What should we believe?

We live in extraordinary times with potential for a much worse future.

The only way we can stop the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld policy of torturing suspects is to spread the word as fast as possible. So please read up on it, and spread the word, through your email address book, blogs, websites, letters to the editor and especially e-lists. Tell as many people as you can today that civilised people will not accept torture, not now, not ever.
Pip Wilson

"Hidden evidence over Mamdouh Habib's torture claims suggests the Australian Government suppressed critical facts in the case and repeatedly misled the public. Marian Wilkinson reports.

"SOON after Mamdouh Habib arrived in chains at the US base at Guantanamo Bay he was taken to the prison hospital to be examined by military doctors. It was May 2002 and the broken Habib had just spent six months in an Egyptian jail being interrogated by that country's notoriously ruthless security police.

"The evaluation of Habib by the military psychiatrist was blunt, according to a summary revealed to the Herald. Habib reported 'a history of intrusive thoughts of an incarceration in a foreign country two months prior, nightmares of beatings and increased startle responses as well as hyper-arousal symptoms'.

"It was the first of many indications that Habib had been tortured in Egypt.

"The military psychiatrist diagnosed Habib with post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression and a third psychiatric disorder. His 'issues', according to the psychiatrist, included 'recollection of torture he experienced in a foreign country'. The US doctors began treating Habib with antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs.

"Days before that evaluation, the then Australian attorney-general, Daryl Williams, told reporters that 'US authorities have advised that Mr Habib is in good health' ..."
Sydney Morning Herald


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Amnesty International publishes fresh torture testimonies and calls for closing down of Guantanamo

More news from the Bush/Howard war on human rights

David Hicks denied acess to Australian lawyer
"As Australian terror suspect David Hicks begins his fifth year in detention at Guantanamo Bay, his Australian lawyer's latest attempt to travel to Cuba has been rejected.

"David McLeod says the Government isn't providing enough legal aid funding to adequately represent Mr Hicks, and the latest refusal for legal aid is just another in a long list of basic rights that Mr Hicks has failed to receive since his capture in 2001."
ABC

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Tagged: guantanamo, rendition, torture, usa, cia, australia, human+rights, civil+rights