SEE YOU TOMORROW

We are playing with Car 87, All Out Panic,and The Fuck You Pigs tomorrow night at Logan's. I know the poster says the Gnar Gnars are playing, but they feel they aren't ready yet, and I respect that. How many times have we sat through bands who have barely picked up their fucking instruments try to make it through a half-assed set of terrible shitty music? Too many fucking times. Although this isn't the case with The Gnar Gnars. They just want everything to be right. The stuff Hoon played for me is great, and I look forward to seeing them in July.
  Car 87's new music is fucking awesome as always, and they are great people. They alone will be worth the price of admission. They will tear your shit up. And The Fuck You Pigs are a local favourite. I would have come out to this show if we weren't playing. See you all there.

THIS IS WHY...

This following article is why I think the RCP and Chairman Avakian are so important. No other Party does the type of consistent exposure of amerikkkan and western hypocrisy that Revolution newspaper does. The troops sent to foreign countries to "liberate" them are not saviours. They are there to serve their masters in the government and corporations. They reinforce the status quo in our fucked up society. Anyone who thinks that kkkanadian and british troops are serving a purpose other than that is fucking delusional, or wilfully blind. How could they be allies of the amerikkkans if they were performing a totally opposite mission? Wake the fuck up...

On the Epidemic of Rape in the U.S. Military

May 26, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The U.S. military and the U.S. government have been rocked by a series of scandals and exposures about rape, a pervasive atmosphere of sexual harassment of women, and covering up or excusing the men who perpetrate these acts. Over the past several months, this cascade of scandals has provided a glimpse into the ugly culture of woman-hating and homophobia that is a key ideological glue cohering the U.S. military.

"Two War Fronts (3)" by Jared Rodriguez.
Image: flickr/Truthout.org 

Several journalists have referred to an “epidemic” of rape in the various branches of the military revealed by these exposures. Former Defense Secretary (and current C.I.A. Director) Leon Panetta acknowledged that an average of 365 sexual assaults take place every week in the military. This figure is very likely a gross underestimation: as the organization Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN) reported, while all “sexual assaults are under reported, this problem is exacerbated [made worse] in military settings.”

Further, one of the most damning aspects of the incidents coming to light is that several high-ranking officers and others charged with preventing violence against women and in other positions of authority have themselves been accused of assaulting, harassing, and raping women.

Among the incidents in recent months:

• Rape and sexual harassment charges have been placed against 17 instructors at Lackland Air Force Base, involving attacks on at least 62 women from 2009 to 2011. Two former commanders at Lackland were disciplined for their role in covering up and concealing the crimes when the extent and duration of the assaults became public knowledge.
• Lt. Colonel Jeff Krusinski, who was the Air Force’s “chief of sexual assault prevention,” was arrested on May 5 for a drunken attack on a woman in a parking lot in Virginia.
• Army Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair is facing a court-martial on charges of “forcible sodomy”—rape—of a woman, herself an Army captain. Sinclair also faces charges for “sex-related crimes” for his assaults on four other women, three Army officers and one civilian. When Sinclair was initially questioned about these and other incidents, he replied “I’m a general. I’ll do whatever the fuck I want.” The jury in Sinclair’s trial is being selected from a pool of other Army generals.
• Lt. Colonel James Wilkerson was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to one year in prison for raping a woman in his home. But in late April his conviction was overturned and all charges against Wilkerson were dismissed by a commander, also a high-ranking Army officer, who said Wilkerson was more “believable” than the woman he raped. Wilkerson was sent to a base in Tucson, where the woman and her family live.
• Army Sgt. First Class Gregory McQueen, who was “Sexual Abuse Educator” at Ft. Hood, is under investigation for operating a “prostitution ring” at the fort, and for sexual assault. McQueen was exposed by a woman he assaulted after she refused to become a prostitute in McQueen’s service.

The recent testimony of Rebekah Havrilla in a Senate hearing on sexual violence in the military concentrated how a nightmare brew of degradation, harassment, rape, cover-up, Christian fascism, and pornography tormented her while she was in the Army. She described being constantly harassed by her squad leader until she required medication to deal with her stress. Then, “one week before my unit was scheduled to return back to the United States, I was raped by another service member that had worked with our team.

“Initially, I chose not to do a report of any kind because I had no faith in my chain of command, as my first sergeant previously had sexual harassment accusations against him, and the unit climate was extremely sexist and hostile in nature towards women.”

"Two War Fronts (5)" by Jared Rodriguez.
Image: flickr/Truthout.org 

Havrilla finally did file a report against her rapist and the squad leader. A year later, she bumped into the rapist. “I was so re-traumatized from the unexpectedness of seeing him that I removed myself from training and immediately sought out assistance from an Army chaplain who told me, among other things, that the rape was God’s will and that God was trying to get my attention so that I would go back to church. Again, I did not file an unrestricted report against my rapist. Six months later, a friend called me and told me they had found pictures of me online that my perpetrator had taken during my rape.”

An Army investigator further humiliated Havrilla by forcing her to provide graphic descriptions of what was happening in each of the photos of her being raped. Several months later she was told that her rapist claimed that the sex was consensual. The Army said the case was closed.

The end of Havrilla’s case is typical. A fact sheet put out by SWAN states that in the military “prosecution rates for sexual predators are astoundingly low—in 2011, less than 8 percent of reported cases went to trial.” Of those that did, an estimated 10 percent of perpetrators resigned from the military, “which effectively means the military allowed rapists to quit their jobs in order to avoid facing charges.”

A Culture of Rape vs. A Culture of Emancipation

Congress recently held hearings on rape and sexual harassment in the military. Various political and military officials proclaimed that they are “shocked” by the situation, and insist on changes in the way crimes of sexual assault are investigated and tried.

But the most vicious forms of hatred, degradation, and violence against women are deeply and ineradicably embedded into the culture and doctrine of the U.S. military. This begins from the very first days of basic training. Marching cadences for new recruits reek of contempt for women: “This is my rifle, this is my gun [pointing to genitals]; one is for killing, one is for fun.” Or this one:“Who can take a chainsaw, Cut the bitch in two, Fuck the bottom half and give the upper half to you...”

A young man who joined the military because he was “looking for a way to support my family” described his Basic Training experience: “In basic, the drill instructors' method was to abuse us, to break us down. They'd ‘shark attack’ us. Shark attacks are when four drill sergeants surround one of us, swearing and yelling and spitting, each with their faces inches away. They'd yell, ‘You're a girl. You're a wimp. You're a pussy.’”

Manila, Philippines, 2009. Protesting the U.S. military presence in the Philippines after the rape of a Filipina woman by a U.S. Marine. The U.S. refused to turn the rapist over to Philippine courts citing the "Visiting Forces Agreement" (VFA) which provides immunity for U.S. military personnel accused of committing crimes in the Philippines, including rape. On the protester's arms and on the ground is written "Jail Smith" (the Marine rapist) and "Junk VFA."
Photo: AP

Sprawling zones of institutionalized prostitution ring U.S. bases around the world. The standard U.S. Army policy toward rape was expressed by George R. Patton—regarded as a “giant” and “great leader” of the American military, when he said “there will unquestionably be some raping by U.S. soldiers.”

Today the composition of the military is in some important ways very different than in Patton’s time—World War 2—or even than it was 30 or so years ago. For one thing, there are more women in the military than at any previous time. In 1973, when the draft of young males ended and the “all volunteer force” was instituted, women made up 1.6 percent of the military; today they are 14.6 percent, and even more in the Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard.

The violent hatred of women and the environment of rape that has always been engrained in the U.S. military now focuses within the military itself, as well as outward towards women in countries occupied by U.S. forces. This has the potential to be a major problem for the rulers of this country, and the oppressive capitalist-imperialist system they lead.

Obama’s Record of Suppressing Exposure of Rape by U.S. Troops

As outrages of rape in the military have come to light, Barack Obama called the situation “shameful and disgraceful.” But how could this situation have been a secret to the commander-in-chief of the U.S. military?

In fact, in 2009 Obama personally made the decision to defy a court order that would have brought hundreds of documented cases of rape and sexual assault by U.S. military personnel against prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The court order was to release thousands of photos that, according to the U.S. General appointed to investigate torture carried out by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, “show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.”

Obama justified his decision by saying “the consequence [of releasing the photos] would be to imperil our troops, the only protectors of our foreign policy, when we most need them.”

How could this decision by Obama to cover up and shut down public exposure of “torture, abuse, rape and every indecency” carried out by U.S. troops not have contributed to an atmosphere where male U.S. troops feel they have a free pass to rape and abuse women in and out of the military?

Rape: Deeply Rooted in the Nature of the U.S. Military

Rape is endemic to—deeply rooted in—the very nature of the U.S. military.

TAKE A RADICAL STEP
INTO THE FUTURE...

This Constitution (Draft Proposal) is written with the future in mind. It is intended to set forth a basic model, and fundamental principles and guidelines, for the nature and functioning of a vastly different society and government than now exists: the New Socialist Republic in North America, a socialist state which would embody, institutionalize and promote radically different relations and values among people; a socialist state whose final and fundamental aim would be to achieve, together with the revolutionary struggle throughout the world, the emancipation of humanity as a whole and the opening of a whole new epoch in human history–communism–with the final abolition of all exploitative and oppressive relations among human beings and the destructive antagonistic conflicts to which these relations give rise.

Buy online at revcom.us/socialistconstitution or at amazon (search for: Constitution-Socialist-Republic-America)

–OR–

Send money orders or checks of $8 plus $2.78 shipping/handling/tax to: RCP Publications, PO Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654

In any army, the culture, the values, the way troops are trained, and the way they conduct themselves and relate to civilians are an expression of, and reveal a lot about the nature of the system that army is fighting for. While the U.S. portrays itself as bringing democracy, enlightenment, and women’s rights to the world, the reality is that it brings capitalist-imperialist exploitation and oppression, and it imposes structures and institutions that facilitate that, and crush any force—rival or rebel—that gets in its way. This is expressed in a culture of depraved torture (as at Abu Ghraib) and mass murder (“kill ’em all and let God sort ’em out”).

In a system where the oppression of women and male supremacy are fundamentally embedded in and are bedrocks of social cohesion, this is expressed in a violently male supremacist military culture, where access to prostitutes and the idea that male troops have the “right” to rape with impunity is engendered spontaneously, and also consciously promoted from the highest levels—as witnessed by Patton’s quote that there will unquestionably be rape by U.S. soldiers. (And while it is beyond the scope of this article, the expression and enforcement of this culture of rape is also manifested in widescale rape of men by men in the military.)

Contrast the culture of armed rape and brutal degradation of women, including those in its own ranks, of the U.S. military, with the emancipatory approach taken in the Revolutionary Communist Party’s Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal).

“Abolishing and uprooting all this (the oppression of women) is one of the most important objectives of the New Socialist Republic in North America. This is expressed not only in full legal equality between women and men, but beyond that in the declared orientation and policy of this Republic to overcome all ‘tradition’s chains’ embodied in traditional gender roles and divisions, and all the oppressive relations bound up with this, in every sphere of society, and to enable women, as fully as men, to take part in and contribute to every aspect of the struggle to transform society, and the world, in order to uproot and abolish all relations of oppression and exploitation and emancipate humanity as a whole.”

And the armed force that would make possible, and defend a revolutionary, socialist society would embody an entirely different culture consistent with a society whose mission is to end all oppression, including the oppression of women.

THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS

I've already pissed off some people with these comments, but it doesn't matter. The truth is the truth, and if you don't like reality, it's not my fucking problem.
  The british soldier hacked to death on a suburban london street is a consequence of british imperialist actions in Afghanistan, and around the world. This is not to say that I support what happened to him, but I am also opposed to the over 8,000 british troops killing people in Afghanistan(and the over 3,000 still in Northern Ireland). There have been just under 500 brit troops killed in that country, with tens of thousands of Afghani civilians killed or displaced because of the war started by the western powers. You cannot go into someone else's house, destroy the place, then say it is such a noble and great thing you are doing, and not expect something to happen in return. There are people over here who will be saddened by what happened to that english soldier, without blinking at the plight of the average Afghani peasant, suffering and dying under years of foreign invasions, not to mention local despots and warlords, some of whom have been propped up by outside powers. I will not apologize for not believing that somehow white english lives are more important than other people's lives. Fuck that. There have been many attacks on english soil over the years, including from other english speaking white people from Ireland and Scotland, all due to the actions of british imperialism. So a tiny piece of the war came home. That's what happens. Change the following poster to read "british" instead of "american".
 

SMELL YA LATER FOREVER, RAT'S NEST...

Last night's show at The Rat's Nest was the last one I will ever be attending there. They will be having at least one more (tonight), but last night was my farewell to the ol' stinkhole. 
  As I mentioned in a previous post, it was the first place I ever played live, and also the main venue where I learned to have  a good time not drinking, even when everyone around me was fucked up. And that is why it will always have a place in my heart. After May is done, nothing will remain of the place but the memories, and we'll just be another group of sad old bastards reminiscing about the "good old days". Fuck.
  Budokan, The Abbie Hoffman Society, The Remanes, and The Hoosegow were the bands last night. There was no hassle, and it was refreshing to hear the melodic sounds of pop/rock outfit Budokan gracing the Nest. We played with The Abbie Hoffman Society with No Means No, and they were fun yet again last night. The Remanes were quirky and talented, and The Hoosegow were back together just to play this show, and they were fucking amazing. I had to leave before they were done, as I needed to get the three hours sleep I ended up getting due to a minor inconvenience called work. I want them to stay together, although I doubt they will just because I want them to. 
  It was totally worth it, even though I hope I'm never in that close of proximity to cigarette (and other ) smoke ever again. Good bye.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, ASSHOLES

It's the 140th anniversary of the creation of the northwest mounted police, who later became the rcmp. Iconic symbols of canada, their image adorns many shitty souvenirs, from coffee mugs to postcards, and all kinds of garbage in between. Their racism and stupid sexist behaviour has been excused or dismissed by many, but the truth is the truth. Fuck 'em...

Female RCMP officer sues for millions, alleges abuse, cruelty

LIKE THIS ARTICLE8

By Marcus Hondro

May 22, 2013 - yesterday in Crime

8 comments

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Another female RCMP officer has filed a lawsuit against the force alleging abuse. The officer, Staff Sgt. Caroline O'Farrell, 52, filed the claim this week in Ontario Superior Court. The abuse, she alleges, took place in the 80s.

Sgt. O'Farrell was then in the traveling equestrian show, the RCMP Musical Ride. Her suit names 13 of the other officers she worked with and claims that during the years 1986 and '87 she was assaulted and abused.

Abuse, harassment, during Musical Ride tour

CTV News reports that the suit alleges she was "repeatedly subjected to a ritual known as horse-troughing - grabbed by the arms and legs, sprayed with cold water, then dragged face-down through riding school shavings mixed with manure and urine."

She also claims while sleeping on their traveling bus a male officer stuck his finger down his pants and out his zipper, feigning a penis, and rubbed it on her ear. As she continued to sleep another officer filmed the officer with the finger-penis. O'Farrell was shown the video, as were others, and she says she felt abused, as if the victim of a sexual assault.

When she made complaints, she claims the abuse intensified. There was minimal intervention from superior officers, no substantial punishment for the officers involved and the abuse did not let up for the duration of her time in the musical ride. She believes she was subjected to abuses because she is female and alleges the events negatively impacted a marriage, stalled her RCMP career and continue to haunt her.

These are the defendants named in Staff Sgt. O'Farrell's suit: The Attorney General of Canada, Kevin Baillie, Gary Beam, Sylvain Berthiaume, Luc Boivin, Greg Chiarot, Francois Duguay, Marc Godue, Mike Herchuk, Cory Hoehn, David Kopp, Christine Mackie Windover, Gerry Ogilvie and Michael Roblee.

Other female members of the RCMP to allege abuse at the hands of her colleagues include B.C. corporal, Catherine Galliford. Staff Sgt. O'Farrell's suit is seeking over $8 million in damages.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/350576#ixzz2U7RXdQZ2

DRUGS ARE BAD, M'KAY?

I went to another Rat's Nest show last night. It was far crazier than the last one I went to, but this one had old punks' kids causing a lot of the shit. Fights, a knife was pulled on someone, and all sorts of other crap. But the quote of the night (at least for me), was when someone I've known for many years comes up to me and says, "I've been on (insert name of drug here) for 15 years. You guys were right all along, drugs do suck. I used to think you were full of shit, but you were right". It was kind of funny, but true at the same time. Drugs suck. And judging by the behaviour of many folks there last night, alcohol sucks too, only they don't realize it yet. Too much of it kind of makes you do dumb shit. Not judging, just observing.
  I got to see yet another Murray side project in the form of Hearts Of Stone, who seemed to be more of a blues-influenced type of slow sludgey rock. I normally don't go for that stuff, but they did it well, and yes, I stayed for their entire set. AWT were fucking on their game, and had enough energy for everyone else there. The Fuck You Pigs got their message across, and now have Schwam on vocals. They were also fucking great. Dangler then played, followed by the Dayglos. Yes, it was a Murray triple shot. The crazy motherfucker has still got it. I got to see the Dayglos at the Rat's Nest one last time. It all just seems to make sense. It would have been nice to play there, but the timing couldn't have been worse for us. Come see us on June 1st at Logan's with Car 87. It'll be fun. I promise.

WE'RE NOT ALL SHEEP AFTER ALL

The b.c. elections are over. Who gives a fuck? Not many people, apparently. Voter turnout was around 51%, and yet christy dumbfuck clark thinks that this is some type of fucking "victory". The whiny cringing n.d.p. supporters seem to think that if the turnout was higher, they would have won. No. People were obviously not inspired to go out and vote for your sad excuse for a political party, so they fucking didn't. Fuck you. Maybe so many people stayed away because they all fucking suck. All of them. Green, n.d.p.,liberal, conservative. Idiots and liars, thieves and fucking parasites. This is truth, from the Comrades in Montreal.
MAY FIRST 2013
Montréal: Unite and Fight the Police!
Partisan #38 • May 14, 2013 

Every activist in Montréal was aware that this year, the Police Department (SPVM) would do everything it could to prevent the holding of the annual May First demonstration organized by the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC). But the determination of the demonstrators succeeded to beat back the watchdogs of the bourgeois order who charged protesters at the beginning of the demo.

From mid-March until May 1st, nearly a thousand people were arrested and given a Statement of Offence for trying to exercise their right to protest in Montréal. Remember that back in 2012, when these provisions were adopted, police said they would use “discernment.” Meeting on 22 and 23 April, the city council narrowly refused to repeal these provisions; council members from notoriously corrupt party of former mayor Gérald Tremblay are the ones who made the difference in the vote.

In the days before May 1st, the CLAC intelligently publicized not only the gathering point of the demo (Place Jacques-Cartier in front of City Hall), but also its point of arrival: the now famous “357c” club. This private club became notorious when the Commission of Inquiry on the Awarding and Management of Public Contracts in the Construction Industry revealed it is regularly attended by a whole bunch of crooked politicians and entrepreneurs. The morning of May 1st, a spokesperson of the CLAC even revealed that the demo would take the most direct route between the two places and it would march in the same direction as traffic.

Supporters of the P-6 by-law, as PQ minister Jean-François Lisée and the Montréal Police Department, used to say that this regulation doesn’t forbid protests in so far as it only requires organizers to communicate their intentions to the police —even at the last minute before it begins. In the case of May First demo, the intentions of the CLAC have been publicly known for weeks —they were even posted on the SPVM website, under the signature of Inspector Alain Simoneau! But this has not prevented the riot police to attack and forbid the demonstration.

The protesters were asked to arrive Place Jacques-Cartier at 6pm sharp. Two groups came from Pointe-Saint-Charles and Centre-Sud neighbourhoods, while single people were arriving right on site. Then, the cops charged the demo before it even started. The objective of the pigs was to disorganize the demo by splitting it in two groups and seizing the head banner and flags the comrades were carrying. Fortunately, the police faced stubborn determination from the protesters, who strongly defended their right to take to the streets with their flags and banners. The cops were clearly not expecting such resistance and they were forced to temporarily retreat.

As planned by the organizers —and contrary to the police will— the demo then took to the streets towards the 357c club. The march was proceeding apace when three blocks from the target, the SPVM again decided to conduct a mass arrest under the P-6 by-law. This shows that the “non-disclosure of the route” has never been anything more than an excuse to ban demonstrations that the police consider illegitimate: this time, the route was known, but still the demo was prohibited. In total, some 447 people were trapped; most of them were transported some 20 kilometers away at the SPVM East Operations Center, where they were handed a $637 ticket. It was only at 3:30 in the morning that the last ones among the arrestees were finally released.

As the CLAC noted in a statement issued a few hours after the brutal attack from the police: “The austerity measures currently enacted by both the federal and provincial governments clearly show that those in power are simply doing the footwork of capitalist interests... In this time of polarized class interests, it isn’t surprising to see governments enact laws that quash popular resistance to their abuses of power and repress anyone that tries to disturb the dominant political and economic order.”

Active with the CLAC’s May First Committee, the Revolutionary Communist Party (PCR-RCP Canada) called for forming a “red contingent” within the demo and “preventing the police from seizing and destroying the red flags and class struggle banners.” Supporters of the Party and of the Revolutionary Workers Movement did their best to beat back the brutal attack from the SPVM and allow the protest to take to the streets.

According to the PCR-RCP Canada, May First provides an opportunity to show the bourgeoisie that “our class is in the process of choosing insubordination; that we are rising and reclaiming the essence of our legitimate struggles —including those powerful ones that will radically change the face of Canada.”

Let’s resist the attacks of the bourgeoisie and continue to fight for people’s power!

* * *

It is the responsibility of those who received a Statement of Offence to contest it within 30 days. It may be interesting to know that the validity of P-6 by-law is currently challenged in court by Julien Villeneuve —the man under the popular “Anarchopanda For Free Education” mascot. For more information on how to contest a ticket, go to https://514-289-9995.com

FUCK THE VOTE

Today is election day in fucked up british columbia. You've got a choice between the right wing anti-people asshole "liberals", the n.d.p. (or no difference party), pretending they're your friends, or all things to all people, therefore, nothing to no one, and of course, the fucking greens, for all of those condescending idiots who think they're better than eveyone because they drive fucking hybrids and recycle like it's a fucking religion. But of course, if you're "edgy" and think you're a "rebel", there's always the "communist" party. If you read their literature, they are no more left than the n.d.p. "Curb the monopolies"...fuck. Yeah, that's inspirational. You might ask yoursleves, "why are they all so committed to getting me to fucking vote?" Because their livelihood depends on it. The existence of their entire parasitic system depends on you giving it legitimacy. That's why you have otherwise bright people acting so fucking solemn about such an empty act as fucking voting. They don't even question it. It is not a fucking privilege, it's a fucking trap and a farce. Today I saw full grown adults walking around with "I Voted" stickers on their shirts after coming from the polling stations, grinning like fucking idiots. Turkeys voting for christmas. Watch this video about the voting trap under capitalism. 

...AND MORE ON SYRIA...

Nothing Good Can Come of Israeli Attacks or U.S. Intervention in Syria

May 19, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

In early May, Israel launched bomb attacks against Syria. This was Israel's second attack on Syria in six months. Accurate details of the targets and impact are difficult to ascertain, but whatever the intended targets, the attacks spread terror in an already devastated country. One resident described the attack: "The sky was red all night," and, "We didn't sleep a single second. The explosions started after midnight and continued through the night."

Israel, Barack Obama, and the entire U.S. ruling class media machinery justified Israel's attack as "self-defense." And the attack prompted an orchestrated "debate"—defined by the same ruling class forces and their media—over whether it was in "U.S. interests" to intervene more forcefully than the U.S. has so far in the conflict in Syria for "humanitarian" reasons, or to stop Syria from using chemical weapons.

First, let's be clear that these attacks were nothing but blatant aggression for reactionary aims—the latest in the decades-long history of Israeli crimes in the Middle East and beyond, backed by and in the service of the U.S. and other imperialists. The attacks must be condemned and opposed by people of conscience everywhere.

The basic thing people need to understand about this is: There is nothing good about Israel's attack on Syria, and nothing good that is being done or could be done by the U.S. or Israel through escalated intervention in the war in Syria.

* * *

Syrian refugees living under harsh conditions in Lebanon.
Photo: AP

The U.S. is already"intervening" in Syria—supplying paramilitary material, intelligence, and training and working to define the politics of the armed opposition forces. Its close allies—especially Saudi Arabia and Turkey—are supplying weapons to these forces.

The result has been a horror.

Any escalation in U.S. involvement will escalate the horror, and be entirely in service of imposing U.S. domination over a region to which imperialism has brought vicious exploitation and oppression for decades.

The Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria is itself a creature of and dependent on imperialism. Today Syria is mainly aligned with emerging rivals to U.S. imperialism like Russia, and with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Two years ago, in the context of uprisings throughout the Arab world, a range of forces in Syria took to the streets in protest against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The regime responded to the protests and uprisings with a mix of political overtures to opposition forces and violent repression. The situation was seized on by the U.S. imperialists and their allies to move to replace Assad with a regime aligned and compliant with their interests in the region, and in particular in opposition to Iranian influence.

According to human rights agencies, both sides in the conflict—including the forces the U.S. is seeking to cohere and shape into a new regime—have carried out kidnapping, torture, and summary assassinations of their opponents and civilians. Tens of thousands in Syria have died, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced, with many living in desperate conditions in refugee camps or worse.

The U.S.-sponsored opposition has accused the Syrian regime of using chemical weapons, and on April 30 Obama publicly claimed that the U.S. has evidence of this. He and others in the U.S. ruling class have floated this as a possible pretext for escalated U.S. military intervention in Syria. Evidence of this is difficult to refute or verify. Israel alleges that photographs of dead bodies in Syria prove that the victims died from chemical weapons used by the Syrian regime. The UN body that examined this material determined that there is not a scientific basis to say these were victims of chemical attacks, and the photos did not meet the standard of proof needed for a UN investigation. (On the other hand, there is more definitive documentation that U.S.-backed opposition forces have used the deadly nerve agent Sarin. Carla Del Ponte, commissioner of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry for Syria, told an Italian-Swiss TV station that the conclusion was reached based on interviews with doctors and Syrian victims now in neighboring countries. [CNN May 6, 2013])

Israel—and Obama—claim that Israel's brazen attack on Syria was "self defense," on Israel's part. But any state built on ethnic cleansing and whose role is to carry out the most heinous crimes around the world in service of empire—from Guatemala to South Africa, and especially in the Middle East—cannot invoke "self-defense" to justify attacks on anyone—including bombing Syria. And one great crime (the Holocaust) cannot be invoked to justify other great crimes.

* * *

There is an understandable impulse on the part of good-hearted people in the U.S. and beyond, even those who know that "in general" U.S. imperialism does not bring good things to the world, to look for some force in the so-called "international community" to intervene to stop the death and destruction in Syria.

But look at the results so far of U.S. "humanitarian" aid: mass death, the use of poison gas, dislocation, and suffering. All with the utterly illegitimate aim of restructuring an oppressive state to serve the needs of the U.S. empire—as was done in Libya.

The last thing the people of the world need is more of such "aid."

Does this mean that all the people in the U.S. can do is look on with horror at the suffering in Syria? No. The most powerful, positive thing people in this country can do is to visibly and actively stage political opposition to all of the crimes of the U.S. and Israel in the region. And this includes taking a strong stand against the latest outrage, the Israeli bomb attacks in Syria in early May.

A positive factor are campus protests, boycotts of Israel (world-renowned scientist Stephen Hawking recently refused to travel to Israel for a conference), and other political activities that expose Israel's oppression of the Palestinian people. The more such political action is taken, the more there is potential for people around the world to become aware of and aroused to oppose Israel's crimes against the Palestinians on a progressive, radical and revolutionary basis.

And the more resistance to the U.S. and Israel is informed by the orientation of opposing both reactionary Islamic Jihad and U.S. imperialism—and let's be clear that it's the U.S. that has been responsible for the lion's share of death in the Middle East—the more there is an inspiration and basis for people around the world, including in Syria, to be part of bringing forward another way,beyond the reactionary "alternatives" fighting it out on the ground in Syria today.

See also:

EGYPT 2011: MILLIONS HAVE HEROICALLY STOOD UP...
THE FUTURE REMAINS TO BE WRITTEN

A Statement By Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
February 11, 2011

English | Arabic | Spanish | French | German

FUCK YOUR IMAGE

Many people when starting a band, strive for a certain "image", or have  a preconceived notion of what they want their band to be, or perceived as. Even in this largely anti-image scene of punk rock (yeah, right), this seems to be the case. Whoever tells you that punk is anti-ego and rockstar attitudes is a fucking liar. Many great bands involved in the scene are in fact anti-bullshit, but there are so many wannabe mohawk and studs weekend warriors, or the fucking thug jock sexist macho idiots running around trying to be gangstas. It's a fucking cartoon. Which leads me to the next point. If you do have the nerve to claim the straightedge mantle, or subscribe to some "hierarchical" political ideology, (anarchists can start spitting venom here), people automatically feel the need to pin some sort of attitude on you that you might not have, and have never had. And I'm going to say it now....AK-47 are only playing the music that we want to play. We're not tough guys, hardcore commies who won't listen to other people, or fucking automatons who only obey their master's voice. Approach us next time you see us. We take our music seriously, but not necessarily ourselves. I am the only edge member in the band, and we all get along fucking amazingly well. What we do is what we do. If you don't like it, fine, but don't tell me what I think or what I'm like. You can go and fuck yourself. This rant isn't a response to anyone in particular, or any one situation. It's about years of idiots saying stupid shit without any basis in fact whatsofuckingever. Come see us. You might disagree with some of the lyrics, but that's fine. We will fucking rock you.

PRISONS IN THE LAND OF THE FREE

Prisons in the "free world" (as led by amerikkka, at least), are shitholes used to torture prisoners who refuse to bow down, or who have been trained to truly live by the laws of the free market. Of course, not everyone in jail is an innocent victim, but there are a very small percentage who are rapists, killers, or child molesters. Most are in due to the workings of the system, or property crimes. How many times have you seen the cops pulling over kids for riding their bikes on the sidewalk, or ticketing jaywalkers, or harassing kids for doing nothing? Too fucking many. In fact, last summer, I was walking up Pandora St., and the fuckers were giving these young kids shit for riding their bikes on the sidewalk, when there was dealing and using going on all over the fucking place. The kids looked freaked out, and only wanted to get the fuck away from there. Priorities.

Emergency Call! Join Us in Stopping Torture in U.S. Prisons!

May 12, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Tens of thousands of people imprisoned in the U.S. are being subjected to torturous, inhumane conditions. Many are:

• Held in long term solitary confinement; locked in tiny, windowless, sometimes sound proof, cells; cut off from fresh air and sunlight for 22-24 hours every day and given small portions of food that lacks basic nutritional requirements.
• Denied human contact and violently taken from their cells for petty violations.
• Put in solitary arbitrarily, often because of accusations of being members of prison gangs based on dubious evidence, and have no way to challenge the decisions of prison authorities to place them in solitary.

Many are forced to endure these conditions for months, years and even decades! Mental anguish and trauma often result from being confined under these conditions. Locking people down like this amounts to trying to strip them of their humanity.

These conditions fit the international definition of torture! This is unjust, illegitimate and profoundly immoral. WE MUST JOIN IN AN EFFORT TO STOP IT, NOW!

People imprisoned at Pelican Bay State Prison in California have called for a Nationwide Hunger Strike to begin on July 8, 2013. They have also issued a call for unity among people from different racial groups, inside and outside the prisons. People who are locked down in segregation units of this society's prisons, condemned as the "worst of the worst," are standing up against injustice, asserting their humanity in the process. We must have the humanity to hear their call, and answer it with powerful support!

A nationwide and worldwide struggle needs to be launched NOW to bring an end to this widespread torture before those in the prisons are forced to take the desperate step of going on hunger strikes and putting their lives on the line!

To the Government: We Demand an Immediate End to the Torture and Inhumanity of Prison House America—Immediately Disband All Torture Chambers. Meet the demands of those you have locked down in your prisons!

To People in this Country and Around the World: We Cannot Accept, and We Should Not Tolerate This Torture. Join the Struggle to End Torture in Prisons Now!

To Those Standing Up in Resistance Inside the Prisons: WE SUPPORT YOUR CALL FOR UNITY IN THIS FIGHT, AND WE WILL HAVE YOUR BACKS!

June 21, 22 and 23 Will Be Days of Solidarity With the Struggle to End Prison Torture!There will be protests, cultural events, Evenings of Conscience, sermons in religious services, saturation of social media—all aimed at laying bare the ugly reality of wide spread torture in U.S. prisons and challenging everyone to join in fighting to STOP it.

Tim Baldauf-Lenschen, student activist, University of Maryland
Fanya Baruti, Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted People's Movement
Blasé Bonpane, Ph.D., Director OFFICE OF THE AMERICAS
Rev. Richard Meri Ka Ra Byrd, KRST Unity Center of Afrakan Spiritual Science
Susan Castagnetto, lecturer, Scripps College*, So. Cal.
M.J. Christian, Los Angeles
Marjorie Cohn, Professor, Thomas Jefferson School of Law and editor, "The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse"
Solomon Comissiong, Executive Director of Your World News
Randy Credico, impressionist and social comedian, NYC
Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
Ever Ivan Florez, A victim of CDC
Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report
Nicholas Heyward Sr., Father of Nicholas Heyward Jr., who was murdered by the NYPD in 1994
Robin D.G. Kelley, Professor of American History, UCLA
Wayne Kramer, Jail Guitar Doors USA
David Kunzie, Distinguished Professor, UCLA Emeritus
B.M. Marcus, Community Director, Community Advocate and Development Organization, Brooklyn
Marilyn McMahon, California Prison Focus
Travis Morales, Stop Mass Incarceration Network
Oscar Grant Foundation
Annabelle Parker, Prison Watch Network*
Joseph V.A. "Joe" Partansky, MBA, Former U.S. Army Mental Health Specialist and current advocate for persons with mental disabilities
Aidge Patterson, artist and activist, New York
Brian Pike, Universal Life Church rabbi
Prison Watch Network
Belinda Ramos, son serving life in a California State prison
Mary Ratcliff, SF Bay View
Roman Rimer
San Francisco Bay View, national Black newspaper
Peter Schey, President, Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law
Zadik Shapiro, attorney
Dan Siegal, National Lawyers Guild*
Temitope S
Scott Trent, Guilford County, NC October 22nd Coalition
Uncle Bobby, Oscar Grant Foundation/Committee
Jim Vrettos, Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Robin Woerner, New Haven

*For identifications only

For more information and to join in this struggle contact the Stop Mass Incarceration Network at (347) 979-SMIN (7646) or at stopmassincarceration@gmail.com.

CONNECTIONS

We are all interconnected, even if it is in a most lopsided unjust way....

From A World to Win News Service:

Bangladesh: The Human Cost of Cheap Clothes

May 12, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

April 29, 2013. A World to Win News Service. Bangladeshi garment workers have suffered yet another tragedy and outrage, this time in the industrial suburb of Savar, 30 kilometers outside of Dhaka. Those who first arrived on the scene could see mangled body parts amid the mangled metal and concrete and hear calls for help from those trapped in the ruins. As of April 29, the bodies of more than 380 people have been found in the ruins of Rana Plaza. Most were crushed to death by the collapse of the building where they worked. Several hundred people are still missing. Over 1,200 have been injured, many with loss of limbs. Four days after the collapse a fire broke out on one of the floors, putting an end to the barely audible voices still crying out to be saved. Rescue workers wept after coming so close but ultimately failing to save a trapped woman they had been talking to. After days of working through the rubble with bare hands and small tools, and with the passage of time dimming hope, the heavy construction machinery brought in contributed to sharply reducing hopes for finding more survivors.

Officials noted a crack in the walls of the eight-story building on April 23, and people were evacuated. The shops and a bank on the ground floor stayed closed on the next day. But factory owners threatened their employees to go back to work or face being docked a day's pay or worse. At 9 am, one hour into the day's start, a huge noise was heard as the back end of the building caved in and the stories collapsed one on another, burying more than 3,000 workers, mainly women.

Over the next several days, racing against time, relatives and local residents helped rescuers sift through the mountains of unstable rubble as the voices of buried survivors became increasingly faint— tugging, pulling and easing out bodies as the death toll mounted. Thousands of local people rushed to the inundated hospitals to donate blood for the survivors.

Occasional moments of hope would occur when rescuers tried to smash through a slab of a concrete wall, and heard a voice call out: "'Help, get me out, cut off my legs but just get me out of here.' The woman's desperate voice was later joined by dozens more—up to 40 men and women who had been trapped together in the corner of a third floor room which had somehow survived the collapse of four floors on top of it. As they were led out of their tomb some wept and shook.'' (April 25, 2013, Daily Telegraph)

As the death toll rose, hundreds of thousands of furious workers went on strike. They blocked major motorways outside Dhaka and laid siege to the main manufacturers' association demanding that those responsible be punished. In some areas cars were set on fire and factories forced to shut down. Demonstrations spread as far as the port city of Chittagong. Part of the intense outrage stems from the frequency with which lives have been snuffed out by the dangerous working conditions that are business as usual in the Bangladesh garment industry. When the police fired rubber bullets at the demonstrators, the crowd became even more outraged at being attacked for their righteous anger.

The Rana Plaza was constructed on marshy land in violation of zoning regulations, with improper foundations. It had been constructed with eight floors and a ninth floor in the building stages, despite only having permission for six. But enforcement is lax. Although the law includes the possibility of jail for violating workplace health-and-safety provisions, infractions mainly result in paltry fines or nothing at all. The Rana Plaza's owner, caught trying to escape to India, has been arrested along with other individuals, among them factory owners who forced employees back to work and engineers responsible for the building's poor construction.

In the face of continued anger among Bangladeshis, Home Minister Alamgir sought to quickly turn the page on this disaster. He claimed that rescue teams did ''better than the average international effort in such cases'' and emphasized the number of people pulled out of the rubble, not the dead and missing. But the building's collapse was not a natural disaster. It was the result of a murderous conspiracy to disregard the potential cost in human lives in keeping the international profit machine humming.

In November of last year, a fire at Tazreen Fashions in Bangladesh killed 121 workers and injured 200. Despite government and employer promises to rectify the situation, nothing ever came of it, and no one was ever charged. Since 2005 and before this latest disaster—the Rana Plaza collapse is considered one of the country's worst industrial tragedies—more than 1,000 textile workers have died in fires and collapsed buildings. According to an AFL-CIO account, since the fire at Tazreen, 41 other instances of fire have occurred, killing nine workers and injuring 660. (cmc.ca/news/world/story)

Among the businesses in the Rana building were Phantom Apparels Ltd. and the New Wave group which on its website named 27 main customers, including some of the biggest clothing brands such as firms from Britain (Primark), France (Carrefour), Spain (Mango), Italy (Benetton) Canada (Loblaw) and the United States (Walmart). Labels of many of these companies were found strewn among the broken bodies and broken concrete.

In interviews conducted by the British charity War on Want (waronwant.org), women describe working conditions in the factories that are not only dangerous but also degrading. They tell of being slapped or beaten if they try to refuse overtime. Shifts last as long as 15 hours. Some relate that paychecks always fall behind and when they are finally paid it is never the correct amount due them. They compare the luxurious living conditions of the factory owners to the cramped one-room shacks where they live. Their shacks are in close proximity to the multi-story factory buildings where you can see steel-reinforcing rods poking from the rooftops in preparation for the addition of yet another floor of sewing machines.

When the U.S. instituted quota restrictions on the importation of apparel from countries like China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, the growth of the garment industry in Bangladesh was given a boost. As a "least developed country" Bangladesh received preferential access to the U.S. and European Union markets. The traditionally large clothing producers relocated ready-made garment (RMG) factories to countries that were free from quota restrictions and had enough trainable cheap labor. Bangladesh was seen as a promising place for the industry to invest. Since the 1980s the RMG industry went from 4 percent of the country's total export earnings to 80 percent today.

While that preferential treatment lasted only until 2004, the garment industry in Bangladesh became a favorite production site for many big brands. The less-than-a-living wage is $38 a month. The vast pool of available workers are mainly women, often part of a newly arrived and huge influx of people from the countryside desperately searching for whatever work they can find to support their families. In addition to the super-exploitation, the women are often sexually harassed. Despite laws against it, in the smaller sweatshops where local factories outsource work, often child labor is used.

Now Bangladesh is the world's second largest clothing exporter, after China. Almost 4 million people are employed in more than 4,500 textile factories. The government of Sheik Hasina works hand in hand with an association of clothing manufacturers whose members include Bangladesh's most prominent families. Her job is to protect the status quo so nothing is done that might frighten away the major clothing brands. That includes turning a blind eye to the hellish conditions created by the local factory owners who extract only a small part of the wealth generated by the super-exploitation of the garment workers. The situation in the Bangladeshi garment industry is not a throwback to the past but a defining feature of where the world is going today as globalized cheap manufacture plays an increasingly major role in the international process of capital accumulation.

Different ideas have been put forward about who is responsible and how to resolve the intolerable working conditions for garment workers. Calls have been made for more corporate responsibility, more government intervention, more fire and building inspections, more audits, more unions. Union organizers are often arrested and sometimes brutally killed. Some measures have been taken with little progress. Some NGOs and union organizers made attempts to call together the clothing industry importers to form an independent organism to monitor the various garment factories to improve safety conditions but no agreement could be reached. Now with the shame of the world cast on the name brands they have shed crocodile tears and offer some food to families of the victims.

John Hilary, executive director at War on Want, told Reuters, ''What we're saying is that bargain-basement (clothing) is automatically leading towards these types of disasters." He said that Western clothing retailers' need to undercut rivals has translated into increasing pressure on foreign suppliers to reduce costs. "If you've got that, then it's absolutely clear that you're not going to be able to have the right kind of building regulations, health and safety, fire safety. Those things will become more and more impossible as the cost price goes down." Hilary said the push for lower costs inevitably led to factories cutting corners. "As a result of that, we see the sort of disaster that happened yesterday," he said.

The brand name companies see the obstacles as too many and too costly to solve. Their bottom line after all is profit. If they don't maximize profit by cutting costs one company will be devoured by another. And if profits are not made in Bangladesh, which is now part of the world imperialist market, then the companies will move to another oppressed country where they can find a suitable workforce to super-exploit. By the internal logic of capitalism, where profit and competition rule over everything, each player at every level of the trillion dollar garment industry must keep costs to a minimum to effectively beat out competitors. Further, to remain competitive and profitable today, clothing retailers must be able to change styles quickly and often, with tight deadlines adding to the intense pace imposed on garment manufacturing. These economic necessities translate into the destruction of human lives and potential on a mass scale.

The deaths and injuries at Rana Plaza are not an aberration but part of the workings of a ruthless system. The sorrow and righteous anger of the Bangladeshi people is a worldwide wake-up call. The next time you don your clothes, look at the label and remember there is blood on it that you don't see.

A World to Win News Service is put out by A World to Win magazine, a political and theoretical review inspired by the formation of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, the embryonic center of the world's Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties and organizations.

SYRIA

The shitstorm in Syria has the soft left on an equal footing with the fucking imperialists, cringing and whining about "human rights" and other non-existent shit. They have no clue, no guts, and no fucking analysis. If you know me, you know that I am never ever on the side of any established government against any so-called "rebels". But in this case, you have the fucking terrorist governments of the u.s.a. and kkkanada talking about sending more weapons to the fake-ass "rebels", and possibly even ground troops! So what the fuck is really going on? The asshole media are bombarding us with pictures of dead chidren, saying that the government troops killed them. Did they? Could it have been the fucking amerikkan supported "rebels"? The same fucking government that sends drones to kill civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and who have turned Iraq into a fucking meatgrinder? Dare we question what our holy fucking media reports to us, instead of repeating their stories like the loyal fucking sheep that we are? Is everything they say about Iran, North Korea, Revolutionaries in India, Turkey, and Peru, really true? Or are these stupid stories serving some other purpose for our largely selfish, unthinking population? There is no question in my mind that the government in Syria is a fucking corrupt, sick beast, like most other governments in the world. But it also true that the amerikkans and other western bloodsuckers are the last people on earth who have any moral right to say or do any fucking thing. Ground troops?! Fuck. 19 amerikkan troops killed in Afghanistan in the past week, fighting a war they said would be over in weeks. Go ahead, assholes. Send more troops.

Obama, Syria, and the Arrogance of Imperialism

by Ron Jacobs / May 4th, 2013

Imperialists are not just arrogant, they are stupid. Pretending that they might get a different result than previous US administrations have obtained before, the Obama administration is planning to send lethal arms to Syrian rebels. According to the Washington Post, Obama and his advisors have been “edging” toward this decision for months. Their rationale for jumping in now is because they believe it will give Washington more control over which rebel factions actually end up with the weaponry. The expressed hope is that such arms would stay with the Free Syrian Army headed by Syrian Army defector General Salim Idriss. Of course, as any student of war knows, once unleashed the demons that operate during such endeavors have a life of their own. In other words, once the weaponry is in Syria, there is no telling who will end up with it. The Syrians themselves are incapable of determining how their civil war will end. Does Washington seriously think it can?

Examples with many similarities to the Syrian situation exist, especially in the recent history of the Middle East. A strong man and his nationalist party running a country incorporating economic principles of state-owned industry and government provided services. Politically, the national government attempts to integrate various tribal, religious and ethnic differences into a single nation. Naturally, this requires a certain amount of repression of dissident groups and is usually accompanied by a certain favoritism towards the leadership’s tribal, political and religious allegiances. Held together by this combination, there are occasional outbreaks of protest that is often put down with state violence. Usually, this violence is excused or ignored by the international community, since all governments understand that they must maintain the franchise on political violence or risk losing power and control.

The nation I am describing in the previous paragraph is Iraq under Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party rule. While there are particular differences between that nation and the Assad’s rule of Syria, I believe the similarities are enough to make a justifiable comparison. If one adds the influence of the neoliberal economy of the last several decades, the similarity between the two nations’ histories supersedes any particular differences. Like much of the Middle East, The growth of neoliberalism in Syria created a situation that saw the selling off of state-owned industry to private corporations, the reduction in services and basic subsidies and a drastic decrease in income for many of its people. Of course, that income decrease is directly related to the neoliberal economic model that insures the gross accumulation of wealth in northern banking centers with a similar reduction in individual buying power for most of the world’s population. Just like in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt (among other nations around the world), the indigenous individuals and groups that tend to profit from the neoliberal privatization and loan scheme are those already part of the authoritarian regimes in power. The transfer of industry and services from state to private hands usually results in the powerful adding profit to the power they already maintain. In other words, the centralization of state power morphs into a centralization of political power and private wealth, usually at a greater rate than before. The complement to this transformation is the further impoverishment of the working class and peasantry along with a growing impoverishment of the non-politically connected middle classes. It is this economic factor which has pushed every population responsible for the “Arab Spring” to rebellion. When combined with the long-running desire for political freedoms, the result has been, to say the least, incendiary and world-changing.

That is how Syria’s civil war began—as a massive protest for political freedoms and against neoliberalism. It seems to have morphed into something quite different over the past several months. As various Islamist factions of varying tendencies have taken up arms against Assad and his allies, the nature of the conflict has become incredibly violent and looks more and more like the sectarian civil war that ripped apart occupied Iraq in the middle year of that last decade. If one looks at that period in Iraq for instruction, there is plenty to fear. As antiwar journalists and activists made clear then, the United States was actively involved in arming various factions in this civil war and was also training death squads whose role was to kill potential threats to US designs. In addition, various regional governments had their own forces operating in the country. A similar scenario is playing out in Syria, albeit with the players assuming slightly different roles. One can assume, however, that the intent is the same: a desire to determine the future according to their wishes.

It is this desire which is being cited by Washington for its growing intervention. Despite whatever the politicians and generals might be saying, let me be clear. Washington is an imperial nation. It does not have the best intentions of the Syrian people at heart. Indeed, when it comes to policy, it could care less about the Syrian people, just like it cared less about the Iraqis. If it cared, the support it has shown for the Assads over the years would have been much more conditioned on respecting the civil and human rights of the Syrian people. Instead, Washington’s real regard for those rights can best be summed up with the observation that until the Arab Spring began, Syria’s torture chambers were a favorite of the US rendition program.