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The American Constitution, the fundamental cornerstone of American society, was never meant to co-exist with the income tax system. In fact, according to film-maker Aaron Russo, to whom we have given coverage before, the "income tax" is in full breach of the US Constitution. How can this be? How else would Americans pay for their education, the maintenance of their highways and the vast military expenditure of Mr. Bush? In Russo\’s investigation, it transpires that these things and more are paid entirely from other taxes quite beyond those taken from the salaries of the US workforce. Russo, a former music promoter, talent scout, rock star manager and producer of big Hollywood movies, has recently turned his sights to a more …

America is one of the first ports of call for those seeking asylum from oppressive regimes in which human rights violations make life unbearable. It is ironic, then, that in the post-9/11 landscape America has been responsible for hundreds - if not thousands - of breaches of basic human rights.

Photo credit: Anonymous, Public Domain

The horrific images of Guantánamo Bay detainment camp leaked out into the public are just the tip of the iceberg. Over time news has emerged of the systematic kidnapping, extradordinary rendition, torture, and secret detention of innocent people under the supervision of the United States government.

Two such cases are the subject of the groundbreaking documentary Outlawed: Extraordinary Rendition, Torture and Disappearances in the ‘War on Terror’. This powerful documentary, funded by the human rights organization Witness, details the stories of two innocent men who had years of their lives stolen.

Khaled El-Masri and Binyam Mohamed tell of their grueling ordeals at the hands of US agencies, and the agents of other countries doing their bidding. Both men were abducted, flown off to far-flung locations, detained for an unthinkable length of time and repeatedly physically and mentally tortured.

The so-called ‘War on Terror’ gives the terrifying right of Extraordinary Rendition to agents of the US government. Wikipedia describes this process as:

”… an American extra-judicial procedure which involves the sending of untried criminal suspects, suspected terrorists or alleged supporters of groups which the US Government considers to be terrorist organizations, to countries other than the United States for imprisonment and interrogation.

Critics have accused the CIA of rendering suspects to other countries in order to avoid US laws prescribing due process and prohibiting torture, even though many of those countries have, like the US, signed or ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture. Critics have called this practice “torture by proxy” or “torture flights”.

”

In these selected video highlights from the Outlaw documentary, I have tried to capture the essence of these two men’s harrowing, truly eye-opening tales.

Rendition

In this first clip we hear about the Rendition process from Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner For Human Rights, and the thinking behind it from Michael Scheuer, the Chief Architect of the CIA rendition program.

He claims that:

”The goals of the Rendition Program were only two at the beginning:

To get individuals off the street, who we knew were senior in Al Qaeda or its allies, and who posed a threat to the United States

The second goal of the Rendition Program was very simply at the time of the capture of any individual at the time a cell was disrupted, to seize whatever documents were available. Interrogation was never a central goal

”

Nevertheless, the two men featured in Outlawed were subject to long and brutal interrogations that cost them months and years of their lives.

Khaled El-Masri’s abduction

Khaled El-Masri, a German citizen, was kidnapped, detained in Afghanistan, tortured and then - after several months - released without charges. In this first of two clips he tells of his initial abduction by US security agents.

The Wikipedia entry on El-Masri’s ordeal notes that:

”El-Masri wrote in the Los Angeles Times that, while held in Afghanistan, he was beaten and repeatedly interrogated. He has also claimed that he was raped. He was kept in a bare, squalid cell, given only meager rations to eat and putrid water to drink.

In February, CIA officers in Kabul began to suspect his passport was genuine. The passport was sent to the CIA headquarters in Langley where in March the CIA’s Office of Technical Services concluded it was indeed genuine. Discussion over what to do with El-Masri included secretly transporting him back to Macedonia, without informing German authorities, dumping him, and denying any claims he made.

In the end they did inform the German government, without apologizing, and were able to persuade the Germans to remain silent.

”

Khaled El-Masri’s rendition

After being abducted while holidaying in Macedonia, El-Masri was beaten, shackled, blindfolded, drugged and put on a plane to Afghanistan, where civil rights can be effectively ignored, and the torture of innocent ’suspects’ falls within the rights of interrogators. Here he was told that he could be killed, detained indefinitely or made to disappear from the face of the earth.

Months later, he was finally released, as Wikipedia notes:

”In April 2004, CIA Director George Tenet learned that El-Masri was being wrongfully detained. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice learned of his detention shortly thereafter in early May and ordered his release.

El-Masri was released on May 28 following a second order from Dr. Rice. American authorities met with him and agreed to release him if he agreed never to tell the story of his ordeal to anyone. They flew him out of Afghanistan and released him at night on a desolate road in Albania, without apology, or funds to return home. At the time he believed his release was a ruse, and he would be executed.

”

.

Thus an innocent man lost months of his life, suffering brutal torture, detainment and daily fear for his life in the name of the ‘war on terror’. But he was not alone.

Binyam Mohamed’s abduction

Ethiopian national - and resident of the UK - Binyam Mohamed is still being detained in the now famous Guantánamo Bay prison. The diaries of his experiences at the hands of US security forces make for stomach-churning reading, and are read throughout Outlawed by Binyam Mohamed’s brother.

Denied a lawyer from the outset, when Mohamed refused to cooperate with his captors, he was flown to Morroco, where he was routinely interrogated and tortured to extract information about his suspected involvement with the Al-Quaeda network.

Binyam Mohamed’s torture

In Morroco, Binyam Mohamed was subjected to horrific torture, which is recounted in his diary in this final clip from Outlawed. He tells of eighteen months spent in the darkness, without ever once seeing sunlight, and being subjected to extreme torture, including genital mutilation, at the hands of his Morrocan captors.

Binyam Mohamed is still being detained, with no certain date of parole or being freed, under US counter terrorism regulations. His Wikipedia entry notes that:

”In December 2005 the declassification of his lawyer’s notes permitted further claims of abusive interrogation to be made public. Binyam further claims include that he was transported to a black site known as “the dark prison”, where captives were permanently chained to the wall, kept in constant darkness, and constantly bombarded by loud noises and rap & heavy metal music.

Binyam claims that, while in the dark prison, his captors purposely injected him with heroin, to get him addicted, in order to use his addiction against him.”

”

This in the name of preserving our freedom?

They are not alone

While the ordeals of the two men featured in Outlawed are horrific on a personal level, it would be short sighted to think that they are unique. The film concludes with the following harrowing message:

”It is unknown how many others like El-Masri and Mohamed have been exposed to the United States and its allies to the system of secret detention and renditions since September 11, 2001. Some estimate the number could be several hundred, or even over 1,000.”

Whatever the number, it is one too many. Democracy and freedom are not built on torture, kidnapping and the denial of basic civil rights such as the right to legal representation. To continue to accept such behaviour on the part of our governments is if not an act of complicity, an act of crushing apathy on our parts.

Take action

If these men’s stories have moved you to take action, Witness, the human rights organization that funded it urge you to do so against extraordinary rendition and torture in the world community. You can:

• Sign Amnesty International’s Petition Against Torture

Additional resources

If you are interested in finding out more, you may wish to visit the following websites:

• The film’s official webpage

Iraq War: Bloggers And Independent Journalists Bring Back The News The Western Media Can’t Touch - Iraq: The Hidden Story - Video Highlights

Independent journalist Diyaa Al-Nasiri taking cover from gunfire

Native Iraqi independent journalists and political bloggers engaged with real people on the ground level are bringing back the news that the Western media - barricaded in their safety zone - can’t get near.

In the groundbreaking Channel 4 documentary Iraq - The Hidden Story startling images of the Iraq we never see come to light, along with the truth about how they are gathered out on the dangerous streets of a country in turmoil.

The chaotic bloodbath that has consumed Iraq often comes to our TV screens sanitized and carefully edited, to make it a little easier to stomach as we drink our morning coffee, or relax after a day at the office.

But there is a different story being captured by independent journalists and bloggers bringing back news from the front line.

In the following selection of highlights from this eye-opening documentary film, viewable in full (at least until it gets pulled) at Google Video, it becomes clear how the Western media reporting on Iraq are doing so from a walled enclave, or armoured vehicles, relying on Iraqi independent journalists to bring back material from the danger zone. Material which is then subject to censorship, editing and a process of extreme sanitization before being piped into the living rooms of the Western world.

I have personally selected moments from the film, which detail how:

• The Western media and officials have barricaded themselves into a walled enclosure which is rarely ventured out of, and even then with military supervision

So what are these images we are protected from seeing, and who are the people risking their lives to bring them to us? Read on to find out.

Red Zone / Green Zone

As this powerful sequence from the documentary makes apparent there are two very different Baghdads.

The one we see on the TV news, albeit carefully filtered for our consumption, is that of the ‘red zone’, the vast majority of this city on fire with civil unrest, American occupying forces run rampant and everyday acts of terrorism and brutality claiming the lives of hundreds of people every week.

And then there is the walled, heavily militarized, guarded ‘green zone’, the base of operations of occupying forces, and home to the Western media who rarely venture beyond its walls, instead relying on Iraqis to source the footage and images they will modify for home consumption.

In this sequence we see the unsettling juxtaposition of these two worlds, as women and children run for their lives amid volleys of gunfire in the red zone, while a US official bemoans the seating arrangements in a green zone conference room.

Mainstream Media Sanitization

The next clip contains some shocking imagery and isn’t advised for those with a weak stomach. In this sequence we see how the Western media cleanse scenes of devastation to avoid controversy or - from a more cynical perspective - avoid ill feeling against the occupying forces.

In reporting a catastrophic event, like that of the recent market place suicide bombing that killed 71 people, there is barely a trace of blood, or anything approaching the carnage that had a direct and real impact on the lives of hundreds of people. Shots are carefully selected, and much of the reality of the situation is left on the cutting room floor.

American War Atrocities

Besides cleansing scenes of devastation of their brutal reality, another issue often avoided by Western media is that of American war atrocities. In any war, soldiers commit gruesome and otherwise criminal acts against civilians, and yet the duty of every good propaganda machine is to imply that brutality is a trait belonging only to the enemy.

Even when shocking, controversial scenes do get out into the wild, they are edited to lessen their impact, and the effect that they might have on those watching them. In this next clip we see how footage of an American troop shooting an unarmed man in the head was variously edited and censored by mainstream media, and hear of how the incendiary nature of such footage is so often filtered or avoided altogether in a bid not to upset or enflame the ‘folks back home’.

Journalists at Risk - From American Troops

Civilians run for cover as a US assault chopper opens fire on a crowd

Among the threats faced by journalists out in the field, one of the greatest is coming into contact with American troops. In the next clip Alistair McDonald of Reuters Baghdad explains that four Reuters journalists have been killed in Iraq, three of which were by the American forces.

We then see how an American helicopter fired rockets into a crowd of civilians, including several journalists, at the scene of a burning armoured vehicle. The official line given was that it was to ‘prevent looting and harm to the Iraqi people’.

Iraqi Reporters on the Front Line

On the front line of news gathering, then, are the Iraqi independent journalists, and political bloggers risking their lives to document a country being torn apart, from within, and even by its occupiers. The dangers of being such an independent journalist are perhaps just as high as being a troop or ‘insurgent’, as these freelance and independent news gatherers ride directly into the heart of conflicts, spotting explosions from the rooftops and making their way directly to the scenes of danger.

It is only the Iraqis who dare to venture beyond the green zone.

For Western journalists to do so is to risk being shot on sight or kidnapped and held for randsome. And yet, the risks are little greater for those Iraqis taking up the challenge.

To be seen with Western media, or wearing a flak jacket is to be suspected of being on the side of the loathed occupying forces. And yet, to blend too easily into the crowd is to risk death at the hands of the indiscriminate American troops at scenes of conflict. They are forever treading a knife edge between the two, trying to capture the reality of a situation that only seems to worsen by the day.

In the next sequence we see the armoured convoys that take Western journalists through the streets of Baghdad in stark contrast to the unarmed, unarmoured Iraqi independent reporters making their way through the conflict by motorbike.

The Importance of Bloggers

Blogger Isam interviews the widow of a victim of the occupying forces

Besides this new breed of independent journalists risking everything for the Western media there is a growing band of political (and apolitical, personal) bloggers trying to capture the devastation and release it to the world through the open medium of the internet.

For while television is subject to network rules, and even government restrictions, the internet has proved itself as the one place that the grim reality of life in Iraq can be broadcast to the (Western) world.

In this final clip we see independent blogger Isam, who turned his back on a career in electrical engineering three years ago to document the atrocities committed by the occupying forces.

He says:

”When the Nazis or the fascists committed their crimes in Germany, Italy and other countries in the Second World War there was nobody to document them. If there were people documenting these crimes, they would have been held accountable, even 40-50 years after the end of the war.

I certainly hope that the day comes when my footage can be used to reveal crimes and leave little space for denial.

”

As the mainstream media filters through and cuts so many of these scenes, the importance of bloggers on a very real, political and ethical level becomes startlingly apparent.

Mainstream Media vs. Grassroots Journalism

One of the most powerful things revealed by this groundbreaking film is the true limit of mainstream media when faced with the harsh reality of war and devastation.

As citizen journalism, political bloggers and independent journalists move to fill the gap, we are slowly being brought closer to an image of the reality of people’s lives in Iraq.

Cheap recording and editing equipment, grassroots involvement and the Internet as an effective means of getting information to a potential audience of millions are transforming the media and the ways that it operates, while bringing us closer to the realities of everyday people.

The top-down, heavily filtered, mass media are starting to show their frailty, and the power and influence of the small blogger reporting from the streets and independent local video producer are becoming increasingly important. But not only to us, who want to learn and understand the news without a watchful eye cleansing them up for us. But also for those who really want to provide us with access to quality, objective, and uncensored news streams, unlike what 90% of US-based main media tv channels have been doing.

Independent media has a new home, and it isn’t on the television.

Additional Resources

If you are interested in finding out more about the issues raised in this post, you might want to take a look at the following websites:

• The full documentary at Google Video

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