Afghanistan Prison Torture Still Happening

The use of torture of controlled by Afghan security forces trained by the US military is still rampant in the country, according to the results of a two-week "fact-finding mission" by an internal Afghan government commission.

The earlier UN report found over half of 635 detainees interviewed had been tortured- including 80 minors- the same ratio found in a similar report in 2011.

Huffingtonpost :
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/20/afghanistan-prison-torture-un_n_2516531.html

Afghan authorities are still torturing prisoners by methods such as suspending people by their wrists, administering beatings to the soles of their feet, electric shocks, twisting detainees' genitals, removing toe nails and putting people into stress positions.

BBC NEWS : 

It says detainees in 47 facilities in 24 provinces run by the Afghan Directorate of Security and National Police have suffered abuses. 

The allegations contained in the report were first revealed by the BBC in September. 

At that time the government denied torture claims and said that the report was politically motivated.

The published report says prisoners were mostly subjected to interrogation techniques that constituted torture under international and Afghan law. 

But the UN made clear that the mistreatment was not the result of government policy.

Based on interviews with 379 prisoners, the report said that many inmates appeared to display visible signs of injuries and marks which suggested that they had been badly beaten or abused. 

Children as young as 14 were among those being held and subjected to torture. 

Nato has now stopped prisoner transfers to 16 facilities as a result of the findings and says it is monitoring the situation. 

Kabul said the report was aimed at disrupting the handover of control of security back to Afghans as foreign troops prepare to leave by 2014.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mux2tTuTxfM

Torture in Syria

I can't believe torturing is still happening. It's happening while I'm eating good food, sleeping, doing things while out there, there are people who are suffering the one of the worst kind of ordeal- Torture.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-eyewitness-beaten-and-burnt-a-familys-tale-of-torture-7627524.html

It was Friday 23 March when Ahmed and his wife Maha, in her late seventies, and their 44-year-old son Yousef were taken from their home and tortured at the hands of President Bashar al-Assad's soldiers. Ahmed was at the mosque when he heard his house in the Bab Sbaa district of Homs had been shelled and rushed home with his son to pull his wife from the rubble. But his relief that she had escaped relatively unscathed soon faded.
"That's when they came and took us," he said. "They were armed and in uniform and they ordered us to follow them to one of our neighbors homes which was abandoned."
It was there that they were led to separate darkened rooms for interrogation. As he was being beaten, Ahmed could hear his son and wife's  cries echoing through the building.
"It was absolute misery," he says. "They asked over and over again who was working with the Free Syrian Army in the area. Then they brought out the blowtorch, like the kind you use for welding metal. I thought we were all going to die."

The hellish questioning lasted three hours. Yousef's back and arms are littered with dozens of burn marks, some deep gouges as the blowtorch was held to his skin for longer and longer. The fact that the family weren't detained for longer, Ahmed says, is evidence that the soldiers knew that they had nothing to do with the opposition and just fishing for information.

This happened last year, March 2012.

Thoughts on Veils and Bald Men

Chandele : Hey Angie. Today is cold. It is so cold that my brain is not functioning well in class.
BUT Marilyn always somehow make the class discussions funny-sometimes unintentionally and that helps a lot for me to focus in class- Even on cold days like today when my I'm close to being brain-dead.

Angie : Hey. Yeah, it's cold but I'm wearing a tank top and skinny jeans because pretty girls have the highest cold tolerance known to man on Earth. Anyways. What did you guys talk about in class today?

Chandele : Today's discussion was briefly about Persepolis. I absolutely love the concept of having a manga-like book to read as part of our assignment. It doesn't even feel like an assignment since I actually enjoy reading it. The only problem I have is reading ahead too far and then forgetting about specific details previous chapters on the day of the quiz.

Angie : That happens to me too.

Chandele : ANYWAYS, our class discussion moved from the use of the veil to how men are more attractive by being bald. Honestly, my mind wandered off for a second but I snapped right back listening to the word bald and attractive being used together. Bald=Attractive? Maybe, if the dude has a body like Taylor Lautner.

Angie : Pfft. Taylor Lautner? Are you serious? That dude has a face like a llama. Imagine him being bald.

Chandele : .........Okay you got me. Marilyn said those women covered their hair because of the shininess that would attract men.

Angie : I guess that would make sense. Men are nasty creatures that can't keep their dirty claws off from us pretty girls with awesome locks. I should go get a veil later in the evening.

Meet Angie Baby

Angie Baby

                                 
      Meet Angie Baby. She is hot. Who wouldn't want to be her.