Testimony of Spc. Brandon Neely

On December 4, 2008, Specialist Brandon Neely approached CSHRA with testimony he wished to contribute to the Guantánamo Testimonials Project. He believed that insufficient attention had been paid to "the hell that went on at Camp X-Ray." He would be in a position to know, as he arrived in Guantánamo while the cages of Camp X-Ray were still being welded, and escorted the second detainee to hit the prison grounds. In this interview, Specialist Neely provides testimony of the arrival of the detainees in full sensory-deprivation garb, sexual abuse by medical personnel, torture by other medical personnel, brutal beatings out of frustration, fear, and retribution, the first hunger strike and its causes, torturous shackling, positional torture, interference with religious practices and beliefs, verbal abuse, restriction of recreation, the behavior of mentally ill detainees, possible isolation regime of the first six children in GTMO, utter lack of preparation for guarding individuals detained during the War on Terror, and his conversations with prisoners David Hicks and Rhuhel Ahmed...

http://humanrights.ucdavis.edu/projects/the-guantanamo-testimonials-project/testimonies/testimonies-of-military-guards/testimony-of-brandon-neely

Americans should see the 'high cost' of war

By LEONARD PITTS JR.
February 20, 2009
Miami Herald

...I submit that the cost of war -- whether the one everyone supports or the one no one does -- is not something to be hidden from the people of a democracy. To the contrary, it is something they should never be allowed to forget. We need to know it. Otherwise, war becomes little more than a video game, death tolls just columns of numbers, and we forget to be judicious with the lives of our fellow citizens, forget to hold political and military leaders accountable for how and when and why those lives are spent.

The Obama administration has promised transparency. To continue this ban would do violence to that pledge. Let the coffins be borne from the planes, and let the cameras record it -- and let the people see it and grow reverent and wise. Let them pause in their shopping and be touched and reminded that there is, indeed, ''a high cost'' to war...

http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/908823.html

Who Profits?

About the Project | Israeli and international corporations are directly involved in the occupation: in the construction of Israeli colonies and infrastructure in the occupied territories, in the settlements’ economy, in building walls and checkpoints, in the supply of specific equipment used in the control and repression of the civilian population under occupation.

http://www.whoprofits.org/index.php

Obama and the Drug of Hope

Obama's audacious attacks only days within office run counter to the hope and change policies that he had mightily professed. Even the executive orders for the closure of Gitmo and other prisons still cannot abolish torture and illegal detention, in stark contrast to what CNN lackeys had prematurely parroted during the inauguration.

Does Iran's President Want Israel Wiped Off The Map - Does He Deny The Holocaust?

An analysis of media rhetoric on its way to war against Iran - Commenting on the alleged statements of Iran's President Ahmadinejad.