Tag: torture

What Are the Ethics of Strapping VR Headsets on Inmates in Solitary Confinement?

Right now in the US, the total population held in prison is nearly 2 million people, which is over 20 percent of the world’s prisoners. Of that massive number, over 122,000 US citizens are forced to endure solitary confinement for at least 22 hours a day.

Solitary confinement is the brutal practice of stuffing people into closet-sized rooms without sunlight, stimulation, or human contact for hours, days, weeks, and sometimes years or decades at a time. It’s a practice that amounts to torture, according to the United Nations and the Geneva Convention.

It’s no wonder why: research has shown that just hours of solitary confinement can cause serious and lasting psychological damage, potentially magnifying existing mental illness and significantly increasing a victim’s risk of suicide. All told, it’s a horrifying mark on an already dystopian carceral system.

Now take that grim situation and add a “Black Mirror”-esque wrinkle: prison officials in California are now offering some people held in solitary confinement an escape via virtual reality.

The program comes by way of Creative Acts, a social justice organization that leads art therapy workshops and educational initiatives in youth and adult prison systems. The nonprofit has previously used VR headsets as part of a general population reentry program, where incarcerated people visualize scenarios like their first steps outside the prison walls, before working through their emotional and physical response with volunteers.

The Guardian recently detailed how the program is working at Corcoran State Prison, where incarcerated people are plucked from 6ft by 11ft cells — where some had been for weeks — and chained to a metal seat inside of a “therapeutic module,” a metal cage no bigger than a phone booth.

From there, Creative Acts volunteers fit the participants with Oculus headsets, loaded up with a range of virtual programming ranging from a ride through Thailand on a rickshaw to a stroll down the streets of Paris. Let’s get it out of the way: the optics of prisoners in small cages, outfitted with VR headsets, are pretty bleak.

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Jewish torture: Urinating on Palestinian prisoners, burying them alive and beating the sick

Israeli jailers would wrap Palestinian prisoners in shrouds and bury them alive.

As they began to suffocate, just before death took hold, a small amount of air was allowed in to keep them alive, only for the process to be repeated moments later.

This is one of many accounts of torture inflicted on Palestinian detainees by Israeli authorities.

Following the recent Hamas-Israel prisoner exchange, hundreds of detainees have been released, and similar harrowing testimonies have emerged.

Mahmoud Ismail Abukhater, 41, was at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza when an Israeli military quadcopter hovered overhead, broadcasting a voice ordering “people of the neighbourhood to surrender,” on 20 October 2024.

“They fired bullets at houses and balconies and bombed homes nearby as they broadcast those messages to terrorise us. That’s when they detained us,” he recalled.

Abukhater said the torture began the moment they were detained and continued until the very last moment before their release.

“They treated us like animals, not humans,” he said.

Before being transferred to prison, the prisoners were taken to a place that resembled a cattle farm in Gaza, he explained.

There, they were forced to endure the freezing night, wearing only boxers and the thin white clothes they were given.

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Report: ICE Detains Venezuelan Colonel Accused of Torturing Dissidents

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Rafael Jose Quero Silva, a Venezuelan ex-military official living in the U.S. accused of repressing and torturing students protesting against socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, El Nuevo Herald reported on Sunday.

Quero Silva, a former colonel in Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) and commander of GNB’s Detachment 47, was reportedly under FBI investigation on accusations of committing human rights violations against Venezuelan dissidents protesting the Maduro regime in the Venezuelan state of Lara between 2013 and 2017.

At the time of writing, ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System listed Quero Silva as in custody at ICE’s Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, Florida.

“Two victims reported him to the FBI. I also denounced him, I spoke with FBI agents and they were investigating him,” José Antonio Colina, a retired Venezuelan serviceman and political exile, told El Nuevo Herald, a Florida-based Spanish-language newspaper, on Sunday.

Colina, who leads a group known as Venezuelans Persecuted Politically in Exile (VEPPEX), said that Quero Silva moved to America with his wife and children and that “presumptively” his father-in-law also resides in the U.S. through an “investor’s visa.”

Colina further asserted that Quero Silva was subject to immigration proceedings. He added that he thought it was “pathetic” that an alleged human rights violator would “hide” in the United States after supporting the Venezuelan socialist regime.

Quero Silva moved to the U.S. and requested political asylum alongside his family at some point in 2017, Voice of America (VOA) reported on Monday citing Venezuelan news outlets. Venezuelan politicians and representatives of civil rights organizations accused Quero Silva repressing and torturing dissidents in the Venezuelan state of Lara during two waves of protests between 2013 and 2014.

Venezuela underwent a period of protests in mid-2013 after late dictator Hugo Chávez died from an undisclosed type of cancer in March 2013. Chávez’s death automatically prompted a snap election in April 2013 that current dictator Nicolás Maduro “won” by a roughly 1.5-percent vote difference. Prior to his death, Chávez appointed Maduro as his vice president in late 2012. This effectively allowed Maduro to assume the interim presidency of Venezuela from the moment of his predecessor’s death.

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Killing the Constitution at Guantánamo

When British kings wanted to dispose of troublesome enemies – real or imagined – they often had them or their colleagues arrested on pretextual charges and then brutally tortured until confessions were extracted. The confessions were then read aloud during so-called trials; and, of course, the defendant was convicted of whatever crime was the subject of the confession.

All this was done in order to satisfy the political, and in many cases the personal, desires of the monarch by creating the impression of due process.

Often the torture occurred in remote places, so remote that there was no government there, and the king and his counselors could argue that the protections of the British traditions of fair play – the British do not have a written Constitution, but rather a set of traditions – was not violated because the torture occurred in a place where the traditions did not apply.

When one of the victims of this practice was an official who had previously engaged in perpetrating it, the House of Commons, many of whose members feared becoming victims of the monarch’s desires, adopted the principle of habeas corpus. That ancient right compelled the jailer of any person anywhere to bring the jailed person before a neutral magistrate and justify the confinement.

Due process has numerous definitions and aspects, but for constitutional purposes it basically means that all charged persons are presumed innocent and entitled to a written notice of the charges, a speedy and fair hearing before a neutral fact finder, a right to appeal; and the entire process imbued with fairness and a profound recognition of personal innocence until guilt is proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Due process also explicitly prohibits the use of torture.

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Proof that Syrian ‘prisoner’ discovered and freed by CNN crew was one of Assad’s ruthless henchmen as ex-intelligence officer is now missing

A shocking image of the Syrian ‘prisoner’ who was discovered locked up Damascus prison by journalists proves that he was actually one of former dictator Bashar al-Assad’s henchmen who ruthlessly killed and tortured inmates. 

The feigned inmate was found by CNN‘s chief international correspondent Clarrisa Ward and her team while they toured an abandoned detention site last Wednesday.

He was found under a blanket trembling and exclaiming ‘Oh God! There is light!’, in a video that went viral. 

But earlier this week Syrian fact-checking organization Verify-Sy reported that the man in the clip was in fact a first first lieutenant in the Syrian Air Force Intelligence, which served former President Assad.

CNN launched an investigation into the man’s identity and confirmed that he was not a ‘civilian father’ named Adel Gharba, but rather Salama Mohammad Salama. 

Citing local sources, CNN said in a statement Monday that Salama ‘was known for running the Air Force Intelligence Directorate’s checkpoints in the city’ and was accused of ‘having a reputation for extortion and harassment’.

Now, an image, that was shared with CNN by locals and Verify-Sy, shows Salama wearing a sly smirk behind a desk that appears to be inside a government office. 

He is dressed in military uniform, further proving his links to the Assad regime. 

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CNN Admits Reporter Duped: Assad ‘Victim’ Found In Syria Prison Was Regime Intel Officer

The long and colorful history of major media promotion of false, government-serving narratives has a new chapter. 

Last week, CNN aired a melodramatic report from reporter Clarissa Ward that was supposed to show a CNN crew amazingly rescuing a victim of the Assad regime from the bowels of a Damascus dungeon. After days of mounting skepticism and pointed questions ricocheting across social media, alternative new sites and here at ZeroHedge, CNN now says the “rescued” man was actually a regime intelligence officer, and there are reports that he himself perpetrated crimes against civilians

The man identified himself as Adel Ghurbai, and said he lived in the central Syrian city of Homs. However, over the weekend, the self-described Syrian fact-checking site Verify-Sy said he was actually Salama Mohammad Salama, aka “Abu Hamza”, an infamous and cruel first lieutenant in Syrian Air Force Intelligence: 

Abu Hamza reportedly managed several security checkpoints in Homs and was involved in theft, extortion, and coercing residents into becoming informants. According to locals, his recent incarceration—lasting less than a month—was due to a dispute over profit-sharing from extorted funds with a higher-ranking officer. This led to his detention in one of Damascus’s cells, as per neighborhood sources. 

…

Despite his seemingly innocent and composed demeanor in the CNN report, Salama has a grim history. He participated in military operations on several fronts in Homs in 2014, killed civilians, and was responsible for detaining and torturing numerous young men in the city without cause or on fabricated charges. Many were targeted simply for refusing to pay bribes, rejecting cooperation, or even for arbitrary reasons like their appearance. These details were corroborated by families of victims and former detainees who spoke with Verify-Sy.

On Monday, CNN posted a report — written by Tim Lister and Eyad Kourdi but not Ward — revealing the network had been duped. Unsurprisingly, the rolling ratings disaster that is CNN stopped short of taking responsibility for its failure. CNN did credit Verify-Sy for first reporting the man’s apparent real identity, which CNN corroborated with its own canvassing of residents in the Bayada neighborhood of Homs. Considering the crimes Salama is accused of, the CNN follow-up article ends on a darkly amusing note: “Salama’s current whereabouts are unknown.” Yes, Ward yearned to bask in the glory of saving a regime victim, only to be exposed as aiding and abetting the escape of an apparent regime criminal.  

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Prisoner CNN helped free from Syrian prison was actually notorious Assad regime torturer: report

The prisoner CNN helped free from a secret facility in Syria was actually a notorious member of Bashar al-Assad’s forces known to torture those who refused to pay him off, according to a shocking local fact check.

The network went viral last week with footage of the startled prisoner being led from the prison by journalist Clarissa Ward, who called it “one of the most extraordinary moments I have witnessed” in her 20 years of reporting.

But “independent and unbiased” fact-checkers Verify-Sy published a detailed report Sunday saying that the seemingly innocent prisoner was actually Salama Mohammad Salama — a first lieutenant in Syrian air force intelligence with a long history of alleged war crimes.

“We have subsequently been investigating his background and are aware that he may have given a false identity,” CNN acknowledged to The Post. “We are continuing our reporting into this and the wider story.”

The CNN story last week showed Ward and a camera crew, escorted by a rebel fighter, visiting a former Syrian air force intelligence headquarters in Damascus and freeing the man who was found under a blanket locked in a windowless cell. 

He gave his name as Adel Ghurbal and claimed to have been arrested by government authorities three months earlier — and said he had no idea the Assad regime had collapsed.

Verify-Sy noted, however, that he appeared “well-groomed, and physically healthy, with no visible injuries or signs of torture — an incongruous portrayal of someone allegedly held in solitary confinement in the dark for 90 days.”

He also “did not flinch or blink even when gazing up at the sky” despite having said he had not seen sunlight for three months.

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US Jury Awards $42 Million To 3 Iraqi Men Tortured At Abu Ghraib By Defense Contractor

The released photos documenting torture of prisoners at the United States government’s Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq during the Iraq War disgusted many people who could look beyond the war propaganda to feel sympathy for their fellow human beings.

Even if it was assumed that all the people pictured in the midst of their torture were themselves guilty of heinous crimes — an assumption that lacked foundation, the torture was a breach of civilized behavior.

Two decades later, some accountability has been meted out by a jury in Alexandria, Virginia.

The jury decided Tuesday that the military contractor CACI Premier Technology Inc. is liable to pay a total of 42 million dollars in damages to Suhail Al Shimari, Salah Al-Ejaili, and Asa’ad Zuba’e — three former detainees at Abu Ghraib in the 2003 through 2004 time period who had brought a lawsuit against the company whose employees worked as interrogators at the prison.

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Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic who compared Trump to Hitler was a prison guard at IDF facility known for abusing prisoners

The Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic who recently compared former President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler has a disturbing past as a prison guard for the Israel Defense Forces at a facility that is known for torturing prisoners and sexually abusing them.

Jeffrey Goldberg penned the piece entitled “Trump: ‘I Need the Kind of Generals That Hitler Had’” published earlier this week. It was filled with claims such as: “Trump has frequently voiced his disdain for those who serve in the military and for their devotion to duty, honor, and sacrifice.”

Even more outrageously, Goldberg went on to claim that Trump grew “more and more interested in the advantages of dictatorship, and the absolute control over the military that he believes it would deliver. “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” Trump said in a private conversation in the White House, according to two people who heard him say this. “People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders.”

Trump spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer has categorically denied this, writing in an email that Trump “never said this.”

While this attack came directly from Goldberg, there has been a pattern of anti-Trump articles under his leadership, including recent examples such as “Trump Is Speaking Like Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini” and “Hypocrisy, Spinelessness, and the Triumph of Donald Trump.”

It’s all part of a smear campaign from an editor who doesn’t exactly have a spotless past.

Goldberg, who is Jewish and was raised by “very left-wing parents,” is a dual American-Israeli citizen who left college to move to Israel and serve for the IDF during the First Intifada.

The facility where he worked, Ketziot prison camp, was a holding place where Palestinians who were arrested for participating in the uprising were held. The prison camp was condemned by human rights groups during the time Goldberg served there for violating the Geneva Convention.

Goldberg later recounted in his book that he observed one of his fellow IDF prison guards beating up a Palestinian prisoner after he talked back to him. According to Goldberg, he did try to stop the guard from abusing the man but then later helped him cover it up, writing: “’He fell,’ I lied.”

After returning to the U.S., he became one of the most well-known reporters on the Middle East, working for outlets such as the Washington Post, Slate, New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker before ending up at The Atlantic. He has interviewed everyone from Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan’s King Abdullah to Fidel Castro and Hillary Clinton.

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These Texas Inmates Wrote a Book. Then the Prison System Banned It.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has banned yet another book in its prisons. Except this time, it was written by inmates themselves.

TEXAS LETTERS, an ongoing anthology of letters written by inmates detailing their experiences with solitary confinement, will no longer be accessible to those in custody. The publisher and editor, Damascus James, says he received a letter from the TDCJ in July apprising him of the decision.

James describes the project on his website as a work that “explores the loss of sanity, humanness, and, oftentimes, hope through the personal writings” of inmates who have spent months, years, and sometimes even decades in solitary confinement. Much of the collection features portrayals of violence from correction officers and grueling accounts of the living conditions within solitary confinement cells. 

Studies on the long-term effects of solitary confinement attest to the brutal nature described in many of the letters. Half of all suicides in prisons and jails occur in solitary confinement, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open, a medical journal. Even just experiencing solitary confinement at any time during incarceration increased the chances of dying within the first year of release by 24 percent.

The banning of TEXAS LETTERS was not a surprise for James. Not only does the Texas prison authority have a reputation for book banning but also for trying to evade the term solitary confinement altogether by instead using alternative phrases.

“They’ve euphemized torture, calling it ‘administrative segregation’ and ‘restrictive housing’ for years in an effort to conceal the harsh realities of torturous isolation for thousands of people,” James tells Reason. The ban “was clearly an attempt to silence the voices of those who have suffered the torture of solitary confinement.” 

More than 10,000 books are currently banned from Texas prisons. TEXAS LETTERS vol. 1 and vol. 2 join a long list of prohibited material, which includes the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Color Purple, Freakonomics, and even Where’s Waldo? Santa Spectacular. Notable omissions include books such as Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, as well as two books by former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke. 

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