Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late to early , in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan.
The Axis advance halted in when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in , the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During and the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies.
World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September , beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later.
The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July , or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September Others follow the British historian A. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating.
It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August , rather than the formal surrender of Japan. After a years imprisonment, he traveled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group, returning to Cuba, Castro took a key role in the Cuban Revolution by leading the Movement in a guerrilla war against Batistas forces from the Sierra Maestra. After Batistas overthrow in , Castro assumed military and political power as Cubas Prime Minister, adopting a Marxist—Leninist model of development, Castro converted Cuba into a one-party, socialist state under Communist Party rule, the first in the Western Hemisphere.
Policies introducing central economic planning and expanding healthcare and education were accompanied by control of the press. These actions, coupled with Castros leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement from to and Cubas medical internationalism, following the Soviet Unions dissolution in , Castro led Cuba into its Special Period and embraced environmentalist and anti-globalization ideas.
Castro is a world figure. His supporters view him as a champion of socialism and anti-imperialism whose revolutionary regime advanced economic, critics view him as a dictator whose administration oversaw human-rights abuses, the exodus of a large number of Cubans, and the impoverishment of the countrys economy.
He was decorated with various awards and significantly influenced various individuals. In Castro was bestowed with the Grand Slam Silver Trophy in the prestigious Ernest Hemingway International Billfishing Tournament after he caught a sailfish, Castro was born out of wedlock at his fathers farm on August 13, Admitting he was illiterate, he became embroiled in student activism. Dominican Republic — The Dominican Republic is a sovereign state occupying the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region.
The western one-third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, christopher Columbus landed on the Western part of Hispaniola, in what is now Haiti, on December 6, The island became the first seat of the Spanish colonial rule in the New World, the Dominican people declared independence in November but were forcefully annexed by their more powerful neighbor Haiti in February After the victory in the Dominican War of Independence against Haitian rule the country again under Spanish colonial rule until the Dominican War of Restoration of The Dominican Republic experienced mostly internal strife until , a civil war in , the countrys last, was ended by another U.
Danilo Medina, the Dominican Republics current president, succeeded Fernandez in , the Dominican Republic has the ninth-largest economy in Latin America and is the largest economy in the Caribbean and Central American region. Though long known for agriculture and mining, the economy is now dominated by services. Over the last two decades, the Dominican Republic have been standing out as one of the economies in the Americas — with an average real GDP growth rate of 5. GDP growth in and reached 7. Recent growth has been driven by construction, manufacturing and tourism, private consumption has been strong, as a result of low inflation, job creation, as well as high level of remittances.
Nevertheless, unemployment, government corruption, and inconsistent electric service remain major Dominican problems, the country also has marked income inequality. International migration affects the Dominican Republic greatly, as it receives, mass illegal Haitian immigration and the integration of Dominicans of Haitian descent are major issues. A large Dominican diaspora exists, mostly in the United States, contributes to development, the Dominican Republic is the most visited destination in the Caribbean.
The country is also the site of the first cathedral, castle, monastery, and fortress built in all of the Americas, located in Santo Domingos Colonial Zone, a World Heritage Site. Music and sport are of importance in the Dominican culture, with Merengue and Bachata as the national dance and music.
The Velo and the Duryea Motor Wagon, patented in , are credited as the first standardized cars,67 Benz Velos were built in and in The early Velo had a 1L1. The Velocipede remained in production between and , with a count of over 1, produced. It was the first car introduced to South-Africa and was demonstrated to then President Paul Kruger on 4 January , Karl Benz patented the worlds first stationary, static Internal combustion engine. His patent created a demand for his vehicles, forcing Benz to move his operations in to a new factory on Waldhofstrasse in Mannheim.
Benz had appointed a Board of Management to help aid his growing company and these appointees suggested to Benz that he should create a less-expensive automobile suitable for mass-production. In response, Benz engineered a two-passenger automobile with a 3-horsepower engine and this preceding model could reach a top speed of 11 miles per hour, and utilized a pivotal front-axle operated by a roller-chained tiller for steering.
Roger began building Benz automobiles as well, and as a result, many British Inventors also used Benzs patents and automobiles as starting points for their own innovations. Lanchester, of Birmingham, built a four-wheeled petrol-driven automobile, similar to units previously designed by Benz, Karl Benzs Velo participated in the worlds first automobile race. A Parisian daily newspaper, by the name of Le Petit Journal, the editors of Le Petit intended to display horseless carriages as a viable means of transportation.
Rather than fastest time, the automobiles would be judged on whether they were safe and it took place in , starting in Paris and ending in Rouen. Benz had proven with this race that his engines and his automobiles were not only attainable, eventually, manufacturers began optimizing automobile design for racing. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This name uses Spanish naming customs: This article is an orphan , as no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from related articles ; try the Find link tool for suggestions.
Retrieved 22 July Retrieved from " https: Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world 2. Cantillon emphasized the willingness of the entrepreneur to assume risk and to deal with uncertainty, thus, he draws attention to the function of the entrepreneur, and distinguishes clearly between the function of the entrepreneur and the owner who provides the money 4.
After joining a new school, Mussolini achieved good grades, in , Mussolini emigrated to Switzerland, partly to avoid military service 5. These facilities were added to the factories that were exclusive to Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Oakland 6. In a presidential decree settled the name as Argentine Republic 7. The other candidates became targets of harassment by the army, ultimately, the Trujillo-Estrella ticket was proclaimed victorious with an implausible 99 percent of the vote 8. In , construction of its Yokohama plant was completed,44 Datsuns were shipped to Asia, Central and South America 9.
It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August , rather than the formal surrender of Japan Music and sport are of importance in the Dominican culture, with Merengue and Bachata as the national dance and music YouTube Videos [show more].
Amadeo Barletta, Semblanza de un Empresario by Juan Antonio Blanco (, Paperback) | eBay
Hera Temple in Paestum , among the world's largest and best-preserved Doric temples. Leonardo da Vinci , the quintessential Renaissance man , in a self-portrait, c. Royal Library , Turin. Christopher Columbus discovered America in , opening a new era in the history of humankind. Santo Domingo Spanish pronunciation: Arrival of Christopher Columbus. Emil Jellinek-Mercedes — , at the steering wheel of his Phoenix Double-Phaeton, was a European entrepreneur who helped design the first modern car.
Malala Yousafzai , a Pakistani activist, social entrepreneur, and the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize winner, was named in the ''Forbes'' 30 list. Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini Italian: Birthplace of Benito Mussolini in Predappio —the building is now used as a museum. His records are registered in the historical archives of Ellis Island, the only port of entry to America at that time, where he declared to be 18 years old. In Trujillo charged Barletta with conspiring to assassinate him, incarcerating him.
Trujillo cancelled his consular credentials by a decree and confiscated his properties and his Tobacco Company. Barletta moved to Cuba in and became the first exclusive distributor of General Motors , outside the United States. In he returned to Cuba and developed his empire together with his son Amadeo Jr. From his businesses grow and diversify. He was the owner and editor of "El Mundo", one of the largest Cuban newspapers during the s, and was also the exclusive representative for General Motors in Cuba, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.
In , Fidel Castro expropriated all his businesses and he was forced into exile with his family. In right after Rafael Trujillo 's assassination, he moves back to the Dominican Republic and he reorganize his old car business. In he obtains distribution exclusivity for Nissan. It is a fact that the goal here was a complete elimination of an ethnic group in a very small area.
This case involved entire families as well - fathers and sons, brothers, uncles," Masovic points out. Mass grave near Mostar contains Bosniak soldiers 24 May Bosnia's Missing Persons Commission has said in a statement that items recovered among the mortal remains of sixteen bodies exhumed last week confirmed that the grave site contained bodies of Bosnian Army soldiers killed in the s war. The DNA analysis has thus far determined the identity of 13 bodies. Results for the remaining three are expected to come in next week, as the grave is believed to also contain bodies of murdered civilians.
Judging from the found objects, including watches and rings, and also according to the age of recovered mortal remains, the Commission confirmed that 13 bodies could highly likely be identified as Bosnian Army members. Bahraini Security Forces arrested the young man in front of his family house and attacked him physically, according to his family. The young man was then transferred to the military hospital because of the injuries resulted from beating. We would like also to inform you that Ali Al-Khabaz, student of Vocational Training Institute, has disappeared since the security service denied his family right to visit him.
The family thinks that the reason for that denial is to hide the severe consequences of torture suffered by the young man in front of his family house. BYSHR calls upon you to urge the Bahraini government to reveal the location of the Bahraini young man, Ali Al-Khabaz and to order the local authorities to transfer him to hospital as soon as possible to be cured from his severe injuries. Furthermore, we call upon you to take immediate necessary measures to stop questioning him for the incidents that were taking place in the area of his family — grandfather's — house.
Particularly that, Al-Khabaz did not participate in any events held in this area, which witnessed violent clashes between Security Forces and a group of young men. We would like to remind you that the European Commission Delegation will visit Bahrain soon. We are looking forward that you can notify the respectful delegation with the severe human rights violations in Bahrain. Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights appreciates your amazing efforts in support of human rights in Bahrain.
Therefore, we hope that you will help to accelerate the procedures of locating that young man who was arrested since 20 May when the Security Forces attacked him under the eye of his people. The e-mail of the Bahraini ambassador to the US is ambsecretary bahrainembassy. Pressure is increasing on Gordon Brown to adopt tougher safeguards against alleged "torture" flights carrying suspected terrorists to secret locations.
An all-party group of senior MPs has called for a change in the law to require written guarantees about the protection of the prisoners before Britain allows its airports to be used for the so-called "extraordinary rendition" flights by the US. In a separate development, the Intelligence and Security Committee, which is chaired by former cabinet minister Paul Murphy and reports directly to the Prime Minister, is also due to deliver a report on its investigation into Britain's role in extraordinary rendition.
That report is likely to contain criticism of the way that the system abuses human rights and over the failure by the UK authorities to keep any proper records of the flights through British airports. The all-party group on extraordinary rendition said the system was "morally questionable and also risks placing the UK in breach of domestic and international obligations". The group's Tory chairman, Andrew Tyrie, has written to the Intelligence and Security Committee urging it to condemn the practice.
He said the US authorities denied the use of torture but it was believed maltreatment of suspects included extended sleep deprivation, inducing hypothermia and sensory deprivation.
The British Government at first denied any knowledge of rendition, but in confirmed it had allowed two rendition flights and turned two down in But a European council report suggested there were up to flights by CIA planes through Britain which were used for rendition. We have a moral dilemma: The US President, George Bush, has claimed that the extraordinary rendition had helped to avert a terrorist plot to bomb Heathrow. But Mr Tyrie said it undermined the rule of law and alienated moderate Muslim opinion.
The evidence that rendition exists has been underlined by three cases said Mr Tyrie: The all-party group is proposing the forthcoming Counter Terrorism Bill could be used to change the law to require an advance declaration of a rendition before British airports can be used; written assurances that its laws will not be contravened; and details of the final location and the purpose of the transfer of the suspect. It could also require the suspect to be identified. Parvez Imroz is co-founder and patron of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons APDP , which brings together Kashmiri families whose members have been the victims of enforced disappearances.
Imroz spoke to Percy Fernandez in Srinagar:. The central and state governments are reluctant to probe into the enforced disappearances in the state since More than 10, people have disappeared in the last 17 years, higher than the combined figures of disappearances of five Asian countries. We have been repea-tedly telling them PDP, Congress and NC and they have come out with contradictory facts and figures. The local mechanism has failed. The government wants to tire out its own citizens. Look what happened in the Sikh riots case. There should be pressure from the European Union, other democratic countries and global civil society groups to prevail upon the Indian government to address the grievances of 3,00, families who have been affected since The people who have disappeared belong to the lower strata of society.
There are more than 1, to 2, half widows. They want to know where their near and dear ones have disappeared. In the case of enforced disappearances, we fear that people were tortured and killed and bodies dumped into the rivers and forests which we have in plenty. Who can stop the disappearances? The state doesn't want to demoralise them by taking action against them. Nobody can question the army. The chief minister is just a nominal head like the president of India.
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Rewards contribute to fake encounters in a big way. The government is not happy with the number of disappearances. What they can do is to minimise it by taking the perpetrators to task. But if there are convictions, BJP will hold demonstrations. Now they are talking about a truth and reconciliation commission TCR. But ironically, the perpetrators are talking about TCR and not the victims. Will you tell these families to forget what happened? It is the right of the victims to decide what should be done to the perpetrators. We have been thinking of having an international tribunal so that the world knows what has happened in Kashmir since It will be a moral indictment of the perpetrators.
This would be a step forward. If the state fails to adhere to its duties, fails to deliver justice to its own people, what do you do? You remain silent or approach other forms which are available. New Delhi, May It cited the March extrajudicial killing case of five villagers in Pathribal village by Army and the CBI indictment of the guilty officers in April.
A new report indicated that some 10, people had been victims of enforced disappearance since , the Amnesty said. Videla fue llevado ante la justicia en el Esta actividad fue suficiente para que en el gobierno militar del general Jorge Videla, la considerara miembro del movimiento subversivo Montonero. Ramos Padilla hizo un informe in voce y dijo que "si existe la Justicia, no se puede beneficiar a los delincuentes.
Amnesty International's Secretary-General Irene Khan said the United States and its allies' behavior was setting a destructive example for other nations, and that countries across the world were using the war on terror as an excuse to violate human rights and stifle dissent. The report condemned the United States' response to international terrorism, saying it had done little to reduce the threat, while deepening mistrust between Muslims and non-Muslims and undermining the rule of law.
The Bush administration's policy of extraordinary rendition -- the alleged practice of secretly flying terror suspects to countries where they could be tortured -- came in for particularly scathing condemnation. Embassy in London declined to comment, saying it wanted to study the report before formulating its response.
European countries were attacked for failing to challenge the U. Russia's crackdown on journalists also attracted Amnesty's ire, as did the deteriorating human rights situation in Zimbabwe. Above all other concerns, though, was the continuing violence in Darfur, which Khan called ''a bleeding wound on world conscience. The report also criticized China's role in shielding Sudan from U. But the weakened moral authority of those pushing for international intervention was also to blame, Khan said. Security Council dysfunctional on Darfur,'' she said.
The report did sound some positive notes, saying that a change of the political guard in the United States, and the growth of informal networks of activists were grounds for hope. NEW YORK Reuters - A Haitian former paramilitary leader accused of rape and murder in Haiti will stand trial in New York for mortgage fraud, a state judge ruled on Tuesday after a human rights group argued he could escape justice if he were to return to Haiti.
The judge set a trial date of September If convicted, Constant faces a maximum of 15 years in prison. The group said Constant was a former paid CIA informant and had directly conspired in the assassination of Aristide's Minister of Justice, Guy Malary, but had been allowed to stay in the United States. The investigation is unique in that it focuses primarily on rape rather than on killings. Sexual violence has been a prominent feature of many conflicts in Africa in the past 15 years, and countless thousands of women have been raped in conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo, Sudan, Rwanda and Uganda, among other countries, but prosecutions for such crimes, except in Rwanda, have been rare.
Moreno-Ocampo in a telephone interview. We are talking about mass rapes, gang rapes, hundreds of cases that took place within a few days. The investigation of abuses in the Central African Republic casts a spotlight on one of the least known parts of Africa, a landlocked country with a long history of coups and civil conflict, misrule and government brutality against citizens.
Its porous borders and vast, lawless territory have made it a favored staging ground for rebellions from neighboring countries, including Chad, Congo and Sudan. As a result of these and homegrown conflicts, the country is flooded with weapons. Human rights organizations in the Central African Republic and the government of Mr.
Boizize have long said that Mr. In late , the Supreme Court of the Central African Republic referred the case to the International Criminal Court because it said it did not have the means to prosecute those responsible for the attacks on civilians. Edith Douzima, a lawyer and human rights advocate in Bangui, praised the announcement, saying that rape had been used for too long "as a weapon of war wielded with impunity.
Some human rights advocates had been critical of the delay - about two and a half years - before the prosecutor announced his decision. Moreno-Ocampo said that his office had to make sure there were no other overlapping investigations by local courts, and that his own analysts had to assess the credibility of the crime reports reaching his office. He said initial investigations indicated that the mass rape was the result of an organized campaign. The case was complex, he said, because his office would "not prosecute the rapists themselves," but the person or people issuing the orders or organizing the campaign.
The International Criminal Court seeks to prosecute the leaders most responsible for grave human rights violations when national courts are unwilling or unable to do so at home. United Nations workers in the area and investigators for human rights groups provided hundreds of statements, which were very valuable, Mr. But his own team of investigators will now have to start an official inquiry into the crimes, including killings, lootings and the large-scale rape, which he expects will take 18 months.
Bosnian authorities agreed with the ICMP nearly two years ago to merge missing persons' commissions of the country's two ethically divided parts into one body, the MPI. However, they have since failed to agree on the appointment of generally acceptable candidates to the management bodies of the MPI, which is hoped to speed up exhumation and identification of the missing as well as to de-politicize the search for the mass graves.
Spiric pledged to "undertake all necessary measures to resolve this issue as soon as possible. Bosnia's war split the country into two highly autonomous entities -- the Serbs' Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation, handing each entity its own government, parliament and police.
There are still more than 13, people missing from the Bosnian war which claimed some , lives.
Juan Antonio Blanco
The Bosnia-based ICMP was set up in with the aim of assisting tens of thousands of families hoping to find out what happened to their relatives who disappeared during the s wars in the former Yugoslavia. Louise Arbour, the U. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Burundi would set up the two bodies soon and that the government had agreed not to give amnesty for war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and other serious violations. The coffee and tea-growing central African nation is emerging from the ashes of civil war that began in and killed more than , in a clash between rebels from the Hutu majority against the dominant Tutsi minority.
Analysts say one of the biggest tests for President Pierre Nkurunziza's government is whether it will carry out a thorough reconciliation process, which is likely to implicate some of its allies and perhaps senior officials. Even since Nkurunziza took power in August after his election, the culmination of a U. The truth commission and the tribunal will be set up after national consultations to be led by a nine-member panel with three members each from the government, the United Nations and civil society groups. Arbour said negotiations were still ongoing as to how the two bodies would work together, and on the scope of freedom and authority the tribunal's prosecutor would have.
Donors are meeting in Burundi on Thursday and Friday, and the watchdog Human Rights Watch this week urged them to make ending impunity a condition of aid. Emiliano Bustos Martes 29 de mayo Es poeta y dibujante. Organiza Departamento de Ediciones. Cecilia Balaguer - prensa centrocultural. Some say lack of due process in kidnappings and detention at secret prisons amounts to war crimes.
A group of men described as "masked ninjas" — wearing black overalls and hoods with slits for their eyes, nose and mouth — descend the aircraft steps and make their way to a nearby airport building. Inside a small room the detainee is waiting under armed guard, perhaps already blindfolded.
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He is immediately hooded as a process known as a "twenty-minute takeout" begins. Soon he is aboard the plane, on his way to another country to be harshly interrogated and possibly tortured. That is what happened to two Egyptian asylum seekers in Sweden on December 18, , and to numerous other terrorist suspects since the September 11, , attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Now its pattern is familiar and so is its odd name: The United States has never acknowledged such renditions, but the CIA's activities have been extensively studied and documented by European and other governments, as well as organizations that monitor human rights violations.
One such inquiry, by Sweden's parliamentary ombudsman, was set in motion when the Egyptian asylum seekers were swept away — and Sweden landed in hot water with the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Extraordinary rendition may be a new term, but it is not a new practice — the English did it in the 17th century, shipping prisoners to Scotland to be tortured. Secret prisons are not a recent invention either. Evidence of ill treatment there was kept secret for 60 years. America also had a secret postwar camp known only as "P.
In the s and s, the United States captured terrorist suspects overseas and "rendered" them back to the U. What makes them extraordinary is that there is no judicial proceeding or due process of law; after the kidnapping, terrorist suspects simply disappear into a system of secret prisons for long-term detention and interrogation, sometimes accompanied by torture.
Human rights advocates and some legal scholars argue that extraordinary renditions are violations of international law, with some characterizing them as war crimes. For example, Professor Jordan J. Paust of the University of Houston, a former U. Army lawyer who is an expert on international law, has presented a formal analysis asserting that U. We've got to spend time in the shadows of the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion. Reports indicate that these men were tracked down, handed over to CIA special operations teams and then flown to secret detention centers where harsh techniques were used in their interrogation.
This article examines three thoroughly documented extraordinary renditions. Sweden criticized by U. Even before the Swedish government officially decided to return them to Egypt, a report by the Swedish ombudsman relates that the CIA offered use of an aircraft so the men could be expelled the moment a formal order was issued. According to this report — which was based in large part on interviews with and documentation provided by Swedish security officials — at midday on December 18, , CIA officials told their Swedish counterparts there would be no room on the plane for the Swedish security police.
When the Swedes objected, the CIA relented but insisted that a security check would have to be conducted on the two detainees at Bromma Airport near Stockholm. That being Swedish territory, the Swedes believed they were in charge of the deportation of two men from their country.
It did not turn out that way. A few hours after the expulsion order was official, the men were arrested. They arrived at Bromma about 8: Swedish counterterrorism officers and CIA officials were present, along with the security police. These included, in addition to its crew, a security team of seven or eight, among them a doctor and two Egyptian officials.
Officer Y informed the American officials that A. One of the men was taken first to the police station by the team. Inside the station, in a small changing room, the American officials conducted what they had referred to as a security check. When the check had been completed, the second man was sent for and the same procedure repeated.
In addition they were handcuffed and their ankles fettered, each was then dressed in an overall and photographed. Finally loose hoods without holes for their eyes were placed over their heads. Afterwards he was equipped with a diaper. The members of the team did not speak to each other but communicated using hand signals. A Council of Europe inquiry obtained data from Eurocontrol, the European air traffic control agency, showing that the aircraft involved was a Gulfstream 5 executive jet with the call sign NP, owned by Premier Executive Transport Services.
The plane had set out on a prearranged two-day trip from the United States to board the two detainees in Sweden, take them to Egypt and then return to the U. This Eurocontrol data indicated that the executive jet that day covered many thousands of miles. It took off from Dulles International Airport during the early hours of December 18, flew direct to Cairo and collected two Egyptian officials; after refueling, it immediately headed for Sweden. The plane was on the ground at Bromma for just 65 minutes before heading back to Egypt.
According to the Swedish ombudsman's report: The original intention had been for three people to accompany the plane to Egypt but late in the day they were informed by the captain of the plane that there was only room for two from the Swedish Security Police. Their handcuffs, ankle fetters and hoods were not removed during the flight to Egypt. The doctor in the escort inspected them all the time. In addition, it was noted that the explanation for requiring A.
They were then driven off in a transit bus. Despite Egypt's diplomatic assurance to Sweden that the two men would be treated humanely, Human Rights Watch says, based on testimony subsequently given by one of the two men, that they were subsequently tortured.
Committees later decided Sweden had violated the Geneva Conventions by sending the men to Egypt. It said that Egypt's routine use of torture, in combination with interest in Agiza by the U. Egypt — a key ally of the United States — has long been the second-largest recipient of U. Its secret police are notorious for their brutality during interrogations.
State Department noted in a human rights report their frequent torture of prisoners, during which people were stripped, blindfolded, suspended from the ceiling or door frame with their feet just touching the floor; beaten with whips, fists, metal rods; subjected to electric shocks; and doused with cold water. Canada apologizes to citizen. Canadian citizen Maher Arar was born in Syria in and emigrated to Canada as a teenager, settling in Montreal. In September , he visited Tunisia with his family and was returning home to Canada via the United States.
At New York's Kennedy International Airport he was arrested, strip-searched and then held in an immigration detention center for 12 days. On October 8, he was told he was being deported to Syria. Shackled, he was taken to New Jersey, put on an executive jet and flown to Jordan. The next day, blindfolded, he was driven across the border to Syria and taken to Far Falestin, the notorious detention center run by the Syrian military intelligence.
It was like a grave, exactly like a grave. It had no light. It was three feet wide. It was six feet deep. It was seven feet high. Salloum introduced him to "the chair" — a torture device capable of breaking a detainee's back. Arar could hear fellow prisoners screaming with pain. Soon he was receiving the same treatment. He was beaten about his body, four lashes with a two-foot-long electric cable that had been shredded. Then he was asked questions. The torture would stop and start, getting worse and worse. He admitted being trained by al Qaeda in Afghanistan only because he had decided to "say anything" necessary to avoid torture.
He was constantly warned that "tomorrow will be worse. Arar reported that he and other detainees were doused with cold water and had the soles of their feet beaten with thick black plastic cables. Another detainee told investigators that he was ordered to undress, except for his underwear. Interrogators then poured cold water on his body while he stood. He was then laid on the floor and, as interrogators trained a fan on him, more cold water was poured over him.
They asked him to raise his legs from the knee and started beating him with black rubber cables. Arar confessed to membership in al Qaeda, even though the Canadian Commission of Inquiry subsequently found that he had absolutely no connection with the organization or terrorism. After 10 months and 10 days of detention, he was transferred to Sednaya Prison, also in Syria, where he reported that conditions were "like heaven" compared with Far Falestin.
On October 5, , he was released from custody after signing a "confession" given to him by a Syrian prosecutor. How the CIA's cover was blown. The aircraft used to transfer detainees from one country to another were supposed to be part of a clandestine CIA operation, but a sloppy mistake blew their cover and helped European investigators create a comprehensive record of renditions. The company that owned it, Premier Executive Transport Services, was a CIA front whose officers had post office box addresses where fictitious names also were registered.
The plane's connection began to emerge when another of its renditions got under way at 2: He was taken blindfolded and in chains to be handed over to the CIA. Suspected of involvement in the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, he had been reported missing for three weeks from Karachi University, where he was studying microbiology. He was flown from Pakistan to Jordan and then promptly disappeared. What gave this transfer significance was the clumsy way in which it was handled.
According to Pakistani sources, an airport official at the Karachi airport demanded a landing fee from the CIA plane. ISI agents then instructed airport staff that they would pay the fees, and the plane took off. But the incident created a minor stir that drew attention to the Gulfstream, which had been tucked away in a quiet corner of the airport so as not to be conspicuous.
On October 26, , Masood Anwar, a Pakistani journalist with The News in Islamabad, wrote how Mohammed claimed he had been flown out of the country aboard a plane bearing tail number NP. Those details ricocheted via the Internet among spy-hunters, bloggers and plane-spotting enthusiasts curious about precisely how the newly declared war on terrorism was being conducted. Research by human rights groups, journalists and European governments subsequently revealed that the CIA had operated some 30 aircraft disguised by the use of companies like Premier Executive Transport Services and in other ways.
Other aircraft were leased to operating companies and their subsidiaries. Eurocontrol data showed that 32 such aircraft made at least 1, stopovers in the various European countries. European investigators believed many of the flights were for extraordinary renditions. Eurocontrol data show the CIA planes made the following stopovers between October and the end of MOSCOW, May 23 Reuters - Russian forces kidnap and torture people with impunity in Chechnya despite Kremlin assurances the southern region is returning to normal after a separatist war, rights group Amnesty International said on Wednesday.
Chechen rebels and Russia's military have fought two wars since , devastating much of the region and its capital Grozny, once the largest city in the north Caucasus. The rebels have now been driven back into mountain hideouts. In a page report entitled: Amnesty's investigation adds to the growing pile of reports from international groups which insist Chechnya is still riddled with kidnappings and torture, challenging the official line that the rule of law has been re-established in Chechnya. Human rights groups accuse Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov -- a year-old former rebel and boxing fan -- and militia groups which swear allegiance to him of some of the murders and kidnappings.
He has always denied the allegations and has promised to pursue anybody suspected of involvement in abuses. Federal soldiers and rebels have also kidnapped and murdered people, Amnesty said, but although the Chechen authorities have investigated kidnappings there have been virtually no convictions. Amnesty said the second war, which started in , has killed around 25, people and turned thousands more into refugees. Human rights groups say that up to another 5, people are missing. Today cranes tower over Grozny, workmen plaster concrete onto walls and university students stroll to lessons in freshly painted classrooms.
Money has poured into Chechnya but the war and its scars are not hard to find. Shelled apartment buildings litter the outskirts of Grozny and rebels hide out in the mountains. They launch attacks and bombs which kill policemen and soldiers every week. Sin embargo, no aparece en ninguna lista de desaparecidos. New details confirm a CIA prisoner disappeared in U.
Although al-Hadi was "one of al-Qaida's highest ranking and experienced senior operatives" and may have been planning attacks on Western targets at the time of his capture, he would be treated humanely, the Pentagon said. Military officials had alerted the International Committee of the Red Cross that al-Hadi was in their custody, and said they would grant the Red Cross access to monitor his treatment. But as the Pentagon also noted in late April, al-Hadi was not a new prisoner; he had been in CIA custody since the fall of And Salon has discovered that, in contrast to the protocols followed by the Pentagon, the CIA kept al-Hadi's months-long detention a secret -- not only from the public but from the Red Cross as well, raising new questions about the CIA's treatment of prisoners in the war on terrorism.
Red Cross officials confirmed to Salon that the CIA did not alert them during the months that al-Hadi was a prisoner with the agency. For us, that is problematic. The Red Cross' access to detainees, set forth in the Geneva Conventions, is premised on the idea that anonymous, secret detentions create conditions conducive to torture. During the worst abuses at Abu Ghraib, for example, some "ghost detainees" were kept off the books at the military prison and hidden from the Red Cross.
The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology later ruled al-Jamadi's death a homicide, caused by "blunt force injuries to the torso complicated by compromised respiration. The CIA's secret imprisonment and interrogation of suspected terrorists, first exposed by news reports and eventually confirmed by Bush at a press conference last Sept. At black sites scattered around the globe, the CIA reportedly subjected high-value detainees like al-Hadi to sleep deprivation, stress positions, slapping, induced hypothermia and "waterboarding," or simulated drowning.
Bush did not discuss any specific techniques on Sept. But the future of the CIA's interrogation program had been "put into question," Bush acknowledged, by the Supreme Court decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld last year, which held that all detainees -- including high-value prisoners in the hands of the CIA -- are protected by some provisions of the Geneva Conventions. Bush called some of the protections "vague" and asked Congress to pass a new law to clarify permissible treatment of prisoners by the military -- while at the same time ensuring "that the CIA program goes forward.
A battle ensued on Capitol Hill, with Bush officials fighting vigorously to exempt the CIA from tighter rules on prisoner treatment. It forbids detainee abuse, using specific language that experts on human rights and international law say would be hard, if not impossible, to circumvent legally. Those experts were subsequently shocked by what Bush said in the East Room of the White House when he signed the bill last October. How could the CIA lawfully continue interrogations like the ones that had reportedly been conducted in the past? The rules of the Military Commissions Act cover all prisoners in U.
Al-Hadi's treatment during his months of CIA detention remains unknown. A CIA statement to Salon responding to questions about al-Hadi said that the United States "does not conduct or condone torture, and the CIA's terrorist interrogation program operates in strict accord with American laws and treaty obligations. But at the least, he is proof that secret CIA prisons are still in operation. I've been asked many times what I think is going on.
And I say I absolutely don't know. Al-Hadi's case and the mystery surrounding CIA detainees, experts say, underscore a stark divide between the CIA and the Pentagon on ground rules for treating detainees three years after the Abu Ghraib scandal stained the reputation of the United States worldwide. In its statement to Salon, the CIA also said that it had no legal responsibility to alert the Red Cross of al-Hadi's status, calling him an "unlawful combatant," a categorization that critics charge the Bush administration has used to circumvent the Geneva Conventions.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch, a different organization, has assembled a list of 38 detainees believed to have been held in CIA custody during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who, unlike al-Hadi, seem to have disappeared altogether.