So I just heard a BBC Report about how the rendition/torture program has now basically been moved to Africa.

For those unaware of the politics in the region, the U.S. is backing the dictatorship in Ethiopia, in their invasion of Somalia, to drive out the Islamic power structure there.

Now we've always meddled, but here's the rub. What's happening is that immigrant workers in Somalia, faced with the onslaught of an invading army, are fleeing into neighboring Kenya, and when they try to cross the border there, they are being detained by Kenyan officials on the orders of the FBI (which I might add is only supposed to operate domestically).

As a result, South Africans, Kenyans and others from around Africa have been questioned/beaten in Kenya (without a lawyer of course) then transported back to Somalia for more questioning and beating where their stories remarkably either remain the same, or depending upon how much torture they receive, they simply tell the interrogators whatever they want to hear, hoping the pain will stop. At this point those who are "being uncooperative" (ie. maintaining their innocence) and those who are "known terror suspects" (ie. people they've tortured into lying) are then flown to Ethiopia, a government known to torture prisoners anyways. While there, American FBI agents never ask any questions directly, or do any of the abusing, they simply outsource those tasks to willing Ethiopian guards.

During the course of his investigation, the BBC reporter actually gets ahold of a whistleblower inside one of the Ethiopian prisons, and he puts a prisoner named Salim on the phone. Weeks earlier, the reporter had interviewed his sister, who'd said her brother simply went to work in Somalia, because mobile phone company that he worked at in Kenya closed the plant, so he went to work in Somalia at a plant there. She testified, (and frankly by her description I believe her), that her brother had no terrorist ties. She actually asked him what evidence they had accused him of carrying, and he said none, he'd only had time to pack a rucksack of clothes before the army moved in. That was her last conversation with him in the past year and a half.

When the reporter got Salim on the phone, he claimed that they sleep on a wet floor in an 8x8ft cell, and that one man had been beated so severely that his leg was broken (those of you who've seen "Taxi to the Darkside" will recognize the chilling implications there), and another 50 year old man in the cell with him had had his back severely injured. Since that phone call, Salim has once again been disappeared. His sister is afraid they'll fly him to Guantanamo and she''ll never see him again.

The Ethiopian government has just made a big show of releasing 8 Kenyan prisoners (Salim was not among them), however the problem is that Kenyan human rights lawyers have issued some 85 habeus corpus writs for people who've been scooped up by this idiocy, and there are at least 150 total who've been so detained, and at least 11 of them were children.

It seems now the "Taxi" goes to "Darkest Africa" where apparently the Bush Administration is hoping they'll be able to torture and kill people unobserved by the prying eyes of justice or compassion, on a continent that the world NEVER pays attention to.

Amidst all the famine, poverty, and regular government abuse there, I guess they figure, "Who'll notice a couple more deaths?"

Here's more on this latest obscenity:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7652593.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6528917.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6245943.stm

Threads like these just make me so sick to my stomach. The Bush Administration is literally destroying America's soul.



There is no way to verify what I'm about to say, but I'm not shocked to hear the FBI operating outside of US territory. My brother-in-law's wife works for the FBI. They moved to Europe and Latin America where she continued to work for the FBI on assignment.

Obama must go after these criminals and stop this in it's tracks.

Some people in the Islamic world think there isn't a war on terror, but instead a war on Islam. Somalia shows that this might be a better term than 'War on Terror.' The Union of Islamic Courts was showing signs of bringing some positive changes to the country before they were ousted; of course it was Theocratic in nature, but before Somalia was merely Chaotic.

5by5, I got to admit I don't understand what the function of the FBI is anymore. I'm still reeling from Border Patrol agents getting sent to Iraq. I remember Crockett & Tubbs used to go overseas, but they were loose cannons; and the only torture they did was maybe to punch a scumbag in the face. Life is much uglier than TV I'm afraid.
http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_r.../02012005_4.xml

Strictly speaking, if they are investigating a crime committed against an American, they are allowed to follow those leads if they point to international implications, but in the age of "the war on a tactic" their power has been expanded to such ridiculous lengths that in essence they act more like another branch similar to the CIA. Now it's pretty much a police force that can wander all over the world telling other police forces what to do. It's wack. It's so imperial, and we sooooo shouldn't be in that business.

And even within the agency, there has been the same purging of long-time professionals who actually possessed ethics. Just a few years ago, you have FBI agents witness torture in GITMO, and write their superiors saying, "You wouldn't believe what's going on down here. it's beyond illegal, we can't be anywhere near this or it'll tarnish the Bureau," to now apparently, they are participating it torturous interrogations in Africa.

I mean

Nobody has any honor anymore. It's disgusting.