by Michael Yoakum
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States – The National Security Agency spied on porn habits of suspected Muslim “Radicalizers” to discredit them according to a report released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.  The slides Snowden provided to the Huffington Post described “personal vulnerabilities” of six Muslim targets that “view[ed] sexually explicit material online.”

While the names of six targets in this report were redacted from the report provided by Snowden, the NSA believed all six to live outside the United States.  The report identifies these six targets as “exemplars” of how “personal vulnerabilities” may be used to undermine the views of dissenters.

One dissident was identified as a foreign national and a “respected academic.” His was listed as holding that radicalizing view that “offensive jihad is justified.”  His listed vulnerabilities are “online promiscuity” and “publishes articles without checking facts.”

News of the NSA’s proposed tactics have been met with sharp criticism, both internationally and domestically.

“This is not the first time we’ve seen states use intimate and private information of an individual who holds views the government doesn’t agree with, and exploit this information to undermine an individual’s message,” said NGO Privacy International in response to this news.

Director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, Ben Wizner said via Twitter, “The NSA scandal turns a dangerous corner,” adding, “I bet Washington is full of nervous people.”

Revelations of the latest NSA program came shortly after a group of United Nations experts adopted a right to privacy resolution.  This resolution is set to be passed by the UN General Assembly before the year’s end.

This news was perhaps more damaging to European Union’s review of its commercial data-sharing program known as Safe Harbor.  One EU executor threatened to freeze the pact, effectively eliminating the supply of information on transatlantic air passengers as well as the exchange of information intended to limit terrorist funding.

For more information, please see:

TIME – NSA Monitored Porn Habits To Discredit ‘Radicalizers’ – 27 November 2013

USA Today – NSA spied on porn habits, HuffPo reports – 27 November 2013

Fox News – NSA reportedly spied on porn habits to discredit Islamist radicals – 28 November 2013

The Washington Post – The Switchboard: NSA discussed using porn habits to discredit Muslim radicals – 27 November 2013

BBC News – NSA ‘planned to discredit radicals over web-porn use’ – 27 November 2013

By Brandon Cottrell
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

WASHINGTON, D.C., United States – According to a study released this morning by a nineteen member independent task force of doctors, lawyers, and ethicists, U.S. military doctors designed, enabled, and engaged in the torture of suspected terrorists held at American detention centers in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

The torture, which violates globally recognized ethics and medical principles, which bar physicians from inflicting harm, is believed to have occurred for the past decade.  The study reports that physicians, psychiatrists, and psychologists, who work for U.S. military branches or intelligence agencies, allowed “cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment” of prisoners while acting at the direction of military leaders under both the Bush and Obama administrations.

Some of the torture practices include force-feeding detainees who were hunger striking.  Human rights advocates have long protested the way that the detainees are forced feed – a tube is inserted into the nose of a chair-restrained detainee and food is then pushed through that hose and into the body – as being inhumane.  Additionally, the use of these “very coercive restrain chairs” violates the ethical standards of the World Medical Association.  The Pentagon, however, said the force-feeding is lawful.

Other finds include abusive interrogation techniques including “consulting on conditions of confinement to increase the disorientation and anxiety of detainees.”  Other tactics included inducing hopelessness, psychologically dislocating the detainee to maximize vulnerability, and reducing or eliminating his will to resist.

Dr. Gerald Thomson called the report a “big striking horror” and also said that the “covenant between society and medicine has been around for a long, long, time – patient first, community first, society first, not national security.”

Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center, however, does not think that these “people go to work every day and say ‘I’m doing something terrible’ . . . [rather they] say ‘I want to fight terrorism.’  They think they’re doing the right thing.”

A spokesman for the Department of Defense, however, called the report “wholly absurd” and stated that it is “worth noting that other than the habeas counsel . . . not one of the task force claimants have had actual access to the detainees, their medical records, or the procedures.”  The White House has also discredited the report.

The spokesman also added that, “The health care providers . . . routinely provide not only better medical care than any of these detainees have ever known, but care on par with the very best of the global medical profession, [they] are consummate professionals working under terrifically stressful conditions, far from home and their families, and with patients who have been extraordinarily violent.”

David Rothman, president of the Institute on Medicine as a Profession, in a statement said “Putting on a uniform does not and should not abrogate the fundamental principles of medical professionalism . . . “do not harm” and “put patient interest first” must apply to all physicians regardless of where they practice.”

Fore more information, please see:

BBC – Doctors Aided US Torture At Military Prisons, Report Says – 4 November 2013

CNN – Report Raps Doctors Over Roles In Post-9/11 Interrogations – 4 November 2013

The Guardian – CIA Made Doctors Torture Suspected Terrorists After 9/11, Taskforce Finds – 3 November 2013

NBC News – ‘Big, Striking Horror:’ US Military Doctors Allowed Torture Of Detainees, New Study Claims – 4 November 2013  

By Brandon Cottrell
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – A U.S. drone strike killed Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban.  Several other militants, including two of Mehsud’s bodyguards, were killed in the strike.  Mehsud is believed to have been behind the failed car bombing in New York’s Times Square in 2010, as well as numerous attacks in Pakistan that have killed thousands.

Mehsud, who is “the self-proclaimed emir of the Pakistani Taliban,” is on the FBI’s most-wanted terrorist list.  He is also on the CIA’s most wanted list for his role in the December 2009 suicide bombing that killed seven Americans in Afghanistan.  He had been indicted on several charges, including conspiracy to murder U.S. citizens abroad and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction against U.S. citizens abroad.

The drone strike, which took place in the tribal areas of Northern Pakistan, is a dangerous area to be and has been subject to numerous other U.S. drone strikes.  As a result, it makes it difficult for journalists to independently confirm information.  Such difficulty is reflected in several reports over the past few years that claimed Mehsud had been killed.

However, a senior Pakistani government official said that he “ think[s] it’s quite clear Hakimullah Mehsud has died . . . two of his bodyguards died and reports from the ground suggest he was killed too.”  Additionally, a U.S. intelligence official confirmed the drone strike took place and that Mehsud had been killed.

The Taliban also confirmed Mehsud’s death in a statement that said, “We confirm with great sorrow that our esteemed leader was martyred in a drone attack.”

The strike and death, however, comes at a sensitive time as the Pakistani government has been trying to come to a peaceful agreement with the Taliban.  To date, the fighting has killed thousands of Pakistani civilians.  Mehsud had said he was open to peace talks with Pakistan, as his only targets are “America and its friends,” but that no one had approached him about it.

Drone strikes themselves are controversial in Pakistan, where many view the use of drones as an infringement on sovereignty.  Additionally, the strikes often kill innocent civilians, though the number killed is disputed.

Earlier this week the Pakistani government reported that since 2008, only 3% of the causalities from U.S. drone strikes were civilians.  The government also reported that 2,227 people had been killed by U.S. drone strikes since 2008.  Other independent organizations claim, however, that as many as 13% of the causalities were civilians.

Though Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has asked the U.S. to stop the strikes, it has been reported that the Pakistani government has secretly supported many of the U.S. strikes against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.  The U.S., meanwhile, has given no indication that it will abandon its use of drone strikes, despite reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that argue some of the attacks may have violated international law.

For more information, please see:

Al Jazeera – Pakistan Says Drone Strikes Killed 67 Civilians Since 2008 – 31 October 2013

BBC – Pakistan Taliban Say Chief Mehsud Killed In Drone Strike – 1 November 2013

CBS News – Pakistani Taliban Leader Among Dead In Suspected U.S. Drone Strike, Officials Say – 1 November 2013

CNN – 3 Dead In First U.S. Drone Strike In Pakistan Since Leaders Met – 31 October 2013