8 US right-wing extremists plead 'not guilty'

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=122173§ionid=3510203


Eight Americans who have been accused of conspiring to kill law enforcement officers have pleaded not guilty to murder charges in a federal court.

The defendants' attorneys said on Wednesday that there were many allegations with no substantial evidence to back them.

Lawyers also sought to block government efforts to have the defendants detained for the duration of the proceedings. One of them is accused of planning to seize up to four rural counties in southeast Michigan.

Attorneys claimed they are only exercising their rights to freely voice their anger.

The group, known as 'Hutarees' or 'Christian warriors', view the police as their enemy. They say they are fighting against a "new world order."

The Hutarees were charged with five criminal counts, including "seditious conspiracy and attempts to use weapons of mass destruction."

Russell Tribunal on Palestine concludes in Spain

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119965§ionid=351020606


The first international session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine with a focus on the Palestinian right to self determination and the global responsibility of ending Israeli crimes against Palestinians has come to an end in Spain's eastern city of Barcelona.

At the closing of the session Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, enumerated Tel Aviv's international-law violations. "Among serious Israeli infringements are closure of Gaza Strip borders, restrictions on the freedom movement of its inhabitants, stripping Palestinian refugees of return right to their land of origin as well as preventing Palestinians from free use of natural resources such as water within their land," she said.

She added that given the discriminatory and biased nature of these measures, Israel has established an "apartheid state" in the area.Israel is denying Palestinians access to their own land, violating property rights and seriously restricting the freedom movement of the Palestinian population by constructing a wall in the occupied West Bank territories.

The activist also said that Tel Aviv violates the right to live of Palestinian nation through a policy of targeted assassinations of Palestinians it describes as militants.

The participants at the three-day event also argued that the European Union has been complicit in aiding and abetting Israelis to carry out their horrendous crimes. They pointed out that Israel is guilty of major crimes of domination, subjugation.

Like the apartheid era in South Africa when a white minority was ruling over a black majority, Israel seeks to take control of the Palestinians' lives, they said.

The activists also called on the EU member states — especially France, Germany and Romania — to strop selling weapons to Israel. They also demanded a ban on import of Israeli products, which are made in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine is made up of four sessions. At the end of 2010, a London session will scrutinize the complicity of corporations in normalizing and continuing Israel's violations of international law.

In mid-2011, a session in South Africa will consider apartheid in Israel. And the final session, which will be held in the United States next year, will go through the role of the Washington within the United Nations. It will also evaluate the decision-making processes used to deal with violations of international law.

UK details US torture of Ethiopian-born detainee

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=118355§ionid=351020601


The British government has been ordered to publish previously secret information about the alleged torture of former British detainee Binyam Mohamed by US authorities.

The information released shows that Britain was aware of allegations that Binyam Mohamed was being tortured while in US custody after his arrest in Pakistan in 2002.

Britain had wanted to keep the information secret, saying that revealing it would have harmed its relationship with the United States.

However, Britain's Court of Appeals ruled that the seven paragraphs about Mohamed must be released.

The texts say that Mohamed was subjected to continuous sleep deprivation as well as being threatened.

His fears of being removed from US custody and 'disappearing' were played upon, the newly released information said.

Ethiopia-born Mohamed was kept under self-harm observation and “the interviews were having a marked effect on him and causing him significant mental stress and suffering.”

"Although it is not necessary for us to categorize the treatment reported, it could readily be contended to be at the very least cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by the United States authorities," the text said.

After being held in US custody for seven years, Mohamed returned to Britain once all the charges were dropped against him in February of 2009.

Following Mohamed's arrest in Pakistan, he was moved to Morocco, were he was interrogated by US authorities, said Reprieve, a legal charity that has taken on Mohamed's case.

According to Reprieve, the British government knew Mohamed was in Morocco and that US authorities were interrogating him.

"During his time in Morocco, Binyam was subject to really medieval torture, among other horrors, a razor blade was regularly taken to his genitals," Reprieve said.

After spending a year and a half in Morocco, Mohamed was taken to a prison in Afghanistan and kept in complete darkness and tortured for another six months before being taken to Guantanamo Bay, Reprieve said. He remained in captivity there for an additional four years.

Mohamed explained that the “dark prison” in Afghanistan resembled a medieval dungeon with loud music and noise 24 hours a day.

"It was pitch black, no lights on in the rooms for most of the time," he has said. "They hung me up for two days. My legs had swollen. My wrists and hands had gone numb. There was loud music, Slim Shady (by Eminem) and Dr. Dre for 20 days. Then they changed the sounds to horrible ghost laughter and Halloween sounds.”

"At one point, I was chained to the rails for a fortnight. The CIA worked on people, including me, day and night. Plenty [of the detainees] lost their minds. I could hear people knocking their heads against the walls and the doors, screaming their heads off," he said.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said it was disclosing the information because it had already been put into the public domain by the decision of a US court in another case.