Food for thought prt 32
“Wiki Leaks” is often under fire for allegedly leaking classified material. Much too often stuff our government wants to hide, not because it's classified, but things that don’t put the U.S government in the most favourable light. The founder has also been accused of a few crimes, since wiki leaks has been gang-warring with the US government, so to speak. Anyway a while back they reported that 64%of Guantanamo detainees were detained by mistake or because of the US offering substantial bounties to allies for Al-Qaeda or Taliban suspects, the idea of trusting our government to imprison people for decades in some case, based on secret untested evidence, often never reviewed by a court, should repel and shock any decent rational person, some of these detainees at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and other similar spots, some secret spots, are rounded up because a poor neighbour, in Afghanistan for example, hungry and trying to feed his family can get a nice little reward for saying he thinks the guy down the street is working with the Taliban, or Al-Qaeda, it doesn’t matter how true it is. Thats all it takes no more questions asked. Then the unsuspecting suspect is in for years of imprisonment, abuse, torture and sometimes even death. The abuse is not only water boarding and beatings, but there have been reports of food contamination and humiliation in general constantly!
The ones that are fortunate enough to get lawyers are subject to new rules that aren't common to any court of law. Its been reported that the government is now allowed to read and review all communication between the prisoners and their lawyers, which violates the attorneys client privilege by any standards.
None of these things ive just mentioned should be a surprise to any of us because of the typical everyday abuse that jumps off on a daily basis in prisons all across America. This past December 2011, prisoners in some of the Georgia prisons held a peaceful protest strike in regards to the inhumane conditions, they were enduring, they got beat down and suffered abuse at the hands of the prison guards with the full sanction of the D.O.C.
Last summer 2011, inmates at the SHU in Pelican Bay, supermax, in California refused food for 19 days, as reported in an earlier F.F.T article saying they would rather die than continue to suffer inhumane conditions. Other prisons in California, refused food in solidarity with pelican bay, also got support from across the Country.
There is a pattern of abuse in every state in America, often much of it is caught on camera, because of the arrogance of these guards, knowing not much, if anything, will happen when these incidents are reported. One of the guards directly involved in the disgusting Abu Ghraib scandal (Charles A Graner) in Iraq, where he is seen in several photos abusing and humiliating prisoners, is a product of this prison, SCI Greene, the western Pennsylvania prison that houses the majority of the states death row prisoners. Before he left for Iraq he was caught up in all kinds of beatings and abuse situations here, plus his wife filed charges against him for beating the crap out of her, so that should give you a picture of his character.
SCI Greene, has a history and pattern of abuse, dating back to when it first opened in the early 90's which is fairly new, In 1998 superintendent Ben Varner was demoted and removed from the prison, along with several commissioned officers and 42 guards for abuse in the restricted housing units. Most of the time the prisoners were handcuffed behind their backs while getting beat down!!!
This abuse is still jumping off, as I speak. There is a federal probe right now, March 2012. about a group of guards at a Pittsburgh PA, Prison not far from here, accused of tormenting and brutalizing inmates. A 60 year old guard (Harry Nicoletti) was charged with over 100 counts of felony abuses, including 10 counts of anal rape, contaminating food trays, and more;l He allegedly targeted gay, transsexual and prisoners convicted of sex crimes involving kids. 11 other guards are charged with assaults and using intimidating to keep the abuse a secret. If you believe the grand jury testimony, Nicoletti is a real sicko. Professionals routinely say rape isn’t for sex, most of the time, but it appears this dude got plenty of sexual gratification from his repeated acts. I won't get into the graphic details, but prior to his anal rape there was testimony that he felt up transgender prisoners with breast.
Another Pa prison, is under investigation for running a “fight club” guards putting inmates against each other, betting on the winner and rewarding the winners with cigarettes and commissary. This happened at a Fayette County Prison south of Pittsburgh. A letter from a guard (whistle-blower) sent to prison officials and human rights groups told of inmates receiving major injuries, missing teeth, broken knuckles, jaws, hands and more, the guard that reported it got death threats after he told.
The P.A D.O.C as other Dept of Corrections in most states routinely cover up abuse as they do other legitimate complaints by inmates. For example , whenever a prisoner files a grievance, the grievance coordinator or person that responds to it, is more concerned with backing up the officer or staff member grieved about, then trying to solve the problem. The mentality of them is that the prisoner is always lying and the guards or staff can do no wrong. Until this problem is corrected and guards and officials are held accountable, this problem will continue to exist.
To be continued Intensify the struggle.
