U.S. Crimes Without Punishment.

James Risen, "Study Cites Breaches of Medical Ethics in Investigation of Terrorism Suspects," in The New York Times, June 7, 2010, at p. A7.

Many persons, including Americans not accused of any crime, may have been experimented upon, secretly, by U.S. physicians developing psychological torture methods for state and federal government "entities." ("Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture" and "The Experiments in Guatemala.")

The following letter by David Cole appeared in a recent issue of The New York Review of Books:

"Readers will not be surprised to hear that authorizing US officials to strip suspects naked, deprive them of sleep for up to eleven days straight, hit them, slam them into walls, force them into painful stress positions, and waterboard them violates a number of binding legal obligations."

I am sure that the insertions of "errors" in my writings, as a strategy, is only one part of a deliberate psychological torture campaign emanating from New Jersey government. ("American Doctors and Torture.")

"The federal torture statute, 18 USC 2340A, makes it a crime to subject an individual to torture. [This includes psychological torture, rape, choking persons in their home and other such offenses, among these offenses are induced frustrations, censorship, isolation, slanders, suppression and destruction of creative works.] At the time the memos were written by the Office of Legal Counsel in the Bush Administration's Justice Department, the federal War Crime's Act, 18 USC 2441, made it a felony to breach any of the guarantees of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which requires that all wartime detainees be treated humanely. (After the Supreme Court made clear that the Geneva Conventions applied to the conflict with Al Qaeda, Congress then watered down the War Crimes Act, making prosecution under that provision somewhat more difficult today. But that does not erase the fact that the conduct was criminal at the time that it occurred, and at the time that the Bush lawyers and Cabinet officials authorized it.)"

"In addition, the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, a multilateral treaty that the United States has signed and ratified, prohibits both torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, and allows no exceptions. (It also obligates its signatories to investigate for criminal prosecution ANY credible allegation that a person within the nation's jurisdiction has been complicit in torture or degrading treatment.)"

I suggest that America's treatment of female inmates especially, but also of all inmates, may violate these provisions of law. Certainly, the treatment that I have received at the hands of N.J. public officials and attorneys merits criminal investigation by the authorities. I have retained copies of security records showing the number of intrusions into my computer. I am sure that Mr. Cole and many other legal scholars will agree with this claim. I am publicly raising this issue and inviting the world to make note of my requests for the truth concerning my life from Paula Dow, New Jersey Attorney General; Stuart Rabner, New Jersey Chief Justice; Christopher Christie, New Jersey's Governor; and Eric Holder, U.S. Attorney General. Silence on the part of these officials can only be understood as complicity in atrocity.

"Moreover, international law recognizes torture as one of the few crimes that is subject to 'universal jurisdiction,' meaning that it can be prosecuted anywhere, regardless of where torture occurred. [This includes Cuba which is a member of the United Nations.] The reason for this is that countries may be reluctant to hold their own agents accountable -- as President Obama's actions since coming to office have confirmed."

"So the question is not whether laws were broken by the Bush administration and its lawyers. They clearly were. The question is whether we the American people will insist that the laws be enforced. As I have argued in these pages ['The Torture Memo Lawyers,' NYR, October 8, 2009], what is critical -- as a moral, historical, and legal matter -- is that we acknowledge in some official manner that what was done in our name was not just a terrible idea, not just an unfortunate mistake whose consequences we will live with for a long, long time. It was illegal. That accountability can take many forms. But what is unacceptable is to proceed as if no wrongs were done." (emphasis added)

Have you no shame, Mr. Rabner? As you wear your judicial robes and comment upon the legality and ethics of others, Mr. Rabner, should you not display some concern to behave ethically and legally yourself in your soiled tribunal while presiding over what is now, demonstrably, the most corrupt and criminally failed legal system in America?

Mr. Rabner, you disgrace the office that you hold.

(AP), "Cuba: Disidents Support U.S. Bill" [to end the embargo against Cuba] in The New York Times, June 11, 2010, at p. A10.

"Seventy-four Cuban opposition activists signed a letter Thursday supporting a bill in the United States Congress that would lift the American ban on travel to Cuba and increase American food exports to the island. 'We share the opinion that the isolation of the people of Cuba benefits the most inflexible interests of its government, while any opening serves to inform and empower the Cuban people and helps to further strengthen our civil society,' said the letter, whose signers include the blogger Yoani Sanchez, ... the hunger striker Guillermo Farinas, and the human rights leader [philosopher] Elizardo Sanchez."

Please add my name to that letter and let us make the letter available to the world. The harassments and obstructions I experience may prevent my writing at any time, further slanders are always expected, together with additional economic harms against me. Continuing silence in the American corporate media must be expected.

For as long as I am able to write, I will join these dissidents in Cuba -- as well as American dissidents -- in calling for peace and an end to the embargo. If I should suffer a fatal accident, this will continue to be my protest: It is time to end the embargo against Cuba. ("What is it like to be tortured?" and "Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture" then "How Censorship Works in America" and "What is it like to be censored in America?")