Bündnis des Bösen

Wirepullers: domenica 23 agosto di 70 anni fa, Hitler e Stalin, rappresentati dai relativi Ministri degli Esteri Joachim von Ribbentrop e Vjaceslav Molotov, firmavano un patto di non aggressione tra Germania nazista e Unione Sovietica. Il patto comprendeva un protocollo segreto per la spartizione della Polonia tra le due potenze e l'inserimento della Finlandia e delle repubbliche baltiche nelle rispettive zone di influenza. Scoppiava di fatto la seconda guerra mondiale. Di questa ricorrenza sembra essersene ricordata solo la stampa tedesca, nonostante quell'episodio abbia conseguenze evidenti ancora oggi. Ci riferiamo in particolare al freno posto per anni da Polonia e Lituania all'accordo commerciale tra UE e Russia per la fornitura di gas. Forse si tratta solo di una vendetta polacca per un episodio di protezionismo o forse la storia ha dato un colpo di coda. (1)

Vor 70 Jahren schlossen die Diktatoren Adolf Hitler und Joseph Stalin einen Nichtangriffspakt. In einem geheimen Zusatzprotokoll teilten sie Polen untereinander auf, eine Woche später fiel die Wehrmacht im Nachbarland ein - und kaum zwei Jahre später auch in der Sowjetunion.

Im Kreml flogen die Fetzen: Am 3. Mai 1939 feuerte der sowjetische Diktator Josef Stalin seinen langjährigen Volkskommissar für auswärtige Angelegenheiten, Maxim Litwinow. Die als sensationell empfundene Nachricht nahm im fernen Berlin der "Völkischer Beobachter" zum Anlass, Moskaus Außenminister noch einmal als "jüdischen Schieber und Schlächter" zu beschimpfen. Seinen Abgang, so das Zentralorgan der NSDAP außerdem, sei ein schwerer Rückschlag für die Bemühungen Großbritanniens und Frankreichs, sich bei der Sowjetunion anzubiedern und Deutschland einzukreisen.

Das war nicht einmal völlig falsch. Die Erfolge der Nazis ließen den Männern im Kreml antifaschistische Volksfrontbündnisse, wie sie 1936 in Frankreich und Spanien zustande kamen, als Instrumente zur Erhöhung der "kollektiven Sicherheit" erscheinen. Gleichzeitig allerdings versuchte Stalin durchaus, die Radikalisierung dieser Volksfronten zu verhindern, um keine Konflikte mit den Westmächten heraufzubeschwören - die Sicherheit der Sowjetunion hatte für ihn Priorität. Doch diese Zurückhaltung, die vor allem in Spanien zur Belastung für die Volksfront-Koalition wurde, honorierten die Westmächte kaum. Der britische Premierminister Neville Chamberlain hielt die Sowjetunion für militärisch schwach und für keinen wirklich interessanten Bündnispartner gegen Hitler.

Litwinows Nachfolger in Moskau wurde ein alter Bekannter: Wjatscheslaw Molotow, zugleich Ministerpräsident und außerdem Stalins engster Gefährte. Molotow setzte die Verhandlungen mit Großbritannien und Frankreich über eine militärische Zusammenarbeit fort. Aber er wurde ein ums andere Mal hingehalten, und bis August 1939 lagen keine greifbaren Ergebnisse vor. Ganz anders hatte sich zwischenzeitlich das Verhältnis zum "Dritten Reich" entwickelt. Joseph Goebbels' "Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda" hatte bereits am 5. Mai 1939, also zwei Tage nach Litwinows Entlassung, die deutschen Journalisten angewiesen, "ab sofort die Polemik gegen die Sowjetunion und den Bolschewismus einzustellen".

Die Nazis entdecken Russland

Diese Anweisung markierte eine entscheidende Wende der Zwischenkriegjahre. Bis zu diesem Tag hatte der Antibolschewismus einen kaum weniger prominenten Platz in der nationalsozialistischen Propaganda eingenommen wie der Antisemitismus. Stets hatte NS-Chefideologe Alfred Rosenberg vom "jüdisch-bolschewistischen" System in der Sowjetunion gesprochen; Moskau war für ihn neben New York, London und Paris eine der Zentralen des nach der Weltherrschaft strebenden "internationalen Judentums". Nun aber bahnte sich ein Kurswechsel an. Der "jüdische Bolschewismus" verschwand aus den Spalten der deutschen Gazetten, und selbst von der "Sowjetunion" war nun immer seltener die Rede, dafür immer häufiger von "Russland". Und obwohl die Journalisten zu strikter Zurückhaltung verdonnert wurden, kursierten schon bald Gerüchte, eine deutsch-sowjetische Annäherung stehe auch offiziell unmittelbar bevor.

Am 20. August 1939 erhielten die Journalisten vom NS-Propagandaministerium die Information, ein "deutsch-russischer Wirtschaftsvertrag" sei abgeschlossen worden. Die Sowjetunion werde Rohstoffe liefern, das Deutsche Reich Fertigwaren. Die Neuigkeit, so die Vorgabe, sei zurückhaltend zu melden, verbunden mit dem Hinweis, dass sich die beiden Volkswirtschaften "auf die natürlichste Weise" ergänzen.

In Wahrheit waren es nicht so sehr die beiden Wirtschaftssysteme, die komplementär lagen, sondern die jeweilige machtpolitischen Überlegungen der beiden Diktatoren Hitler und Stalin. Im Kräftedreieck Westmächte-Achsenmächte-Sowjetunion befürchtete jede Seite, dass sich die beiden anderen gegen sie verbünden könnten: Die Nationalsozialisten beschworen angesichts der britischen-sowjetischen Kontakte die Gefahr einer durch England gesteuerten "Einkreisung" - die britische Seeblockade im Ersten Weltkrieg war noch in unangenehmer Erinnerung. Stalin andererseits sah in den traditionellen Monarchien, in den demokratischen Republiken und in den faschistischen Diktaturen nur unterschiedliche Formen bürgerlicher Herrschaft - mit welchen dieser Mächte er kooperierte, war für ihn eine rein pragmatische Frage.

Ein Signal aus Moskau

Auf dem Parteitag der KPdSU hatte Stalin am 10. März 1939 die Appeasement-Politik des Westens heftig kritisiert. Die Sowjetunion sei nicht bereit, für die kapitalistischen Mächte die Kastanien aus dem Feuer zu holen, so der Kommunistenführer. Die Deutschen verstanden das als Signal, und so war es wohl auch gemeint. Bald darauf wurden die Gespräche über ein Wirtschaftsabkommen intensiviert. Im Juli deutete der Russlandspezialist im Auswärtigen Amt, Legationsrat Karl Schnurre, bei einem festlichen Abendessen mit hochrangigen sowjetischen Funktionären erstmals an, das Wirtschaftsabkommen könne von einem politischen Abkommen begleitet werden, welches die territorialen Interessen beider Länder berücksichtige.

Parallel zu dem Techtelmechtel zwischen den so gegensätzlichen Diktaturen widmete sich Hitler mit großer Energie der polnischen Frage. Sein Nichtangriffspakt mit dem polnischen Diktator Joséf Piłsudski von 1934 war ein geschickter Schachzug gewesen. Hitler hatte er internationales Renommee verschafft, zugleich trieb er einen Keil zwischen Frankreich und Polen und bannte für das "Dritte Reich" die Gefahr eines Zweifrontenkrieges. Der Schritt bot sogar die Perspektive, die Polen in einem Krieg um "Lebensraum im Osten" als Vorhut einzusetzen. Doch nach einer Serie von Aggressionen gegen Nachbarn - der Anschluss Österreichs, der Einmarsch in die Tschechoslowakei, verlor Hitler zunehmend das Interesse an diesem Nichtangriffspakt. Im März 1939 verlangte der "Führer" die Angliederung der gemäß unter der Aufsicht des Völkerbundes stehenden Stadt Danzig an das Deutsche Reich sowie exterritoriale Verkehrswege durch den polnischen Korridor, der die alte Hansestadt Stadt vom Reich trennte.

Vor dem eigens einberufenen Reichstag, mittlerweile ein bedeutungsloses Pseudo-Parlament, erklärte Hitler am 28. April, dass Polen diesen "wahrhaft einmaligen Kompromiss" abgelehnt habe und er deshalb das deutsch-polnische Nichtangriffsabkommen "als durch Polen einseitig verletzt" und damit "als nicht mehr bestehend" ansehe. Großbritannien und Frankreich gaben daraufhin eine Garantieerklärung für Polen ab: Greife das Deutsche Reich Polen an, so wäre dies für London und Paris der Kriegsgrund. Nachdem die Westmächte jedoch wenige Wochen die Zerschlagung der Tschechoslowakei hingenommen hatten, machte diese Bestandsgarantie auf Hitler und seine Strategen keinen großen Eindruck. Am 22. Mai 1939 wurde in Berlin vom neuen deutschen Außenminister Joachim von Ribbentrop und seinem italienischen Amtskollegen Graf Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolinis Schwiegersohn, ein deutsch-italienischer Bündnisvertrag unterzeichnet. Dieser "Stahlpakt" hatte ausdrücklich eine militärische Kooperation zum Gegenstand und verpflichtete die Vertragspartner sogar bei Angriffskriegen zum Beistand.

Auf dem Obersalzberg knallen die Korken

Gleichzeitig hielt Hitler es für besser, die Italiener in seine Pläne für den Überfall auf Polen nicht einzuweihen. Erst Mitte August 1939 empfing Ribbentrop Ciano in seiner Residenz über dem Fuschlsee nahe Hitlers Berghof und eröffnete ihm, dass die "gnadenlose Vernichtung Polens durch Deutschland" unausweichlich sei. Ciano war einigermaßen konsterniert und kehrte mit dem Eindruck nach Rom zurück, dass Hitler sich um keinen Preis von seinem Kriegskurs würde abbringen lassen. Den Italienern blieb nur die Option, sich neutral zu verhalten.

Das konnte Hitler leicht verschmerzen - denn in Moskau gelang ihm ein entscheidender Durchbruch. Stalin hatte lange gezögert, die englisch-französische Option ganz aufzugeben, doch schließlich war er bereit, Ribbentrop am 23. August in Moskau zu empfangen. Als die Nachricht auf dem Obersalzberg eintraf, wurden Champagnerflaschen entkorkt - Polens Schicksal war besiegelt. Ribbentrop und Molotow unterzeichneten den deutsch-sowjetischen Nichtangriffsvertrag noch am selben Tag.

In einem geheimen Zusatzprotokoll zum Hitler-Stalin-Pakt, wie er bald hieß, wurden "für den Fall einer territorialpolitischen Umgestaltung" die Interessensphären beider Seiten fixiert. Im zweiten Artikel des Zusatzprotokolls hieß es: "Die Frage, ob die beiderseitigen Interessen die Erhaltung eines unabhängigen polnischen Staates erwünscht erscheinen lassen und wie dieser Staat abzugrenzen wäre, kann endgültig erst im Laufe der weiteren politischen Entwicklung geklärt werden."

"Auseinanderfallen des bisherigen polnischen Staates"

Die deutschen Zeitungen waren von der NS-Propaganda gehalten, die Unterzeichnung des Nichtangriffsvertrages "ganz groß auf der ersten Seite" zu bringen. Die Redaktionen sollten deutlich machen, dass es sich hier um einen "sensationellen Wendepunkt in der Geschichte der beiden Völker" handle. Hinweise auf das gute deutsch-russische Verhältnis in der Ära Bismarck waren ausdrücklich erwünscht. Selbst der von den Nazis einst wütend attackierte Rapallo-Vertrag, mit dem sich 1922 die Weimarer Republik und die Sowjetunion einander angenähert hatten, durfte erwähnt werden, "aber nicht besonders groß".

Eine Woche später fielen die deutschen Truppen in Polen ein, am 28. September fiel die Hauptstadt Warschau. Kurz zuvor hatten sowjetische Truppen, nach mehrfacher Aufforderung durch die Deutschen, den östlichen Teil Polens besetzt. Noch am Tage der polnischen Kapitulation unterzeichneten Ribbentrop und Molotow einen deutsch-sowjetischen Freundschaftsvertrag. In dessen Präambel hieß es mit schwer zu überbietendem Zynismus: "Die Deutsche Reichsregierung und die Regierung der UdSSR betrachten es nach dem Auseinanderfallen des bisherigen polnischen Staates ausschließlich als ihre Aufgabe, in diesen Gebieten die Ruhe und Ordnung wiederherzustellen und den dort lebenden Völkerschaften ein ihrer völkischen Eigenart entsprechendes friedliches Dasein zu sichern."

Hitler hatte auf der ganzen Linie triumphiert: Die britische und französische Garantieerklärung für Polen war - jedenfalls einstweilen - ein leeres Versprechen geblieben. Die Gefahr einer Einkreisung Deutschlands gebannt. Mit der Sowjetunion war ein wirtschaftlich starker Verbündeter gewonnen, der große Mengen an Lebensmitteln lieferte. Hitler hielt sich nun für unbesiegbar. Am 18. Dezember 1940 erließ er die "Führer-Anweisung Nr. 21", die das "Unternehmen Barbarossa" in Gang setzte. Am 22. Juni 1941 überfielen Hitlers Truppen die Sowjetunion.

Autore: Ernst Piper

Fonte: www.spiegel.de

Ayurvedic Medicine

If you can wiggle your toes with the mere flicker of an intention, why can't you reset your biological clock?

If you could live in the moment you would see the flavor of eternity and when you metabolize the experience of eternity your body doesn't age.

Ayurveda is the science of life and it has a very basic, simple kind of approach, which is that we are part of the universe and the universe is intelligent and the human body is part of the cosmic body, and the human mind is part of the cosmic mind, and the atom and the universe are exactly the same thing but with different form, and the more we are in touch with this deeper reality, from where everything comes, the more we will be able to heal ourselves and at the same time heal our planet. --Deepak Chopra

Ayurvedic medicine, in the United States, is an "alternative" medical practice that claims it is based on the traditional medicine of India. Ayurveda is derived from two Sanskrit terms: ayu meaning life and veda meaning knowledge or science. Since the practice is said to be some 5,000 years old in India, what it considers to be knowledge or science may not coincide with the most updated information available to Western medicine.

According to Stephen Barrett, M.D.:

Proponents state that Ayurvedic medicine originated in ancient time, but much of it was lost until reconstituted in the early 1980s by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. (Barrett 2004)

The St. Paul to the Maharishi is Deepak Chopra, who has done more than anyone else to spread the good word in the United States about the wonders of Ayurveda.

According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine:

Many Ayurvedic practices were handed down by word of mouth and were used before there were written records. Two ancient books, written in Sanskrit on palm leaves more than 2,000 years ago, are thought to be the first texts on Ayurveda--Caraka Samhita and Susruta Samhita....

Ayurveda has long been the main system of health care in India, although conventional (Western) medicine is becoming more widespread there, especially in urban areas. About 70 percent of India's population lives in rural areas; about two-thirds of rural people still use Ayurveda and medicinal plants to meet their primary health care needs. In addition, most major cities have an Ayurvedic college and hospital. Ayurveda and variations of it have also been practiced for centuries in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Tibet. The professional practice of Ayurveda in the United States began to grow and became more visible in the late 20th century.

Ayurvedic treatments are primarily dietary and herbal. As I note elsewhere, dangerous amounts of lead have been found in Ayurvedic medicines, including ghasard, a brown powder given to relieve constipation in babies, and mahayogaraj gugullu, for high blood pressure. A study of shops in the Boston area by Robert Saper et al. found high concentrations of lead, mercury, and arsenic in Ayurvedic medicine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 12 cases of lead poisoning in 2004 associated with Ayurvedic remedies in Texas, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, and California.

Patients are classified by body types, or prakriti, which are determined by proportions of the three doshas. The doshas allegedly regulate mind-body harmony. Illness and disease are considered to be a matter of imbalance in the doshas. Treatment is aimed at restoring harmony or balance to the mind-body system. Vata, composed of air and space, allegedly governs all movement in the mind and body and must be kept in good balance. Too much vata leads to "worries, insomnia, cramps and constipation....Vata controls blood flow, elimination of wastes, breathing and the movement of thoughts across the mind." Vata also controls the other two principles, Pitta and Kapha. Pitta is said to be composed of fire and water; it allegedly governs "all heat, metabolism and transformation in the mind and body. It controls how we digest food, how we metabolize our sensory perceptions, and how we discriminate between right and wrong." Pitta must be kept in balance, too. "Too much [Pitta] can lead to anger, criticism, ulcers, rashes and thinning hair." Kapha consists of earth and water. "Kapha cements the elements in the body, providing the material for physical structure. This dosha maintains body resistance....Kapha lubricates the joints; provides moisture to the skin; helps to heal wounds; fills the spaces in the body; gives biological strength, vigor and stability; supports memory retention; gives energy to the heart and lungs and maintains immunity...Kapha is responsible for emotions of attachment, greed and long-standing envy; it is also expressed in tendencies toward calmness, forgiveness and love." Too much Kapha leads to lethargy and weight gain, as well as congestion and allergies.

On the basis of the above metaphysical physiology, Ayurveda recommends such things as:

to pacify Kapha eat spicy foods and avoid sweet foods, except for honey but don't heat the honey. Avoid tomatoes and nuts. Turkey is fine but avoid rabbit and pheasant. If you've got too much Pitta then try this: eat sweet foods and avoid the spicy. Eat nuts. To reduce Vata: eat sweet, sour and salty foods; avoid spicy foods. Nuts are good and so are dairy products.

These herbal and dietary practices are thought to be necessary for good health in Ayurveda because they are believed to have the power to restore harmony and balance to mind, body, and spirit. This alleged harmony and balance is said to be the key to health.

Meditation is also a significant therapy in Ayurveda. According to Kurt Butler (1992):

The beliefs and practices of Ayurvedic medicine fall into three categories: (1) some that are obvious, well established, and widely accepted by people who have never heard of Ayurveda [e.g., relax and don't overeat]; (2) a few that proper research may eventually prove valid and useful [herbal remedies may contain useful drugs, but their dangers and limitations often have not been scientifically investigated]; (3) absurd ideas, some of which are dangerous [e.g., that most disease and bad luck is due to demons, devils, and the influence of stars and planets; or that you should treat cataracts by brushing your teeth, scraping your tongue, spitting into a cup of water, and washing your eyes for a few minutes with this mixture]. (Wheeler)

However, if you are attracted to treatments that use superstition, incantations, amulets, spells, and mantras then, by all means, try Ayurveda. There are many schools in India that grant degrees in Ayurvedic medicine. No school grants such a degree in the United States and if you want to practice Ayurveda here you do so as a practitioner of "alternative" or complementary medicine.

http://www.skepdic.com/ayurvedic.html

Ipazia di Alessandria

Is Blackwater Too Big to Fail?

Wirepullers: le guerre in Iraq e Afghanistan hanno gettato due paesi nel caos, ucciso centinaia di migliaia di civili innocenti, fatto inorridire il mondo intero. Ma per qualcuno sono state una vera manna dal cielo. Tra questi, la compagnia militare privata Blackwater, ingaggiata dal governo americano per occuparsi della sicurezza nei due teatri di guerra. L'agenzia, di proprietà di Erik Prince, un fervente cristiano e erede multimilionario di un ricca famiglia, recluterebbe in realtà mercenari senza scrupoli, da utilizzare in operazioni militari, delle quali lo stesso congresso americano sarebbe stato lasciato all'oscuro. Un vero e proprio braccio armato della CIA, sempre meno impegnata in operazioni di intelligence e sempre più militarizzata. Omicidio e tortura vanno in outsourcing. (4)

Erik Prince's security enterprise has a division for pretty much everything. Need planes or choppers? See Aviation Worldwide or Presidential Airways. A compliment of Colombian mercs? Greystone at your service. For-hire spooks? Total Intelligence Solutions—emphasis on total—is standing by. And for the super-double-secret covert work—the kind that the CIA keeps even Congress in the dark about—Prince has a division for that too. According to the New York Times, it's called Blackwater Select.

Building on its scoop that the company played a role in the CIA's abandoned program to assassinate Al Qaeda operatives, the Times reports today that this secret division also plays a part in the agency's predator drone program.

The division’s operations are carried out at hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the company’s contractors assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided bombs on remotely piloted Predator aircraft, work previously performed by employees of the Central Intelligence Agency. They also provide security at the covert bases, the officials said.

The role of the company in the Predator program highlights the degree to which the C.I.A. now depends on outside contractors to perform some of the agency’s most important assignments. And it illustrates the resilience of Blackwater, now known as Xe (pronounced Zee) Services, though most people in and outside the company still refer to it as Blackwater. It has grown through government work, even as it attracted criticism and allegations of brutality in Iraq.

You'd think that after repeated controversies Prince's government clients would tire of the enduring PR nightmare and cut their ties. But they won't, because they can't. By many, the company is viewed as indispensable. This didn't happen by accident. It's long been Prince's business model. "Make yourself indispensable to the client, and you'll always have work," Prince is quoted as saying in Suzanne Simons' new book, Master of War.

Certainly the company didn't rise up from its modest origins to become a contracting behemoth without a lot of help. That is, if the company is indispensable, that's largely because we made it that way. The more jobs the government contracts out to Blackwater (and other industry players), the more the government loses the internal capacity to do them itself. Think of it this way: Blackwater operators were originally trained by the government to carry out the drone work. If the government decides it wants to assume this role again one day, will its personnel need to be trained by Blackwater?

It's not just about outsourcing—it's the kind of jobs that are being outsourced to Blackwater that raise questions. Writing in Time, ex-CIA officer Robert Baer points out:
It's one thing, albeit often misguided, for the agency to outsource certain tasks to contractors. It's quite another to involve a company like Blackwater in even the planning and training of targeted killings, akin to the CIA going to the mafia to draw up a plan to kill Castro.

I suspect that if the agreements are ever really looked into — rather than a formal contract, the CIA reportedly brokered individual deals with top company brass — we will find out that Blackwater's assassination work was more about bilking the U.S. taxpayer than it was killing Osama bin Laden or other al-Qaeda leaders. More than a few senior CIA officers retired from the CIA and went to work at Blackwater, the controversial private security shop now known as Xe Services. Not only did those officers presumably take their CIA Rolodexes with them out the door, but many probably didn't choose to leave until they had a lucrative new contract lined up. But more to the point, Blackwater stood no better chance of placing operatives in Pakistan's tribal areas, where the al-Qaeda leadership was hiding in 2004, than the CIA or the U.S. military did.

Still, whether by virtue of Blackwater's revolving door relationship with the CIA, or the agency's own manpower shortages, the company has now been entrusted with some of the intelligence community's most senstive work. Thanks to the Times, we now know more details about Blackwater's CIA work, but this likely represents a fraction of the covert contracts (or handshake agreements, as the case may be) the company and its affiliates have undertaken for the agency. Add in the many non-secret jobs these companies perform for the government, and it becomes hard to imagine the Obama administration extricating itself from its inherited relationship with Prince's companies even if it wanted to. In some ways, Prince's operation is the military world version of AIG—too big to fail.

Autore: Daniel Schulman

Fonte: www.motherjones.com

Report Reveals CIA Conducted Mock Executions

Wirepullers: le guerre in Iraq e Afghanistan hanno gettato due paesi nel caos, ucciso centinaia di migliaia di civili innocenti, fatto inorridire il mondo intero. Ma per qualcuno sono state una vera manna dal cielo. Tra questi, la compagnia militare privata Blackwater, ingaggiata dal governo americano per occuparsi della sicurezza nei due teatri di guerra. L'agenzia, di proprietà di Erik Prince, un fervente cristiano e erede multimilionario di un ricca famiglia, recluterebbe in realtà mercenari senza scrupoli, da utilizzare in operazioni militari, delle quali lo stesso congresso americano sarebbe stato lasciato all'oscuro. Un vero e proprio braccio armato della CIA, sempre meno impegnata in operazioni di intelligence e sempre più militarizzata. Omicidio e tortura vanno in outsourcing. (3)

A long-awaited report on post-9/11 interrogation tactics will reveal harrowing new details about treatment of suspected terrorists.

A long-suppressed report by the Central Intelligence Agency's inspector general to be released next week reveals that CIA interrogators staged mock executions as part of the agency's post-9/11 program to detain and question terror suspects, NEWSWEEK has learned.

According to two sources—one who has read a draft of the paper and one who was briefed on it—the report describes how one detainee, suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was threatened with a gun and a power drill during the course of CIA interrogation. According to the sources, who like others quoted in this article asked not to be named while discussing sensitive information, Nashiri's interrogators brandished the gun in an effort to convince him that he was going to be shot. Interrogators also turned on a power drill and held it near him. "The purpose was to scare him into giving [information] up," said one of the sources. A federal law banning the use of torture expressly forbids threatening a detainee with "imminent death."

The report also says, according to the sources, that a mock execution was staged in a room next to a detainee, during which a gunshot was fired in an effort to make the suspect believe that another prisoner had been killed. The inspector general's report alludes to more than one mock execution.

Before leaving office, Bush administration officials confirmed that Nashiri was one of three CIA detainees subjected to waterboarding. They also acknowledged that Nashiri was one of two Al Qaeda detainees whose detentions and interrogations were documented at length in CIA videotapes. But senior officials of the agency's undercover operations branch, the National Clandestine Service, ordered that the tapes be destroyed, an action that has been under investigation for more than a year by a federal prosecutor.

The new revelations are contained in a lengthy report on the CIA interrogation program completed by the agency's inspector general in May 2004, around the time that the initial, most intense phase of the CIA effort began to wind down. The purpose of the report was to examine how the CIA program had been conducted, and whether Justice Department guidelines governing the use of harsh "enhanced" interrogation techniques had been followed. According to the sources, the inspector general criticizes some agency interrogators for exceeding official guidelines in the use of extreme tactics on detainees.

Mock executions were not authorized in Justice Department memoranda that outlined the legal parameters that Bush administration lawyers believed should govern the use of "enhanced" interrogations. The Justice Department memoranda, once highly classified, were released earlier this year by the Obama administration in the face of strenuous objections from the CIA and former Bush White House officials.

The inspector general's report, commissioned by then CIA director George Tenet, was sent to the Justice Department and congressional intelligence committee leaders shortly after it was written. But it was not shown to all members of the intelligence committees until September 2006, around the time that President Bush publicly acknowledged the CIA detention-and-interrogation program and instructed the agency, which had been holding detainees in a network of secret overseas prisons, to transfer them to the U.S. military detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Top Bush CIA officials, including Tenet's successors as CIA director, Porter Goss and Gen. Michael Hayden, strongly lobbied for the IG report to be kept secret from the public. They argued that its release would damage America's reputation around the world, could damage CIA morale, and would tip off terrorists regarding American interrogation tactics. "Justice has had the complete document since 2004, and their career prosecutors have reviewed it carefully for legal accountability," said CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano. "That's already been done."

The inspector general's report is expected to fuel political debates over whether the tough interrogation methods used during the Bush administration actually worked. According to another source who has seen the document, the report says that the agency's interrogation program did produce usable intelligence.

At the same time the administration releases the inspector general's report, it is also expected to release other CIA documents that assert the agency collected valuable intelligence through the interrogation program. For months, former vice president Dick Cheney has called for these documents to be released. However, a person familiar with the contents of the documents says that they contain material that both opponents and supporters of Bush administration tactics can use to bolster their case. The Senate Committee on Intelligence is now conducting what is supposed to be a thorough investigation of the CIA's detention-and-interrogation program. The probe is intended not only to document everything that happened but also to assess whether on balance the program produced major breakthroughs or a deluge of false leads.

Autori: Mark Hosenball e Michael Isikoff

Fonte: www.newsweek.com

Bombshell report on CIA interrogations is leaked

Wirepullers: le guerre in Iraq e Afghanistan hanno gettato due paesi nel caos, ucciso centinaia di migliaia di civili innocenti, fatto inorridire il mondo intero. Ma per qualcuno sono state una vera manna dal cielo. Tra questi, la compagnia militare privata Blackwater, ingaggiata dal governo americano per occuparsi della sicurezza nei due teatri di guerra. L'agenzia, di proprietà di Erik Prince, un fervente cristiano e erede multimilionario di un ricca famiglia, recluterebbe in realtà mercenari senza scrupoli, da utilizzare in operazioni militari, delle quali lo stesso congresso americano sarebbe stato lasciato all'oscuro. Un vero e proprio braccio armato della CIA, sempre meno impegnata in operazioni di intelligence e sempre più militarizzata. Omicidio e tortura vanno in outsourcing. (2)

Findings suppressed since 2006 detail death threats against prisoners and other methods that may constitute tortutre.

CIA interrogators threatened a captured al-Qaida leader with a power drill and a pistol in what was described as a mock execution, according to a long-suppressed report due to be released on Monday.

Details of the report by the spy agency's inspector general have emerged in the Washington Post and Newsweek. The full findings on the CIA's interrogation programme are to be made public after a federal judge upheld an appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union for their release.
The report is understood to describe mock executions where interrogators tried to get detainees to talk by firing a gun in an adjoining room to pretend another prisoner had been killed.

According to leaked information from the report, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was threatened with a drill and gun during his detention at one of the CIA's so-called black site prisons after his capture in 2002. He was subjected to the near-drowning technique known as waterboarding, as were two other al-Qaida leaders.

Nashiri, who remains in detention at Guantánamo Bay, has been accused of masterminding the 1999 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors.

Sources familiar with the report told the Washington Post that Nashiri was threatened with death or grave injury during his questioning. A CIA officer showed Nashiri a gun and suggested he would be shot, and a power drill was held near Nashiri's body and repeatedly turned on and off. US law on torture prohibits a US national from threatening anyone in his custody with imminent death.

The disclosures come as the CIA faces intense scrutiny. The US attorney general, Eric Holder, has been examining the legality of the CIA's interrogation methods.

The inspector general examined CIA techniques over a period of two years – from 2002 until 2004 – to see whether justice department guidelines for so-called "enhanced interrogations" had been followed. Those guidelines were finally released by the Obama administration despite the objections of the CIA and former senior officials under George Bush.

The report is understood to be the most detailed review of the agency's interrogation programme and is believed to be highly critical of the techniques used, suggesting that a number of them broke international laws and norms. The document has become deeply controversial within the CIA itself, not least because the agency was advised two months before Nashiri's capture in a memo from Jay Bybee, the head of the justice department's office of legal counsel, that threats of "imminent death" were legal if they did not cause permanent mental harm.
The report – originally commissioned by then CIA director George Tenet – has become a cause celebre. It was seen by justice department and congressional intelligence committee leaders shortly after it was written, but not shown to all members of the intelligence committees until September 2006.

Top Bush CIA officials, including Tenet's successors as CIA director, Porter Goss and General Michael Hayden, lobbied for the report to be kept secret, claiming its release would damage America's reputation around the world and damage CIA morale.

Its public release comes after revelations last week that the CIA hired the private military contractor Blackwater – now known as Xe Services – to assassinate al-Qaida leaders. The programme never got off the ground and was kept secret from Congress.

Previous scandals that damaged the reputation of the CIA and the US internationally during the Bush years include the disclosure of the US secret rendition programme for terrorist suspects, the existence of the black site prisons and the use of waterboarding.

Barack Obama has said that waterboarding constitutes torture and is therefore forbidden under US law.

In Europe, the Swiss senator who has led an inquiry across the continent into secret CIA-run detention centres has urged European nations to come clean about their involvement "in this shameful episode".

Dick Marty said Europe's credibility was being damaged by leaks about CIA interrogation facilities in countries such as Poland, Romania and Lithuania. Marty said that instead of having the truth trickle out gradually, all participants in the illegal program should publicly admit their involvement.

In a 2007 probe conducted on behalf of the Council of Europe, Marty accused 14 European governments of permitting the CIA to run detention centres or conduct rendition flights through their countries between 2002 and 2005.

Autore: Peter Beaumont

Fonte: www.guardian.co.uk