U.S.: Abu Ghraib Only the "Tip of the Iceberg"

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/0a95a728282ef1cf141236fe2b3827fb.htm

(New York, April 27, 2005)- The crimes at Abu Ghraib are part of a larger pattern of abuses against Muslim detainees around the world, Human Rights Watch said on the eve of the April 28 anniversary of the first pictures of U.S. soldiers brutalizing prisoners at the Iraqi jail. Human Rights Watch released a summary (below) of evidence of U.S. abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as well as of the programs of secret CIA detention, "extraordinary renditions," and "reverse renditions."

"Abu Ghraib was only the tip of the iceberg," said Reed Brody, special counsel for Human Rights Watch. "It's now clear that abuse of detainees has happened all over-from Afghanistan to Guantánamo Bay to a lot of third-country dungeons where the United States has sent prisoners. And probably quite a few other places we don't even know about."

Human Rights Watch called this week for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the culpability of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and ex-CIA Director George Tenet, as well as Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, formerly the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the former commander of the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba in cases of crimes against detainees. It rejected last week's report by the Army Inspector General which was said to absolve Gen. Sanchez of responsibility.

"General Sanchez gave the troops at Abu Ghraib the green light to use dogs to terrorize detainees, and they did, and we know what happened, said Brody. "And while mayhem went on under his nose for three months, Sanchez didn't step in to halt it."

[Rick Myers]

1. That's why I call him General 'Dirty' Sanchez

:grr:

[TahitiNut]

2. "Why do they hate America?"

Heaven forbid that the atrocities being committed in our name be made public. After all, what's secrecy for if it ain't to hide this stuff, huh? :eyes:

[indepat]

26. They hate America for our freedoms (including the seeming freedom

to do to others as we damn well please) if this is truly the tip of the iceberg.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. the saddest thing

is that the funamentalist Christians appear to applaud anti-Muslim senitment.

[NNN0LHI]

5. They cream their jeans just thinking about it n/t

[Gregorian]

4. There WAS a stovepipe.

Unless this country is really being run in complete secret, without any check, those responsible will be found. The injustice is overwhelming. Throw Tommy Chong in jail at the same time while giving orders to mistreat prisoners. Not only hypocracy, but violation of international law. I think America is in much bigger trouble than anyone knows. There is total abandon of moral and legal laws. I'm affraid of my own country.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. Leaders who could kill 3000 of their own countrymen

for political gain are truly sick and evil excuses for humans.

Hey now what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down...

Hang on, it will so be over, they are going down.

[AlienGirl]

20. Those responsible might not have put it on paper

I suspect "those responsible" goes all the way up to the White House, but unless * signed an explicit order saying, "Rough up the detainees," the ones at the top of this won't be punished. Plausible deniability and all.

Tucker

[Judi Lynn]

7. It's well worth taking the time to read all of this article.

Funny how very little has been heard from the human rights group, considering the filthy, vicious, low behavior _Bush has unleashed on so many, many people, with NO INTERFERENCE.

Apparently when right-wingers get this much power, they believe it's fine to "spend" their power "capital" turning the earth into a shrieking hell for those who are powerless to stop them.

It's a matter of values, after all, isn't it? These are NOT human values. They come from many regions below that.

[0007]

13. I'm deeply concerned why the Christian Religions in this country

aren't asking for answers to why these atrocities were allowed. Their silence is almost an act of criminality. They scream for accountability and family values but yet it appears they have an extremely bias view while hiding behind the name of Jesus.

"General Sanchez gave the troops at Abu Ghraib the green light to use dogs to terrorize detainees, and they did, and we know what happened, said Brody. "And while mayhem went on under his nose for three months, Sanchez didn't step in to halt it."

Human Rights Watch also expressed concern that, despite all the damage that had been done by the detainee abuse scandal, the United States had not stopped the use of illegal coercive interrogation. In January 2005, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales claimed in a written response during his confirmation hearings that the prohibition on cruel, inhuman, or degrading (CID) treatment does not apply to U.S. personnel in the treatment of non-citizens abroad, indicating that no law would prohibit the CIA from engaging in CID treatment when it interrogates non-Americans outside the United States.

Human Rights Watch said that the U.S. government was still withholding key information about the treatment of detainees, including directives reportedly signed by President George W. Bush authorizing the CIA to establish secret detention facilities and to "render" suspects to countries where torture is used.

"If the United States is to wipe away the stain of Abu Ghraib, it needs to investigate those at the top who ordered or condoned abuse and come clean on what the president has authorized," said Brody. "Washington must repudiate, once and for all, the mistreatment of detainees in the name of the war on terror."

more......Please read the whole link, like Judi Lynn sez

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0504/S00251.htm

[Just Me]

14. Um,...'cause they've got psyops?

Remember the senior military officer (his name slips the mind) who stood at the pulpit LITERALLY demonizing the Muslims: "Our God is bigger than your God".

A lot of these folks have been "psyop'd" to believe, get this, that Mohammad was THE devil who would reign for a time; and, NOW, Georgie Pooh is the "second coming" of you-know-who. An all out war of "good vs evil" MUST, MUST, MUST take place such that we will live a thousand years in peace.

These people are on an acid trip,...without the acid!!!

[Frederik]

17. "Allah is an idol"

Lt. Gen. William G. "Jerry" Boykin, the former Delta Force commander who, according to Patrick J. Buchanan, "seems to be exactly the kind of warrior America needs to lead us in battle against the kind of fanatics we face."

Oh, those fanatics.

" went on CNN and he laughed at us, and he said: 'They'll never get me because Allah will protect me. Allah will protect me.' Well, you know what, I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol."

When Ato was captured, three days later, Boykin went into his cell and told him to his face, "You underestimated our God."

http://www.theamericancause.org/patunderfire.htm

(...)
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, BROKEN ARROW, OKLA., JUNE 30, 2002

(SLIDE SHOW, PICTURE OF OSAMA BIN LADEN)

"And then we began to see this facethe face of Osama bin Laden. And finally we said, 'There's the enemy. That's our enemy. That's the man that hates us. And all of those that follow him."

(PICTURE OF PRESIDENT BUSH) "And then this man stepped forward. A man that has acknowledged that he prays in the Oval Office. A man that's in the White House today because of a miracle. You think about how he got in the White House. You think about why he's there today. As Mordecai said to Esther, 'You ave been put there for such a time and place.' And this man has been put in the White house to lead our nation in such a time as this.

"But who is that enemy? It's not Osama bin Laden. Our enemy is a spiritual enemy because we are a nation of believers. You go back and look at our history, and you will find that we were founded on faith. Look at what the writers of our Constitution said. We are a nation of believers. We were founded on faith."

(PICTURE OF SATAN) "And the enemy that has come against our nation is a spiritual enemy. His name is Satan. And if you do not believe that Satan is real, you are ignoring the same Bible that tells you about God. Now I'm a warrior. One day I'm going to take off this uniform and I'm still going to be a warrior. And what I'm here to do today is to recruit you to be warriors of God's kingdom."

http://www.homestead.com/prosites-prs/generalboykin.html

[0007]

18. General Jerry Boykin was the military officer's name.

[ladjf]

25. Do preachers ever preach the Gospel anymore ?

All I ever hear about is U.S.politics and hatred.

[Just Me]

8. And people wonder why there are those screaming "Genocide!"

This makes us look SOOOO much like the Nazis,...just substitute Muslims for Jews.

This is just,...so, so,...*sigh*,...screwed up!!!

[BlueIris]

9. There are no words.

People who aren't horrified by Abu Ghraib are so...I don't even recognize them as my fellow Americans. They have taken the notion of "unengaged" to an art form. They are not human. How anyone could NOT know, or know and NOT CARE, is beyond me. The brutal, tragic facts of what our government has allowed to happen there and in other detention facilities affected me, and I am pretty goddamn hard to shock at this point. Reading even the most "printable" information about what happened there...broke what was left of my heart late last summer. And I am just one ordinary person. I didn't even have to pay taxes in 2004. I've never been in the military. I'm just a person who hasn't done enough to try to get rid of these butchers and I feel responsible. Which I am. So those who don't? Don't even have the words.

[NNN0LHI]

11. My daughters chickenhawk Christian fundie boyfriend thought it was funny

Needless to say he don't get invited over here anymore. That was good enough for me.

Don

[BlueIris]

23. More power to you, my friend.

Although, as you indicate, I'm sure you didn't have to put that much thought into deciding to keep that individual out of your home. I wouldn't have to. After the verbal thrashing he would receive, any invitation to be in my domicile would be permanently revoked.

[stepnw1f]

19. This IS How Nazism Was Established

Little by little people begin to accept the unacceptable until it was too late.

[NNN0LHI]

27. And it was all for the same reason then as now too

It was greed that allowed it to happen then and it is greed again now.

Don

[stepnw1f]

32. The Worst Aspect of All This...

is that it will fail, but not before many people suffer, as many already have.

[leveymg]

10. HRW is calling for a special prosecutor. Now it begins.

The trial of George W. Bush, et al.

We'd better watch out. Desperate people do stupid things, but it's even more dangerous when stupid people get desperate.

[BlueIris]

22. To me, the most important headline of 2004

was on bushwatch.org. Went up in July and I haven't stopped thinking about it since: "A Cornered Bush Is The Most Dangerous." Still, because of how terrible his war crimes are, and because I've been living with the certainty that he will do something desperate and stupid for a long while now, all I can say is--so be it. Bush and his supporters brought this on themselves. It sickens me to think that to escape the consequences they will take as many additional innocent lives with them as possible, likely including my own, but that is what this suicide course has left us with. And when I look at the stories of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, well, I'm not saying I can be brave about what's coming, but it reminds me and brings a kind of understanding.

[bpilgrim]

12. if we refuse to prosecute those responsible the ICC gets jurisdiction

we are torturing CHILDREN in front of their mothers for christ's sake :argh:

peace

[thecai]

15. This Has Been Reported And Ignored For DECADES

I personally have been reporting inmate abuse/neglect in America for years, working with numerous other human right's groups.
Bush flat out lied when Abu Ghraib was exposed, stating "That's not the American way" and "we didn't know anything about it".
The only way these things are exposed is if there are photos and/or witnesses willing to testify in court.
Now this administration wants to penalize "whistle-blowers", yet clear the way for himself to "err" and not be held accountable.

IMPEACH BUSH NOW

[Karenina]

16. Duh. A cursory look

at AMERICAN prisons and the demographics will reveal ALL ya need ta know. :eyes:

[Just Me]

21. No. This is different,...more targeted,...more vicious.

True that the American prison system could be merely a "cursory look",...but, it simply does not compare because there IS STILL a system of LAWS in place.

What this involves,...is complete lawlessness. This is tyranny at its worst.

HOW THIS CAN BE BRUSHED ASIDE OR IGNORED, RATIONALIZED OR HIDDEN,...is the abominable question. What have we become,...is the abominable question. Why would we ever expect anything other than retaliation, a demand for justice, even revenge,...is the abominable question.

The enemy is within, and spreading its disease without,...without reigns.

*sigh*

[Roland99]

24. This goes beyond prison management

This is at the heart of American foreign policy and intelligence.


But, as for the prisons, well, we know the four people Ashcroft picked to setup Abu Ghraib each had atrocious human rights violations in prison systems here in the States.

[Karenina]

29. BINGO!!!

Mumia vs Graner!!! FILM AT 11!!! :evilgrin:

[IndianaGreen]

28. More evidence of US military’s culture of torture in Iraq (WSWS)

The following WSWS article compliments the article about HRW findings of US torture:

More evidence of US military’s culture of torture in Iraq
By James Cogan
26 April 2005

Material obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), under Freedom of Information, provides further evidence of the culture of torture and abuse that has prevailed among US military personnel involved in the interrogation of Iraqi prisoners. It confirms that the brutal treatment photographed at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad during November and December 2003 was not an isolated series of actions. The abuses occurred within the context of an open discussion among US interrogators on using illegal methods to break the willpower of Iraqi prisoners and extract information.

On August 14, 2003, Captain William Ponce of the joint task force headquarters in Baghdad, wrote an email to a number of US interrogators, telling them that the scale of the Iraqi insurgency meant the “gloves were coming off” and giving them three days to submit a list of “alternative interrogation techniques” they would like to be able to use.

Last week, the Washington Post published summations and extracts of several of the replies, which were made available as part of a release of documents, court records and files. The 2,200 documents obtained by the ACLU have been scanned and put online at: http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/041905/.

An interrogator in Qaim, working in a detention centre run by the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment, replied on August 14 recommending “close confinement quarters, sleep deprivation, white noise and harsher ‘fear-up’ approaches”. His email included a clause that “fear of dogs and snakes appear to work nicely”.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/apr2005/tort-a26.shtml

[Fovea]

30. Like Stalinist USSR

the secrecy is there to cover up the elites pre-collapse theft.

They will cover their tracks by blowing the economy. And faster than you can say BeeBee Rebozo, they will be gone to parts undisclosed.

[ktowntennesseedem]

31. I feel so good knowing that the MSM will be all over this!

Soon, all of America will hear about this travesty, and will demand that changes be made. I'm fortunate that I live in a country where the media is free to report even the worst of news, and where it's citizens demand to know the ugliest details...

...We interrupt this unimportant piece of liberally biased trivia to bring you the latest on the Michael Jackson trial!

:wtf: