Old Habits Die Hard (and So Do Innocent People)

As Phoebe states, everything Julian Assange has
posted is brand new information that just continues
to shock the world.

Everyone knows who the infamous Julian Assange is. Known mainly as the man behind Wikileaks, governments are eager to prosecute him in hopes of stopping Wikileaks before more information is posted on the internet. Julian Assange has exposed the human rights violations around the work and is making a point to hold governments accountable for their actions instead of covering it up.

In Kenya, corruption has filled been instilled in its police force causing people to just disappear without a trace. Families of the missing victims have come together with to form petitions with evidence leading the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) to see “patterns of conduct by the Kenya Police that may constitute crimes against humanity" as stated in the report, The Cry of Blood. People would go missing left and right after they were arrested by the police several days later. Oscar Kingara and John Oulu were two major contributors to the KNCHR report died several months after the report was distributed online through Wikileaks. The release of this report has brought the world’s attention in terms of how corrupt the Kenyan police force was during the time of the heightened Mungiki gangs crackdown. If this report was not made public, the world would have not known how deep the corruption was within the police force and how many innocent lives have been killed for no apparent reason.

In the photos above are what the Kenya National Commission
on Human Rights find as the traces left of the missing people.

Geoffrey Kung’u had been accused of being associated with the Mungiki gang and arrested twice as a result. His wife, had paid ransom twice to the Kwekwe police in exchange for her husband’s life, 2,000 Kshs the first time and 10,000 the second time. The pathologist that examined Kung’u’s body concluded that the cause of dead was “severe head injury due to double gunshots to the head. These gunshots were fired at a very close range suggesting execution” as stated in The Cry of Blood. Without this Julian Assange’s help in publishing this report to inform the world, the corruption within the Kenyan police may still be extremely prominent. The extrajudicial killings itself is a violation of human rights, death without a justification as to why it had to be done or even due process for the victims. The moment this had been brought up to the UN, investigations were formally conducted in order to stop the extrajudicial killings by the Kenyan police force.

Above are two pathologist reports on the dead bodies that are found by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, with one on Geoffrey Kung’u's body.

In America, the idea that every person’s life is important is prominent, yet in the Baghdad Airstrike Video that was posted online by Wikileaks clearly shows a violation of human rights. In the video the United States’ military failed to take proper steps in confirming the identity of their targets and if they were armed. Instead, the pilots saw what they identified as AK 47’s on the 2 Reuters news reporters who were just carrying equipment. The mistake of identifying the camera equipment as AK 47’s are understandable at first in a glance. Under such high circumstances the mentality the soldiers had is out of fear of terrorists coming together. However, the pilots had more than a minute with their equipment to make a better judgment if what the civilians were carrying were indeed weapons. From the video, the equipment bags look nothing similar to AK 47’s after staring at the equipment bag for a good 30 seconds. If anything, the pilots should have questioned their judgment, but instead they just continued with their error. You would think that after military experience, the pilots would start to question the calmness of the civilians. Psychologically, if the civilians were armed, they would act in a suspicious manner, but in the video, the civilians are completely unaware of the air crafts and acting in a calm demeanor.

In the youtube video above, a pilot made the comment of “fucking prick” at 3:31, clearly showing the prejudice the pilot had towards the civilians. It definitely showed how the prejudice clouded the pilot's judgment, unable to see the actual truth and seeing what he wanted to see, also known as the observer effect. He was just so sure that the people were terrorists that he actually believed that and killed innocent people.

Above is a map of Camp Delta, a camp from Guantanamo Bay.

Furthermore, the Guantanamo Bay manual that was leaked, provides more insight as to how the detention camp is ran. The manual describes the 4 levels of imprisonment with no access being the worst. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) would not be able to go and treat those prisoners whose security is at risk level 4. Inside the manual there is a guide on how to manipulate the new prisoners, exposing the hypocrisy of the United States government. Although the United States has told the world that the ICRC would have full access to treat the prisoners, some are actually not allowed to have any sort of medical treatment from the Red Cross. Not only that, but some prisoners would be rewarded with such items, while others were tortured for various things. Before the situation in Guantanamo Bay becomes something similar like the extrajudicial killings in Kenya, the detainees should be granted habeas corpus. Not all of the prisoners know why they are being detained and habeas corpus is their hope of being able to return back home.

Above is an image of the prisoners that are held at one of the Guantanamo Bay camps.

The torture that is done at Guantanamo Bay is nothing different from the extrajudicial killings that took place in Kenya. The torture that takes place inside the Guantanamo Bay camps violate human rights. Not only does the military mess with the detainees physically, they also manipulate with their minds. The prisoners that were badly abused by the military are hidden from the Red Cross, not letting anyone know what is actually going on behind the doors. The prisoners have no way of getting proper help with how they are treated by the military. The Red Cross is only able to see so much and what they see is not the worse. The International Center of the Red Cross’ goal is to make sure that the treatment of the prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay camps are treated within the reasonable parameters that have been set throughout the world. Julian Assange’s release of the manuals is trying to let the government know that they can’t always keep their unjust activities a secret. Evidence also states that Major General Geoffrey Miller introduced the idea of shackling the prisoners in stress positions to get information out of them. Clearly, the US military has not complied with the international standard of what is humane in interrogating a suspect.

Innocent citizens killed in order for the death count to go up and as a result, bring a Colombian party into power.

Colombia is politically unstable as of right now with two parties fighting in order to take control. Both parties pressure communities into choosing sides, giving the communities and its people a hard time. Human right activists have been working hard in Colombia in hopes that one day both parties can come to a settlement and its citizens would no longer have to live in fear. However with the recent leak known as the Cablegate, the leak of the US Embassy Cables, is an eye opener. The cable shows that the US has known about these extrajudicial killings and have just stood there. The amount of evidence in that one cable is enough to get those officials and people brought to trial and let the world know that there is progress with the human rights violations that are happening in Colombia. Instead, the US is there pretending to care about the international human rights laws that the world has agreed upon. The amount of knowledge that the US holds is enough to make a statement to the 2 parties in Colombia to stop, but instead the US is funding these extrajudicial killings. This connection has been brought up before, but the US has managed to dodge the accusation without much credible evidence. The leak of this cable alone provides a significant amount of evidence how the US decided to turn a blind eye to the human right violations in Colombia and also help but funding them too.

There are those who firmly believed that what Julian Assange did with the government documents created a great security risk for the countries involved. Secrets were known and enemies have an insight as to how things worked. I agree that the materials published may have been a great risk to security, but at the same time he exposed the wrong doings of governments and how human rights are being violated by those governments. It seems like Julian Assange is doing thing as a reminder for governments to remember what they stand for and that their actions are not completely secretive as initially thought. Julian Assange is just bringing to the world's attention as to how rights are being violated and where it is happening. The trade off for the world to continue to know where the violations of human rights are at is to expose the corruption in the country. In the end, the protection of human rights trumps government secrecy. If the governments had not abused human rights, then they would not need to worry about being exposed.

I feel that we are now at a time where we tend to believe most if not all of what we see on the news and from our politicians. There’s very little skepticism because the government’s role in our every day lives is greater than the founding fathers had intended. In a way it’s handicapped us from being able to think properly for ourselves and the world. We just expect help in everything without putting much effort. Julian Assange just challenged our trust in the government and brought to our attention how countries ignore what the world has deem as the standard of human rights. He has made us question as to how much should the government really keep secret and what they are doing behind the doors. In that aspect, Julian Assange is just trying to tell the governments that nothing is ever confidential and that if the governments cannot own up to their actions then they should be wary as to what information Wikileaks may have.