Gated Society: The U.S. Love Affair with Incarceration, Solitary Confinement & Torture - By S. Brian Willson

Gated Society: The U.S. Love Affair with Incarceration, Solitary Confinement
& Torture - By S. Brian Willson

May 29th, 2013

I live in a country (the USA which in mid-2011 had 311,800,000 people) that
imprisons more than 2.5 million of its citizens on an average day in more
than 9,000 jails and prisons, boasting the highest per capita detention rate
in the world by far - 800 prisoners for every 100,000 people {Local jails:
785,556 [Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice, March 31,
2009]; state and federal adult prisons: 1,610,584 [Bureau of Justice
Statistics, US Department of Justice, March 31, 2009]; juvenile facilities:
79,166 [Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Census of
Juveniles in Residential Placement, February 24, 2010]; immigrant detention:
33,400 [ACLU: Immigration Detention, May 8, 2014]; and Indian Reservation
Jails: 2,364 [Bureau of Justice Statistics , US Department of Justice, Jails
in Indian Country, 2012]= Grand Total: 2,511,070 US prisoners on an average
day}. Rwanda has the second highest detention rate at 595; Russia comes in
third at 568. The world's average per capita detention rate is 146. [World
Prison Population List, 9th Editon, Roy Walmsley, International Centre for
Prison Studies].

More than 60 percent of US prisoners are from racial and ethnic minority
groups ["Rate of Incarceration Per 100,000, By Gender and Race, 2010, "The
Sentencing Project], yet they comprise only 37 percent of the general
population ["Census: Minorities Constitute 37 Percent of U.S. population",
National Journal, The Next America, May 17, 2012]. The US, with 4.6 percent
of the world's population, holds 25 percent of the world's prisoners [World
Prison Population List, 9th Editon, Roy Walmsley, International Centre for
Prison Studies].

Some 80,000 prisoners are locked up in solitary confinement in facilities
for years such as exist in Pelican Bay Prison in California, Angola
Penitentiary in Louisiana, and hundreds of others prisons. Being held in
solitary for more than 15 days was determined in 2011 by the UN Special
Rapporteur to begin devastating, often irreversible physical and mental ill
effects, and is therefore considered torture. ["Solitary Confinement: FAQ,
Solitary Watch, www.solitary watch.com]. Force-feeding of prisoners on
hunger strikes in the US is also not unusual, itself another form of torture
in violation of international law. ["Is Force -Feeding Torture?" by Joe
Nocera, New York Times, May 31, 2013]. Solitary confinement inevitably
contributes to increased risks of prison suicides, of which hundreds are
reported every year. ["Critics: 'Maximum Security' a Factor in Prison
Suicide Rate," Bob Ortega, The Republic (Arizona), June 2, 2012]. Nine
Guantanamo prisoners are reported to have died, and at least six of these
deaths were suicides. ["Guantanamo Bay Detention Center Fact Sheet -
Guatanamo By The Numbers," National Religious Campaign Against Torture].

I studied the regular use of torture in Massachusetts prisons in 1981, where
force feeding of striking prisoners was common; as was the withholding of
rights and privileges such as necessary medicine, mail, or winter clothing
during cold weather; the imposition of hazards such as flooding cells,
igniting clothes and bedding, providing too little or too much heat, and
spraying mace and tear gas; inflicting physical beatings of prisoners filing
prison complaints or litigation, of those protesting conditions using hunger
strikes; and various forms of intentional psychological abuse such as
arbitrary shakedown of cells and brutal rectal searches, ordering prisoners
to lie face down on cold floors or the outside ground before receiving food,
and empty announcements of visitors or family only later to say it was a
joke. ["Walpole State Prison: An Exercise in Torture (June 1981),
brianwillson.com/Walpole-state-prison-an-exercise-in-torture/].

During the Spanish-American war in the Philippines, President Teddy
Roosevelt proudly defended water boarding torture as part of the arsenal of
techniques to achieve "the triumph of civilization over the black chaos of
savagery and barbarism" of the Filipinos, or "googoos". In Haiti in 1920,
the NAACP investigated the conduct of U.S. Marines who were murdering
thousands of Haitians while practicing widespread torture to overcome a
Haitian revolt of "savage monkeys" against the continuing unwanted U.S.
presence there. The word googoo morphed into "gook" as the derogatory term
used by U.S. soldiers against the Vietnamese.

In 1931 President Hoover's Wickersham Report (National Commission on Law
Observance and Enforcement) concluded that the use of torture (intentional
infliction of various methods of pain and suffering) was "widespread"
throughout the entire U.S. criminal justice system. The U.S. school of the
Americas has been teaching torture ("interrogation") to Latin American
military personnel since 1946.

Torture IS U.S. policy.

Written by S. Brian Willson -

Statement from Veterans For Peace Regarding Current Events in Northern Africa

"THERE IS ONE THING STRONGER

THAN ALL THE ARMIES IN THE WORLD:

AND THAT IS AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME."

 

Statement from Veterans For Peace

Regarding current events in Northern Africa

January 30, 2011

Events unfolding in Tunisia and Egypt hold much hope for the people of that region and indeed the entire world.  What do those events show us?

• The demonstrations are succeeding because in the main people are relying on the power of nonviolence. People are demonstrating nonviolently and young troops are refusing to violently stop them.
• Two weeks ago, few people thought the events in Tunisia and Egypt could ever happen but they are happening.

In northern Africa, the words of Victor Hugo have come to life.  "There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world: and that is an idea whose time has come."   
There is absolutely no reason Victor Hugo's words can't come to life in our own country. 
 

• A clear majority of U.S. troops and U.S. residents oppose the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq but few believe we can bring the killing to a swift conclusion.
• If a small percentage of U.S. troops refused to fight and an even smaller percentage of U.S. residents halted business as usual by simply staying home from work and school, the killing would end.

 
Anyone who thinks Hugo's words are only a dream today in Egypt or America should be aware of what has already come to pass in Egypt, as in so many other places since then.
 
In Egypt, grassroots organizing during World War I led to a demand, only two days after the November 11 armistice in 1918, for a meeting to discuss independence with the head of the British forces that had occupied Egypt for 36 years.

 The British refused, but the growing movement refused to back down.  When four of its leaders were arrested in March, 1919 trying to represent Egypt at the Versailles Treaty talks, people began a general uprising. 

 All social classes participated.  Organizers adopted as their symbol the "Crescent and the Cross," uniting majority Muslims and minority Coptic Christians.  Within a week Egypt was economically paralyzed by strikes of every sort.  The protests were mainly nonviolent in the cities but when the British tried to suppress the demonstrations violently, 800 Egyptians and nearly 30 British soldiers were killed by that summer.

Years later, Egyptian women chose March 16 as Women's Day because on that day in 1919, 300 women demonstrators led by Hoda Sha'arawi denounced British occupation and Hameida Khalil became the first woman to give her life for independence.


This mostly nonviolent revolution forced the British to recognize limited Egyptian independence in 1922.  The following year, Egyptians adopted a new constitution.
Since the 1978 Camp David “Peace Accords,” the U.S. has given Egypt over $50 billion in military aid, plus forgiving $7 billion in military debt  for Egypt’s support in the 1990 Persian Gulf War.  The U.S. has a huge responsibility to see that Egypt does not use the weapons we gave it to crush a democratic movement. 

 "There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world: and that is an idea whose time has come."  

 ###

VETERANS AND MILITARY FAMILIES SAY PENTAGON STATEMENTS ON WIKILEAKS AIM TO CLOUD REAL ISSUES

Our organizations represent veterans and military families. We have personally carried the burden of the war in Afghanistan, along with wars past. We are glad that the truth about the war is getting out to the public with the recent 92,000 documents on Wikileaks. Hopefully, this will inspire a massive outcry against this war that is wreaking so much destruction to our exhausted and demoralized troops and their families while draining our national coffers.

Obama administration officials are trying to spin events in their favor. Their words must be carefully examined. On the one hand, in an effort to downplay the significance of the release, we are told the documents contain no new information.

On the other hand, some high ranking members of the U.S. military are trying to: 1) intimidate anyone else from doing the same thing and 2) turn public opinion against whoever leaked the current documents. Towards those goals, we are told that grievous harm will surely come to many Afghans and U.S. military personnel - if not now then certainly later.

A more damning statement could hardly be imagined than this one from Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "The truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family."

While we certainly do not wish to see one additional person put at risk in this tragic, wrongheaded war, we must state the following as clearly as we can.

As veterans and families with members in the military, we consider statements like Admiral Mullen's to be nothing more than calculated attempts to turn public attention away from the real problem - the ongoing occupation of Afghanistan that has already caused the deaths and injuries of many thousands of innocent people all the while millions of Americans are jobless and face foreclosure or eviction.

This suffering in Afghanistan and this bleeding at home will continue as long as our troops remain in that country. Congress must stop funding this war. We must bring our troops home now, take care of them properly when they return and pay to rebuild the damage we have caused to Afghanistan.

# # #

Founded in 1985, Veterans For Peace is a national organization of men and women veterans of all eras and duty stations spanning the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), World War II, the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf and current Iraq wars as well as other conflicts cold or hot. It has chapters in nearly every state in the union and is headquartered in St. Louis, MO. Our collective experience tells us wars are easy to start and hard to stop and that those hurt are often the innocent. Thus, other means of problem solving are necessary. Veterans For Peace: Exposing the true costs of war and militarism since 1985.

Military Families Speak Out is an organization of people opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have relatives or loved ones who are currently in the military or who have served in the military since the fall of 2002.

Iraq Veterans Against the War is a national organization comprised of active duty, guard, and reserve troops and veterans who have served since 9/11. We call for immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, reparations to the people of those countries, and full benefits for returning service members.

From Iraq Veterans Against the War: Wikileaks documents reveal "the everyday squalor and carnage of war"

Debate continues about the massive number of Wikileaks documents released last week providing detailed field reports from the front lines in Afghanistan. While much of the public discussion is focused on the source of the leak and whether it was a justifiable act, we here at IVAW feel that the media should be focusing on something else.

What stands out to us at IVAW is the regular, seemingly commonplace occurance of civilian death depicted in the body of Wikileaks documents.

These documents reveal the truth about the bloody battle for Afghanistan, characterized by lengthy and repeated deployments by our troops and exposure to human trauma by both soldiers and Afghan people on a mass scale. With all the talk of timetables for withdrawal, we know that the human trauma of these wars has no end in sight. Yet, this trauma is too often sanitized by the time it reaches the public view.

That is why IVAW is partnering with the Institute for Public Accuracy to expose the details of incidents depicted in the leaked field reports by Wikileaks.

In a recent interview on Democracy Now, Wikileaks' founder, Julian Assange put out a call: "We really need the public, other journalists and especially former soldiers to go through this material and say, 'Look, this connects to that,' or 'I was there. Let me tell you what really happened. Let me tell you the rest of the detail.' And over the next few days, we'll be putting up easier- and easier-to-use search interfaces, the same ones that our journalistic teams use to extract this data."

These search tools will allow any soldier or veteran to look through the trove of documents on Wikileaks and find reports of incidents they were involved in to check for their accuracy and provide more details.

IVAW members are answering the call to humanize these 'war incidents.' Right now, we are mobilizing our membership to look through the relevant Wikileaks materials, and provide additional information for the public. Four members have already come forward with their stories and are speaking to members of the media.

On Monday, the Netherlands became the first NATO ally to remove all of its troops from Afghanistan. At a time when the global public is increasingly turning against the war, your donation today will help us continue this important work.

The White House and the Pentagon are decrying this latest leak as potentially endangering the lives of those presently on the ground in Afghanistan. Admiral Mike Mullen, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff stated recently that Wikileaks and its leak source "might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family." Yet, he does not question the blood on the hands of our government from the thousands of civilians killed in Afghanistan.

When Wikileaks released its "Collateral Murder" video in April that depicted the killing of Reuters journalists and other civilians, IVAW members Josh Stieber and Ethan McCord who served in that unit spoke out. And before that, IVAW members told their stories through our Winter Soldier testimonies. As veterans who have to live with what we were part of in Afghanistan and Iraq on a daily basis, speaking out about it is our solemn duty. By doing so, we hope that other soldiers will come forward and do the same.

Your help today will allow more soldiers and veterans to continue changing the Afghanistan war from an abstraction to a reality for the American and global public.

Thank you for your support.

In Solidarity,

Iraq Veterans Against the War

VETERANS FOR PEACE SALUTES HOWARD ZINN

Written by Board President Mike Ferner

The death of a loved one or someone significant in our life often leaves us saying, "There weren't many like him," or "she'll really leave a hole in this world."

In the case of Dr. Howard Zinn, there was no one else like him and his passing will leave a hole we can only hope will be filled some day. He was a longtime member of Veterans For Peace.

The day before he passed, VFP received an email from Howard Zinn to confirm arrangements for June to film a video greeting for our 2010 convention. In an earlier exchange, Howard had written, "Of course my heart is with VFP, but I'm not free to come. Thanks for inviting me, and best wishes for a great event. Howard."

Photo: Joseph Hand-Boniakowski, Profession Tom Conroy, and Professor Howard Zinn at Castleton State College, April 21, 2004

As a renowned historian, he made no attempt to appear objective, indeed he thought it impossible. In an opening section of "A People's History of the United States," he said he preferred "to tell the story of the discovery of America from the viewpoint of the Arawaks, of the Constitution from the standpoint of the slaves...the Gilded Age as seen by southern farmers." He believed history should "emphasize new possibilities by disclosing those hidden episodes when, even if in brief flashes, people showed their ability to resist, to join together, occasionally to win. I am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found in the past's fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its solid centuries of warfare." Then, as only Howard Zinn can, he wrote, "The reader may as well know that before going on."

From the spring in his step to the joyful, incisive wit of his words, few would have guessed his age. But at 87, his great heart, which clearly guided his remarkable intellect, finally stopped.

There may be others with great hearts and intellects to match, but Howard Zinn will be missed because he combined those with something much rarer: courage.

Some would point to his time in World War II as a B-24 bombardier, flying missions through the red-hot shrapnel of German anti-aircraft fire and Messerschmitt machine guns. Surely that is one kind of courage. It is tempered, however, by accepting that death can strike at any moment.

In his youth, Howard Zinn had the courage of a warrior. Over many decades as an adult he had another kind of courage that he practiced often, publicly and boldly, unfettered by the usual shackles of career ambitions, money or even social acceptance by ones peers.

This kind of courage, arguably the least common, Zinn frequently brought to bear in his lifelong mission of articulating uncomfortable truths and acting against injustice.

Howard Zinn with Gold Star Parents Carlos and Melida Arredondo (Also VFP Members!)

How else to explain this historian's ability to not only recognize the importance of the moment in the civil rights movement, but to encourage and join his students, eventually getting fired by Spelman College because they refused to participate as an institution; to speak publicly and early against the war in Vietnam when few with a safe job in academia dared; and most significantly, to fly into the hurricane of our most powerful myths and institutions by challenging "Three Holy Wars."

In one of his last speeches he explained that these wars were not religious, but sacrosanct, "the three wars you cannot say anything bad about: the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and World War II."

Examining his treatment of just one, the Revolution, is to begin to understand the significance of his intellect and the depth of his courage.

Zinn said that according to population differences then and now, the equivalent number of deaths today would mean "two and a half million people dying in a war to get England off our backs. Well, you might consider that worth it, or you might not."

Challenging the customary tale of our revolution, Zinn pointed out that the year before Lexington and Concord, farmers in much of western Massachusetts drove the British government out without firing a shot. "They had assembled thousands upon thousands around court houses, around official offices and they had taken over and they said good bye to the British officials."

Further challenging the standard story, he observed, "Canada is independent of England aren't they? I think so. Not a bad society. They have good health care. They have a lot of things we don't have. They didn't fight a bloody revolutionary war."

One problem he noted was we rarely take time to differentiate between various parts of the population "because we don't think in class terms. We think we all have the same interests. We all have the same interests in independence from England. We did not all have the same interests.

Perhaps most challenging, he asked, "Did blacks benefit from the Revolution? Slavery was there before; slavery was there after. No, we remained a slave society after the Revolution. Not only that, we wrote slavery into the Constitution. We legitimized it. It is always good if you want to get people to go to war to have a good document and have good words like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...Of course, when they write the Constitution it's not, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...it's life, liberty and property. Have you noticed that difference? You should notice. You should take notice of these little things."

Howard Zinn took notice of all those "little things." He took them and, in the crucible of his intellect, forged a new story of how we came to be; a story that took great courage to articulate; a story that has the power to take us a long way down the road of freedom and peace.

January 28, 2010

Veterans For Peace Statement for Armistice/Veterans' Day 2009

Veterans' Day began as "Armistice" Day, to celebrate November 11, 1918 when the guns of World War One finally stopped - and what cause for celebration there was!

From August 1914 until November 1918, 30 million soldiers were killed or wounded and another 7 million were taken captive. Never before had people witnessed such industrialized slaughter. A hint of the wreckage can be glimpsed by visiting a Great War memorial in any European town and invariably seeing a list of names long enough to include every young man who lived there at the time - hence the "lost generation."

Today we can hardly imagine the horror of the trenches where rats provided a real service by eating away at the corpses hanging on the barbed wire, in shell holes and half-buried in the walls of the dugouts.

The reality of the battlefield permeated the consciousness back home; so much so that even in America, whose troops arrived in Europe only in the closing months of the war, Congress responded to a universal hope that such a war would never happen again. It passed a resolution calling for "exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding...inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples." Later, Congress added that November 11 was to be "a day dedicated to the cause of world peace."

Armistice Day was more than a time for department store midnight madness sales. It meant more than military color guards marching in parades featuring the cleaned-up machinery of war. It was a reminder of the insane, horrific cost of war paid by soldiers at the front, those who ministered to the dead and wounded, and their families back home. It was a day to reflect on that memory and vow to learn to live in a world without war.

These days, when some still give all, but very few give some, it's easy for most of us to go on with our lives of work, shopping and family as if that's all there was. It's easy to overlook the tremendous pain and pressures caused by the multiple deployments needed for a "volunteer" military - unless someone in your family is directly involved in the fighting or is cut down by war's wide blade of "collateral damage" that can strike an Army base in Texas as well as a village in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Some truths are indeed universal. Veterans For Peace abides by two very simple ones: Wars are easy to start and hard to stop; and the innocent on all sides always suffer most.

The doughboys of WWI, shivering in the soggy, rotten trenches of Europe in November 1918, would have nodded wearily in agreement.

Mike Ferner, President
Veterans For Peace

Bill Fletcher Keynote at Veterans for Peace Nat'l Convention