It Happens All the time in fascist amerika - you usually don't hear about it.

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld does not have immunity from torture lawsuits according to a federal appeals court, leaving at least one former Bush administration official on the hook for policies developed under the guise of the “war on terror.”

Rumsfeld is being sued by two employees of Shield Group Security. The plaintiffs, Nathan Vance and Nathan Ertel claim they were imprisoned in Iraq without charge and tortured by the U.S. military after they alleged their company was paying off local officials for contracts.

After their release without charge in 2006 the men sued, claiming their detention and torture violated their constitutional rights. Rumsfeld was named a defendant for “his role in creating and carrying out policies that caused plaintiffs’ alleged torture.”

Rumsfeld moved to dismiss the suit, but a federal district judge denied that motion citing the Fifth Amendment’s substantive due process clause. That decision was upheld in a 2-1 vote by a panel of federal judges. According to the majority “plaintiffs have alleged in sufficient detail facts supporting Secretary Rumsfeld’s personal responsibility for the alleged torture.”

More importantly though, the majority held that Rumsfeld is not entitled to qualified immunity. To make such a finding the court had to conclude that Rumsfeld’s belief that the alleged detention and torture was constitutional was unreasonable.

Underlying this story is the fact that these men are not enemy combatants plucked from the theater of war. These are US citizens, private contractors who blew the whistle on corruption. And in response they were detained without charge and tortured.

Back to my torture story:
Finally on May 27, 1983 I was released from a mental hospital for the third time in five years. My parents picked me up and drove me to their house. We spoke very little and I could feel the despair and desperation my parents must have been experiencing. My mother went into a lecture on how I should keep taking my medication because I was much better as long as I treated my "mental illness". I sat there in total amazement that my parents only hope lie in my acceptance of the "mental illness" story. As for me, I felt I had no hope, but I still had plans on fighting on.