His name was Keith Carmichael and he died
Last edited Tue Dec 17, 2024, 09:51 AM - Edit history (1)
this past March. I'm sure many people never heard of Keith or his story. He was a successful businessman in Saudi Arabia until a contract dispute led to him being imprisoned between 1981 and 1984 for over 2 years without charge. During that time he was repeatedly tortured, beaten and his spine was fractured as well as permanent damage to his knees and feet and all added with the psychological trauma.
But when he finally was released he did an extraordinary thing. He fought with what had been done to him and he formed a group known as REDRESS and they fight for victims of torture around the world. Thankfully with some good amount of success.
I am not putting this up just to talk about an extraordinary man who has left us. It would be wrong if in recognizing his passing we did not also mention a fight that still goes on. The disclosure of who tortured, who was tortured and disclosure of those who have tried to keep it all secret.
We rightly condemn Assad, MBS and others as we stand and look on from the US, Great Britain, France and other countries. But make no mistake that there are people standing in other countries and looking at us as well. Between 2005 and 2012 inquiries and Senate investigations into our CIA torture programs took place. The initial report of over 6700 pages was approved in 2012 and yet few officials have been allowed to see it. Finally after 2 years of fighting a heavily redacted "Executive Summary" was released in 2014. But that only slightly told the story. President Obama and others were concerned that the CIA would manage to reach out and gather and destroy the few limited copies made. Just like they destroyed over 100 videotaped torture sessions. It was no accident.
So President Obama, in December 2016 before leaving office, included a copy of the entire report in his Presidential Archive with the instruction that after 12 years it could be petitioned for declassification and release. So 2028 still awaits.
But the list of lies, destruction of evidence and misleading statements is long in the summary despite the heavy redactions.
Remember all of this the next time we rightfully decry the ones like Assad and MBS etc. and realize that there were certainly horrible things that didn't get "found out" and so didn't make it into the over 6700 pages. But remember too that what is in there is about what our people did and in order for the Powers That Be to be this terrified of people knowing what's in there it must be horrific on a grand scale and probably makes Assad look like a run of the mill dictator.
Also we need to realize that none of the people who committed those acts or the ones who are trying mightily to keep it hidden are more than a tiny fraction of the human being Keith Carmichael was. We as Democrats celebrate human beings like Keith Carmichael. Our opponents try to villify, ridicule and nullify those like him. We must hold dear to that difference and never walk away from who we are.
https://redress.org/news/redress-pays-tribute-to-the-legacy-of-our-founder-keith-carmichael-and-is-honoured-to-continue-his-mission/
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