WHAT IS THE TRUTH ABOUT BOWE BERGDAHL?

April 7, 2015

IMAGE SOURCE: controversialtimes.com (Bergdahl’s parents with President Obama)

By Anita Stewart for Challenging the Rhetoric and Wise Women Media

In one of the most politicized stories in any war time theatre involving prisoners of war, prisoner exchanges and releases, the story of Bowe Bergdahl haunted us in the spring of 2014 when his release and the subsequent prisoner exchange of Taliban members became corporate media’s story “du jour.”

Bergdahl left his unit at a remote Afghanistan outpost in June 2009 and then was captured by the Taliban aligned Haqqani network where he remained a prisoner of war for almost five years. Bergdahl was finally released on May 31, 2014 in exchange for five Taliban prisoners that were incarcerated at Guantanamo.

It was a big story then and it’s back on the corporate media radar now due to the publication and release of The Army Report which had remained in limbo on a General’s desk since October 2014. It was finally released to corporate media this past March. Now Bergdahl is being charged with Desertion and Misbehavior Before the Enemy, the latter considered a catch-all regulation that can be applied to just about any transgression, however minor.

Bergdahl faces life in prison if convicted.

Some Media And Fellow Troops Say He Is A Deserter

IMAGE SOURCE: kttc.com

Stories have been published in The Daily Beast and USA Today by troops deployed in units that were near Bergdahl’s. These articles claim Bergdahl deserted his unit. Wikipedia has printed the text of an email exchange between Bergdahl and his father that was sent before Bergdahl left — which if true, is evidence that Bergdahl deserted his unit, but he did so as a ‘conscientious objector.’ His thoughts expressed in the email revealed sympathy for the Afghani people.

Politicizing

Congress however, had never been informed of any email exchange or notes while discussing the terms of Bergdahl’s release and the Taliban prisoner releases and exchange.

The politicizing continued on both sides of the aisle with the House Armed Services Committee conducting a hearing on the prisoner swap. President Obama defended the prisoner swap and made Bergdahl a hero in a speech delivered at the White House while he was accompanied by Bergdahl’s parents.

But Wasn’t Bergdahl A Whistleblower?

He had already spoken to his team leader about the repercussions of going off base while in possession of army equipment such as night vision goggles or his weapon. His team leader told him he would be in trouble and action would be taken against him if that happened. So Bergdahl left almost all of his army equipment behind. Only his compass, a thermos and a knife went missing.

Bergdahl’s attorney, Eugene Fidell said Bergdahl left his unit to report irregularities to the Commander. We do not know the details of those irregularities Bergdahl was allegedly going to report on. They have not been released to the public.

Perhaps he had witnessed war crimes or wrongdoings? If they weren’t wrongdoings, why are they being kept secret? Is Bergdahl facing recrimination from his unit’s chain of command for attempting to tell the truth to the commanding officer in the area?

Myth And Truth

One of the biggest myths in this story is that a search detail deployed to look for Bergdahl after he went missing and that troops were killed during that detail and the others that followed.

According to Fidell, there is no evidence that this ever occurred. Casualties noted from this time period appear to be caused by routine military operations in the area and not as a result of specific searches for Bergdahl.

Opinions on details of what happened differ depending on the news network reporting it. One’s own political party also seems to come to play in an opinion. This was presented as a partisan story from the beginning and even Bergdahl’s family members have been targets of the hype created by corporate media and their fans. Now the pundits have taken over and the narrative is being controlled regardless of what the truth may be.

Is Bergdahl a would-be whistleblower? Or, is he a conscientious objector? Did he truly desert his unit? Or is this a concerted effort to bury public knowledge of more potential war crimes? Will we ever know?

MUSIC AS A WEAPON OF TORTURE

December 17, 2014

IMAGE SOURCE: sickchirpse.com

By Anita Stewart and Lintu Pieni for Challenging the Rhetoric and Wise Women Media

Imagine that you are in the depths of despair. A prisoner with your freedom gone … and no way out. No one is coming to help you or pay your bail and all you face are the four walls and the fleeting thoughts in your head. And those thoughts are replayed constantly; some regrets, some happy times and some nostalgia. You imagine what you would have done differently. Then without warning, you are blasted by blaring loud music for hours a day. Songs that are repeated hundreds, no, thousands of times! The songs become a never-ending loop feeding into your head, the notes, the lyrics, the volume at high decibel.

Everything changes the degree and seriousness of this type of torture and the resulting behavior of the victims. For example: beginning and end times of the music, how it loops and feeds, how it affects sleep, causes sleep deprivation and the tones, scales, genres, lyrics and more. Psychological torture changes one’s whole being and state of mind and music used as torture would do this especially if one is repetitively pumped with heavy metal, industrial, dis-harmonic sounds and extremely dark lyrics while being restricted and confined to small spaces. This could be classified as a form of brainwashing.

Programming…

Does it work? Good question. It probably does not, just like the other types of torture that have been documented in thousands of reports, books and psychology journals. A prisoner of war and clearly a victim of torture will eventually be driven to say anything to make the unbearable torture stop. Sgt. Mark Hadsell, of the U.S. Psychological Operations team, described what happens: “If you play it (the music) for 24 hours, your brain and body functions start to slide, your train of thought slows down and your will is broken. That’s when we come in and talk to them (the prisoners).”

Not Allowed?

Is torture by music covered in the Geneva Convention? No, absolutely no type of torture is noted in this document, only the rules and guidelines of confinement as it pertains to Prisoners of War (POWs). The Geneva Convention also provides the laws, rules and regulations by how the United States conducts warfare and the treatment of troops on all sides of any conflict in general. The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) are the laws by which United States active duty military members conduct themselves at all times; wartime and peacetime. Music used as torture is never mentioned in either the Geneva Convention or the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). Not even once. Who set the precedence for it’s use?

Some songs on the list are:

• Dirty by Christina Aguilera
• Slim Shady by Eminem
• Zikrayati (My Memories) by Mohamed el-Quasabqi
• The Meow Mix Jingle
• I Love You by Barney the Dinosaur
• Babylon by David Gray
• Raspberry Beret by Prince
• Disco songs from the film Staying Alive

A few comments on some of the torture songs:

• “I don’t think Rage Against the Machine will make Muslim Militants talk under extreme pressure. Do you?” ~ Empire of the Sun by Rage Against the Machine
• ” … prefer Apocalyptica covers of Metallic to be totally honest. Metallica won’t break me though.” ~ Enter Sandman by Metallica
• ” … not sure if they are using DOPE to interrogate the prisoners or to possibly program them as Manchurian Candidates.” ~ Take Your Best Shot by Dope
• ” … here’s another one that’s popular at the GITMO Mosh Pit!” ~ Die Motherf*cker Die by Dope
• ” … how many times could you listen to this song before you finally broke and/or memorized the lyrics and sang along?” ~ Bodies (Let the Bodies Hit the Floor) by Drowning Pool

Over the past several years, many music artists have banned together and to call for ending the use of music as a form of torture. The band, Skinny Puppy has sued the United States Government for $666,000 in exchange for the unauthorized use of their music in torture facilities.

What’s Really Going On?

None of these music as torture procedures will yield any useful intelligence information but will cause various degrees of mind control based trauma. And if the prisoners in the Guantanamo facility for instance have not given up any useful information within a few years of their incarceration, then how would any of this information pertain to or be applied to any security/intelligence situation as it would be time sensitive? Why would it then be necessary to keep these prisoners captive for many years and continue to follow the same torture techniques? To create mind controlled subjects for experimentation or other devious purposes (Manchurian Candidates)? This writer said on her Facebook profile page: “Here’s my fear, that they will one day let all these guys (the victims) out and send them to musical festivals and they will then hear their trigger songs and snap.” To hear this said is hysterically funny but frightening at the same time as who could possibly say that this would not or could not happen?

The real question that needs to be asked is will these same torture laws under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) ever apply to any of us, we the people? It is not a far stretch to think that for any reason at all, those that rule us can manufacture any reason to incarcerate us and legitimize their reasons for doing so. Now any American can be called a domestic terrorist or an enemy combatant for simply standing up for their rights.