August 11 2012

CagePrisoners: Aviva Stahl talks to former Black Panther Robert King

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Published August 11, 2012, in Talha Ahsan

Hamja Ahsan (left) whose brother Talha Ahsan has been
fighting extradition to the US from prison in the UK for 6
years, and Robert King

Racial profiling, torture, solitary confinement and decades in prison fighting for justice. These may be signatures of the US-led war on terror but such practices have been in motion for a long time. Robert King, one of the ‘Angola 3′, knows first-hand what it meant then as much as it does now and discusses his thoughts with CagePrisoners.

 “…if you got a life sentence for a crime you didn’t commit, you will never get out of prison, what can be more terrorizing than this?  You’re in a cell 23 hours a day, a 6x9x12 cell, so terror has always been a part of imprisonment. I have always seen it as terror.  So I can see how people around the world can say that being in prison, what’s going on in prison, is tantamount to terrorism.  And it is. And it’s nothing new.  It didn’t start with Guantanamo Bay, not to minimize, the same people who ran Guantanamo Bay, they started in America. It began there, and it expanded out.  And that’s why it’s so important that people in America, people around the world, need to get on board with what’s going on…”

The Angola 3 – Robert Hillary King, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace –  met in Angola Prison in Louisiana. The three men were politically radicalized after they were introduced to members of the Black Panther Party, and subsequently founded a local prison chapter of the Panthers. The men organized strikes and sit-ins – they were “troublemakers” – and perhaps as a result, in 1972 Albert and Herman were convicted of a murder that few people believe they committed, the stabbing of 23-year-old prison guard Brent Miller. Robert was not even at Angola Prison at the time, but was still investigated for involvement in the murder. Even Miller’s widow doubts that that the Angola 3 are responsible for her husband’s murder. There was no physical evidence against them, and some people have said that the prosecution’s star witness, Hezekiah Brown, agreed to testify in exchange for cigarettes, TV, birthday cakes, and even a potential pardon.

 Each member of the Angola 3 was placed in solitary confinement in 1972, spending 23 hours a day in 6×9 foot cells.  Robert remained there for 29 years, after being convicted for the murder of another prisoner in Angola by an all white jury.  His conviction was overturned in 2001, but Albert and Herman are still locked up.

AS: You were born in 1942.  What was it like growing up as an African American in that time in the States?

Continues…

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Guantanamo prisoner back in Sudan after 10 years

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Published August 11, 2012, in Detainee Release, Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi

Sudanese national, Ibrahim al-Qosi, in his 50s, a former al-Qaida cook
released from Guantanamo after 10 years in detention, prays upon arrival
at Khartoum airport in Khartoum. (AP)

A man who spent a decade as a prisoner in the U.S. detention facility for militants in Guantanamo Bay returned Wednesday to his native Sudan after completing a shortened sentence for aiding al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

Ibrahim al-Qosi was getting reacquainted with his wife and two daughters and other family members and will spend some time in a government-sponsored reintegration program in the capital, Khartoum, before returning to his hometown, said his lawyer Paul Reichler.

Al-Qosi, who recently turned 52, had not seen his family since he was captured and sent to the U.S. base in Cuba in early 2002. His release brings the prison population down to 168.

“I guess you call this probably the best birthday present he ever received,” Reichler, a Washington-based specialist in international law, said in a phone interview from Greece, where he was speaking at a legal conference.

The Pentagon and state-run media in Sudan confirmed al-Qosi’s release.

Al-Qosi admitted serving food and providing other services at a militant camp. He was among the first prisoners taken to the Guantanamo, the hastily arranged detention center to hold men suspected of ties to al-Qaida and the Taliban after the invasion of Afghanistan.

From a high of nearly 700, the population is now down to less than 170. President Barack Obama vowed to close the prison but has been prevented from doing so by Congress.

Al-Qosi, who moved to Afghanistan in 1996 to work with Islamic militants, struck a deal with U.S. military prosecutors in July 2010, pleading guilty to providing material support to terrorism and conspiracy in exchange for a 14-year sentence that would be shortened to two years from his conviction. It spared him the possibility of a much longer sentence, perhaps even life.

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Lawyer: Israeli forces strip search sick detainees

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Published August 11, 2012, in Palestine is a Prison, Palestinian Detainee

Inmates belongings were destroyed in the raid on a cell
for sick prisoners in Ashkelon jail, a detainee spokesman
said. (MaanImages/File)

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Israeli forces stormed a section of Ashkelon jail housing seriously ill prisoners on Friday, a lawyer for the Palestinian prisoners society said.

A large number of Israeli prison service special forces entered the cell early Friday while prisoners were sleeping, and forcefully strip searched all the inmates, detainee spokesman Nasser Abu Hmeid told society lawyer Kareem Ajwah on Saturday.

The prisoners belongings were destroyed during the raid, which lasted several hours, Abu Hmeid said.

There are 4,423 Palestinian prisoners currently being held in 20 Israeli detention centers, according to a report released by the Palestinian Prisoners Society this week.

Source

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Visits to hunger strikers reveal mistreatment by Israeli prison services

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Published August 11, 2012, in Palestinian Detainee, Palestinian Prisoners

pal-hunger1

Addameer lawyer Fares Ziad visited Mr. Al-Barq and Mr. Safadi in Ramleh prison medical center two days ago, 5 August, and a PHR-IL doctor was also able to visit them on 2 August.

 Mr. Al-Barq is currently on his 78th day of renewed hunger strike, directly following his previous 30-day hunger strike. According to an affidavit taken by Mr. Ziad, Mr. Al-Barq was transferred from Ramleh to Ofer military court on 31 July by IPS special forces, or Nahshon, known for their particularly brutal treatment of prisoners during transfers. During this transfer, the special forces ordered Mr. Al-Barq to walk, and when he told them that he could not, they beat him on his legs. They eventually brought him a wheelchair but did not help him, so he was forced to crawl to the chair and wheel it himself.

 Mr. Safadi, who is now on his 48th day of renewed hunger strike, following his previous 71-day hunger strike, also recounted a disturbing incident to Mr. Ziad. On 30 July, five Israeli soldiers raided his room. They first tore his pillow before starting to insult him and beat him all over his body, leaving his left leg injured. Mr. Safadi noted that his room is searched three or four times each day in a violent manner, though he is held in a small isolation cell with only his clothes. He and Mr. Al-Barq are now held together in this cell, which is only about 1.5 by 1.8 meters in size, with no windows or ventilation.

 Mr. Safadi elaborated to the PHR-IL doctor it was only after he complained to guards that it was hard to breathe in his cell that they immediately brought Mr. Al-Barq to share the tiny cell with him. Furthermore, there is no space in the room for the wheelchair that is being used by both hunger strikers for everyday activities, including the use of shower and toilet. After he again protested these conditions and treatment, he and Mr. Al-Barq were both beaten.

In the PHR-IL doctor’s visit on 2 August, the IPS doctor noted that Mr. Al-Barq and Mr. Safadi are often refusing any treatments such as minerals and vitamins. Both of them told the doctor that they are doing so as a last resort to protest against the humiliating and violent treatment by IPS staff. Since Ramadan began on 20 July, they drink water only at night. The two hunger strikers are also refusing to give blood tests during Ramadan due to religious adherence. During the visit, the IPS would not allow the independent doctor to examine the hunger strikers without the presence of IPS staff, in violation of the Israeli Patients’ Rights Law. An IPS paramedic was present in the examination room and at some point also brought other patients into the room.

 

Continues…

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U.S. sweetens offer to Taliban to swap Bergdahl for prisoners

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Published August 11, 2012, in Bowe Bergdahl

By Elise Labott

In an effort to revive peace talks with the Taliban, the Obama administration has sweetened a proposed prisoner swap under which it would transfer five Taliban prisoners to Qatar in exchange for a U.S. soldier held by the Taliban, senior U.S. officials said.

The new proposal involves sending all five Taliban prisoners to Qatar first, before the Taliban releases Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the sources said. The original offer proposed transferring the Taliban prisoners into two groups, with Bergdahl being released in between.

The new offer was first reported by Reuters.

The officials stress that the exchange, should it take place, would be implemented in accordance with U.S. law, which requires consultations with Congress before any detainees are transferred from Guantanamo.

At a State Department briefing Wednesday, Patrick Ventrell, an acting deputy spokesman, said the release of the detainees is not a sure thing.
“At this point, the United States has not decided to transfer the Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay,” he said.

He added that the U.S. does not discuss its internal deliberations on the issue.

Washington has hoped the prisoner exchange would be seen as a good-faith gesture in initial talks between U.S. and the Taliban, which would pave the way for formal reconciliation talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai.

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