Obama could stop this with ONE phone call

[moodforaday]

Spanish Investigation Reveals 'An Approved Systematic Plan of Torture' Under Bush - by Jeremy Scahill

"On Friday, I wrote a piece for AlterNet on how the Obama administration is continuing to use a notorious military police unit at Guantanamo that regularly brutalizes unarmed prisoners, despite Obama's pledge to uphold the Geneva Convention. This force officially known as the Immediate Reaction Force (IRF) has been labelled the "Extreme Repression Force" by Gitmo prisoners. Its members were also characterized as the "Black Shirts of Guantanamo" by human rights lawyer Michael Ratner. The IRF force is "an extrajudicial terror squad that has regularly brutalized prisoners outside of the interrogation room, gang beating them, forcing their heads into toilets, breaking bones, gouging their eyes, squeezing their testicles, urinating on a prisoner's head, banging their heads on concrete floors and hog-tying them - sometimes leaving prisoners tied in excruciating positions for hours on end.""

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/18-12

Obama could stop this with ONE phone call. But - he's only been in for four months.

And oh, on edit: excuse my Right Wing Talking Point(tm)

[LakeSamish706]

1. Certainly makes one wonder how much actual control he has over the military! n/t

[Mari333]

2. yeah, hes only the Commander in Chief. nt

[LakeSamish706]

4. There is certainly something bizarre about what is going on..... Or...

he misled us all in his campaign... So which is?

[Mari333]

8. Gates seems to be running the show

and hes a Bushie. wish Obama would step on some big brass toes.

[Echo In Light]

10. But sabotaging hallowed institutions and long time practices are not....

...the reason behind such candidates being "elected."

[Occam Bandage]

11. Gates has fired more people than any recent SecDef.

He was a driving force behind the release of the torture memos. He's a good egg.

[ThomWV]

9. Another reason to bring back the draft.

[sharp_stick]

3. Is there a supporting source for this story?

Most of this is Jeremy Scahill citing his own work along with a somewhat related press release from CCR Justice who I don't really know that well as an independant source.

While that may not always be a bad thing it would help enormously if there was corroboration somewhere. Until just now, I had never heard of this police unit.

[moodforaday]

7. Scahill literally wrote the book

on Blackwater and has long worked for Democracy Now, so he has earned my trust. As to his sources, I expect it's the lawyers for Gitmo inmates that he mentions, as well as what he has been able to glean from the Spanish probe. (And Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, whom Scahill references, might know a thing or two.)

[sharp_stick]

12. I know he has

Here though he is referencing a single lawyer (Ahmed Ghappour) who said in a February Reuters story that the incidents as far as I can tell are the work of individuals, not a systemic or top down pattern of abusel. Ghapour appears to think this is a result of guards wanting to personally abuse inmates because they think the prison won't be around much longer so they've got to do it now.

"If one was to use one's imagination, (one) could say that these traumatized, and for lack of a better word barbaric, guards were just basically trying to get their kicks in right now for fear that they won't be able to later,"

The cites in this thing are so back and forth as well as incestuous (meaning citing oneself) that it's hard to pin it down. I really don't know how seriously to take it, the journalism needs to be cleaned up.

[peace13]

5. I don't think that Obama has control of the military at this time.

If he does he is committing the same crimes that * should hang for. That would make him a co- conspirator if the people get their way. Don't misunderstand me, I hope that time will disprove me. I worked for and support Obama, I just find it hard to look at the disasters of Iraq and Afghanistan and not wonder.

[Occam Bandage]

6. My opinion depends on whether the IRF engages in illegal abuse under the Obama Presidency.

If it does, it is unconscionable and a failure of ethics on the part of the President. If it does not, then I am not offended that Obama has retained a riot-prevention police force in Guantanamo pending the close of the facility.

[moodforaday]

13. I just don't get you, OB

Never did and probably never will. You seem to be saying here that it all depends on whether urinating on a prisoner's head is legal. And you are further saying that, if legal, it's part and parcel of riot-prevention, a prudent measure.

Tnis is far-out alien talk to me. It's something Spock might say, if he were allied with the Romulans.