| |
Sept. 7, 2007:
Doctors worldwide blast AMA for its silence on Guantanamo| |
Excerpt: The U.S. medical establishment appears to have turned a blind eye to the abuse of military medicine at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, doctors from around the world said in a letter published Friday in a prestigious British medical journal.
Health care workers in the U.S. military seem to have put their loyalty to the state above their duty to care for patients - and American regulatory bodies have done nothing to remedy the situation, said the letter that appeared in The Lancet.
It was signed by some 260 people from 16 countries, nearly all of whom are doctors.
The letter compared the ongoing role of U.S. doctors working at Guantanamo, who have been accused of ignoring torture, to the South African doctors involved in the case of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, who died while being detained by security police. |
Sept. 7, 2007:
U.N. war crimes expert notes, U.S. War on Terror is constantly being used by other countries as justification for torture and human rights violations| |
Excerpt: "Torture, arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention in violation of right to counsel, incommunicado detention, any country that wants to equip itself either through legislation or just through its practices with these kind of tools uses the example of the United States," Louise Arbour tells Democracy Now! "If I try to call to account any government, privately or publicly, for their human rights records, the first response is: first go and talk to the Americans about their human rights violations." |
May 31, 2007
U.S. detainee abuse (ie, torture of prisoners) was well planned| |
Excerpt: Many of the controversial interrogation tactics used against terror suspects in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo were modeled on techniques the U.S. feared that the Communists themselves might use against captured American troops during the Cold War, according to a little-noticed, highly classified Pentagon report released several days ago. Originally developed as training for elite special forces at Fort Bragg under the "Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape" program, otherwise known as SERE, tactics such as sleep deprivation, isolation, sexual humiliation, nudity, exposure to extremes of cold and stress positions were part of a carefully monitored survival training program for personnel at risk of capture by Soviet or Chinese forces, all carried out under the supervision of military psychologists.
Comment: The Bush administration has, of course, always lied that torture was conducted by 'rogue' soldiers without official OK. |
March 17, 2007:
Int'l Criminal Court willing to consider
war crime charges against Bush, Blair| |
Excerpt: The court's chief prosecutor told The Sunday Telegraph that he would be willing to launch an inquiry and could envisage a scenario in which the Prime Minister and American President George W Bush could one day face charges at The Hague.
Comment: Seven nations have refused to accept jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court at The Hague -- Communist China, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Qatar, Yemen -- and the United States of America.
That's the company the U.S. keeps in the Bush-Cheney administration. |
March 13, 2007:
U.S. holds infants, Americans
in East African secret prisons| |
Excerpt: A network of U.S. allies in East Africa secretly have transferred to prisons in Somalia and Ethiopia at least 80 people who were captured in Kenya while fleeing the recent war in Somalia, according to human rights advocates here. ... At least 150 prisoners, who included men and women of 17 nationalities and children as young as 7 months, were held in Kenya for several weeks before most of them were transferred covertly to Somalia and Ethiopia, where they're being held incommunicado, the groups charge. ... At least one of the transferees is an American citizen identified on a flight manifest as Amir Mohamed Meshar. |
Nov. 4, 2006:
Bush-Cheney asks court to silence torture victims| |
Comment: You will be tortured, without trial. And if you survive, and if you're ever released, you will not be allowed to talk about how you were tortured. State secrets, you understand. NAME PERMANENT LINK |
Oct. 25, 2006:
Cheney confirms torture of prisoners| |
Excerpt: Vice President Dick Cheney has confirmed that U.S. interrogators subjected captured senior al-Qaida suspects to a controversial interrogation technique called "water-boarding," which creates a sensation of drowning.
Comment: Patriots weep at what Cheney and Bush have so easily accomplished in six short years. Would you have imagined, in 2000, that torture would be America's national policy, and that fine-line imagined distinctions between what is and isn't torture would be an ordinary subject of political conversation? Sweet frickin' jeebers, this is the nation America has become. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Sept. 29, 2006:
President Bush has something to say about torture| |
Excerpt: We found this long-forgotten press release at the White House website on September 29, 2006 -- the day the President is expected to sign the new law ending eight hundred years of habeas corpus, authorizing torture on the President's say-so, and retroactively legalizing torture previously authorized by the despicable President of the United States.
The text of the press release, probably never even read and certainly never comprehended by George W. Bush, is credited as a "statement by the President."
The illustrations did not come from the White House website, but what's illustrated certainly did.
We republish Bush's old press release as a tribute to the nation America could be, if men like Bush were imprisoned instead of President, and because we expect this "statement by the President" won't remain on the White House website much longer. |
Sept. 17, 2006:
14,000 held in US secret prisons| |
Comment: Here's what the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War has to say about secret prisons:
From Article 23: "Detaining Powers shall give the Powers concerned, through the intermediary of the Protecting Powers, all useful information regarding the geographical location of prisoner of war camps."
Has America done this? No — and it's a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
From Article 70: "Immediately upon capture, or not more than one week after arrival at a camp, even if it is a transit camp, likewise in case of sickness or transfer to hospital or another camp, every prisoner of war shall be enabled to write direct to his family, on the one hand, and to the Central Prisoners of War Agency provided for in Article 123, on the other hand, a card similar, if possible, to the model annexed to the present Convention, informing his relatives of his capture, address and state of health. The said cards shall be forwarded as rapidly as possible and may not be delayed in any manner."
Has America done this? No — and it's a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
The existence of secret prisons is simply and inarguably illegal. The subject was decided in 1949, when American officials signed the document. But things like international law matter little to Bush and Cheney. They hold themselves above all laws of men or God.
"We do not torture," Bush lies over and over again — we only use "harsh interrogation" and "tactics we cannot reveal." The Geneva Conventions, though, leave no room for such silly wordplay.
From Article 17: "No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted, or exposed to any unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind."
Compare the plainly written rules of international law to what you know goes on in these secret prisons, to what you know is being done with Bush-Cheney's OK.
Perhaps more importantly, compare what you know is happening to your own sense of right, wrong, and conscience.
"These are enemy combatants who are waging war on our nation," says the American President. "We have a right under the laws of war, and we have an obligation to the American people, to detain these enemies and stop them from rejoining the battle."
How easily Bush and Cheney claim an alleged "right under the laws of war", while holding prisoners in secret and subjecting them to torture in clear and obvious violation of those same laws of war.
When will Americans grow weary of having war criminals in the White House?
When will Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld be hauled away in irons, to face trial at the Hague for what they've done?
Soon, I pray — and never, I know.
When will Americans stand up and demand some shred of human decency from their leaders? We'd better demand it soon, or it's only a matter of time before these tyrants turn their tactics of terror and torture onto Americans. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Sept. 11, 2006:
Government pays for insurance policies to shield CIA torturers from court verdicts| |
Excerpt: CIA counterterrorism officers have signed up in growing numbers for a government-reimbursed, private insurance plan that would pay their civil judgments and legal expenses if they are sued or charged with criminal wrongdoing, according to current and former intelligence officials and others with knowledge of the program.
Comment: How could any American read this news and not feel ashamed, outraged?
Government-reimbursed insurance shields CIA employees from paying for their crimes — including "abuse, torture, human rights violations and other misconduct, including wrongdoing related to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks."
There's only one reason the CIA would offer reimbursement for such policies and, as this article reports, encourage its officers to sign up. There's only one reason a CIA officer would want this kind of insurance:
If their actions are brought to the light of day, it's likely that what they've done and what they're doing will be found illegal.
This is shameful, despicable on how many different levels?
Federal employees are paid to torture, to violate human rights, American law, and the Geneva Conventions...
... And the Bush-Cheney administration authorized it, but lies about it constantly ("We don't torture," as Bush himself said again last week, while pushing for new laws shielding torturers from prosecution)...
... And little-known government-backed insurance policies are being pushed, so government workers who torture for a living needn't worry about paying any civil damages for their illegal acts...
Is this the America Tom Jefferson and Ben Franklin and George Washington fought to establish?
Or is this the tyranny they fought against? Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Aug. 12, 2006:
Sickened Iraq war veterans cite 'depleted uranium'| |
Comment: When the Department of Defense says depleted uranium is "powerful, safe, and not that worrisome," they're just plain killing American troops. US soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines need to have their illness acknowledged and treated, not dodged.
Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
August 1, 2006:
US torture commandant praised as "innovator" at retirement ceremony| |
Excerpt: Military investigators last year recommended that Miller be admonished for failing to monitor and limit the "abusive and degrading" interrogation of a prisoner, but the general who headed US Southern Command rejected the recommendation.
Comment: In Bush & Cheney's new "post-9/11" America, Gen Miller gets a comfortable retirement, instead of a well-earned trip to the Hague. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
July 28, 2006:
Bush administration seeks shield from war crimes prosecution| |
Excerpt: The law initially criminalized grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions but was amended without a hearing the following year to include violations of Common Article 3, the minimum standard requiring that all detainees be treated "humanely." The article bars murder, mutilation, cruel treatment, torture and "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment." It applies to any abuse involving U.S. military personnel or "nationals."
Comment: Murder ... mutilation ... cruel treatment ... torture ... "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment ..."
Should laws against such things be repealed? Wouldn't you rather see such laws finally enforced? Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
July 28, 2006:
UN Human Rights Committee tells US to close secret prisons| |
Comment: I never thought I'd see the day when United States would be found in violation of human rights by the UN, rendered to the same status as nations like Uganda and Burma. This is a sad day indeed. Ilari R. PERMANENT LINK |
July 23, 2006:
After Abu Ghraib scandal, US military commanders still oversaw torture in Iraq| |
Excerpt: One soldier, whose name was withheld from the report, described a suspected insurgent being stripped naked, thrown in the mud, sprayed with water and then exposed to frigid temperatures in an attempt to soften him up for interrogators.
Commanders, the soldier said, seemed confident that their treatment of prisoners was legal.
Comment: When you're acting on orders that seem inherently, morally wrong, you need the reassurance that it's been OK'd "higher up" the chain of command. Follow the chain of command high enough, and you'll find people who've studied the Milgram experiment , and understood it well. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
July 22, 2006:
U.S. soldiers say they were ordered to kill all military-aged Iraqi males| |
Excerpt: Four U.S. soldiers accused of murdering suspected insurgents during a raid in Iraq said they were under orders to "kill all military age males," according to sworn statements obtained by the Associated Press. |
June 16, 2006:
US held Iraqi prisoners in cells four feet tall, twenty inches wide| |
Excerpt: American Special Operations soldiers employed a set of harsh, unauthorized interrogation techniques against detainees in Iraq during a four-month period in early 2004, long after approval for their use was rescinded, according to a Pentagon inquiry released today. |
June 7, 2006:
CIA kept Nazi Eichmann's whereabouts secret| |
Excerpt: Determined to win the Cold War, the CIA kept quiet about the whereabouts of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in the 1950s for fear he might expose undercover anticommunist efforts in West Germany, according to documents released Tuesday. |
June 5, 2006:
Pentagon drops Geneva Convention rules from new US Army manual| |
Comment: What's the quote from Spaceballs? "Evil will always triumph ... because good is dumb."
Well, that's obviously not true anymore, because the Bush administration's torture policy is the perfect marriage of pure unadulterated evil with complete and total stupidity. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
Pentagon supersedes medical ethics, orders doctors to force-feed Guantanamo prisoners| |
Comment: The Americans are whistling and skipping as they proceed down the road earlier traveled by the likes of Josef Mengele. Helen & Harry LINK |
May 29, 2006:
More than fifty years later, document reveals
U.S. policy was to shoot Korean refugees| |
Excerpt: "If refugees do appear from north of US lines they will receive warning shots, and if they then persist in advancing they will be shot," wrote Ambassador John J. Muccio, in his message to Assistant Secretary of State Dean Rusk.
The letter reported on decisions made at a high-level meeting in South Korea on July 25, 1950, the night before the 7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment shot the refugees at No Gun Ri.
Comment: Amazingly, the Bush administration thinks Americans are immune to humanity's worst. They argue that the Geneva Conventions are 'quaint' and outdated, that American warfare shouldn't be subject to international law.
The hubris and stupidity of such thinking is beyond belief. Helen & Harry LINK |
May 12, 2006:
US won't let Red Cross walk through our secret European freedom gulags
May 8, 2006:
Army won't admit water-boarding, but tells UN it will soon be prohibited
May 6, 2006:
In testimony at Geneva, U.S. officials again deny torture allegations| |
Comment: It's amazing how these guys can lie so blatantly and stupidly in the face of years of photo evidence and even convictions of low level soldiers. I guess they feel so secure in their power they can say anything.
"Do something about my lies," they are telling the world. Marshall S. LINK |
May 3, 2006:
Torture "widespread" under US custody
May 2, 2006:
New Abu Ghraib documents: Top US Commander ordered interrogators to "go to the outer limits"| |
Excerpt: The top U.S. commander in Iraq during the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal urged U.S. forces to "go to the outer limits" to extract information from prisoners, according to a U.S. officer cited in a military document. The Army last year exonerated Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez of wrongdoing relating to detainee abuse, but human rights lawyers said the document raises fresh questions about the degree to which senior officers sanctioned the abuse.
Comment: But remember, the torture is just a few bad apples, a few low-level grunts, and the fact that they all started doing the same bad things at the same time independently of each other is just a way for the Democrats to make partisan attacks on poor brave Donald Rumsfeld.
You remember Rumsfeld, he's the one we just found out was getting weekly torture updates on one of the guests in our freedom gulags. Madeline Zane LINK |
April 14, 2006:
Rumsfeld was "personally involved" in "no limits" Guantanamo interrogation
March 30, 2006:
US Army deserter tells of atrocities in Iraq
March 20, 2006:
Killing women and children: the “My Lai phase” of the Iraq War
by Mike Whitney, InformationClearingHouse| |
Excerpt: There were no Al Qaida fighters in the home in Ishaqi. The attack was just another lethal blunder by a blinkered military fighting an invisible enemy. “The killed family was not part of the resistance; they were women and children,” said Ahmed Khalaf. “The Americans promised us a better life, but we only get death.” |
March 14, 2006:
Railroading of Milosevic ends with his unlikely death
by John Laughland, The Guardian
March 14, 2006:
The Abu Ghraib files| |
Summary: Photos galore and documentation from the ongoing Abu Ghraib torture scandal.
Excerpt: Although the photos are a disturbing visual account of particular incidents inside Abu Ghraib prison, they should not be viewed as representing the sum total of what occurred. As the Schlesinger report states in its convoluted prose: "We do know that some of the egregious abuses at Abu Ghraib which were not photographed did occur during interrogation sessions and that abuses during interrogation sessions occurred elsewhere." Also, the documentation doesn't include many details about the detainees who were abused and tortured at Abu Ghraib. While the International Committee of the Red Cross report from February 2004 cited military intelligence officers as estimating that "between 70 to 90 percent of persons deprived of their liberty in Iraq had been arrested by mistake," much remains unknown about the detainees abused in the "hard site" where the Army housed violent and dangerous detainees and where much of the abuse took place. |
March 12, 2006:
No court martial for British soldier who quit in disgust over 'illegal' American tactics in Iraq| |
Excerpt: "I did not join the British Army to conduct American foreign policy," he said. He expected to be labeled a coward and to face a court martial and imprisonment after making what "the most difficult decision of my life" last March.
Instead, he was discharged with a testimonial describing him as a "balanced, honest, loyal and determined individual who possesses the strength of character to have the courage of his convictions". |
Feb. 23, 2006:
Film shows some of Guantanamo's horrors
Feb. 23, 2006:
Senior Pentagon officials approved torture at Guantanamo concentration camp
Feb. 14, 2006:
New Abu Ghraib torture photos published by Australian journalists| |
Excerpt: Every American needs to see what was, and still is being done in their name. |
Feb. 12, 2006:
CIA counter-terror head fired for "misgivings" about torture, rendition, US secret prisons
Feb. 12, 2006:
Video shows British troops beating Iraqi teens
Jan. 27, 2006:
US Army seized Iraqis' wives as war tactic, documents show
Jan. 18, 2006:
Soldier's defense in torture death: "I was following orders"
Lawyer claims Iraqi died of "heart disease," not asphyxia
Jan. 13, 2006:
Commander at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib takes the fifth on abusive interrogations
Dec. 22, 2005:
Guard threatens beatings in Saddam's kangaroo courtroom
Dec. 13, 2005:
New US Army field manual includes secret list of approved torture techniques
Dec. 10, 2005:
US manufactured Iraq • al Qaeda connection by torturing "informant" until he said what they wanted
Dec. 10, 2005:
When state power is combined with contempt for humanity
Nov. 27, 2005:
Iraqi abuse worse now than under Saddam, says ex-PM Allawi
Nov. 23, 2005:
American convicted of terror conspiracy ... based on confession he says was beaten out of him by Saudis
Nov. 14, 2005:
CIA covered up evidence of Iraqi man's torture killing
Nov. 11, 2005:
"We do not torture," Bush declares
while White House works to defeat torture ban
Nov. 10, 2005:
A name that lives in infamy| |
Excerpt: One year ago this week, US-led occupying forces launched a devastating assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah. The mood was set by Lt Col Gary Brandl: "The enemy has got a face. He's called Satan. He's in Fallujah. And we're going to destroy him."
The assault was preceded by eight weeks of aerial bombardment. US troops cut off the city's water, power and food supplies, condemned as a violation of the Geneva convention by a UN special rapporteur, who accused occupying forces of "using hunger and deprivation of water as a weapon of war against the civilian population". Two-thirds of the city's 300,000 residents fled, many to squatters' camps without basic facilities.
As the siege tightened, the Red Cross, Red Crescent and the media were kept out, while males between the ages of 15 and 55 were kept in. US sources claimed between 600 and 6,000 insurgents were holed up inside the city - which means that the vast majority of the remaining inhabitants were non-combatants. |
Nov. 7, 2005:
New improved napalm "melts the body right down to the bone"
U.S. used chemical weapons in Fallujah siege
Nov. 3, 2005:
U.S. chemical weapons found in Delaware driveway pavement
Nov. 2, 2005:
CIA holds terror suspects in secret prisonsEU promises inquiry into CIA's 'gulags'
The E.U. will investigate the American gulag network. The WASHINGTON POST will investigate, and maybe 60 MINUTES will investigate. Will the U.S. Congress investigate? Probably not, because the U.S. Congress already knows about it. =H&HH= | LINK
Oct. 31, 2005:
Three years at Guantanamo, for political satire of Clinton
Oct. 27, 2005:
Detainees medically abused at Guantanamo
Prisoners force-fed in deliberately painful, cruel manner, lawyers say
Oct. 24, 2005:
Report lists 21 'detainees' murdered in U.S. custody
as Cheney proposes exemption allowing CIA torture
Oct. 4, 2005:
Call 'Depleted Uranium' what it is
by Daniel Fey, Unknown News
Sept. 30, 2005:
Bush threatens veto of defense spending bill if it says anything against torturing prisoners
Aug. 25, 2005:
Abu Ghraib commander says torture was Rumsfeld's orders| |
Excerpt: "It was a memorandum signed by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, authorizing a short list, maybe 6 or 8 techniques: use of dogs; stress positions; loud music; deprivation of food; keeping the lights on, those kinds of things," Karpinski said. "And then a handwritten message over to the side that appeared to be the same handwriting as the signature, and that signature was Secretary Rumsfeld's. And it said, 'Make sure this happens' with two exclamation points. And that was the only thing they had. Everything else had been confiscated." |
Aug. 8, 2005:
Enemy combatant's lawsuit describes two years of solitary confinement in South Carolina
Aug. 3, 2005:
Before invasion, CIA trained Iraqi saboteur-torture teams
July 23, 2005:
Defense Dept disobeys court order, won't release torture photos
July 22, 2005:
Scientists question safety of U.S. pain ray weapon
July 21, 2005:
Bush says he'll veto Defense bill if it
limits or funds investigation of torture
June 27, 2005:
Reporter's story filed posthumously
Sunni men in Baghdad targeted by attackers in police uniforms
June 14, 2005:
US suspects 'face torture overseas'
June 7, 2005:
Devastating photo-essay from Fallujah
(Not for U.S. news markets)# Funny, I don't get why the U.S. isn't winning the minds and hearts of Iraqis. Can't they understand our desire to bring them democracy? Aren't they so much better of now? =Joerg=
May 23, 2005:
Bush obliquely announces plans for world-wide U.S. torture facilities
May 22, 2005:
U.S. soldier gets three months in prison in beating death of Afghan prisoner
May 21, 2005:
Army file details brutal deaths of un-tried Afghan detainees
May 21, 2005:
The unknown unknowns of the Abu Ghraib scandal
by Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker
May 16, 2005:
Iraqi prisoner dies of apparent heart attack
May 10, 2005:
Study of U.S. war atrocities remains unpublished in America
May 8, 2005
Soldier blows whistle on Guantanamo torture
May 4, 2005:
Unidentified Marine in videotaped Iraq mosque shooting won't face court-martial
April 29, 2005:
Defense Dept invokes Geneva Conventions to withhold torture photos| |
Excerpt: "Until now, this administration has shown only contempt for the Geneva Conventions, and it has built its policies dismissing the application of international humanitarian law," said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "It's simply astounding that the Defense Department has now invoked the Geneva Conventions to suppress evidence that prisoners have been abused. The government cannot cloak its attempts to protect itself from public embarrassment in a newfound concern for the Geneva Conventions." |
April 19, 2005:
Latest documents show Army command approved and Encouraged torture
April 17, 2005:
Abu Ghraib called 'tip of iceberg'| |
# If anyone's wondering how many people the CIA may have kidnapped and 'disappeared' from Iraq... =Mr. Cieciel=
Excerpt: The CIA has also transferred up to 150 prisoners to countries in the Middle East known to practice torture routinely, the group added. |
April 15, 2005:
Guantanamo detainee suing
U.S. for video of his torture| |
Excerpt: A detainee at a U.S. military prison alleges that U.S. military guards jumped on his head until he had a stroke that paralyzed his face, nearly drowned him in a toilet and later broke several of his fingers, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court....
His account of the beatings is very similar to written military summaries of the incidents, according to the lawsuit....
Idr was accused of plotting with five others to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo in November 2001. All were acquitted by a Bosnian court in January 2002, but U.S. agents arrested them as they left the courthouse and eventually took them to Guantanamo Bay.
# (The italics ares mine.) This is your constitution on neoconservatism. Any questions? =Sir J= |
March 31, 2005:
U.S. soldiers told to ”beat the fuck out of” detainees
March 26, 2005:
Army turns blind eye to torture| |
Excerpt: Despite recommendations by Army investigators, commanders have decided not to prosecute 17 American soldiers implicated in the deaths of three prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004, according to a new accounting released Friday by the Army.
Investigators had recommended that all 17 soldiers be charged in the cases, according to the accounting by the Army Criminal Investigation Command. The charges included murder, conspiracy and negligent homicide. While none of the 17 will face any prosecution, one received a letter of reprimand and another was discharged after the investigations.
... "U.S. Army Special Forces Command takes all allegations of detainee abuse and homicide very seriously," Major Gowan said in an e-mail statement in response to an inquiry. "As with any case, U.S. Army Special Forces Command will consider all relevant evidence and facts. This command will make appropriate disposition of such cases as warranted by the facts and evidence derived from the investigations." |
March 24, 2005:
CIA behind "ghosting" of Iraq prisoners| |
Excerpt: Senior defense officials have described the CIA practice of hiding unregistered detainees at Abu Ghraib prison as ad hoc and unauthorized, but a review of Army documents shows that the agency's "ghosting" program was systematic and known to three senior intelligence officials in Iraq.
Army and Pentagon investigations have acknowledged a limited amount of ghosting, but more than a dozen documents and investigative statements obtained by The Washington Post show that unregistered CIA detainees were brought to Abu Ghraib several times a week in late 2003, and that they were hidden in a special row of cells. Military police soldiers came up with a rough system to keep track of such detainees with single-digit identification numbers, while others were dropped off unnamed, unannounced and unaccounted for.
The documents show that the highest-ranking general in Iraq at the time acknowledged that his top intelligence officer was aware the CIA was using Abu Ghraib's cells, a policy the general abruptly stopped when questions arose.
# Understand, of course, that this is a war crime -- another violation of the Geneva conventions. =H&HH= |
March 19, 2005:
Afghanistan: One giant U.S. prison
“It’s become the new Guantanamo Bay”
March 16, 2005:
"Sexually taunting" interrogator now teaches interrogation
March 10, 2005:
ACLU calls for special prosecutor on torture
March 7, 2005:
Plain, inarguable fact becomes plainer, more inarguable:
Torture is U.S. policy
March 7, 2005:
Secret rule lets CIA export prisoners for torture in foreign prisons
March 5, 2005:
Maximum pain is aim of new U.S. weapon
March 5, 2005:
Soldier who reported torture was sent to psychiatrist| |
Excerpt: An Army intelligence sergeant who accused fellow soldiers in Samarra, Iraq, of abusing detainees in 2003 was in turn accused by his commander of being delusional and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation in Germany, despite a military psychiatrist's initial judgment that the man was stable, according to internal Army records released yesterday.
The soldier had angered his commander by urging the unit's redeployment from the military base to prevent what the soldier feared would be the death of one or more detainees under interrogation, according to the documents. He told his commander three members of the counterintelligence team had hit detainees, pulled their hair, tried to asphyxiate them and staged mock executions with pistols pointed at the detainees' heads.
In another case detailed in the Army files, soldiers in a Florida National Guard unit deployed near Ramadi in 2003 compiled a 20-minute video that depicted a soldier kicking a wounded detainee in the face and chest in the presence of 10 colleagues and soldiers positioning a dead insurgent to appear to wave hello. The video was found in a soldier's computer files under the heading "Ramadi Madness," and it initially prompted military lawyers to recommend charges of assault with battery and dereliction of duty for tampering with a corpse.
The unit's commander told Army investigators he was concerned about the images becoming public and promised to take steps to "minimize the risk of this and other videos that may end up in the media." |
Feb. 18, 2005:
U.S. torture scandal in Afghanistan averted by destroying evidence
Feb. 3, 2005:
Are war crimes charges making Rumsfeld avoid German visits?
Jan. 27, 2005:
U.S. wants new venue for Darfur crimes
Jan. 21, 2005:
Rumsfeld cancels trip after war crimes accusations
Jan. 18, 2005:
Dissociative disorder on torture| |
. White House pressured Congress
to scrap ban on torture
. U.S. 'should not rule out torture',
says' Homeland Security Chief
. Reservist convicted in Abu Ghraib torture
scandal; faces long prison term
. Higher-ranking officials unlikely to be tried |
Jan. 9, 2005:
U.S. ponders El Salvador-style "death squads" for killing Iraqis
Report says Halliburton is hiring
Colombian mercenaries for "work" in Iraq
Jan. 6, 2005:
Australian detainee in U.S. custody claims torture in Egypt
Dec. 30, 2004:
Falloujans return home to unsettling sights of city
Dec. 27, 2004:
CIA won't answer inquiries about torture
Dec. 26, 2004
Bush qualifies for death penalty for war crimes
under US law, Chomsky notes| |
Excerpt: But what was dramatic about Fallujah was that it was not kept secret. So you could see on the front page of the New York Times, a big picture of the first major…step in the offensive, namely the capture of the Fallujah general hospital. And there’s a picture of people lying on the ground, soldier guarding them, and then there’s a story that tells that patients and doctors were taken from -- patients were taken from their beds, patients and doctors were forced to lie on the floor and manacled, under guard, and the picture described it.
The president of the United States is subject to death penalty under US law for that crime -- alone. I mean that’s a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, Geneva Conventions say explicitly and unambiguously that hospitals must be protected, hospitals and medical staff and patients must be protected by all combatants in any conflict. You couldn’t have a more grave breach of the Geneva Conventions than that.
There’s a War Crimes Act in the United States passed by a Republican Congress in 1996, which says that grave breaches of the Geneva Convention are subject to the death penalty. And that doesn’t mean the soldier that committed them, that means the commanders. They weren’t thinking about the United States of course, but take it literally, that’s what it means. ... |
Dec. 20, 2004:
FBI e-mail refers to presidential order authorizing torture
Press release, American Civil Liberties Union| |
Excerpt: "These documents raise grave questions about where the blame for widespread detainee abuse ultimately rests," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "Top government officials can no longer hide from public scrutiny by pointing the finger at a few low-ranking soldiers."
...The two-page e-mail that references an Executive Order states that the President directly authorized interrogation techniques including sleep deprivation, stress positions, the use of military dogs, and "sensory deprivation through the use of hoods, etc." The ACLU is urging the White House to confirm or deny the existence of such an order and immediately to release the order if it exists. |
Dec. 18, 2004:
Rumsfeld gave "marching orders" for torture, then lied about it
Dec. 9, 2004:
Abuse 'continued after Abu Ghraib'# Well, of course it continued. It was OK with the Bush administration, encouraged by policy, and beyond some for-the-camera conscience-wringing there wasn't a whisper of changing the administration's pro-torture policies. =H&HH=
Dec.8, 2004:
U.S. killed unarmed Iraqis, war-dodger hearing told
Dec. 8, 2004:
Whitewashing torture?
SALON ASKS NON-SUBSCRIBERS TO VIEW A BRIEF ADVERTISEMENT| |
Excerpt: A veteran sergeant who told his commanding officers that he witnessed his colleagues torturing Iraqi detainees was strapped to a gurney and flown out of Iraq -- even though there was nothing wrong with him. |
Dec. 7, 2004:
Witnesses to U.S. torture were threatened, documents show
Dec. 2, 2004:
CCR files war crimes claim against U.S. officials| |
Excerpt: Defendants include Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, former CIA Director George Tenet, Lt. General Ricardo S. Sanchez, Major-General Walter Wojdakowski, Brig.-General Janis Karpinski, Lt.-Colonel Jerry L. Phillabaum, Colonel Thomas M. Pappas, Lt.-Colonel Stephen L. Jordan, Major-General Geoffrey Miller, and Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone. |
Nov. 21, 2004:
Americans intentionally targetted hospital| |
Excerpt: The first target in the recent campaign in Fallujah was the General Hospital. The New York Times explained why: "The offensive also shut down what officers said was a propaganda weapon for the militants: Fallujah General Hospital, with its stream of reports of civilian casualties." If there were no hospital, there would be no visible casualties; if there were no visible casualties, there would be no international outrage, and all would be well.
Anyone who could order such a war crime should, of course, face prosecution at the Hague. And so should anyone who supports such acts from the comfort of their American living room, or who knows about such acts and fails to speak against the American military command which made it happen. =H&HH= | LINK |
Nov. 19, 2004:
U.S. war crimes in Fallujah| |
Excerpt: While the reporting of embedded correspondents operating in the besieged city of Fallujah is subject to censorship by the US military, a number of incidents have been captured on tape and broadcast in the United States that international law experts charge could be evidence of clear war crimes being committed by US troops. |
Nov. 16, 2004:
Battle of Fallujah marked by US war crimes
by "no name," Unknown News
Nov. 7, 2004:
U.S. troops are ordered to attack Fallujah with "historic" brutality
Nov. 6, 2004:
US strikes raze Fallujah hospital
Oct. 24, 2004:
CIA 'took detainees out of Iraq'| |
Excerpt: At the request of the CIA, the Justice Department allegedly compiled a secret memo allowing transfer of a dozen detainees over the last six months.
International Red Cross officials have not met with the detainees, an unnamed officer told the newspaper.
Legal experts have said the practice contravenes the Geneva Conventions. |
Oct. 17, 2004:
Torture is official policy at America's Guantanamo prison
Oct. 17, 2004:
Pentagon rewards Generals,
corporations tied to Abu Ghraib scandal| |
Excerpt: Instead of reprimands or dismissals, one general tied to the torture and abuses at Abu Ghraib prison will probably receive a promotion and another has been recommended for a new command position. At the same time, both US corporations with direct ties to the abuse scandal have been rewarded with lucrative contracts valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars. |
Oct. 11, 2004:
Report: U.S.-held "detainees" tortured, then "disappeared"
Oct. 6, 2004:
"Take them out, dude"
Pilots toast hit on Iraqi civilians
Oct. 1, 2004:
White House endorses torture deportations
Oct. 1, 2004:
Records show Kissinger opposed human rights diplomacy while Secretary of State
Sept. 16, 2004:
Iraq war illegal, says U.N. leader
Sept. 13, 2004:
Bush team 'knew of abuse' at Guantánamo
Sept. 1, 2004:
Molasses-slow inquiry begins: 2002 U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan
Aug. 26, 2004:
"Ornery prisoner" was beaten to death| |
Excerpt: Pfc. William Roy testified Wednesday that Pittman struck Hatab in the chest a day after the inmate arrived at Camp Whitehorse. Hatab fell to the ground, asked in English "Why? Why? Why?" and told the guards he had 11 children.
Roy said he replied: "What about those people who were in the ambush you got this rifle from? What about their children?"
Pittman, he said, then delivered a strong kick to the man's chest, sending him to the ground. Roy said he then suggested they both leave before further harming Hatab. |
Aug. 22, 2004:
U.S. routinely sidesteps war crime trials by simply booting GIs from service
Aug. 10, 2004:
Torture, U.S. non-cooperation jeopardizes September 11 retrial
Aug. 6, 2004:
Did CIA threaten to prosecute lawyer if war crime suspect’s CIA ties were revealed?
Aug. 6, 2004:
Abu Ghraib sergeant, not facing charges, says U.S. intelligence agents led torture
Aug. 3, 2004:
"With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a
lot of money for projects, I think we can convince
these people that we are here to help them."
by Don Nash, Unknown News
Aug. 1, 2004:
Coalition imprisons, tortures Iraqi children as young as 10
July 29, 2004:
U.S. doctors, nurses, and medics "complicit" in U.S. torture policies
July 29, 2004:
Soldier testifies unit was ordered to throw Iraqis over embankment
July 28, 2004:
The secret files of Abu Ghraib| |
Excerpt: "Did we have terrorists in the population at this prison?" Taguba answered, "Sir, none that we were made aware of." His own files make clear, however, that a more accurate response would have been: "Yes, sir -- but only among the guards." |
July 23, 2004:
Congress contiunues funding for U.S. Academy of Torture
July 18, 2004:
Evidence tainted by torture?
Prosecutors ponder dropping charges against Sept. 11 suspect
July 14, 2004:
Freed Swede says he was tortured at Guantanamo
July 7, 2004:
Three Army commanders punished for conspiring to impede homicide investigation
June 17, 2004:
Rumsfeld ordered prisoner hidden| |
Excerpt: At the request of CIA Director George Tenet, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld directed Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of occupation forces in Iraq, to imprison an admitted terrorist without reporting him to the International Red Cross.
Both assigning a prisoner number and notifying the Red Cross are required under the Geneva Conventions and other humanitarian laws. |
July 15, 2004:
Seymour Hersh's ACLU keynote speech transcribed| |
Excerpt: "Some of the worst things that happened that you don't know about. OK? Videos. There are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at [Abu Ghraib], which is about 30 miles from Baghdad -- 30 kilometers, maybe, just 20 miles, I'm not sure whether it's -- anyway. The women were passing messages out saying please come and kill me because of what's happened. And basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children, in cases that have been [video] recorded, the boys were sodomized, with the cameras rolling, and the worst above all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking. That your government has, and they're in total terror it's going to come out. It's impossible to say to yourself, how did we get there, who are we, who are these people that sent us there." |
June 12, 2004:
Commander orders whistleblower called "mentally unfit"
June 9, 2004:
Torture memo leads to Bush
June 7, 2004:
Pentagon report set framework for use of torture
June 1, 2004:
Pentagon tests "active denial" pain beams
May 25, 2004:
Point-by-point guide to our military's
violations of the Geneva Conventions
by Susan Strouss, Unknown News
May 25, 2004:
U.S. holds hostages in Iraq
It's a war crime, of course, and Newsday almost says so
May 24, 2004:
Soldier says he was beaten as part of Guantanamo "training"
May 23, 2004:
Rumsfeld's response to torture photos:
Most cameras will be banned in U.S. military prisons
May 21, 2004:
U.S. Military retaliates against war crimes whistleblower
May 21, 2004:
"New" allegations of torture (from January)
May 20, 2004:
Witnesses tell of U.S. massacre of up to 3,000 Afghan prisoners
May 20, 2004:
U.S. will again seek immunity
from war crimes prosecution
May 19, 2004:
Let's face the obvious:
From Iraq to the White House,
everyone knew prisoners were being tortured
May 16, 2004:
'I killed innocent people for our government'
May 13, 2004:
Secret U.S. prisons hold thousands worldwide
May 8, 2004:
Iraq torture prison planned by U.S. prison official with tortured past
May 6, 2004:
Red Cross says U.S. was repeatedly warned about torture jail
May 5, 2004:
Jailed Iraqis were hidden from Red Cross, says US army
May 4, 2004:
Foreign contractors in Iraq include slaves
May 4, 2004:
Some Americans who tortured Iraqis may face no charges
May 4, 2004:
A broad pattern of abuse and denial
Timeline of torture & abuse allegations and responses
Human Rights Watch
May 4, 2004:
Bremer knew of prison abuse six months ago
May 4, 2004:
Contractors implicated in prison abuse remain on the job| |
Excerpt: More than two months after a classified Army report found that two contract workers were implicated in the abuse of Iraqis at a prison outside Baghdad, the companies that employ them say that they have heard nothing from the Pentagon, and that they have not removed any employees from Iraq. |
April 29, 2004:
The "small" war crimes in Iraq that'll never make the news in America| |
Excerpt: In the U.S. we debate the price of occupation and our burgeoning budget deficit, while Iraqis worry that a $310 billion debt to other nations, rung up by Saddam Hussein over the course of 25 years and three wars, will cripple the nation's economy for decades. While we debate who should take power in Iraq at the end of June, Iraqis worry that whoever we choose will continue to give away the store, making trade agreements that allow U.S.-approved contractors to privatize the country's infrastructure and security agreements that will allow U.S. troops to occupy the country indefinitely.
"There are so many other things going on in Iraq where there are not witnesses," said Herbert Docena, a Filipino activist working with Occupation Watch. "More covert things, like the drafting of new laws by private American corporations. The setting up of illegal governmental and economic structures. Things which need more than direct witnessing -- things that need more technical, academic specialization. Academically, Iraq is like a laboratory, if you will, for how the U.S. is creating a state to its liking, using its own processes." |
April 29, 2004:
U.S.-run Iraqi prison accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners
April 28, 2004:
U.S. war crimes in Fallujah "on a scale unprecedented"
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Excerpt: During the first two weeks of this month, the American army committed war crimes in Falluja on a scale unprecedented for this war. According to the relatively few media reports of what took place there, some 600 Iraqis were killed during these two weeks, among them some 450 elderly people, women and children.
The sight of decapitated children, the rows of dead women and the shocking pictures of the soccer stadium that was turned into a temporary grave for hundreds of the slain -- all were broadcast to the world only by the Al Jazeera network. During the operation in Falluja, according to the organization Doctors Without Borders, U.S. Marines even occupied the hospitals and prevented hundreds of the wounded from receiving medical treatment. Snipers fired from the rooftops at anyone who tried to approach.
This was a retaliatory operation, carried out by the Marines, accompanied by F-16 fighter planes and assault helicopters, under the code name "Vigilant Resolve." It was revenge for the killing of four American security guards on March 31. But while the killing of the guards, whose bodies were dragged through the streets of the city and then hung from a bridge, received wide media coverage, and thus prepared hearts and minds for the military revenge, the hundreds of victims of the American retaliation were practically a military secret. ... |
April 14, 2004:
Iraqi 'beaten to death' by U.S. troops
April 13, 2004:
Reports say U.S. snipers are firing at ambulances in Fallujah
April 6, 2004:
Mercenaries fight alongside U.S. military in Iraq
April 6, 2004:
Two more nations give U.S. green light for war crimes
March 28, 2004:
Britain's secret army in Iraq:
Thousands of armed security men who answer to nobody
March 21, 2004:
U.S. military officials offer few details in prisoner abuse scandal| |
Excerpt: U.S. commanders on Saturday charged six U.S. Army Military Police and have 11 others under suspension in the abuse case. Those charged face allegations of cruelty and maltreatment, indecent acts with another person, assault, conspiracy and dereliction of duty.
... Commanders here say they are shielding the soldiers' identities and ranks, as well as details of the alleged abuses, because they are innocent until found guilty. Other military-abuse cases here have been made public at the time of charges however, and resulted in internal plea-style agreements before they reached trial. |
March 11, 2004:
U.S. won't reveal details of inquiry
into U.S. airstrike that killed nine children
Jan. 14, 2004:
U.S. killing video becomes viral news
Jan. 5, 2004:
U.S. soldiers discharged for beating Iraqis
Two out of three get "honorable discharge"
Dec. 30, 2003:
It’s not just a good idea, it’s international law
by Liberez L'Ours, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: International law states that a country that attacks another country without provocation is indeed in violation, and its leaders guilty of war crimes. |
Dec. 15, 2003:
On the capture of Saddam Hussein...
Violation of Geneva Convention at no extra charge
Dec. 7, 2003:
New York Times calls it getting "tough"
Surrounding villages with barbed wire| |
Excerpt: In selective cases, American soldiers are demolishing buildings thought to be used by Iraqi attackers. They have begun imprisoning the relatives of suspected guerrillas, in hopes of pressing the insurgents to turn themselves in. |
Dec. 2, 2003:
Samarra massacre will haunt U.S. in Iraq| |
Excerpt: The U.S. troops were provoked into attack, but in retaliation they not only fired on a kindergarten and a mosque, they also fired on those trying to evacuate the wounded. |
Dec. 1, 2003:
Firefight leaves 46 Iraqis dead (my ass)
Nov. 27, 2003:
U.S. arrests wife and daughter of alleged Iraqi bad guy| |
# This is what the KGB did in Communist Russia, arrest and torture family members of someone they wanted. =Marshall=
# And it's still a war crime, explicitly illegal under the Geneva Convention, and it still doesn't matter to anyone in command. =H&HH= |
Nov. 27, 2003:
Ex-Iraqi General dies during U.S. 'interrogation'
General died of "natural causes," says un-named U.S. military physician
Nov. 22, 2002:
A letter American newspapers wouldn’t print
by Osama bin Laden, The Observer [London, UK]| |
Excerpt: As for the war criminals which you censure and form criminal courts for -- you shamelessly ask that your own are granted immunity!! However, history will not forget the war crimes that you committed against the Muslims and the rest of the world; those you have killed in Japan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Lebanon and Iraq will remain a shame that you will never be able to escape. |
Nov. 19, 2003:
Apocalypse then: War crime on the decline
Nov. 10, 2003:
U.S. Supreme Court will decide (eventually)
whether Guantánamo prisoners have rights
Nov. 8, 2003:
U.S. "retaliating" against random Iraqis
# This is a textbook definition of a war crime, exactly the kind of heinous acts the Geneva Conventions prohibit. The U.S. signed these "rules of war," and now ignores them. =Rebecca=
Nov. 6, 2003:
U.S. still taking hostages, it's still a war crime,
and the Washington Post still won't say so
Oct. 27, 2003:
U.S. to vets tortured by Iraq:
Quit your whinin' -- you get nada
Oct. 23, 2003:
U.S. raid nets whole Iraqi village
Oct. 22, 2003:
Marine Corps atrocities in Iraq War provide link to brutal past
#
by Nick Turse, Unknown News
Oct. 19, 2003:
U.S. soldiers committed hundreds of war crimes in Vietnam# And it comes out now, a mere 36 years later. =H&HH=
Oct. 12, 2003:
US soldiers bulldoze farmers' crops
Oct. 10, 2003:
How will U.S. authorities respond to U.S. war crimes?| |
Excerpt: Yet more on what appears to be a horrible example of collective punishment committed by American troops against Iraqi farmers. The victims are obviously not wealthy people, and it is not an exaggeration to say that this American travesty may very well permanently ruin the lives of some of these people. American politicians in rejecting American involvement in the International Criminal Court argued that the United States was ready and willing to police itself. Well, here's their chance to prove it. Here is what the Americans must do (but won't):
1. Apologize.
2. Obtain new trees and have the American troops plant them in the places where they were removed.
3. Calculate the loss of income to these farmers until the new trees mature and pay the farmers at least that amount.
4. Arrest the officers who ordered the collective punishment, and the soldiers who followed illegal orders, and try them for breach of the Geneva Conventions. If they are found guilty, punish them in accordance with American law.
5. Make an official announcement that collective punishment is not the policy of the United States or its military, and any further examples of it will be punished to the full extent of the law. |
Sept. 25, 2003:
Biological needs in Iraq
So what about the prisoners?
by Pissed and not missed, Unknown News
Sept. 19, 2003:
Vietnam War’s detainee loophole still
being abused as Iraq morphs into Vietnam
by Nick Turse, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: In Vietnam, several ambiguous and loosely defined categories were dreamed-up to classify captured individuals without calling them POWs. The South Vietnamese said they were rebels, traitors and spies, while the U.S. used a whole host of terms, including: guerillas, hostile civilians, VC suspects, VC supporters, elements of the Vietcong Infrastructure (VCI), but most frequently, as in Iraq now, "detainees.”
As is often the case, especially in regard to the war in Iraq, what's old is new again. "Detainee" (like the "enemy combatant" categorization dredged up from an obscure WWII spy case) has been re-invigorated as a classification for those that the U.S. military would like to lean on, torture or otherwise abuse without having to accept only a "name, rank and serial number." I guess the military legal scholars were able to find this useful euphemism in their history books, but must have missed this passage from US v. Calley (1973), where a military judge ruled that detainees were, in fact, to accorded the rights of POWs, stating:Both combatants captured by and noncombatants detained by the opposing force, regardless of their loyalties, political views, or prior acts, have the right to be treated as prisoners until released, confined or executed, in accordance with law and established procedures, by competent authority sitting in judgment of such detained or captured individuals. I submit that the current use of the category of "detainee" isn't simply some lapse in institutional memory, but a willful disregard of discredited and illegal concepts pioneered during the Vietnam War (and earlier) that are being re-invigorated for the present and future. |
Sept. 9, 2003:
Iraqi prisoners 'beaten by US troops'
Aug. 30, 2003:
U.S. decree strips thousands of jobs
A violation of the Geneva Convention
Aug. 28, 2003:
Torture at the push of a button
Aug. 28, 2003:
Witnesses testify to beating of Iraqi prisoners by four soldiers
Aug. 15, 2003:
US officials are lying about suicide attempts at Guantanamo prison
Aug. 13, 2003:
Pennsylvanians rally 'round U.S. troops accused of mistreating Iraqi prisoners
Aug. 8, 2003:
US official said it was "patently false," but US forces did use napalm in Iraq
Aug. 7, 2003:
Bush order may shield oil firms from lawsuits
Los Angeles Times notices what's up in IraqSee archives, July 27, 2003.
Aug. 7, 2003:
U.S. holding Iraqis at notorious prison
July 28, 2003:
U.S. commander in Iraq admits war crime
And the Washington Post doesn't even notice| |
Excerpt: Taking hostages is a war crime, with no ifs, ands, or buts.
Geneva Convention, Part III, Section I, Provisions Common to the Territories of the Parties to the Conflict and to Occupied Territories, Article 34: "The taking of hostages is prohibited."
Period, end of section. There's no list of exceptions.
It doesn't say hostage-taking is OK, if the U.S. does it. Or if the women and children are "released in due course." Or if the hostage-takers get the information they want. It says, "The taking of hostages is prohibited." |
July 27, 2003:
Bush executive order grants immunity
for U.S. oil companies in Iraq
July 26, 2003:
American troops accused of killing in Mosul
US denies allegation that its forces fired on crowd after clash
July 26, 2003:
Four U.S. soldiers charged with abusing Iraqi prisoners
July 23, 2003:
Amnesty Int'l accuses U.S.-led forces of abuses| |
Excerpt: In many cases, it is alleged that people have been snatched from the street without warning and denied access to relatives and lawyers while in jail — a "strong echo" of methods used by Saddam Hussein's regime, according to Amnesty. |
July 19, 2003:
U.S. accused of torture in Iraq
July 3-4, 2003:
U.S. withdraws aid to pressure nations into granting U.S. war crimes immunity
July 2, 2003:
U.S. torturing and murdering innocent Iraqis| |
Excerpt: An Iraqi businessman detained during a raid on his home says US interrogators deprived him of sleep, forced him to kneel naked and kept him bound hand and foot with a bag over his head for eight days. |
June 26, 2003:
Missing presumed guilty: Prisoners held without charges
June 26, 2003:
Clint Eastwood, and U.S. foreign policy
#
by Helen & Harry Highwater, Unknown News
June 19, 2003:
'I just pulled the trigger'| |
Excerpt: Sergeant First Class John Meadows revealed the mindset that has led to hundreds of innocent Iraqi civilians being killed alongside fighters deliberately dressed in civilian clothes. "You can't distinguish between who's trying to kill you and who's not," he said. "Like, the only way to get through s*** like that was to concentrate on getting through it by killing as many people as you can, people you know are trying to kill you. Killing them first and getting home." |
June 12, 2003:
U.S. plays aid card to fix war crimes exemption| |
Excerpt: The US is turning up the heat on the countries of the Balkans and eastern Europe to secure war crimes immunity deals for Americans and exemptions from the year-old international criminal court.
In an exercise in brute diplomacy which is causing more acute friction with the European Union following the rows over Iraq, the US administration is threatening to cut off tens of millions of dollars in aid to the countries of the Balkans unless they reach bilateral agreements with the US on the ICC by the end of this month. |
June 11, 2003:
Promise to investigate war bombing
of Baghdad market was a lie
May 2, 2003:
Americans split over Marine's war crimes:
And he's decided to become a policeman
April 11, 2003:
U.K. troops 'break law' by hooding Iraqi prisoners
British troops have been following America's example
March 24, 2003:
Written in a moment of anger
by Sanjay, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: CNN has gone too far. I just saw a stupid fuckin' blurb that says Iraq is in violation of the Geneva Convention because its media aired images of captured American soldiers and such.
I'm going to keep repeating this till someone gets it: Guantanamo Bay, Guantanamo Bay, Guantanamo Bay, Guantanamo Bay, Guantanamo Bay, Guantanamo Bay, Guantanamo Bay. |
March 23, 2003:
Bush warns Iraq about war crimes
March 7, 2003:
Afghan prisoners beaten to death at U.S. military interrogation base
There's much more than this at Unknown News.
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"What's creepy is that no American pundits feel it necessary to comment on the rightness or wrongness of these acts. Enquiring minds don't want to know."
—John C. |
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The U.S. is a signatory nation to the rules of war encoded in 1949's Fourth Geneva Convention, commonly called the Geneva Conventions. When followed, these rules prohibit the most ghastly cruelties to civilians and prisoners during wartime. When these rules are violated, it's a war crime.
When other nations violate these rules, U.S. politicians, media, and the American public are outraged -- as they should be, of course.
But oddly, when American government, American policy, or American military forces violate these rules, the same outrage is nowhere to be seen. When the U.S. commits war crimes, it's likely to remain "unknown news."
Disclaimer: This is not and couldn't possibly be a comprehensive compiliation of all the generally unknown violations of international law. As with any kind of crime anywhere, only a tiny fraction make the news, and we can only find a tiny fraction of those that do.
If you know of credible coverage of "unknown news" about war crimes, please let us know! Our email address is unknownnews at myway.com. |
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Two prisoners who died while being held for interrogation at the US military base in Afghanistan had apparently been beaten, according to a military pathologist's report.
A criminal investigation is now under way into the deaths which have both been classified as homicides.
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President George W. Bush has warned Iraqis they will be punished as "war criminals" if they mistreat U.S. prisoners, and says the United States is just beginning a tough fight for Iraq.
... "The POWs I expect to be treated humanely, just like we're treating the prisoners that we have captured humanely.
If not, the people who mistreat the prisoners will be treated as war criminals," Bush said.
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And so, all the statements in the articles reproduced below -- where high-ranking US military officers repeatedly told reporters an investigation was underway -- were simply lies.
Dozens of innocent people were killed, but every time a US official mouthed any concern, he was only pretending to give a damn.
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What do you suppose people do, when the legal system protects killers and criminals, and blocks what we consider "civilized recourse"?
When a peaceful response is prohibited or futile, what would you expect people to do?
What do you suppose Clint Eastwood would do, in those old movies?
I think he'd load his six-shooter and ride toward the people who'd done him wrong, with heavy vengeance on his mind.
And if you're an American, you are the people the world's Eastwoods are riding toward.
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As is often the case, especially in regard to the war in Iraq, what's old is new again. "Detainee" (like the "enemy combatant" categorization dredged up from an obscure WWII spy case) has been re-invigorated as a classification for those that the U.S. military would like to lean on, torture or otherwise abuse without having to accept only a "name, rank and serial number."
I guess the military legal scholars were able to find this useful euphemism in their history books, but must have missed this passage from US v. Calley (1973), where a military judge ruled that detainees were, in fact, to accorded the rights of POWs, stating:
"Both combatants captured by and noncombatants detained by the opposing force, regardless of their loyalties, political views, or prior acts, have the right to be treated as prisoners until released, confined or executed, in accordance with law and established procedures, by competent authority sitting in judgment of such detained or captured individuals."
I submit that the current use of the category of "detainee" isn't simply some lapse in institutional memory, but a willful disregard of discredited and illegal concepts pioneered during the Vietnam War (and earlier) that are being re-invigorated for the present and future.
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From the video's edited extract, you don't know the context.
You don't know whether the men whose killings we're watching are "legitimate targets" of warfare or simply random Iraqis killed for the hell of it.
What I've heard from friends -- unconfirmed -- is that they were stealing gasoline from U.S. military supplies.
Is it legitimate to kill people for pilfering gas?
You tell me.
I'm not really interested in what these doomed men were doing.
War *IS* pretty fucking hellish, people.
The difference between "war" and "war crimes" is only who's watching and who's judging.
Sometimes it's justified, more often it's not, and almost always it's a judgement call.
But the part that disturbs me most is when the article reports that right-wingers are watching this video and enjoying it.
"The MPEG format file has been posted to several right-wing US forums, where the effectiveness of the Apache's firepower has been celebrated."
Rarely have I seen intellectual and emotional blindness so succinctly described.
If you're enjoying it, there's no room for doubt: it IS a crime.
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Yet more on what appears to be a horrible example of collective punishment committed by American troops against Iraqi farmers.
The victims are obviously not wealthy people, and it is not an exaggeration to say that this American travesty may very well permanently ruin the lives of some of these people.
Ameri |
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