Freedom For Mumia Abu Jamal!

October 17, 2010 at 9:25 A.M. A word was deleted from this essay, then restored to the text by me.

The photo of Mumia Abu Jamal accompanying this essay at my msn group has been blocked. Numerous hackers and viruses today make it likely that efforts will be made to damage this essay. I will find another photo and post it again. Before reading this essay, please note that nothing I say here in any way diminishes the sympathy and respect due to the families of victims of murderers. Mumia Abu Jamal just happens not to be a murderer. Furthermore, I do not believe that it helps deter criminals for the state to become a murderer.

Amnesty International, The Case of Mumia Abu Jamal: A Life in the Balance (New York: Seven Stories, 200).

On May 17, 2007 Mumia Abu Jamal's lead attorney, Robert R. Bryan, Esq. will present oral argument to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelaphia. The issues on appeal have been narrowed to four, which has the effect of protecting the trial judge.

Although "improper instructions to the jury" is one issue to be argued in this appeal, the trial judge's highly inflamatory comments during all other stages of the proceedings are excluded from consideration. This is a common tactic by the power-structure to limit the focus to a single incident (as characterized by them) which is part of a long course of development that alone makes that one incident understandable.

No one is fooled by or will accept such tactics. Focusing on a judge's comments only at the "penalty phase" of proceedings, when the trial began with a judge claiming, allegedly, that he "was going to help them fry that n___r," makes no sense. That trial was over before it began. ("Abuse and Exploitation of Women in New Jersey" and "Foucault, Rose, Davis and the Meanings of Prison.")

"Despite a mountain of evidence of his innocence, a U.S. criminal 'justice' system saturated with race and class bias has reduced Mumia's case to four issues, judicial error in instructions to the jury regarding the death penalty is only one of them." The others are "exclusion of blacks from the jury"; "racial bias"; "prosecutorial misconduct." Racial bias alone should be sufficient.

"Mumia Abu Jamal is one of more than three and a half thousand people on death row in 37 states and under federal law throughout the USA. By the end of 1999, 598 prisoners had been put to death in 30 states since executions resumed in 1977; in 1999 alone, 98 prisoners died at the hands of the state, a record year since the 1950s. The US authorities have repeatedly violated international minimum safeguards in their continuing resort to capital punishment. Violations include the execution of the mentally impaired, of child offenders, and of those who received inadequate legal representation at trial. [In 2010, a woman with an IQ roughly equivalent to a child's understanding is scheduled for execution in America.] Those sentenced to death in the USA are overwhelmingly the poor, and disproportionately come from racial and ethnic minority communities. The risk of wrongful conviction remains high, with more 80 prisoners released from death rows since 1973 after evidence of their innocence emerged. Many came close to execution before the courts acted on their claims of wrongful conviction. Others have gone to their deaths despite serious doubts concerning their guilt."

The Case of Mumia Abu Jamal, p. 7.

In Texas, which leads the nation in executions, a man is facing execution (allegedly) for driving a friend to a scene at which a killing took place, based on either an "aiding and abetting theory" or as a conspirator. I've only heard an account on the news of this seeming travesty of justice. A person will be killed for driving a car, apparently without knowledge of what had transpired in his absence involving a friend to whom he gave ride home. This is insanity under any legal system. ("The Life and Death of David Gale.")

Another person's confession to the murder for which Mr. Mumia Abu Jamal is facing execution is deemed not "relevant" on the issue of whether Mumia should be executed for that murder. Anywhere else in the world -- or in the U.S. system with an affluent or white defendant -- that alone would be the dispositive issue. Questions of guilt are deemed "not legal issues on appeal," where courts are "above" acting like trial courts. Mumia is facing death. However, his innocence of the crime for which he may be killed is deemed "irrelevant." Such a thing is also insane, morally and legally.

Mumia did not commit the crime for which he is facing execution. In a sense, Mumia has already been executed by being deprived of the most productive years of his life. I know the feeling. The courts do not seem to care whether he committed the crime at all. The thinking may be that "he probably did something else." ("John Rawls and Justice" and "What is Law?")

Persons who commit murder and are convicted for it, rarely do more than 15 years. Mumia has been on death row for about 25 years. Longer than that as I review this essay. If death is not "cruel and unusual" when imposed in a timely manner, then it certainly becomes an excruciating torture when it results in persons lingering on death row for decades with a "Sword of Damocles" hanging over their heads. That legal limbo and prospect of execution alone is heinous cruelty, a horrifying form of psychological torture, making the death penalty unconstitutional.

Mumia is a superb writer, a revolutionary and tortured intellectual, an important voice in the African-American community and (I believe) also for other minority communities. He is feared because of his intellect and eloquence. Hence, efforts to silence him will be made -- including the ultimate silencing, MURDER at the hands of state officials, which he is now facing. The death penalty is murder committed by the state. Every day that you see errors inserted in these essays, attacks on this site, you are witnessing an attempt at censorship by the authorities and an effort at inflicting psychological harm and finding "ass cover." What are they afraid of?

Mumia's greatest offense is his mind and unbroken spirit. In experiences eerily reminiscent of my own encounters with corrupt officials, Mumia "was a leading human rights critic of the Philadelphia Police Department, many of whose officers were later indicted and convicted on charges of corruption, witness intimidation and planting of evidence."

Yesterday, May 15, 2007, I spent hours battling cyberattackers and hackers. The following were among the illegal connections to my computer:

1. http://goggle.com/ (64.233.161.99) https (443)

2. http://blogspot.com/ (72.14.219.191)

3. http://spd.pointroll.com/ (64.111.215.191) (NJ)

4. http://spc.atdmt.com/ (64.215.158.49) (State Police Center, NJ)

5. http://m1.2mdn.net/ (209.62.190.10); 80 http; 1876 bytes sent; 29930 bytes received; 20.639 elapsed time. ("Piggy-backing signals.")

6. http://doubleclick.net/ (216.73.87.15); 80 http; 349 bytes sent; 4284 bytes received. (NJ)

Hacking by:

http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/N3339.msn.com/B2283991.31;52=728x90;ord=1912802260? (NJ, Appellate Division Judge?)

Today, May 16, 2007 at 10:23 A.M., one of my books disappeared from my Lulu storefront. Why I am Not an Ethical Relativist and Other Essays (2000-2006), is under copyright protection. Maybe later it'll be available again. The ISBN number that I purchased for this work may be fraudulent. This uncertainty is part of the daily harassment I struggle against. There were 402 intrusion attempts against my computer before lunch time. Here are a few of the illegal connections to my computer -- so far today:

1. http://b.rad.msn.com/ (207.68.178.12) (NJ?)

2. http://spe.atdmt.com/ (207.138.82.71) (NJ?)

3. http://signout.msn.com/ (207.68.183.32) (NJ?)

4. http://c.msn.com/ (207.46.216.62); http (80); 807 bytes sent; 407 bytes received. What happened to that signal?

5. http://m1.2mdn.net/ (209.62.190.10); http (80); 271 bytes sent; 98590 bytes received; at 1:01.328 elapsed time on May 16, 2007 at 10:28:55 A.M.

Coincidence? The corrupt power-structure in New Jersey is complicit in the psychological tortures to which I (and others) have been subjected, in the continuing crime of depriving me and others of civil rights -- including freedom of expression -- and of a policy of torture involving house psychologists and psychiatrists -- "whores of the court" -- acting secretly and with impunity, then concealing the fruits of their labors. Ethics? You want to talk to me about ethics?

I am sure there are people sitting in jail or prison not knowing that information was extracted from them, illegally, under hypnosis by state torturers. (See "Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture" and "Psychological Torture in the American Legal System.")

File your motions if you have reason to believe that you were questioned by state torturers, like Tuchin and Riccioli, or that vital exculpatory materials were concealed from you even as witnesses were threatened, bribed, or intimidated and their statements were falsified.

Most of the victims of this form of enslavement and torture will be African-Americans and other minority groups members or poor whites. How many have been raped or stolen from in this impaired state is difficult to tell. Perhaps such crimes may be a perk associated with forensic psychiatry in New Jersey, provided that any loot extracted from victims is shared with politicians and judges. Glen Cunningham may be a victim of these touchless torture methods. Many clients reported missing cash or appliances after New Jersey prosecutors or OAE attorneys conducted a search of their properties. I wonder who has my watch these days? ("A Letter From the DRB in New Jersey" and "Does Senator Menendez Have Mafia Friends?")

A longstanding partnership between the Camden Machine and sinister forces in Philadelphia -- which are probably part of Mumia's troubles -- suggests that evil "abuse of power" lurks under the surface of these events. September 6, 2007 at 5:08 P.M. I am running a scan of my system which has been attacked again by New Jersey's hackers. The authorities know about this. Nothing happens to prevent it. ("New Jersey's 'Ethical' Legal System.")

Among those calling for "immediate release" (my position) or a new trial for Mumia Abu Jamal are: Amnesty International, the European Parliament, the NAACP, the National Lawyers Guild, President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, President Jacques Chirac of France, the Congressional Black Caucus, hundreds of U.S. and international trade unions, and the Detroit, San Francisco, and Paris, France city councils, also Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolutionary Government. How many others in similar positions have failed to attract such support? Many. See Tina Kelly, "DNA in Murders Frees Inmate After 19 Years," in The New York Times, May 16, 2007, at p. B1. ("A New Jersey man, who was nearly executed, is exonerated after 19 years in prison.")

Millions of people around the world will join this political and legal struggle on May 17, 2007 at the U.S. Court House, 6th and Market Streets, Philadelphia. I will not be intimidated or threatened into refraining from expressing these opinions, together with my anger and disgust at the south Jersey mob. If you cannot be there in person, be there in spirit. Mumia's struggle, which is also my struggle, gets my $25 (which is the grand total that I have today). Send any donation that you can to:

Free Mumia Abu Jamal
298 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

http://www.freemumia.org/
e-mail: http://alerts@freemumia.org/

Senator Menendez, this case raises a human rights issue of concern all over the world. This is your opportunity to demonstrate solidarity with a dissident intellectual and fighter for human rights in the U.S. as you call for others to do the same in Cuba. Will you, Senator Menendez, call for the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal?

Will you, Senator Menendez, support Mumia Abu-Jamal's struggle for freedom?

Attacks and Smears Against Corzine Continue!

David W. Chen, "The Governor Of New Jersey Often Wasn't In New Jersey," in The New York Times, April 29, 2007, at p. B29.


With Mr. Corzine's return to Trenton, attacks against him -- disseminated by media friends or employees of the Jersey Boys -- are increasing in intensity and viciousness. Mr. Corzine's trips outside the state are now being subjected to scrutiny. Zulima Farber's experiences are pleasant by comparison. Recently Corzine was depicted dancing with a woman with whom he was "involved" for some reason. What Corzine does with his own money or the history of his relationships is an irrelevant distraction from the crimes committed by the Trenton Syndicate.

Corzine is accused of "escaping" the Garden State (for which I would not blame him). Actually, it is well-settled that a person with "reasonable fear" for his physical safety has every right to depart a jurisdiction under the doctrine of "necessity." No one is required to return to a torture chamber or to make himself available for assassination.

Given the mysterious habits of drivers of red pickup trucks -- and some state troopers -- Mr. Corzine would do well to stay off the roads in New Jersey for a while, also to hire his own bodyguards and keep his back to the wall at all times. Don't eat any lunch brought to you by Richard J. Codey, Jon.

I wonder if Corzine regrets leaving the U.S. Senate? I suspect so.

In addition to threatening a victim's physical safety, the Trenton Syndicate likes to have underlings (or hirelings) file grievances or complaints -- even preparing them, sometimes, for "complainants" who often cannot even read them -- against those they target for destruction. Attacks against Mr. Corzine will always come while his back is turned. Preferably, from someone who calls himself a supporter or "friend" of the Governor. This is yet another reason for Mr. Corzine to be wary of remaining in New Jersey unprotected.

New Jersey's swamplands have been known to contain more than one corpse floating by on pleasant summer evenings, adding to that punget odor of ethical rot for which the state's swamps and the "Old Raritan" are justly famous. Many such corpses were once popular politicians in the state, but are now only victims of New Jersey's rough political tradition of mob dominance of government and the judiciary. "Hey, they had it coming ..." the Jersey Boys say.

Meanwhile, as politicians scheme to destroy one another's lives, GM has fallen behind in global car sales for the first time in 75 years to Japan's leading automaker, Toyota. Global pollution rates are reaching dangerous levels -- and nowhere more so than in New Jersey's "cancer alley" -- while technology and science students are increasingly recruited from other countries, for the same reason corporations hire foreign workers over Americans in high tech jobs: education levels are better and so is performance in many places outside the United States. Ireland, for example, is the destination of choice for insurance companies and high tech industries looking for a well-educated work force at reasonable rates. Also, Iraq is less than a glowing success for the U.S. government. Headlines focus on alleged love affairs between governors and union leaders. Who cares? I don't.

Rather than admitting errors -- or even crimes -- "ass covering" operations designed to conceal atrocities and obvious bungling are the tired responses of old school, machine politicians in places like New Jersey. This is usually combined with character assassination "attempts" against critics in the mass media and rival politicians. The results for the state and country are not good.

"How the hell are ya?" Trenton's politicians ask, with a greasy hand extended and a capped-toothed smile, reeking of insincerity and halitosis.

Isn't it time to do the right thing? Get well soon Governor Corzine.

New Questions Arise After New Jersey State Police Bungle Corzine's Accident Investigation.

David Kocieniewski, "Corzine's Speed Put at 91 MPH Near Crash Site," in The New York Times, April 18, 2007, at p. A1.


"... [Corzine's] Chevrolet Suburban was traveling 91 miles per hour, 26 miles over the posted limit, according to a crash data recorder retrieved from the vehicle."

Normally, any speed in excess of twenty miles over the legal speed limit is deemed "reckless driving." Thus far, neither the driver of the governor's vehicle nor any other driver has been issued any summons whatsoever for conduct that is clearly in violation of New Jersey traffic laws. If troopers are seen by the public to violate such laws, with impunity, citizens must wonder why they should be punished for infractions. Allegations that the trooper driving Mr. Corzine and entrusted with his safety was in the midst of a call on his cellphone have not been verified.

Original reports attributing the accident to the driver of a red pickup truck that swerved into the path of a white vehicle, causing the driver of the "Suburban" in which Corzine was seated to turn in order to avoid a collision -- crashing into the guardrail -- were somewhat "hasty." Colonel Fuentes of the New Jersey State Police explained:

"... troopers who drive the governor and other state officials are given discretion to use the emergency lights and exceed the speed limit in cases of an emergency and, because of security concerns, are advised not to let the governor's vehicle remain bogged down in a traffic jam."

However,

"... we ask them to obey the traffic laws and the speed laws."

Violations of such laws are as punishable when committed by troopers as they are when committed by others.

"Eugene O'Donnell, a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said that speed might be justified for a governor racing to respond to a natural disaster, but that 'an elected official trying to get to a routine appointment would certainly be out of the scope of an emergency definition.' ... "

"The results of the accident investigation contradict the original account the state police gave in the first 24 hours. Colonel Fuentes said Thursday night that 'speed was not a factor' in the accident. When asked Tuesday whether he now believed that speed played a role in the accident, Colonel Fuentes replied 'What do you think?' ..."

"The police and other state officials also originally said the accident was caused by the erratic out-of-control movements of a red pickup truck, whose driver, Kenneth Potts of Little Egg Harbor, N.J. was identified on Saturday but not charged."

If Mr. Potts was indeed the driver of that red pickup, it is surprising that he would not be charged or questioned under oath concerning an illegal lane change, leaving the scene of an accident -- an accident which he could hardly have failed to notice -- and several other offenses that come to mind. The strange caution about charging drivers with traffic offenses that are routinely issued by New Jersey cops suggests a reluctance by the authorities to have this matter examined in a court of law.

I wonder why there is such a "reluctance"?

This has led to new questions concerning the true identity of the driver of that red pickup or the real motives of such a driver, whoever that person may be. Also, troopers responsible for the safety of public officials must not place their lives in jeopardy by driving at speeds and in a manner that would result in charges for anyone else.

In a state that sought the resignation of a former attorney general, allegedly, because she failed to wear her seatbelt or because her mere presence at a roadside scene might cramp the style of cops who should issue summonses, this curious lack of concern in the face of blatant illegality, resulting in heinous injury to a high public official is most worrisome. Many have used the word "hypocrisy."

Think of the hundreds -- or even thousands -- of dollars in fines that might be collected in a state with disappearing billions from the public treasury. The failure to issue summonses and the misrepresentation of crucial facts in this matter of great public interest can only be described as "unethical," or at best "inept." These are words ordinarily reserved for New Jersey's Supreme Court and those who serve as "justices" on that court. New Jersey police must be better than that.

Was the real motive for "causing" this accident to deflect Corzine's corruption-busting efforts? Does this hidden motive have something to do with the smear campaign against an incapacitated man?

Winnie Hu, "In Wishing Corzine Well, Sympathy is Mixed With Resentment," in The New York Times, April 20, 2007, at p. B1:

"... [New Jersey] residents say they do not know why he was violating the speed limit ..."

Mr. Corzine could not have violated the speed limit since he was not driving the vehicle. Corzine relied on the competence of a New Jersey State Trooper entrusted with protecting him and transporting him "safely" to his locations. The smear campaign in the media on the part of the Trenton Syndicate is especially ugly when the victim is hospitalized and unable to respond.

Does the fact that Mr. Corzine is a fellow Democrat count for nothing with the Jersey Boys? I guess not.

This may be even worse than what they did to Zulima Farber. It is an implied threat to their critics that they can hurt and smear people, through their media friends, along with a further revelation (if any were needed) that they have finally sunk lower than the dog shit on their shoes -- which they so closely resemble.

"Crimes Against Humanity" in New Jersey.

George J. Annas, "Unspeakably Cruel -- Torture, Medical Ethics, and Law," The New England Journal of Medicine May 19, 2005, 352; 20. http://www.NEJM.org
Karen J. Greenberg, The Torture Debate in America (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
Alfred W. McCoy, A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, From the Cold war to the War on Terror (New York: Henry Holt, 2006).
Harold Pinter, "Art, Truth and Politics," in Not One More Death (London: Verso, 2006), p. 14.

Before reading this essay, please see "Psychological Torture in the American Legal System," January 15, 2006, http://www.CriticalVision@blogspot.com

Revelations that American soldiers, allegedly under specific orders from their immediate supervisors and possibly with the consent of the highest officials in the land, tortured Iraqui detainees have raised serious doubts about the values of the United States of America. I continue to hope, perhaps irrationally, that President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld did not order these acts of barbarity. Both men have condemned these crimes and deny having ordered them. I refuse to believe anything different in the absence of compelling proof against them, which I have yet to see in the news reports and books that I have read. I say this despite increasing doubts expressed by critics concerning the plausibility of the Bush Administration's denials. Sadly, it is becoming abundantly clear that these denials are doubtful at best.

The reason to forbid torture is not simply its ineffectiveness as an information-gathering technique, but that it is evil. The United States of America should not be associated with such tactics. The obviousness of this observation does not diminish the need to say it. The world needs to hear this from the United States and from individual Americans.

For much of the world it is now an open question whether the U.S. commitment to human rights, both internationally and within the nation's borders, is real or only a matter of hypocrisy and lip service. The apparent indifference to torture has not helped with America's image abroad nor with its credibility on human rights issues. Prosecutions are underway and "the investigation is on-going," as they say, so that we may continue to hope that this shameful episode in the nation's history is only an aberration.

Much seems to depend on whether the victims of torture are "ordinary Americans" (which is a code term for "middle class whites" as opposed to "others"). I am suggesting that torture must be abolished regardless of the race or ethinicity of the victims.

This now seems unlikely since new revelations have appeared suggesting that torture is a routine aspect of life in New Jersey, for example, and probably in other places. There are reasons to believe that torture is a secret component of the legal system of that unfortunate state, where such horrors are only one part of the "underground" reality of the "unofficial" court-political/power system. http://www.nj-civilrights.org

The New Jersey state slogan ("New Jersey -- Come see for yourself!"), which cost taxpayers $250,000.00, has now been quietly abandoned after six months' use. Would it not be better for New Jersey to admit past errors, refuse to employ secret torture sessions in future interrogations, while adopting a slogan that says: "We no longer torture people?" Many people think so.

When I think of New Jersey's legal system, I am reminded of film director Carlo Ponti's response when he was told that one of his writers in an American film was considered a Communist by Senator McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee. Signor Ponti said ... "So what? Who do we fix and how much?" No doubt Carlo Ponti had spent some time in the Garden State. (See "New Jersey's Feces-Covered Supreme Court.")

Torture is a "crime against humanity," defined as such since the Nuremberg Trials. Obeying orders is no defense to such crimes. In the words of General Telford Taylor in 1946, Nazi physicians "... are responsible for wholesale murder and unspeakably cruel tortures." Health care workers, especially physicians and nurses, using their training to obtain information by means of the infliction of mental suffering on victims are guilty of "unspeakably cruel and heinous" crimes. This is true wherever and whenever such things occur. (See "Is New Jersey Chief Justice Deborah T. Poritz unethical or only incompetent?")

Let us ask Chief Justice Poritz: Given your knowledge of the tortures taking place in New Jersey -- on your watch, in a legal system over which you presided -- how do you live with yourself now? How do you feel when you judge the ethics of others? Like a fraud? Does the ethnicity or race of victims, provided that it is different from your own, make it O.K.? What have you become? How does a Jew become Mengele?

Torture is prohibited under Amendment VIII, of the U.S. Constitution as "cruel and unusual punishment" and is also barred under the "due process" clause of the XIVth Amendment. Yet it is, allegedly, a daily reality in American prisons and interrogation chambers, maybe in U.S. society generally. See Angela Y. Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete? (New York: Seven Stories, 2003), pp. 60-83. Women are sexualized and tortured, raped or otherwise violated, routinely in American jails and prisons. New jersey may be the worst offender in this regard. This is intolerable. Under the U.N. Convention and Human Rights Law signed by the U.S.:

"Torture is any act against an individual in the offender's custody or physical control, by which severe pain or suffering ... whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on that individual for such purposes as obtaining from that individual or a third person information or a confession, punishing that individual for an act that individual or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, intimidating or coercing that individual or a third person or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind." (emphasis added)

A person cannot consent to torture; torture is never for the victim's own good; secrecy does not render torture permissible; complicity by state institutions or anonymous slanders of the victim(s) in the media only makes the offense worse; while participation by lawyers, physicians or therapists in such acts makes these offenses especially loathsome and despicable, even if they torture to get information they consider "useful." Torture is a betrayal of a physician's oath and a befouling of the therapeutic encounter. (Terry and Diana) It is "unethical," in the full meaning of the word, for any attorney to be aware of or to participate in any torture of persons. (That's you, John, and "others.")

Yet torture happens all-too often, usually with a wink from public officials, who sometimes join the "fun." http://www.judiciary.stae.nj.us/images/lon.jpg (If this image is blocked, then do a search on Google under "Justice Virginia Long" of the New Jersey Supreme Court.) In Hudson County the torture got a little out of hand recently and may have resulted in the killing of at least one inmate; while in Passaic County, the use of dogs as part of torture has led to a class action suit.

This fondness for torture on the part of some U.S. officials is true not only in Iraq, but also in some of the worst jurisdictions in the U.S., as I say, where corruption has become the norm. Many people, especially minority group members, have experienced brutality at the hands of the authorities. Many have also been subjected to some form of torture, usually in such a way that the victim cannot prove what happened, so that he or she is forced to live with the indignity of knowing that the torturers continue to live freely in society. A question for my torturers is whether their families in Ridgewood and Clifton know what they do and that they lie about their crimes, concealing the truth from their victims -- victims who will not go away or relent in the struggle to face torturers and rapists.

"Therapists" lend themselves to questioning people in violative ways that, nonetheless, allow the authorities to deny that such things occur in the land of the free and the home of the brave. These infuriating hypocrisies and contradictions in a young Latino's or African-American's (or anyone's) life, for instance, help to explain the seething anger that one must live with, every day, even if one continues to believe in the promise or hope that is America.

I understand that people who have not experienced such things will find it difficult to believe that American institutions can be so corrupt or that the nice folks living next door, who may work for the "government," know or participate in the violation of human rights. Victims of abuse find it equally difficult to believe that anyone can take seriously denials of responsibility for torture by public officials in places like New Jersey. And yet, as civil libertarians, we must afford everyone -- including Garden State politicians and judges -- a presumption of innocence.

Where are they on this issue? Hiding? Is their response only that they are "against smoking in public places"? There is a mysterious contemporary silence concerning torture on the part of the highest courts in various states riddled with corruption. I wonder why?

Let us hope that public figures will do the right thing. It would certainly be a welcome surprise to find politicians -- even judges -- standing firm against torture. Too many state Supreme Court justices only take time from posing for their portraits to negelect their duties to a citizenry increasingly fed up with, for example, New Jersey's routine political corruption and illegality in high places.

Torture is morally evil. Not even defenders of torture in the human "ticking bomb" situation condone or approve of torture (not publicly, anyway), including psychological torture, as a method of obtaining information in ordinary legal proceedings. And secrecy is always offensive to legality. But torture is also addictive for torturers, who come to delight in wielding power over others, so that the infliction of pain on others becomes its own reward. Terry, does this ring a bell? How about Diana?

The most popular forms of torture in America are so-called "hands off" torture techniques developed by American intelligence agencies. These methods involve, primarily, use of drugging, hypnosis, stress/anxiety inducement, frustration and other methods for creating depression and collapse. Guilt is very effective in this regard. Long term effects of such artificially created psychological trauma are devastating. These methods are barbaric and cruel, leaving victims with life-long psychological injuries, difficulties with affect and social functioning, while causing personality distortions in torturers too. Yet torture may well have become a not-so-secret method of social control in the United States.

We must eradicate torture in all of its forms, including psychological torture. Any physician or lawyer engaging in, or aware of, acts of torture intended to provide information that is to be used against victims in court proceedings, is guilty of crimes against humanity and depravity. I wish any physicians or attorneys engaging in such activities to know that no amount of sophistry absolves them of moral responsibility -- and legal liability too, if they get caught, and I hope that they will be -- for such loathsome actions.

Any tribunal or adjudicative body knowingly basing its decisions or findings of fact on information procured by such illicit means lacks legitimacy, so that its decisions are rendered invalid and unworthy of respect. Any continuing cover up of the use of torture in legal proceedings, which is also a daily occurrence in the most corrupt jurisdictions, makes the offense more heinous and must stop immediately, with full disclosure of all facts to victims of such tortures.

For each day that torture continues to be covered-up, it is repeated upon the bodies and minds of victims. We must finally take the great civilizing step of ending torture everywhere today, now.

Please communicate your horror at such practices to your elected officials, state tribunals and to professional bodies, throughout the United States and globally. If you have engaged in the torture of others, as a therapist or security official, then have the decency to admit your actions and make some effort to atone for them. Tell judges and politicians in your state what you think of such crimes.

Consider the portrait accompanying this essay, and let us ask such persons today to reflect on what they have become. We can always hope that there is some remnant of decency and morality left in such people. After all, they must have been children once.