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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Matt Guitar Murphy

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues guitarist Matt Guitar Murphy. Enjoy!

^{Matt "Guitar" Murphy - The Blues Don't Bother Me}

"The U.S. - the idea that the U.S. has introduced and imposed principles of international law, that's hardly even a joke. The United States has even gone so far as to veto Security Council resolutions calling on all states to observe international law. That was in the 1980s under Reagan."

-- Noam Chomsky

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News and Opinion

U.S. Navy Reserve Doctor on Gina Haspel Torture Victim: “One of the Most Severely Traumatized Individuals I Have Ever Seen”

An American doctor and Naval reserve officer who has done extensive medical evaluation of a high-profile prisoner who was tortured under the supervision of Gina Haspel privately urged Sen. Mark Warner, the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, to oppose Haspel’s confirmation as CIA director, according to an email obtained by The Intercept.

“I have evaluated Mr. Abdal Rahim al-Nashiri, as well as close to 20 other men who were tortured as part of the CIA’s RDI [Rendition, Detention, and Interrogation] program. I am one of the only health professionals he has ever talked to about his torture, its effects, and his ongoing suffering,” Dr. Sondra Crosby, a professor of public health at Boston University, wrote to Warner’s legislative director on Monday. “He is irreversibly damaged by torture that was unusually cruel and designed to break him. In my over 20 years of experience treating torture victims from around the world, including Syria, Iraq, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mr. al-Nashiri presents as one of the most severely traumatized individuals I have ever seen.” ...

Despite Crosby’s pleas, Warner and five other Democratic senators have announced their support for Haspel. Warner backed Haspel after she sent him a carefully crafted letter designed to give the impression that she had changed her position on torture while simultaneously continuing to defend its efficacy. ... Haspel stated that she “would refuse to undertake any proposed activity that was contrary to my moral and ethical values.” But Haspel has refused to renounce torture, her role in its use or to condemn the practice of waterboarding. In fact, under questioning from Sen. Kamala Harris during her confirmation hearing, Haspel explicitly refused to say that the “enhanced interrogation techniques” she oversaw at a secret CIA prison in Thailand were immoral. That fact renders her pledge to Warner meaningless. ...

In a May 7 briefing to Senate Intelligence Committee staffers, also obtained by The Intercept, Crosby asserted that during Nashiri’s torture “unauthorized techniques were always used with authorized techniques.” Crosby stated that she could not discuss these “unauthorized techniques” because they remain classified. She cited a public statement from one of the CIA contractors who developed the enhanced interrogation program, psychologist James Mitchell, who said he witnessed an interrogator “dousing Nashiri with cold water while using a stiff, bristled brush to scrub his ass and balls and then his mouth and then blowing cigar smoke in his face until he became nauseous.” She offered to brief senators with appropriate security clearances on other classified unauthorized techniques. ...

Crosby told Senate staffers that the CIA’s “methodology consisted of strategic assaults — multiple traumas inflicted simultaneously, as well as consecutively, in a manner designed to instill terror and maximize harm in the prisoners.” The interrogation program, she stated, showed that “torture is not just a crime of physical violence, but a way of destroying someone’s humanity.” Crosby added: “It is important to note that the barbarity of the torture methods used were shrouded and concealed in sterile euphemisms.”

Democrats Shamed for Supporting Gina Haspel, CIA Nominee Who Oversaw 'Chaining Detainees to Ceiling for Days, Naked or in Diapers'

After the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday advanced Gina Haspel's nomination to direct the CIA despite the key role she played in agency's post-9/11 torture program, the full chamber is poised to offer its final approval—with the large majority of Republicans and at least five Democrats pledging to vote in favor—which critics are calling "an affront to human rights."

The ACLU, in a series of tweets, shared the details about Haspel's history that are publicly known, and said the committee had "voted to reward a dark, criminal chapter of our country's history when it shouldn't have agreed to a vote until Haspel's full torture record was made public." Calling Wednesday's 10-5 vote "an embarrassment to our democracy," the group urged other members of the Senate to "do the job the committee failed to."

Reminder: CIA director nominee Gina Haspel oversaw torture methods based on 1960s-era experiments on dogs.

This is what @MarkWarner, @HeidiHeitkamp, @JoeManchinWV and others are supporting: pic.twitter.com/lxaZ5YPhCJ

— ACLU (@ACLU) May 15, 2018

Two Republicans—Sens. John McCain (Ariz.) Rand Paul (Ky.)—are openly opposing Haspel. However, in a move that's been called "beyond shameful," five Democrats—Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Joe Donnelly, (Ind.), Mark Warner (Va.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), and Bill Nelson (Fla.)—have said they plan join with the rest of the GOP and vote for Haspel, which makes it likely her nomination will clear the full Senate.

Torture Gina Haspel helped oversee:

• Chaining detainees to ceiling for days, naked or in diapers
• Slamming them into walls
• Simulated drowning
• Deprivation of food and sleep

This is the record @MarkWarner, @JoeManchinWV, and @HeidiHeitkamp are supporting. pic.twitter.com/8xhnV64Lax

— ACLU (@ACLU) May 16, 2018

The controversy surrounding Haspel's nomination has led to renewed calls for the Justice Department to publicly release the Durham report, which details a probe launched in 2008, after Haspel and her colleagues destroyed 92 video tapes that showed CIA agents torturing detainees, and later expanded to assess "alleged CIA mistreatment of detainees" and "whether federal laws were violated in connection with the interrogation of specific detainees at overseas locations."

Planned U.S.-North Korea Peace Talks in Jeopardy as Trump Adviser Bolton Pushes for Regime Change

Trump’s big summit with Kim Jong Un is looking very shaky

After weeks of rapprochement across the 38th parallel, the old, ingrained politics of the Korean Peninsula have fallen back into place. South Korea offered Thursday to act as a mediator to make sure a denuclearization summit between Washington and Pyongyang goes ahead — even though Seoul is itself embroiled in disagreement with its neighbor over joint military drills. ...

Less than a month out from the scheduled June 12 sit-down, North Korea abruptly announced Wednesday it might pull out of the talks if Washington continued to insist on its denuclearization. ...

Bolton was singled out in the North Korean statements, which noted “our feeling of repugnance toward him” and took issue with his recent comments that the U.S. could pursue a “Libyan model” in its dealings with Pyongyang. Citing the model of a regime whose leader Moammar Gadhafi met a bloody demise in 2011 did not go over well with North Korea.

A Japanese newspaper also reported Thursday that Washington had already made some concrete demands around North Korea’s denuclearization. According to the Asahi newspaper, citing unnamed sources, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at their meeting this month that the U.S. could look at removing North Korea from a list of state sponsors of terrorism if it shipped nuclear warheads, an intercontinental ballistic missile and other nuclear material overseas within six months.

Meet Tarek Loubani, the Canadian Doctor Shot by Israeli Forces Monday While Treating Gaza’s Wounded

'Appalled' Trudeau calls for inquiry after Canadian doctor wounded in Gaza

Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, has deplored the shooting of a Canadian doctor by an Israeli sniper on the Gaza border and added his voice to calls for an independent investigation into Israeli fire that killed 60 Palestinians and injured thousands more during mass border protests.

Trudeau described the reported use of excessive force and live ammunition as “inexcusable” in a statement. “Canada deplores and is gravely concerned by the violence in the Gaza strip that has led to a tragic loss of life and injured countless people,” he said. “We are appalled that Dr Tarek Loubani, a Canadian citizen, is among the wounded – along with so many unarmed people, including civilians, members of the media, first responders, and children.”

Loubani, who works as an emergency physician in southern Ontario, said he was treating injured Palestinians on the Gaza Strip when he was shot in both legs on Monday. He was in Gaza as part of a medical team that is field testing 3D-printed medical tourniquets. The shooting happened during a lull in the protests, said Loubani. He was wearing a green surgeon’s outfit and was standing with orange-vested paramedics about 25 metres from the protesters. There were no fires or smoke and he was within clear lines of sight to three fortified sniper posts.

“It’s very hard to believe I wasn’t specifically targeted, considering that there was a lull in activity, considering the fact that I was so clearly marked,” he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation earlier this week as he recovered from the shooting. Another 16 paramedics were injured. The doctor who rescued Loubani, Musa Abuhassanin, was later killed as he was trying to reach another patient.

IDF Spox: Israel Failed to Minimize Gaza Casualties

Speaking to the Jewish Federations of North America, Israeli Army spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus conceded that the military had failed in efforts to minimize Gaza casualties earlier this week, and had effectively handed Hamas a PR ‘knockout’ victory.

Opening fire on protesters during Nakba Day on the Gaza border, Israeli forces killed 61 Palestinians and wounded thousands. Though Israeli political officials have defended the killings, Lt. Col. Conricus admitted that some of the Palestinians were hit “by mistake.” ...

Conricus is the first Israeli official to publicly suggest that a too high death toll was a problem, with political officials all insisting that killing Gazans was akin to killing Nazis, and arguing that they were mostly “terrorists” anyhow.

EU talks on salvaging Iran nuclear deal

EU sets course for US clash with law blocking Iran sanctions

The EU has put itself on a collision course with the US over Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran, as major European firms started to pull out of the country to avoid being hit by sanctions. In an attempt to shield EU companies doing business with Iran, the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, said he would turn to a plan last used to protect businesses working in Cuba before a US trade embargo was lifted on the Latin American country. “We will begin the ‘blocking statute’ process, which aims to neutralise the extraterritorial effects of US sanctions in the EU. We must do it and we will do it tomorrow [Friday] morning at 10.30,” he said at the end of a summit in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. ...

The “blocking statute” is a 1996 regulation that prohibits EU companies and courts from complying with foreign sanctions laws and stipulates that no foreign court judgments based on these laws have any effect in the EU. The European Investment Bank will also provide a funding stream for businesses working in Iran. Juncker said: “The effects of the US sanctions will be felt. It is the duty of the EU therefore to protect European business and that applies particularly to smaller and medium-size businesses.” ...

Despite the tough diplomatic rhetoric, however, the chances of the Iran nuclear deal surviving the impact of US sanctions were dealt a blow when the Danish shipping group A P Moller-Maersk said it was joining an exodus of companies ceasing commercial activity in Iran. Maersk, the world’s largest oil shipping container firm, said on Thursday it would honour customer agreements entered into before 8 May, but then wind them down by 4 November, as required by the reimposed US sanctions. The announcement came after the French oil firm Total announced on Wednesday that it was going to pull out of its 50.1% stake in the South Pars 11 oil field. Total said it would only retain its investment if the US gave it a specific exemption from the planned sanctions. Its joint venture partners in China are likely to take over its share of the investment. ...

The speed at which firms operating in Iran are pulling out is threatening to wreck EU leaders’ plans to provide legal and financial guarantees to protect European firms that keep trading with Iran. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, admitted that the EU was limited in what it could do. She said: “We can see whether we can give small and medium-sized companies certain relief. That is being examined ... As for compensating all businesses in a comprehensive way for such measures by the United States of America, I think we cannot and must not create illusions.” Commenting on the Total decision, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said: “We’re not going to force French businesses to stay in Iran. The president of the French republic is not the CEO of Total.”

Keiser Report: Capricious Nature of USD Empire

50 Years Ago Today: Catonsville 9 Burned Draft Papers with Homemade Napalm to Protest Vietnam War

Why are for-profit US prisons subjecting detainees to forced labor?

In 2017, officials at the Stewart immigration detention center in Georgia placed Shoaib Ahmed, a 24-year-old immigrant from Bangladesh, in solitary confinement for encouraging fellow workers to stop working. Ahmed, who was paid 50 cents per hour to work within the facility, was upset because his $20 paycheck was delayed. His punishment was solitary confinement for 10 days, where he was subject to deplorable conditions – a cell with no access to other workers, only an hour of out of cell time per day and showers only three times per week. Detailing the impact that severe isolation has had on his mental health, Ahmed said: “I think the segregation will kill me.”

Stewart is operated by the largest prison corporation in the US, CoreCivic (formerly Corrections Corporation of America), under a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). The corporation’s net income last year was $178m.

Ahmed’s experience mirrors that of a growing number of detained immigrants at facilities across the US who are subjected to forced labor.

In April, we filed a lawsuit on behalf of Shoaib Ahmed and others against CoreCivic, alleging that the prison corporation violates human trafficking laws and employs a deprivation scheme to force immigrants detained at Stewart to work for sub-minimum wages, and then threatens to punish them for refusing to work through solitary confinement or loss of access to necessities. A lawsuit against Geo Group, another prison corporation, is moving forward for using similar practices at the Aurora Detention Center in Colorado, violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

Stewart relies on the labor of detained immigrants to keep the cooking and cleaning and other basic operations going. How convenient and profitable for the largest and wealthiest prison corporation to exploit detained immigrant labor rather than hire regularly waged employees. CoreCivic’s abuse and exploitation of detained immigrants’ labor as part of its profit-making schemes constitute a contemporary form of slavery as we detailed in a submission to the UN special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants.

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Big Primary Wins for Socialists and Progressives Who Ran on 'Popular Demands That Were Deemed Impossible'

Defying national and state-level Democratic establishment forces that have worked to crowd out left-wing candidates and demonstrating that there is a deep hunger among the American electorate for a bold progressive agenda, candidates running on platforms of Medicare for All, free college, and a living wage emerged victorious in several state primaries on Tuesday and tore through the boundaries of what is conventionally considered politically feasible.

"It feels like a monumental shift," Arielle Cohen, co-chair of Pittsburgh Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), told the Huffington Post after four DSA-backed candidates defeated establishment Democrats in Pennsylvania. "We won on popular demands that were deemed impossible. We won on healthcare for all; we won on free education."

Running in Pennsylvania's State House Districts 34 and 21 respectively, Summer Lee and Sara Innamorato—both running on platforms consisting of Medicare for All, strong environmental protection, and campaign finance reform—toppled what local news outlets described as a "political dynasty" by trouncing Democratic cousins Paul Costa and Dom Costa by a wide margin.

"They said it wasn't possible without institutional support. That we couldn't talk about Medicare for All, a living wage, about ending corruption in Harrisburg," Innamorato said during her victory party Tuesday night. "And you know what we did instead? We built something."

"The establishment's scared," Pittsburgh DSA wrote on Twitter in response to the upset victories, which also included wins by Elizabeth Fiedler and Kristin Seale over their establishment counterparts. "When we fight, we win."

Signs of the grassroots progressive wave that some predicted will ultimately sweep across the country could also be seen in Idaho on Tuesday, where progressive Paulette Jordan handily defeated her establishment-backed Democratic opponent A.J. Balukoff in a bid to become the nation's first Native American governor.

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Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts, releasing 30,000ft plume of ash

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupted anew before dawn on Thursday, shooting a steely gray plume of ash about 30,000 feet (9,100 meters) into the sky that began raining down on a nearby town. The explosion at the mountain summit came shortly after 4am following two weeks of volcanic activity that sent lava flows into neighborhoods and destroyed at least 26 homes.

The eruption probably lasted only a few minutes, and the ash accumulations were minimal, with only trace amounts expected near the volcano, said Mike Poland, a geophysicist with the US Geological Survey.

Kilauea is one of the world’s most active volcanoes. An eruption in 1924 killed one person and sent rocks, ash and dust into the air for 17 days. Scientists warned on 9 May that a drop in the lava lake at the summit might create conditions for an explosion that could fling ash and refrigerator-sized boulders into the air.

Geologists predicted such a blast would mostly release trapped steam from flash-heated groundwater. Communities a mile or two away could be showered by pea-size fragments or dusted with non-toxic ash, they said. The volcano has been erupting continuously since 1983. It is one of five volcanoes on Hawaii’s Big Island, and the only one currently erupting.

Chilean villagers claim British appetite for avocados is draining region dry

British supermarkets are selling thousands of tonnes of avocados produced in a Chilean region where villagers claim vast amounts of water are being diverted, resulting in a drought.

Major UK supermarkets including Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose, Aldi and Lidl source avocados from Chile’s largest avocado-producing province, Petorca, where water rights have been violated.

In Petorca, many avocado plantations install illegal pipes and wells in order to divert water from rivers to irrigate their crops. As a result, villagers say rivers have dried up and groundwater levels have fallen, causing a regional drought. Residents are now obliged to use often contaminated water delivered by truck.

Veronica Vilches, an activist who is responsible for one of the Rural Potable Water systems, says: “People get sick because of the drought – we find ourselves having to choose between cooking and washing, going to the bathroom in holes in the ground or in plastic bags, while big agri-businesses earn more and more.”

In 2011, Chile’s water authority, the Dirección General de Aguas, published an investigation conducted by satellite that showed at least 65 illegal underground channels bringing water from the rivers to the private plantations. Some of the big agribusinesses have been convicted for unauthorised water use and water misappropriation.

A tough article to read, but it ends on a hopeful note:

Bred to Suffer
Inside the Barbaric U.S. Industry of Dog Experimentation

There is a largely hidden, poorly regulated, and highly profitable industry in the U.S. that has a gruesome function: breeding dogs for the sole purpose of often-torturous experimentation, after which the dogs are killed because they are no longer of use. Americans frequently express horror at festivals in countries such as China and South Korea where dogs are killed, cooked and eaten. Mainstream media outlets in the U.S. routinely report with a tone of disgust on the use of dogs in those countries for food consumption.

But in the United States itself, corporations and academic institutions exploit dogs (as well as cats and rabbits) for excruciating experiments that are completely trivial, even useless, and are just as abusive as the practices in Asia that have produced so much moral indignation in the west. These dogs are frequently bred into life for the sole purpose of being laboratory objects, and spend their entire, often-short existence locked in a small cage, subjected to procedures that impose extreme pain and suffering. ...

Ultimately, a direct collision is coming between the rapidly evolving scientific understanding of the capacity of animals to suffer, emote and possess self-consciousness (as Stephen Hawking and other leading neuroscientists recognized), and the legalized tolerance for mass animal abuse. This inevitable incompatibility was vividly highlighted by a remarkable written judicial opinion earlier this month from a judge on New York’s highest court, which ultimately ruled that two chimpanzees do not possess legal standing as “persons” to petition for release. Nonetheless, in the case brought by the group Nonhuman Rights Project, Inc., judge Eugene Fahey explained that society’s treatment of animals is becoming increasingly untenable as a matter of ethics, morality, science, and law:

The inadequacy of the law as a vehicle to address some of our most difficult ethical dilemmas is on display in this matter. . . . The question will have to be addressed eventually. Can a non-human animal be entitled to release from confinement through the writ of habeas corpus? Should such a being be treated as a person or as property, in essence a thing? ...

The reliance on a paradigm that determines entitlement to a court decision based on whether the party is considered a “person” or relegated to the category of a “thing” amounts to a refusal to confront a manifest injustice. Whether a being has the right to seek freedom from confinement through the writ of habeas corpus should not be treated as a simple either/or proposition. The evolving nature of life makes clear that chimpanzees and humans exist on a continuum of living beings. Chimpanzees share at least 96% of their DNA with humans. They are autonomous, intelligent creatures. To solve this dilemma, we have to recognize its complexity and confront it. . . .

The issue whether a nonhuman animal has a fundamental right to liberty protected by the writ of habeas corpus is profound and far-reaching. It speaks to our relationship with all the life around us. Ultimately, we will not be able to ignore it. While it may be arguable that a chimpanzee is not a “person,” there is no doubt that it is not merely a thing.

The work of animal rights activists is forcing us to confront what we would rather avert our gaze away from — systematic abuse, torture, and unspeakable cruelty. It is increasingly difficult to ignore the ethical questions all of this presents. As Judge Fahey put it, “Ultimately, we will not be able to ignore it.”

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Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Here's the Name of Every Senator Who Voted Against Net Neutrality—and When to Vote Them Out

‘The Everyday Process of Ethnic Cleansing’

A surprisingly excellent mainstream media interview about what is happening in Palestine:

How are Palestinians reacting to the U.S. embassy opening

A Tale of Two Tortures

50 Years Later, 'Catonsville 9' Burning of Vietnam Draft Notices Continues to Inspire

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A Little Night Music

Matt "Guitar" Murphy - Murphy's Boogie

Matt 'Guitar' Murphy and Memphis Slim - Living The Life I Love

Matt Murphy - Sufferin' Soul Pt.1

Guitar Murphy - Sufferin' Soul Part 2

Memphis Slim w/Matt "Guitar" Murphy - I'm lost without you

Matt Guitar Murphy - I Ain't Got No Time

Matt Guitar Murphy - Way Down South

Billy Boy Arnold, Matt Guitar Murphy & Joe Louis Walker - I Wanna Love You

Matt "Guitar" Murphy - Ungrateful Woman

Matt Guitar Murphy - Strut Your Stuff

Billy Branch, Joe Louis Walker + Matt "Guitar" Murphy - Bring It on Home

Matt "Guitar" Murphy - Buck's Boogie

Booker T. Jones with Blake Mills, Steve Cropper, Keb' Mo, Albert Lee and Matt Guitar Murphy - Sleep Walk

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