What is torture? According to the dictionary it is defined as: “The action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or to force them to do or say something. Great physical or mental suffering or anxiety.” With regards to torture, the 17th Article of the Geneva Conventions states: “No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not ...More »

Good morning from mentally ill headquarters located in Vancouver’s sunny Downtown Lower Eastside. Here at MI HQ we do our best to cover the day’s events from the perspective of the mentally ill prior to our mid afternoon tee-off times (and to think there was a time when I was younger that I had a 15 handicap – just ask Salros). Painting 2 Billion People With A Single Brush Sheldon Richman of The Future Of Freedom Foundation penned a piece yesterday entitled Why the Peaceful ...More »

First, from Keith Olbermann... Second, regarding what is and is not deemed torture. Last night I revisited the film In The Name Of The Father, the true story of Gerry Conlon and the Guildford Four and Maguire Seven. The film is based on Conlon's autobiography entitled Proved Innocent, which I highly recommend. For those of you that don't know the story, the Guildford Four were the first people detained under the prevention of terrorism act. This act allowed the British government to detain suspects for seven days ...More »

The world’s most technologically advanced military keeps missing. When it comes to the barbaric act of stoning people to death, chances are there are more hits than misses. The Iranians plan to put that theory to the test. Others are merciful enough to wash clean their conscience by employing lethal injection. Death’s a franchise. In the UK a parliamentary oversight committed has come to the conclusion that the British government should no longer accept on blind faith American assurances that it doesn’t use torture. It’s a little ...More »

Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba’s (Ret.) new report regarding human rights abuses in Iraq and elsewhere, initiated and published by Physicians For Human Rights, has lent credible gravity to the argument that officials within the administration are guilty of war crimes… “The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison accused the Bush administration Wednesday of committing "war crimes" and called for those responsible to be held to account. The remarks by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who's now retired, came in a ...More »

First, McClatchy Newspapers has conducted an eight-month investigation of the US detention system created in the aftermath of 9/11. Guantanamo: Beyond the Law is an unprecedented examination of the detention system, one which every free thinking person should seriously examine. It is a five part series that will begin publication on the 15th of this month. “Reporter Tom Lasseter, with help from Matt Schofield, conducted in-person interviews with 66 former detainees now living mostly in the Middle East and South Asia. No other news organization has ...More »

Superman is fictional. So is the rule of law as it pertains to the Bush Administration… “The Pentagon urged interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to destroy handwritten notes in case they were called to testify about potentially harsh treatment of detainees, a military defense lawyer said Sunday. The lawyer for Toronto-born Omar Khadr, Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, said the instructions were included in an operations manual shown to him by prosecutors and suggest the U.S. deliberately thwarted evidence that could help terror suspects defend themselves at trial. Kuebler said ...More »

What can you expect from American politicians when you’re addressing them as an individual that was held captive at Guantanamo for almost five years of your life despite the fact that you did nothing wrong and were eventually released without charge? Very little. First, you can expect less than half a dozen of those that sit on the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs to actually show up to hear you speak. Second, you can be assured that most of them won’t even be able ...More »

Of all those that served in the military in my family, the one common trait shared by all of them is that they did not like to talk about their experiences. My Grandfather and Great Uncles went to lengths to avoid the topic, and as an inquisitive youngster I was sometimes scolded for my curiosity. At the time, of course, I couldn’t understand why, but as a grown man it’s something that I do. Other members of my extended family have also served and seen ...More »

I don’t know what to say about this. It's quite beyond me... “A 73-year-old Austrian is under arrest on suspicion of hiding his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and fathering seven children with her, police say. The existence of the woman, believed missing since 1984 and now 42, emerged after a teenage child fell ill and had to be taken to hospital. Both the woman and teenage girl are receiving medical treatment and the other children are in care. A police investigation in Amstetten, Lower Austria Province, ...More »