Tom Carter

Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, who spent 11 years at
Guantánamo Bay, was found dead in his cell.

"I am happy to express from this darkness and draw a true picture of the condition in which I exist. I am moving towards a dark cave and a dark life in the shadow of a dark prison. This is a prison that does not know humanity, and does not know anything except the language of power, oppression and humiliation for whoever enters it. It does not differentiate between a criminal and the innocent." ~ Guantánamo inmate Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif in a letter to his lawyer, dated December 26th, 2010

On September 10, 2012, Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif died in his cell at the US prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. As of the day he died, Latif had been imprisoned at Guantánamo for 10 years, 7 months and 25 days. He was 36 years old and left behind a wife and son.

Latif died after enduring a decade of torture and abuse at the hands of the US military and intelligence agencies. His death came after a habeas corpus petition challenging his incommunicado detention was granted by a federal judge and then overturned on appeal, on the grounds of authoritarian legal doctrines promoted by the Bush and Obama administrations.

The failure of the US legal system over the preceding decade to enforce Latif’s most basic rights underscores the collapse of centuries-old democratic legal institutions and the expanding machinery of a police state. Latif’s death constitutes a war crime that, along with the crimes against hundreds of other prisoners at Guantánamo and secret “black sites” around the world, warrants the impeachment, arrest and criminal prosecution of all of the top civilian and military officials in both administrations.

Stephen Lendman

Palestinians know what they're up against. UN success changed nothing on the ground. Daily Israeli state terror continues. World leaders do nothing to help. Rhetorical Palestinian support rings hollow. Americans like to say: Put your money where your mouth is. World leaders able to change things put theirs on Israel. They're complicit with US/Israeli imperial crimes. They spurn Palestinian rights. Their suffering continues daily. On December 1, Israeli soldiers shot two more Gazans. They accosted, arrested and detained another 13 Palestinian fishermen. Their "crime" was fishing in their own waters.

On November 21, Israel accepted memorandum of understanding terms. Both sides agreed to end conflict. It continues unabated. Israel bears full responsibility. It bears repeating. Its word isn't worth the paper it's written on. Rogue states operate that way. Israel is one of the worst. It matches the worst of regional tyranny. It's unsafe to live in. Even Jews for justice are targeted. Israel tolerates no opposition.

Shock troops attacked peaceful West Bank protesters. They arrested dozens lawlessly. They terrorize Palestinian communities. Occupation harshness continues. Life for Palestinians is hell.

Philip Giraldi

Sibel Edmonds is no stranger to longtime TAC readers. I wrote an article exploring some of her claims back in January 2008, a blog item in August 2009, and Kara Hopkins and I did an interview with her for the November 2009 issue of the magazine. It was featured on the cover as “Who’s Afraid of Sibel Edmonds?”

Edmonds has recently written a book entitled Classified Woman detailing her journey from FBI translator to whistleblower, finally emerging as an outspoken advocate of free speech and transparency in government through her founding of the National Security Whistleblowers’ Coalition and her always informative Boiling Frogs Post website.

As Edmonds ruefully notes, her tale of high level mendacity has always found a better reception in the European and Asian media than in the United States, though her odyssey has included an appearance on “60 Minutes” in October 2002 and a feature article in Vanity Fair called “An Inconvenient Patriot” in September 2005. Two senators, Chuck Grassley and Patrick Leahy, became interested in her case early on and found her a credible witness, as did a U.S. Department of Justice IG’s report. She speculates that that her ostracism by the Fourth Estate, and also by congressmen who were ostensibly engaged in elevating government ethics, is due to the fact that both Republicans and Democrats were parties to the criminal behavior that she describes. In one particularly delicious account of high level shenanigans she recounts how an interview with Congressman Henry Waxman’s House Oversight and Government Reform staff was stopped abruptly when a staffer asked her if any Democrats were involved. “We have to stop here and not go any further. We don’t want to know,” he intoned after she confirmed that the malfeasance was not strictly GOP.