Hector Aleem: Update

Sometimes it is good to be wrong. This is one of those times. I assumed that Hector had been murdered when he disappeared from the jail. The latest update from his family reveals that I was excessively pessimistic. Hector has been returned to the jail after being tortured.

The story of Hector Aleem's torment is illustrative of what happens when Islam gains power over people. Don't let this happen here!!

Mehwish Aleem July 3 at 4:12pm Reply

Dear all group members,

First of all welcome all new group members, please invite your friends to join this group.

1st July was daddy's hearing and luckily I got five minutes to meet him and he told me lots of things in those five minutes. Here are the details:

Daddy told me that people from FIA (Fedral investigation Agency) came and took daddy to some unknown place. There they kept him for five days and during those five days they beat him and tortured him mentaly and physically. Daddy told me that members of Sunni Tehreek (a terrorist organization in Pakistan) and their head Mulana Tahir Iqbal Chisti who is also the plantiff of our case was there. We only know that they tortured daddy, but we dont know how they tortured him because we had only five minutes. But daddy showed me his swelled hands and feet which had bruises on them. He was very very weak and he could barely stand. Then he told me that a person named Shehzad who is 25 years old and is locked up in a cell next to daddy's cell made a Crucifix on a bed sheet. Then he disrespected the Cross by walking on it and after that he urinated and spitted on it and then he wiped feces with it. When daddy informed Ashraf (head Warder) and Imtiaz (an Incharge who assists Ashraf) then they not only encouraged that man and also didn't take any action against him. They told him if he do it next time then they would be more happy of him and he would be given much more facilities in jail. In the end daddy said " first I was being tortured physically and now they are hurting me religiously and mentally". Daddy is not allowed to go to Church, not on Christmas nor Easter. He is not even allowed to pray in his own cell. Its a request to please tell the Suprietendent o the jail to let daddy pray and visit Church. I am giving you his address and phone number, but remember DO NOT day anything against Islam or Pakistan because that can put daddy's life in danger.

Here is the address: To the Suprintendant of Jail, Adyala Jail, Rawalpindi Pakistan.

Phone number o suprintendent is: 0092-51-557-4786

Daddy is being kept in a death cell which is a very small and dark room. He can only see the sky when he comes out for the hearing.

*****Update of Hearing*****

The Judge was absent so nothing happened and the next date is 7th July 2010. It is requested to please keep on donating as the lawyer is asking for his fee. The lawyer is not moving without the fee and we must give him the fee asap to get daddy out of that jail. You can donate through any way you want, and any amount you can. You can donate through pay pal and through western union or any other way.

Here is the link to the paypal: http://tinyurl.com/hectoraleem

And if you wanna donate through western union then contact Mehwish Aleem (in the group Admin)

We recieved each and every kind of amount, from $5 to $1000 so any amount helps.

Keep praying, we need your prayers

Regards

Mehwish Aleem

Interrogation and Torture: False Equivalence

Jim has commented on Obamination: National Insecurity.

If waterboarding is not torture than why did we treat those who did it to our troops as war criminals in WWII? All your reasoning is in fact anti-law and anti-American. I suggest you re-consider your stand on this.

The "waterboarding" performed by convicted Japanese took two forms. One form was similar to that used by the CIA, but had two significant differences. The Japanese continued the treatment until their victim had a belly full of water, then they beat him or stomped his belly. Did the CIA fill Khalid Sheikh Mohammad with water? Did they beat him? Did they stomp him?

The second form involved tieing the victim to a ladder, with his throat up against a rung and his head hanging below the ladder. In that position he was dunked in a tub of water, submerged until he passed out. The victim was then revived and immersed again.

My source for that information is a post at Investor's Hub. In this Times Online article, linked in that forum post, a British officer who survived the water torture describes his experience. If you would like to know more about the torture performed by the Japanese who were convicted and hung, summon up all your intestinal fortitude and click this link.

Critical elements of the Japanese torture are missing from the CIA waterboarding, which was carried out with medical supervision and monitoring and did not involve saturation, beating or other physical injuries.

Jim is comparing interrogation to torture, ignoring the details which differentiate the two practices. It is obvious that he is ignorantly or maliciously repeating enemy propaganda. The moralistic tone of his comment leads me to conclude that he acts out of malice, not ignorance.

Obamanation: National Insecurity

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT THE UNITED STATES NAVAL ACADEMY COMMENCEMENT

Two excerpts from that commencement address stand out below the rest; I quote them here.

In a culture where so many chase the outward markers of success that can so often lead us astray -- the titles and status, the materialism and money, the fame and popularity -- these Americans have embraced the virtues that we need most right now: self-discipline over self-interest; work over comfort; and character over celebrity.

Sometimes a con man, in his conceit, will effectively confess his crimes to his victims, firm in the belief that they are too dull to fully comprehend what he is saying. I view that first quote as a prime example of that hubris. President Obama expected that the graduates were too excited and we were too lazy to plumb the depth of his words. The following outline may help you to observe how those words apply to the man who spoke them.

• outward markers of success
• titles and status
• Senator
• President
• materialism and money
• Presidential salary
• book royalties
• expensive Chicago real estate
• fame and popularity
• character over celebrity

Yesterday I visited the National Archives and the halls that holds our Constitution, our Declaration of Independence, and our Bill of Rights. I went there because, as our national debate on how to deal with the security challenge that we face proceeds, we must remember this enduring truth: The values and ideals in those documents are not simply words written into aging parchment, they are the bedrock of our liberty and our security. We uphold our fundamental principles and values not just because we choose to, but because we swear to; not because they feel good, but because they help keep us safe and keep us true to who we are.

What principle is more fundamental to this nation than individual liberty? What safeguards it more than strict limits on the power of governments? Have we so soon forgotten his egregious remarks about the Constitution's charter of "negative rights" which supposedly prevent the federal government from doing what it should for us?

Because when America strays from our values, it not only undermines the rule of law, it alienates us from our allies, it energizes our adversaries, and it endangers our national security and the lives of our troops. So as Americans, we reject the false choice between our security and our ideals. We can and we must and we will protect both.

That last quote packs broad meaning into a few words. Lets take a closer look.

• when America strays from our values

It is clear, from the context, that that phrase is a reference to water boarding. The value alluded to is justice. Our system of justice seeks to determine fact and law by investigation, inquiry and reasoned debate. It assumes innocence until guilt is proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Torture may be an interrogation technique, but it is also a punishment; we don't punish the innocent. This points to two deadly assumptions.

1. Waterboarding is torture.
2. Enemy combatants are innocent.

Both of those assumptions are obviously false. While waterboarding inflicts fear, if done properly it neither causes undue pain nor inflicts permanent injury. It is not equivalent to drills, knives, pliers or hot irons. Anyone who graduates from a terrorist training camp and carries a weapon on the battlefield is not innocent. Khalid Sheik Mohammad planned the abomination of 9-11-01. Not being a U.S. citizen or legal resident alien, he has no Miranda rights. He has no right to the presumption of innocence. He is action was not a misdemeanor, it was an attack carried out as part of a war.

• it alienates us from our allies

Those who are alienated are not and were not our allies, they were fair weather friends. Our weakness; our failure to seek and obtain clear victories in Korea & Vietnam emboldened our enemies and distanced broke the links with our allies.

• it energizes our adversaries

The photos of prisoner abuse and stories of 'torture' are grist for propaganda mills, but they are not the cause of enmity. The act of resisting Islamic aggressions supplies all the energizing they need.

• it endangers our national security and the lives of our troops

Our security is endangered by failure to recognize, identify & accurately classify the enemy. The lives of our troops are endangered by sending them to invade where we should have sent tactical nuclear missiles. Wisdom dictates swift, total destruction of wasp nests, not poking them with sticks.

• false choice between our security and our ideals

Real Americans reject it; President Obama, a self proclaimed 'citizen of the world', embraces and nurtures it, exploiting it for political gain at the expense of our national security.

To witness the difference between a demagogue and a statesman, read the transcript of former Vice President Richard B. Cheney's remarks to the American Enterprise Institute.