many others in the same situation, he was immediately able to post bond and leave. Nevertheless, the moment was remarkable: it was the first ever mugshot of a former president.

Back in March, before the various investigations had resulted in any indictments, Trump warned there could be consequences if he was indicted, calling on his supporters to “take back our nation”. No 6 January-style mass action has materialised, but as summer winds down in the northern hemisphere, political threats and violence do seem to be ramping up here in the US.

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Watchdog Argues Obama Admin’s Cave on White Supremacy Helped Pave Way for Jacksonville Shooting

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“We must not be fooled into treating each massacre as its own tragedy,” said one civil rights advocate. “The tragedy first lies in the unchecked proliferation of the violent racist ideology coupled with the unchecked access to weapons of war.”

By Julia Conley. Published 8-30-2023 by Common Dreams

Neo-Nazis demonstrating outside a Turning Point USA conference in Tampa on July 23, 2022. Photo: @Freeyourmindkid/Twitter

As the community of Jacksonville, Florida reeled from the killing of three Black Americans by a white supremacist at a Dollar General store last Saturday, a government watchdog said that the “lion’s share” of blame for the proliferation of racist, white nationalist violence in the U.S. can be placed on Republican politicians including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump—but noted that the Obama administration helped allow white supremacy to fester by caving to the GOP at a crucial moment more than a decade ago.

Chris Lewis, a senior researcher at the Revolving Door Project, pointed to the Democratic administration’s response when Republican lawmakers complained about a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report in 2009 that warned of the growth of right-wing extremism, including the white supremacist movement, and the danger it posed to communities across the United States.

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‘Like Killing Fields’: Report Says Saudi Border Guards Killed Hundreds of Ethiopian Migrants

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“If committed as part of a Saudi government policy to murder migrants, these killings, which appear to continue, would be a crime against humanity,” said Human Rights Watch.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 8-21-2023 by Common Dreams

Saudi soldiers occupy a position on Mt. Doud, near the Yemen border. Photo: VOA

Saudi border guards allegedly killed at least hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum-seekers—including women and children—who tried to enter the kingdom from Yemen between March 2022 and June 2023, sometimes by blowing them to bits with mortars and rockets, Human Rights Watch revealed Monday.

In a report entitled ‘They Fired on Us Like Rain’: Saudi Arabian Mass Killings of Ethiopian Migrants at the Yemen-Saudi Border, HRW described how “Saudi border guards have used explosive weapons to kill many migrants and shot other migrants at close range, including many women and children, in a widespread and systematic pattern of attacks.”

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What young Americans really think about guns

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-74% of young people say gun violence is a problem in the US. But they have little faith in the government to tackle it

By Chrissy Stroop, Published 8-9-2023 by openDemocracy

National School Walkout against gun violence in St. Paul, Minnesota on April 20, 2018. Photo: Fibonacci Blue/flickr/CC

Since my openDemocracy column in late April about gun violence in the United States, there have been more than 250 mass shootings in the country, bringing the total for the year so far (as of yesterday) to 430. That’s just shy of two mass shootings a day for 2023 so far.

One recent incident took place in the small city of Muncie, Indiana, home of Ball State University, which happens to be where I did my bachelor’s degree 20 years ago. On 30 July, an assailant began firing into the crowd at a late-night block party, killing a 30-year-old man and sending 19 other people to hospital. I’ve only been back to Muncie a few times since 2003, but when a mass shooting occurs in a place you know, it hits close to home.

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Green Groups Call on Biden Admin to End Support for ‘Scientifically Bankrupt’ Wildlife Killing

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“The FWS is tasked with preventing extinctions, using sound science when making decisions to prevent those extinctions, and with being accountable to the entire public—not funding controversial predator-control actions for the purported benefit of a few.”

By Julia Conley. Published 8-15-2023 by Common Dreams

Brown bear sow and cub on beach at ake Clark National Park, Alaska. Photo: K. Jalone/NPS

A rulemaking petition demanding an end to federal support for the removal of wolves and bears from states such as Alaska has been languishing at the U.S. Interior Department for almost two years, nearly three dozen conservation groups and scientists said in a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Tuesday as they raised alarm about a recent killing operation.

Led by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), the Humane Society of the United States, and the Global Indigenous Council, 35 organizations wrote to the secretary to raise alarm about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) continued funding of “irresponsible and controversial predator-control projects.”

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Kansas Newspaper Co-Owner Dies as Press Defenders Decry ‘Deeply Disturbing’ Raid on Home, Office

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One columnist said that “it is not hyperbole to say that this attack on the people’s right to know appears to have killed” 98-year-old Joan Meyer.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 8-13-2023 by Common Dreams

The Marion County Record confirmed the death of the newspaper’s co-owner on August 13, 2023.
(Photo: screenshot/Marion County Record)

Advocacy groups and reporters across the United States have sounded the alarm throughout the weekend about a legally dubious police raid on Friday targeting the Marion County Record office and the publisher’s Kansas home in an alleged identity theft investigation—events that the newspaper said contributed to the death of the elderly co-owner.

“Stressed beyond her limits and overwhelmed by hours of shock and grief after illegal police raids on her home and the Marion County Record newspaper office Friday, 98-year-old newspaper co-owner Joan Meyer, otherwise in good health for her age, collapsed Saturday afternoon and died at her home,” the outlet reported.

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Occupy World Writes

The Movement Continues – Globally

Tag Archives: Atrocities