Posted on Categories Podcast Info, Politics

Barbaric Conditions at US Immigration Prisons; Creech 14 Protest Drone Attacks

Tony Hefner, former guard at prison for immigrants, reveals rape, sexual abuse, brutal treatment of inmates and guards. Bill Quigley, legal director at Center for Constitutional Rights, confirms that those problems continue, and talks about the Creech 14. Will Durst comments on the shifting fortunes of Democrats. Hefner has published Between the Fences: Before Guantanamo, there was the Port Isabel Service Processing Center. Hefner reveals the ugly, barbaric treatment that includes rape and sexual harrassment, paybacks to guards who report wrongdoing, and widespread human rights violations at the detention camp where he worked for 5 years. Hefner was fired at one point, but was reinstated with back pay, after which he continued to report violations to his superiors and even to Sen. Phil Gramm and Karl Rove. The events Hefner reports occurred years ago, but Bill Quigley says the immigrant clients of the Center for Constitutional Rights report many of the same abuses today. CCR and Quigley are supporting the Creech 14, a group of activists being tried in mid-September for trespassing at Creech AFB outside Las Vegas. Creech is the control center for the unmanned drones operated by the military and contractors in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere. The defendants include Franciscan priest Fr. Louis Vitale, who used to serve a parish in San Francisco and has been arrested before at the School of the Americas at Ft. Benning. Quigley talks about the use of the drones in a manner that can fairly be called “terrorism” and also the illegal targeting of an American citizen for execution, without being charged or tried. And Will Durst closes the show with comments about the wild fluctuations in polls regarding support for Democrats this fall. The second segment starts at about 44:00