E&P/AP: Slain Russian Journalist's Torture Article Published

[DeepModem Mom]

Editor&Publisher/AP: Slain Russian Journalist's Torture Article Published
Published: October 12, 2006


(Novaya Gazeta/AP Photo)
Anna Politkovskaya

MOSCOW - Anna Politkovskaya's newspaper on Thursday published an unfinished article on torture in Chechnya that the journalist was working on when she was killed.

The article, accompanied by graphic images taken from a video, described the alleged torture by Kremlin-backed Chechen security services of suspects branded terrorists.

The video was apparently shot by the people committing the torture, and four pictures reproduced in the paper were accompanied by a Russian translation of the torturers' expletive-filled conversation in Chechen about how hard it was to kill the victims.

"Are we fighting legally against lawlessness?" Politkovskaya asked. "Or are we thrashing them with our own lawlessness?"

The story included written testimony from a Chechen who was extradited from Ukraine to a Chechen government office in Grozny, where he was allegedly hung by his hands and feet from a pole and beaten, subjected to electric shock and suffocated with a bag over his head to force him to confess to killings he said he did not commit....

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_di...

[Marie26]

1. It's just eerie how much

this resembles the US's own policy of "extraordinary rendition", and our recent bill allowing forms of torture. You'd almost think Putin & Bush had shared their preferred methods of dealing w/the enemy. Ms. Politkovskaya was a true journalist, who was willing to stand up to the powerful & expose the truth.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Somehow, the photos of her are compelling to me.. Aside from...

her career as a courageous journalist, you can just see that she was a great person to know.

[wicket]

3. "you can just see that she was a great person to know."

Amen to that. What a huge loss

[Oak2004]

11. I think they are in cahoots here

Recall, pre 9/11, the US was often condemning Russia about the violence in Chechnya. Then suddenly, silence or agreement that the Russians' battle in Chechnya is "part of the global war on terror".

I'll bet the two have some under-the-table agreements, and discussions, in place, and that the parties have signed off on the acceptability of each others' techniques.

[carzen]

4. k&r

[Haole Girl]

6. What is ...

k&r?

[DeepModem Mom]

7. That stands for "kicked and recommended." If you don't have...

any words of wisdom you want to add to a thread (but think it's interesting and/or important), you can just post "kick" or "K&R," and the thread will rise to the top of the page so that others can see it. The "R," of course, means that you think the thread is worthy of the Greatest Page, and you've given it one of the five votes it needs to make it there -- or an extra vote to give it added oomph.

[Haole Girl]

8. Thank you

this does need a k&r. A woman basically gave her life trying to get the truth out...and it seems few people care.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. You're right -- this story breaks my heart, both for this woman...

and her family, and the principle she died for.

[Haole Girl]

5. She was a brave person.

Anybody else see the video clip on CNN.com ?

It's worth seeing, even though it's hard to watch.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Hope everything she had on this will be published, so they can't, at least

silence the work she had done up until her murder.