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Topic: Torturegate continues
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Transplant
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 9960
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posted 14 February 2006 03:06 PM
More Photos From Abu Ghraib To be BroadcastThe photos America doesn't want seen Sydney Morning Herald - MORE photographs have been leaked of Iraqi citizens tortured by US soldiers at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad. Tonight the SBS Dateline program plans to broadcast about 60 previously unpublished photographs that the US Government has been fighting to keep secret in a court case with the American Civil Liberties Union. Although a US judge last year granted the union access to the photographs following a freedom-of-information request, the US Administration has appealed against the decision on the grounds their release would fuel anti-American sentiment. Some of the photos are similar to those published in 2004, others are different. They include photographs of six corpses, although the circumstances of their deaths are not clear. There are also pictures of what appear to be burns and wounds from shotgun pellets. The executive producer of Dateline, Mike Carey, said he was showing the pictures leaked to his program because it was important people understood what had happened at Abu Ghraib. ... [The original thread was looonnnggg]
From: Free North America | Registered: Jul 2005
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maestro
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 7842
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posted 14 February 2006 06:56 PM
From the story: quote: Although a US judge last year granted the union access to the photographs following a freedom-of-information request, the US Administration has appealed against the decision on the grounds their release would fuel anti-American sentiment.
I just thought this was an interesting argument in light of the cartoon issue. Perhaps Muslims could ask that the cartoons not be shown because they would 'fuel anti-Islam sentiment'.
From: Vancouver | Registered: Jan 2005
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Transplant
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 9960
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posted 20 February 2006 03:57 PM
THE MEMO How an internal effort to ban the abuse and torture of detainees was thwarted.New Yorker - One night this January, in a ceremony at the Officers’ Club at Fort Myer, in Arlington, Virginia, which sits on a hill with a commanding view across the Potomac River to the Washington Monument, Alberto J. Mora, the outgoing general counsel of the United States Navy, stood next to a podium in the club’s ballroom. A handsome gray-haired man in his mid-fifties, he listened with a mixture of embarrassment and pride as his colleagues toasted his impending departure. Amid the usual tributes were some more pointed comments. “Never has there been a counsel with more intellectual courage or personal integrity,” David Brant, the former head of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, said. Brant added somewhat cryptically, “He surprised us into doing the right thing.” Conspicuous for his silence that night was Mora’s boss, William J. Haynes II, the general counsel of the Department of Defense. Back in Haynes’s office, on the third floor of the Pentagon, there was a stack of papers chronicling a private battle that Mora had waged against Haynes and other top Administration officials, challenging their tactics in fighting terrorism. Some of the documents are classified and, despite repeated requests from members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee, have not been released. One document, which is marked “secret” but is not classified, is a twenty-two-page memo written by Mora. It shows that three years ago Mora tried to halt what he saw as a disastrous and unlawful policy of authorizing cruelty toward terror suspects. The memo is a chronological account, submitted on July 7, 2004, to Vice Admiral Albert Church, who led a Pentagon investigation into abuses at the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It reveals that Mora’s criticisms of Administration policy were unequivocal, wide-ranging, and persistent. Well before the exposure of prisoner abuse in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, in April, 2004, Mora warned his superiors at the Pentagon about the consequences of President Bush’s decision, in February, 2002, to circumvent the Geneva conventions, which prohibit both torture and “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.” He argued that a refusal to outlaw cruelty toward U.S.-held terrorist suspects was an implicit invitation to abuse. Mora also challenged the legal framework that the Bush Administration has constructed to justify an expansion of executive power, in matters ranging from interrogations to wiretapping. He described as “unlawful,” “dangerous,” and “erroneous” novel legal theories granting the President the right to authorize abuse. Mora warned that these precepts could leave U.S. personnel open to criminal prosecution. ...
From: Free North America | Registered: Jul 2005
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Transplant
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 9960
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posted 23 February 2006 03:14 PM
ACLU: New documents show senior officials approved Gitmo abuseRaw Story - The American Civil Liberties Union released newly obtained documents Thursday showing that senior Defense Department officials approved aggressive interrogation techniques that FBI agents deemed abusive, ineffective and unlawful, RAW STORY has learned. “We now possess overwhelming evidence that political and military leaders endorsed interrogation methods that violate both domestic and international law,” Jameel Jaffer, an attorney with the ACLU said in a release. “It is entirely unacceptable that no senior official has been held accountable.” ...
From: Free North America | Registered: Jul 2005
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Boom Boom
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 7791
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posted 24 February 2006 08:43 AM
Statement from the Archbishop of York on Guantanamo BayThe Archbishop of York, the Most Revd and Rt Hon John Sentamu, said yesterday (23/02/06) in response to the suggestion that the Guantanamo Bay situation was an anomaly: "This is not an anomaly. By "declaring war on terror" President Bush is perversely applying the rules of engagement which apply in a war situation. But the prisoners are not being regularly visited by the Red Cross or Red Crescent, which is required by the Geneva Convention. They were not even allowed to be interviewed by the United Nations Human Rights Group. In Uganda President Amin did something similar: he did not imprison suspects because he knew that in prison the law would apply to them, so he created special places to keep them. If the Guantanamo Bay detainees were on American soil, the law would apply. This is a breach of international law and a blight on the conscience of America." The Archbishop had previously said (17/02/06): "The American Government is breaking international law. Whatever they may say about democracy, to hold someone for up to four years without charge clearly indicates a society that is heading towards George Orwell's Animal Farm.
The main building block of a democratic society is that everyone is equal before the law, is innocent until proved otherwise and has the right to legal representation. If the guilt of the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay is beyond doubt, why are the Americans afraid to bring them to trial? Transparency and accountability are the other side of the coin of freedom and responsibility. We are all accountable for our actions in spite of circumstances. The events of 9/11 cannot erase the rule of law and international obligations. I back the United Nations Human Rights Commission report, recommending that the US try all the detainees, or free them without further delay. If the US refuses to respond, maybe the Commission should seek a writ of Habeas Corpus in a United States Court, or at the Hague."
[ 24 February 2006: Message edited by: Boom Boom ]
From: Make the rich pay! | Registered: Dec 2004
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Transplant
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 9960
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posted 03 March 2006 11:05 AM
U.S. Cites Exception in Torture Ban McCain Law May Not Apply to Cuba PrisonWash Post - Bush administration lawyers, fighting a claim of torture by a Guantanamo Bay detainee, yesterday argued that the new law that bans cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody does not apply to people held at the military prison. In federal court yesterday and in legal filings, Justice Department lawyers contended that a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, cannot use legislation drafted by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to challenge treatment that the detainee's lawyers described as "systematic torture." Government lawyers have argued that another portion of that same law, the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, removes general access to U.S. courts for all Guantanamo Bay captives. Therefore, they said, Mohammed Bawazir, a Yemeni national held since May 2002, cannot claim protection under the anti-torture provisions. ... ---- No. Shame. What. So. Ever.
From: Free North America | Registered: Jul 2005
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rici
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2710
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posted 06 March 2006 02:09 AM
Amnesty says Iraq abuses continue quote: Amnesty International has said that thousands of detainees held by the multinational forces in Iraq are still being denied their basic rights.The group said the lessons of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal appeared to have been ignored and reports of torture continued to "pour out of Iraq".
Amnesty International Campaign against torture in the "war on terror".
From: Lima, Perú | Registered: Jun 2002
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M. Spector
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 8273
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posted 08 March 2006 10:10 PM
Embedding Torture as Policy from Guantanamo to Iraq quote: [H]orrific methods of torture have been used regularly against detainees in U.S. custody in countries around the globe, while an American President, Vice President and Secretary of Defense, among others, openly advocated policies that, until recently, would have been considered torture in any democratic country. In the meantime, the Bush Administration has twisted the law just enough to allow authorities to potentially pick up more or less anyone they desire at any time they want to be held wherever the government decides for as long as its officials desire with no access to lawyer or trial -- and now, for the first time, the possibility has arisen, at least in the military trials in Guantanamo, that testimony obtained by torture will be admissible. All of this can also be seen as part of a desperate attempt by a failing superpower to ratchet up the use of force in the service of subjugation, as has happened time and time again in the past.
From: One millihelen: The amount of beauty required to launch one ship. | Registered: Feb 2005
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koan brothers
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3242
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posted 19 March 2006 08:40 AM
NY Times quote: In the windowless, jet-black garage-size room, some soldiers beat prisoners with rifle butts, yelled and spit in their faces and, in a nearby area, used detainees for target practice in a game of jailer paintball. Their intention was to extract information to help hunt down Iraq's most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to Defense Department personnel who served with the unit or were briefed on its operations. The Black Room was part of a temporary detention site at Camp Nama, the secret headquarters of a shadowy military unit known as Task Force 6-26. Located at Baghdad International Airport, the camp was the first stop for many insurgents on their way to the Abu Ghraib prison a few miles away. Placards posted by soldiers at the detention area advised, "NO BLOOD, NO FOUL." The slogan, as one Defense Department official explained, reflected an adage adopted by Task Force 6-26: "If you don't make them bleed, they can't prosecute for it." According to Pentagon specialists who worked with the unit, prisoners at Camp Nama often disappeared into a detention black hole, barred from access to lawyers or relatives, and confined for weeks without charges. "The reality is, there were no rules there," another Pentagon official said.
From: desolation row | Registered: Oct 2002
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Boom Boom
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 7791
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posted 19 March 2006 11:06 AM
I think the emphasis was on the deployment of just 130,000 troops in 2003. By comparsion, I think it was Hagel, said in 1991 (not sure of the year) the US and allies had 550,000 troops on the border of Kuwait/Iraq simply to push Saddam back. One of the two senators said the continuing cost of the war is bankrupting the US. I think Hagel's point was that if the US had the substantial force required in 2003, the war would have been over and transparent, democratic elections held much earlier. Another statement that I found interesting, I forget who said it on the program, was that Prime Minister Allawi said "...Iraq has already had a low level war for at least the past six months, and maybe a year, because 50 - 60 Iraqis are being killed in fighting between themselves each month. If that's not a civil war, I'd hate to see what is a real civil war." At the beginning of the show they gave some figures on the cost of the war, and commented that Bush has lost the war in America because of these costs. Certainly he's lost the war in Iraq because of the number of civillians killed there, and the continuing strife that shows no sign of ever ending. The question was asked, is Iraq better off now that it was three years ago, and the answer was obviously NOT. We were reminded on the program that no WMD's were ever found. I think I heard someone on the program describe Iraq as an illegal war. I forget where I heard this, but here's another interesting comment: "Under Saddam you had a hateful, murderous dictator in power, but the country had a measure of stability. Under the US and its allies, there's no sense of stability whatsoever, and the killings just go on and on and the country is in a low-level civil war." And, from a few years ago: 'Saddam had been contained by the UN sanctions, and a war was simply unjustified'. [ 19 March 2006: Message edited by: Boom Boom ]
From: Make the rich pay! | Registered: Dec 2004
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S1m0n
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 11427
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posted 19 March 2006 03:12 PM
quote: Originally posted by Boom Boom: IIRC, prior to the invasion of Iraq, someone had called for over 300,000 US troops to overthrow Saddam. Someone in the Administration said no, that would result in too many US casaulties, and the US public would never support the war with that many casaulties. Consequently it became a limited number of troops (130,000?) and a heavy reliance on airpower and 'shock and awe', and the war continues three years later.
Eric Shinseki, the Chief of Staff of the Army, was forced into retirement by Donald Rumsfeld over his now completely vindicated claim that holding Iraq would require three times the troops strength that the Pentagon had available.
From: Vancouver | Registered: Dec 2005
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Transplant
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 9960
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posted 29 March 2006 02:21 PM
U.S. agrees to release Abu Ghraib photosCiting Salon's publication, government abandons its fight to keep images of abuse secret. Salon - The Bush administration agreed Tuesday to release dozens of disputed photographs and videos of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib, two weeks after Salon published an official Army criminal archive that included many, if not all, of the same images. The government's decision ends a nearly two-year legal battle with civil liberties advocates over whether the publication of the material would harm national security. In a filing to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, government lawyers cited Salon's recent publication of the disputed images as the reason for dropping their legal fight. (A judge still has to accept the government's proposal to drop the case.) A Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday that the military would now review Salon's Web site to see if there were any images or videos that were part of the court case that were not published. "Under the terms of the agreement, within seven days, we will identify the images recently published on a media website that were of issue in this appeal," said the spokesman, Lt. Col. John Skinner. "If any images at issue were not published on the website we will release those images with portions redacted." ...
From: Free North America | Registered: Jul 2005
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