Profit Motive Leads to Slavery, Torture in Miami

Farm bosses in Immokalee plead guilty in slavery scheme

Posted on Fri, Sep. 05, 2008
Miami Herald
BY JAY WEAVER
jweaver@MiamiHerald.com

Five farm bosses have pleaded guilty to a scheme to enslave Mexican and Guatemalan nationals as agricultural workers in southwest Florida, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Cesar Navarrete, Geovanni Navarrete, Villhina Navarrete, Ismael Michael Navarrete and Antonio Zuniga Vargas were convicted of harboring undocumented immigrants for profit and identify theft in the farming community of Immokalee, authorities said.

Cesar and Geovanni Navarrete also pleaded guilty to beating, threatening, restraining and locking workers in trucks to force them to work.

They face up to 35 and 25 years in prison, respectively. The other defendants face 10 to 25 years in prison.

Previously, codefendant Jose Navarrete had pleaded guilty to harboring undocumented foreigners for profit. He faces up to 37 years in prison.

According to prosecutors, the defendants were accused of paying the workers minimal wages and driving them into debt, threatening physical harm if they left before their debts were repaid to the Navarrete family.

''In this case, we are given yet another example of how human trafficking of all kinds victimizes vulnerable human beings,'' said Grace Chung Becker, acting assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division.

This case was investigated by agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI, assisted by the Collier County Sheriff's Department. Victim assistance was provided by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. It was prosecuted by the Justice Department and U.S. Attorney's Office in the Middle District of Florida.

America the Beautiful Torturer

Torture in Cook County Jail

A Prisoner's Tale of Abuse
By STANLEY HOWARD

After a 17-month investigation concerning the conditions in the Cook County Jail, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald issued a scathing report calling for change and reforms.

The 98-page report on the nation's largest county jail was released July 17 and sent to County Board President Todd Stroger and Sheriff Thomas Dart with its findings and recommendations. It cited many cases of gross "medical negligence, mismanagement and abusive behavior by guards," which led to "unnecessary deaths, amputation and routine inmate beatings."

The outside world would be shocked to hear stories such as that of an inmate left untreated for a gunshot wound, who developed sepsis and died; a female inmate who suffered from HIV and died after a preventable infection went untreated; and an inmate beaten so bad by guards that his dentures were kicked out and he was sent to the hospital on a respirator.

The report pointed out that there is just one dentist for the entire 9,800-inmate population--and he only deals in extractions, with 25 percent of those resulting in infection. Read On

Nine Reasons To Investigate War Crimes Now

By Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith, The Nation. Posted July 19, 2008.

Why we can't let the Bush Administration get away with its crimes.

Retired General Antonio Taguba, the officer who led the Army's investigation into Abu Ghraib, recently wrote in the preface to the new report, Broken laws, Broken Lives:

"There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."

Should those who ordered war crimes be held to account? With the conclusion of the Bush regime approaching, many people are dubious, even those horrified by Administration actions. They fear a long, divisive ordeal that could tear the country apart. They note that such division could make it far harder for the country to address the many other crises it is facing. They see the upcoming elections as a better way to set the country on a new path.

snip

Meanwhile, the evidence confirming not only a deliberate policy of torture, but of conspiring in an illegal war of aggression and conducting a criminal occupation, continues to pile ever higher. Bush's own press secretary Scott McClellan has revealed in his book, What Happened, how deliberately the public was misled to foment the attack on Iraq.

Philippe Sands' new book, Torture Team, has shown how the top legal and political leadership fought for a policy of torture -- circumventing and misleading top military officials to do so. Jane Mayer's The Dark Side, reveals that a secret report by the Red Cross -- given to the CIA and shared with President Bush and Condoleezza Rice -- found that U.S. interrogation methods are "categorically" torture and that the "abuse constituted war crimes, placing the highest officials in the U.S. government in jeopardy of being prosecuted."

Despite the reluctance to open what many see as a can of worms, there are fresh moves on many fronts to hold top U.S. officials accountable for war crimes. Read On

UN envoy rips US violations in Iraq, Guantanamo, Afghanistan

Rapporteur condemns rights abuses at home, too

By Inter Press Service Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Thalif Deen Inter Press Service

UNITED NATIONS: After a two-week fact-finding tour of US prison and detention facilities, a UN human rights investigator has blasted the administration of President George W. Bush for a rash of shortcomings in the country's flawed justice system and continued violations of the rule of law.

Unleashing a stinging barrage of attacks, Professor Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary and arbitrary executions, singles out the existence of racism in the application of the death penalty in the United States, and the lack of transparency in the deaths of prisoners in the Guantanamo Bay detention facility housing suspected terrorists.

Alston, a professor at the New York University School of Law and an outspoken critic of human rights abuses worldwide, also complains about the non-availability of information on civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the refusal of the US Justice Department to prosecute private security contractors who commit unlawful killings.

During his 14-day tour of the United States at the invitation of the administration, he met with federal and state officials, judges and civil society groups in New York, Washington DC, Alabama and Texas. Read On

Retired General: "The Current Administration Has Committed War Crimes"

Source: AlterNet

By Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Democracy Now!. Posted June 23, 2008.

As Congress pieces together the White House torture program, former Army General Antonio Taguba condemns Bush's "systematic regime of torture."

Last Tuesday, the Senate Armed Services Committee held an eight-hour hearing that exposed the role of top Bush administration officials in authorizing the use of harsh interrogation techniques. Meanwhile, Retired Major General Antonio Taguba, the Army general who first investigated the abuse at Abu Ghraib, has accused the Bush administration of committing war crimes. "The commander in chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture," Taguba said.

Juan Gonzalez: Retired General Antonio Taguba, who led the U.S. Army's investigation into the Abu Ghraib abuses, has accused the Bush administration of "a systematic regime of torture" and war crimes. Taguba's accusations appear in the preface to a new report released by Physicians for Human Rights. The report uses medical evidence to confirm first-hand accounts of eleven former prisoners who endured torture by U.S. personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay.

Taguba writes, "There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account." Read On

A Rough Week

Yah, it's been awhile since this here blog's been updated. Sometimes I just need to step away from it. Last week was one of those times...

Our Democrat-led Congress, put in power by 'We the People' back in '06 to change direction in Iraq, once again caved into the Bush administration's demands for more money to fund illegal and immoral war into next year. I'm sick of government betrayal. We can really use a viable third party in our political system.

Let's see, we also have a new law created which sanctions warrantless wiretapping and grants retroactive immunity to the big telecommuniction companies that participated in the government's illegal spying program. Constitution Shmonstitution.

More of the horrifying truth about the United States' torture program came out. I've never felt so ashamed.

And it's looking more and more like the U.S. and/or client state Israel may attack Iran. President Bush has been traveling around Europe ramping up the anti-Iran rhetoric. Just what we, all the world's peace-loving people, don't need.

Ex-Guantanamo Inmate Finds Distracted Audience at U.S. Congress

by Fanny Carrier, Agence France-Presse
Wed May 21, 3:53 AM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A handful of US lawmakers gave only half an ear to the testimony on Tuesday of a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba who spent nearly five years in prison before being released without charge.

Murat Kurnaz, a Turk who was born in Germany, was arrested during a trip to Pakistan in autumn 2001 and delivered to US authorities in exchange for a payment of 3,000 dollars.
Kurnaz spent several nightmarish weeks at the US base in Kandahar, Afghanistan before being transferred to the US "war on terror" camp at Guantanamo.

US authorities determined in 2002 that Kurnaz had no terror links, but claimed that he remained a danger because one of his friends had committed a suicide attack -- even though the friend in question is alive, and has never been found to have terror ties. Read On

A truly outrageous example of how the U.S. strips people of basic human rights.

United States Constitution, Amendment VI - Rights To A Fair Trial

"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury.......and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense."

Iraqi alleges Abu Ghraib torture, sues US contractors

By GREG RISLING, Associated Press Writer May 5, 2008

LOS ANGELES - An Iraqi man sued two U.S. military contractors Monday, claiming he was repeatedly tortured while being held at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison for more than 10 months.

Emad al-Janabi's federal lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles, claims that employees of CACI International Inc. and L-3 Communications punched him, slammed him into walls, hung from a bed frame and kept him naked and handcuffed in his cell beginning in September 2003.
Also named as a defendant is CACI interrogator Steven Stefanowicz, known as "Big Steve." The suit claims he directed some of the torture tactics.

Phone messages left for Arlington, Va.-based CACI and New York City-based L-3 Communications, formerly Titan Corp., were not immediately returned Monday. Stefanowicz could not immediately be reached for comment at a Los Angeles address.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles because Stefanowicz lives there, seeks unspecified monetary damages.

The firms provided interrogators or interpreters to assist U.S. military guards at Abu Ghraib, which became notorious when photos made public in early 2004 showing U.S. soldiers abusing and humiliating detainees. Military investigators later concluded that much of the abuse happened in late 2003 — when CACI and Titan's interrogators were at the prison.

CACI and L-3 were accused of abusing Abu Ghraib prisoners in earlier lawsuits. In November a federal judge in the District of Columbia dismissed the suit against L-3 but allowed the one against CACI to proceed.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Monday in Istanbul, Turkey, al-Janabi said he hopes the lawsuit sheds light on what happened to him and other detainees.

"God willing the righteousness will emerge and God willing the criminal will receive his punishment," al-Janabi said.

Al-Janabi, 43, said he was detained by U.S. troops during a late-night raid in which he and his family were beaten by their captors. He said he was taken to a military base where he was stripped naked, a hood was placed on his head and his hands and legs were chained.

"They (U.S. troops) did not tell me what was the reason behind my arrest ... during the interrogation, the American soldier told me I was a terrorist ... and I was preparing for an attack against the U.S. forces," said al-Janabi, who denied the accusation and claims he was forced to give confessions under "savage" intimidation. Read On

Worse yet, even after Mr. Al-Janabi wins his lawsuit (and I sure hope he does) the sickness that motivates people to torture each other will remain. -EF Swagee

America The Torturer

posted by EF Swagee

03.13.08

Once in awhile my Mom talks about how I've always been a good eater. Even at really young ages, I liked almost everything I tried and tried just about everything. I recall one exception; beef braised in a tomato-ey beer mixture. As soon as I walked into the house and caught a whiff, I immediately decided I didn't want to eat it. Later on at the dinner table, after some spirited negotiating with Mom, I eventually forced down a few forkfuls of the stuff. Minutes later, I puked, all over the place.

Strangely, I'm reminded of that incident when I try to make sense of people torturing each other. It sickens me, no matter who is the administer or the victim.....

Disturbing New Photos From Abu Ghraib

From Reuters last Saturday:
President George W. Bush on Saturday vetoed legislation passed by Congress that would have banned the CIA from using waterboarding and other controversial interrogation techniques.

LA Times Staff Writer, Johanna Neuman reported yesterday, "House Democrats failed Tuesday to override President Bush's veto of a ban on waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques."

The article goes on to quote a Democratic congressman:

"Torture is no proper tool in the arsenal of democracy," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) "If we abandon our American values, we lose who we are as Americans. . . . And if the administration and all of its apologists . . . continue to force America to abandon our values, we will lose the war." Torture, he said, "is not only un-American, it is ineffective."

Good on Congressman Doggett. Click here to send him a 'thank you'.

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Here's what Congressman (and presidential candidate) Ron Paul (R-TX) had to say on the house floor about his vote to override President Bush's veto (courtesy of antiwar.com):

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"I rise in somewhat reluctant support of this vote to override the President's veto of H.R. 2062, the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2008. Although I voted against this authorization when it first came to the floor, the main issue has now become whether we as a Congress are to condone torture as official U.S. policy or whether we will speak out against it. This bill was vetoed by the President because of a measure added extending the prohibition of the use of any interrogation treatment or technique not authorized by the United States Army Field Manual on Human Intelligence Collector Operations to the U.S. intelligence community. Opposing this prohibition is tantamount to endorsing the use of torture against those in United States Government custody.

"We have all read the disturbing reports of individuals apprehended and taken to secret prisons maintained by the United States Government across the globe, tortured for months or even years, and later released without charge. Khaled al-Masri, for example, a German citizen, has recounted the story of his incarceration and torture by U.S. intelligence in a secret facility in Afghanistan. His horror was said to be simply a case of mistaken identity. We do not know how many more similar cases there may be, but clearly it is not in the interest of the United States to act in a manner so contrary to the values upon which we pride ourselves.

"My vote to override the President's veto is a vote to send a clear message that I do not think the United States should be in the business of torture. It is anti-American, immoral and counterproductive."

More Truth About U.S. (and British) Torture Exposed

Court gags ex-SAS man who made torture claims
Richard Norton-Taylor The Guardian,
Friday February 29 2008

A former SAS soldier was served with a high court order yesterday preventing him from making fresh disclosures about how hundreds of Iraqis and Afghans captured by British and American special forces were rendered to prisons where they faced torture.

Ben Griffin could be jailed if he makes further disclosures about how people seized by special forces were allegedly mistreated and ended up in secret prisons in breach of the Geneva conventions and international law. Griffin, 29, left the British army in 2005 after three months in Baghdad, saying he disagreed with the "illegal" tactics of US troops. Read On

Ben Griffin speaking out:

CIA Admits Water-Boarding

CIA says used waterboarding on three suspects
Tue Feb 5, 2008 6:59pm EST

By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - The CIA used a widely condemned interrogation technique known as waterboarding on three suspects captured after the Sept. 11 attacks, CIA Director Michael Hayden told Congress on Tuesday.

"Waterboarding has been used on only three detainees," Hayden told the Senate Intelligence Committee. It was the first time a U.S. official publicly specified the number of people subjected to waterboarding and named them.

Congress is considering banning the simulated drowning technique. A Democratic senator and a human rights advocacy group urged a criminal investigation after Hayden made his remarks.

"Waterboarding is torture, and torture is a crime," Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

from the article: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN05191813

Water-Boarding Is Torture: Former Navy Interrogation Instructor

More Truth About U.S. Torture and War Crimes Exposed

Check out writer/director Alex Gibney's Academy Award-nominated documentary film Taxi To The Dark Side.

* * * * -EF Swagee





UPDATE: This film opens at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago Friday February 8th. The Music Box is located 4 blocks east of Ashland between Irving Park and Addison. Check the website for showtimes, tix prices, and directions.

Learning and Teaching

What have we learned and what will we teach the next generation about torture, lying, stealing, and war crimes?

Torture.
Here is a recent Alternet piece by Andy Worthington about Jose Padilla, an American Citizen whom our President unilaterally designated an “enemy combatant”. Padilla was held in the brig for over three and a half years without charge or trial and was tortured by way of prolonged sensory deprivation and solitary confinement. Another bit about torture here: Democracy Now’s exclusive coverage of a Yemeni man and victim of the CIA rendition program who was kidnapped, held in secret jails, and tortured. Yes. We. Do. Torture.

Lying.
From an AP piece by Douglas K. Daniel: "It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al-Qaida," according to Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism staff members, writing an overview of the study. "In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003."

Stealing.
We’ve heard our Congress members talk about how important it is for the Iraqi government to meet certain “benchmarks”, which includes passing an oil law that was created under Washington’s guidance. It seems the U.S.-influenced oil law is quite unpopular in Iraq. Iraqi Oil Union leaders say it gives control of the oil fields to foreign (read U.S. and British) corporations. David Bacon from the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a great piece last summer on this subject. The U.K.’s Global Policy website has a large collection of articles about Iraq, several related to the problems associated with the unfair oil law. Most importantly, check out what Iraqis have to say. Here is a half-hour youtube video recorded last July of Hassan Jumaa, President of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions speaking out. Here is an Iraqi Oil Union website.

War Crimes.
A comprehensive report on war crimes we’ve committed against the people of Iraq prepared by Consumers For Peace with the advice of noted Human Rights Lawyer Karen Parker and endorsed by Historian Howard Zinn, Colonel Ann Wright, a 29-year Army Veteran and U.S. Diplomat who resigned in protest of the Iraq War, Dahr Jamail, an independent journalist who spent more than eight months reporting from U.S. occupied Iraq, Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices For Creative Non-Violence and three-time Nobel Peace Prize Nominee who has visited Iraq twenty-eight times in the past fifteen years, and others.