Evidence found of pro-NATO massacre in Sirte, Libya

Liberation
Derek Ford

NTC government turning back the clock on women's rights

The U.S. government and NATO countries used alleged human rights violations as a pretext for the war on Libya. These allegations were later proven false by numerous human rights groups, including Amnesty International. Now evidence has surfaced pointing to human rights violations committed by the pro-NATO Libyan rebels.

Human Rights Watch announced on Oct. 24 that they had discovered 53 decomposing bodies at a hotel in the city of Sirte, which rebels were using as a prison. Evidence indicates that many or all of the victims appear to have been summarily executed. Some of them had their hands tied behind their back, bullet holes were found in the ground and spent rifle shells were strewn about. Many were shot in the head. Several have already been identified as Gaddafi supporters.

The UK Defense Minister said that the mass killing may be a war crime but that it would be “virtually impossible” for Britain to investigate, although Britain, along with the United States, played an integral part in the war.

Quryna, a local newspaper in Sirte, reported on Oct. 26 that 267 bodies of Gaddafi supporters were buried in a mass grave. The story, which cited the Red Cross, said that the bodies were found throughout Sirte and its suburbs and had been buried by the NTC.

Just days before these gruesome discoveries, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen reiterated the imperialists' line. He told the press at NATO headquarters in Brussels that “Our military forces prevented a massacre and saved countless lives.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

Throughout the seven-month war, pro-NTC rebels were notoriously brutal. Peter Bouckaert, of Human Rights Watch, said that “This latest massacre seems part of a trend of killings, looting and other abuses committed by armed anti-Gaddafi fighters who consider themselves above the law.”
NTC attacks women’s rights

On Oct. 23, as Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the head of the NATO-backed National Transition Council, was officially declaring Libya “liberated” he also announced that Libyan law will now be in accordance with sharia. While sharia law can be interpreted in various ways, Jalil singled out Libyan laws on divorce and marriage in his speech: “The law of divorce and marriage … This law is contrary to sharia and it is stopped.”

Previously in Libya, women were allowed to marry and divorce freely and polygamy was outlawed. After divorce, women left marriages with their previous assets, the family home and generally all joint assets. These practices will now be abolished and polygamy and secret marriages will be legalized.
This may be the first of many laws to turn back the clock on women’s rights in Libya. Under Moammar Gaddafi’s government, women were highly educated and well-represented in all occupations, including positions in the government. This is the liberation that NATO has brought to Libya.

Afghanistan Secret Prisons Confirmed By U.S.

Huffington Post

KABUL, Afghanistan — The CIA's infamous secret network of "black site" interrogation centers is gone. But suspected terrorists in Afghanistan are being held and interrogated for weeks at temporary sites, including one run by the elite special operations forces at Bagram Air Base, according to U.S. officials who revealed details of the detention network to The Associated Press.

The Pentagon has previously denied operating secret jails in Afghanistan, although human rights groups and former detainees have described the facilities. U.S. military and other government officials confirmed that the detention centers exist but described them as temporary holding pens whose primary purpose is to gather intelligence.

The Pentagon also has said that detainees only stay in temporary detention sites for 14 days, unless they are extended under extraordinary circumstances. But U.S. officials told the AP that detainees can be held at the temporary jails for up to nine weeks, depending on the value of information they produce. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the program is classified.

The most secretive of roughly 20 temporary sites is run by the military's elite counterterrorism unit, the Joint Special Operations Command, at Bagram Air Base. Working together with CIA and other intelligence officers at the site, JSOC questions high-value targets, the detainees suspected of top roles in the Taliban, al-Qaida or other militant groups.

The site's location, a short drive from a well-known public detention center, has been alleged for more than a year.

The secrecy under which the U.S. runs that jail and about 20 others is noteworthy because of President Barack Obama's criticism of the old network of secret CIA prisons where interrogators sometimes used the harshest available methods, including the simulated drowning known as waterboarding.

Human rights advocates say the severest of the Bush-era interrogation methods are gone, but the conditions at the new interrogation sites still raise questions. Obama pledged when he took office that the United States would not torture anyone, but former detainees describe harsh treatment that some human rights groups claim borders on inhumane.

The secrecy surrounding both the site and the rules governing how long such high-value targets can be kept shows that two years into the Obama administration, the White House still hasn't set definitive detainee policy, especially when it comes to how a high-value target like al-Qaida fugitive Osama bin Laden would be treated if caught alive.

CIA Director Leon Panetta said in February that bin Laden would be taken to Bagram first, then probably to Guantanamo Bay.

That's the last choice for Afghan commander Gen. David Petraeus, because of the damage it could do to the already fragile U.S. relationship with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, according to the three-star commander who heads Afghanistan's only theater detention facility, Vice Adm. Robert Harward.

Harward refused to comment on the existence of the classified JSOC facility, but he said the bin Laden debate illustrates "this unanswered issue of what do we do with high-value targets that require long-term incarceration in the future."

More than a dozen former "high value" detainees claimed they were menaced and held for weeks at the Joint Special Operations Command site last year, forced to strip naked, then kept in solitary confinement in windowless, often cold cells with lights on 24 hours a day, according to Daphne Eviatar of the group Human Rights First, which interviewed them in Afghanistan.

Eviatar said her monitoring group does not believe the JSOC facility is using the full range of Bush-era interrogation techniques, but she said there's a disturbing pattern of using fear and humiliation to soften up the suspects before interrogation.

Many of those interviewed said "they were forced to strip naked in front of other detainees, which is very humiliating for them," Eviatar said. "The forced nudity seems to be part of a pattern to make detainees feel disempowered."

The detainees also reported that their interrogators told them they could be held indefinitely, the group said.

Special Operations Command spokesman Col. Tim Nye denies the allegations, insisting the detainees are treated in accordance with U.S. detention laws, rewritten since the Bush era to prohibit the harshest interrogation techniques. "All detainees are treated humanely in compliance with all U.S. and international laws, including Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions," Nye wrote in an e-mail.
U.S. officials in Afghanistan add that Petraeus insisted on opening the Joint Special Operations Command site to inspection by Afghan officials and the International Red Cross last May.

International Red Cross ICRC spokesman Simon Schorno would not comment on the JSOC or conventional forces detention facilities, but confirmed the group "has access to internment, screening, and transit facilities under the control of the Department of Defense."

Schorno added that the Red Cross "has a transparent relationship with the Department of Defense and is satisfied with progress made as regards access to detention facilities."

Petraeus wanted to force more openness on the JSOC, a secretive organization that runs special missions units within the military to perform highly classified activities, according to a senior official briefed on the program, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss classified matters.

The official said part of Petraeus' logic was to ensure transparency to international monitoring bodies so the interrogations could continue because they are yielding intelligence that has helped quadruple special operations missions against militant targets.

When suspected insurgents or terrorists are first captured, they are interrogated in the field to determine their status in the insurgent hierarchy and their usefulness in terms of local, tactical military intelligence, officials said.

Detainees then can be held up to 14 days in a temporary facility before being either released or transferred to a public detention facility called Parwan that is jointly run by the United States and Afghanistan. The Parwan jail abuts the sprawling U.S. base at Bagram, north of Kabul, which also houses the secret "temporary" jail.

After the first two weeks in temporary detention, the first possible extension is for three weeks, for reasons including "producing good tactical intel" to "too sick to move," according to a U.S. official familiar with the procedure. The next extension is for an additional month, adding up to a total of roughly nine weeks in temporary detention before battlefield interrogators have to appeal for more time to the executive, either the defense secretary or the president himself.

The military has never pushed for that for any detainee, according to a former senior intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss classified matters.

It's unclear how many detainees are being held at the temporary facilities at any one time. Detention spokesperson Capt. Pamela Kunze says the number is classified, but it represents only a small fraction of the total number of detainees.

Last year, only 1,300 suspects out of 6,600 arrested across Afghanistan ended up at the Parwan detention facility, according to Harward.

There are currently some 1,900 detainees being held at Parwan, which has a capacity of 2,600. Parwan will gradually be handed over to Afghan control. The status of the temporary facilities likely would be negotiated as part of a future security agreement, transitioning power to the government of Afghanistan.

Red Cross: Gaza blockade illegal

Al Jazeera

The ICRC said goods smuggled through tunnels are often overpriced and of poor quality [AFP] The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has described Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip as a violation of the Geneva Conventions and called on the Israeli government to lift it. In a statement released on Monday, the organisation called the blockade "collective punishment", a crime under international law. It described Gaza as a territory plagued by frequent power cuts, a ruined economy, and a collapsed health care system. "The closure imposed on the Gaza Strip is about to enter its fourth year, choking off any real possibility of economic development," the ICRC said. "Gazans continue to suffer from unemployment, poverty and warfare, while the quality of Gaza's health care system has reached an all-time low." Crippling shortages Israeli officials insist that they provide enough "humanitarian aid" to cover Gaza's basic needs. But the ICRC said the meagre list of goods allowed into Gaza doesn't meet the needs of the territory's 1.5 million inhabitants. Beatrice Megevand-Roggo, the head of the ICRC's Middle East operations, told Al Jazeera that the organisation - which traditionally remains neutral - was reluctant to publicly criticise the blockade. But she said three years of quiet efforts to ease the embargo did not result in any progress. "The result has not been what we expected, and we thought that after three years the situation was dire enough, serious enough, to speak out publicly to try to break this closure of Gaza," she said. The shortages are particularly dire in Gaza's health care system, where the ICRC said more than 100 essential medicines - including chemotherapy and hemophilia drugs - are unavailable. Many basic medical supplies, like colonoscopy bags, are also barred from Gaza and routine blackouts cause damage to medical equipment. "The state of the health-care system in Gaza has never been worse," Eileen Daly, the ICRC's health co-ordinator in Gaza, said. "Thousands of patients could go without treatment, and the long-term outlook will be increasingly worrisome." 'Unacceptable and counterproductive' In Luxembourg on Monday, foreign ministers from the European Union condemned the Gaza blockade as "unacceptable and counterproductive," and called for immediate and unconditional opening of crossings for humanitarian aid. "The most important part of what we can do is to try and provide support to actually get the crossings open and to ... help people rebuild their homes, to provide for businesses, to try to support everyday things," Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign affairs chief, said. Tony Blair, the EU's Middle East envoy, expressed hope that an agreement with Israel could be reached within days to allow more material goods into Gaza. "I hope we are now in a position to move forward in this way. First of all ... whilst Israel will maintain the blockade on weapons and combat material coming into Gaza, that we will change the situation so that those goods that are necessary for ordinary civilian life are brought into Gaza," Blair said. "In other words, we change from the so-called permitted list of items, where things only come in if they are on that list, to the prohibited list - where things come in unless they are on that list." Blair also called for the release of Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, captured nearly four years ago in Gaza during a cross-border raid. "He should be released and he should be released unconditionally. That would also help." Among the proposals being floated are giving the EU a renewed role in managing Gaza's main passenger crossing with Egypt. B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organisation, released its own report on Monday documenting dire conditions in the Palestinian territories. The group noted that 95 per cent of Gaza's factories have closed, that 98 per cent of residents suffer from blackouts, and that 93 per cent of Gaza's water is polluted. Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, on Sunday called for an end to the blockade. Hamas criticised The ICRC also criticised Hamas, the Islamic movement which controls Gaza, for preventing the ICRC from visiting Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured in 2006. Shalit is entitled to visits from the Red Cross under international law. "In violation of international humanitarian law, [Hamas] has also refused to allow him to get in touch with his family," the ICRC said. But the bulk of the ICRC's criticism was directed at Israel's blockade. In addition to the health care problems, the ICRC noted that 40 per cent of Gaza's residents are not connected to a sewage system, and that restrictions on movement have driven many farmers and fishermen into poverty. One-third of Gaza's farmland is located in a "buffer zone" controlled by the Israeli army, and boats are only allowed to fish within three nautical miles of Gaza's coast. The ICRC demanded that both Israel and the Hamas government "allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage" of aid shipments to Gaza. Hamas has refused to accept 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid seized from the flotilla of aid ships attacked last month by the Israeli army. The Israeli government announced on Sunday that a panel, chaired by former supreme court judge Yaakov Turkel, would investigate the flotilla attack.