{"id":186569,"date":"2013-12-17T21:23:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T02:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2013\/12\/17\/the-rotational-velocity-of-kafka-and-orwell-has-slowed-a-bit\/"},"modified":"2013-12-17T21:23:00","modified_gmt":"2013-12-18T02:23:00","slug":"the-rotational-velocity-of-kafka-and-orwell-has-slowed-a-bit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2013\/12\/17\/the-rotational-velocity-of-kafka-and-orwell-has-slowed-a-bit\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rotational Velocity of Kafka and Orwell Has Slowed a Bit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/dx8Jgu3.jpg\" style=\"cursor: pointer; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;\" width=\"100\" \/>The military commission in Guantanamo has decided that <a href=\"http:\/\/justsecurity.org\/2013\/12\/16\/911-military-commission-lift-provision-classifying-observations-experiences\/\">the defendants recollection of their own torture is not classified<\/a>, so they can testify about their own experiences:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\"><b>MILITARY COMMISSION RETREATS ON CLASSIFICATION OF TORTURE MEMORIES FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/b><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Media contact: James Connell 011(5399) 5168<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Alternate: Erin Daste 011(5399) 5321<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA Today, the military commission in the 9\/11 case issued several orders (AE200II, AE 013CCC, and AE013DDD) which lift the provision classifying the \u201cobservations and experiences\u201d of defendants formerly held by the CIA.&nbsp; Defense attorneys are still required to treat CIA information as classified, but the military commission acknowledged that it had limited authority to control defendants\u2019 thoughts and memories.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">\u201cThis ruling is an important step forward in accountability for torture,\u201d said James Connell, attorney for Ammar al Baluchi.&nbsp; \u201cThe real question is whether the prison will allow the prisoners to communicate with foreign government officials, medical care providers, human rights authorities, and media.\u201d<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\">This ruling is the latest vindication of a series of defense challenges to the United States\u2019 authority to classify the thoughts, memories, and statements of the former CIA prisoners.&nbsp; In September 2012, the government abandoned its long-held policy of \u201cpresumptive classification,\u201d in which every statement of former CIA prisoners was considered classified, but substituted a provision defining all prisoner observations and experiences on CIA detention as classified.&nbsp; Defense attorneys challenged that provision as violating the Convention Against Torture.&nbsp; Today\u2019s ruling, which the prosecution strenuously opposed, lifts that restriction.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">\u201cPeople who have been abused by officials have a right to tell human rights organizations, medical care providers, and others about their torture,\u201d said Lt Col Sterling Thomas, United States Air Force, military attorney for Mr. al Baluchi.&nbsp; \u201cIf governments are allowed to keep allegations of torture secret, the protection against torture is worthless.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;Now to prosecute, or at least pull the security clearances, of everyone who had anything to do with conducting, managing, or approving torture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The military commission in Guantanamo has decided that the defendants recollection of their own torture is not classified, so they can testify about their own experiences: MILITARY COMMISSION RETREATS ON CLASSIFICATION OF TORTURE MEMORIES FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMedia contact: James Connell 011(5399) 5168Alternate: Erin Daste 011(5399) 5321GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA Today, the military commission in the 9\/11 &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[971,1032,972,1006,1168],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-rights","category-crimes-against-humanity","category-justice","category-military","category-torture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186569"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}