US military in torture scandal

[Tinoire]

((Making a separate thread as this focuses on the use of 2 private companies at the prison))

US military in torture scandal

Use of private contractors in Iraqi jail interrogations highlighted by inquiry into abuse of prisoners

Julian Borger in Washington
Friday April 30, 2004
The Guardian

<snip>

The US army confirmed that the general in charge of Abu Ghraib jail is facing disciplinary measures and that six low-ranking soldiers have been charged with abusing and sexually humiliating detainees.

<snip>

A military report into the Abu Ghraib case - parts of which were made available to the Guardian - makes it clear that private contractors were supervising interrogations in the prison, which was notorious for torture and executions under Saddam Hussein.

<snip>

But this is the first time the privatisation of interrogation and intelligence-gathering has come to light.

The military investigation names two US contractors, CACI International Inc and the Titan Corporation, for their involvement in Abu Ghraib.

Titan, based in San Diego, describes itself as a "a leading provider of comprehensive information and communications products, solutions and services for national security".

CACI, which has headquarters in Virginia, claims on its website to "help America's intelligence community collect, analyse and share global in formation in the war on terrorism".

<snip / no comment from the Pentagon today>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1206725,00.html

[aquart]

1. We contracted torturers. OMG.

[Tinoire]

29. It's getting uglier everyday, isn't it? n/t

[saigon68]

45. MEAN WHILE MEDALS ARE HANDED OUT

Briton Andrew Rathmell (R) speaks after receiving the Medal of Honor from Paul Bremer (L), U.S. administrator for Iraq (news - web sites), during a ceremony in Baghdad on April 29, 2004. Rathmell, the first non-U.S. citizen to receive the honour, was awarded the medal after rescuing civilian colleagues and U.S. military personnel after a mortar and gunfire attack in the Iraqi town of Baquba in January. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj






An Iraqi policeman closes the eyes of Iraqi boy Mostapha Fadhl, 6, in the Al Hakeem hospital in Baghdad, Iraq (news - web sites), Thursday, April 29, 2004. Fadhl and Mostapha Salah, 7, where both were killed during a shoot out when a U.S. convoy came under attack in Baghdad's Al-Khadra district. The boys, who are not related, were refugees from Fallujah who recently arrived to a camp in Baghdad. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

[TahitiNut]

62. That's not the "Congressional" Medal of Honor ...

... which is a laurel-wreathed star hung on a ribbon of blue with white stars. That's some other award ... possibly the Bronze Star? (The ribbon looks like it, but the medal pendant doesn't.)

[seemslikeadream]

65. maybe it's this one?

[saigon68]

92. AAH THE CHICKEN HAWK HEART

[Zero Gravitas]

57. For-profit torturers

are much more cost effective than government torturers plus contracting the work out puts more money in the pockets of wealthy Republican business owners :eyes:

[Jacobin]

64. Privatizing Torture

The RW way

[saigon68]

71. WHO THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE?

IT'S BEEN 2 DAYS AND NO ONE IN THE MEDIA IS ASKING ANY QUESTIONS AT ALL?

[seemslikeadream]

74. They are from Hagerstown, MD

Hagerstown, MD TV just said soldiers are from Cumberland MD area


Relatives told the Baltimore Sun the soldiers are assigned to the 372nd Military Police Company

http://www.nbc25.com/news/default.asp?mode=shownews&id=906

Families of the 372nd tormented by stories of POW abuses in Iraq


Families of the 372nd tormented by stories of POW abuses in Iraq
Soldier detailed problems in journal sent to father in Md.

By Ariel Sabar, Gus Sentementes and Jeff Barker
Sun Staff

Originally published April 30, 2004
CUMBERLAND - For months, members of the 372nd Military Police Company harbored a terrible secret.

The Army Reserve unit based near here - whose service in Iraq made many of its members hometown heroes - had boasted six months ago of its credentials for a new security assignment at a prison west of Baghdad.

...

But months later, the prison detail was disgraced in news reports across the world.

The Army said yesterday that 14 of the 17 soldiers implicated in an investigation of abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison are from the 372nd. They face either criminal or administrative charges.

....

(Article continues and gives names, backgrounds on the torture photo mp's--first I've seen that with this.)


http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-te.md.soldier30a...

[saigon68]

84. NOW FOLKS MEET WAR CRIMINAL LYNNDIE ENGLAND

Families of the 372nd tormented by stories of POW abuses in Iraq






At most, the 372nd's alleged abuses of prisoners were "stupid, kid things - pranks," Terrie England said, her voice growing bitter. "And what the do to our men and women are just?
The rules of the Geneva Convention, does that apply to everybody or just us?"

Everyone had been proud of Lynndie England. A Wal-Mart in nearby LaVale displays her photo
on its Wall of Honor. The Mineral County courthouse in Keyser, W.Va., posts her photograph
and those of other local soldiers under a banner that says: "We're hometown proud."

Lynndie England had found purpose, and love, in the Army. She got engaged last year to a fellow
member of the 372nd, Charles Graner, who appears with his arm around her in the newspaper photo.

THE FIANCÉE WAR CRIMINALS




Now, Lynndie England is detained on a U.S. base - her family declined to say where - and isbarred from leaving for anything besides her job. She has been demoted from the rank of specialist
to private first class. And when she calls home, she says frustratingly little.



On Edit: The Mother of this creature is exhibiting an anti-social pattern of minimizing and criminal thinking. I'd love to see a DSM diagnosis of both mother and daughter

does anyone not see WHY AUSCHWITZ was tolerated

[Judi Lynn]

90. Superior post.

Really helpful to see the material WITH her photos. Also it's so creepy knowing the two deviants grinning at the camera are actually "in love!"

What a way to start a life together.

[keithyboy]

83. So, Saddam is in good company. And this is the torture you KNOW about

just think what you don't know about.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. The six low ranking soldiers

will pay for this, not the cronies

(NOt that the soldiers should not pay, or their chain, or for goodness sake those who have conspired to practice agresive war)

[Tinoire]

8. I agree with you. I have the same problem with that

I've been thinking about this and realize that the government/military allowed these photos of THESE soldiers to be released to make them the scapegoats.

These are scapegoats. Guilty as hell scapegoats but scapegoats nonetheless.

And that Staff Sergeant they "allowed" to be interviewed? The Army allowed a Staff Sergeant, prime suspect in the case to be "interviewed"? And without a lawyer present?

I wonder that this story could be the TIP of the iceberg and that there's a lot more they're desperately wanting to hide which is why they're throwing these guys to the wolves.

I'm going to be closely watching the European and Arab news. Something's not smelling right here.

[saigon68]

27. Agreed Tinoire there is something not smelling right

I too am watching foreign sources and something is not right. The Arab media so far has not peddled any of this. Its like waiting for the other shoe to drop.

According tp the E-6 these MP's were to loosen the suspects up prior to "questoning by civilians". I wonder who gave and approved those orders?

This story has legs.

I'd love to hear your take on this. A lot of the people on this board have no military experience and since you are a retired service person I respect and value your opinion VERY VERY much.

[Tinoire]

32. My take on this ...

In my day, just a few short years ago, things were done VERY, VERY differently.

There is a degeneration that begins at the TOP- always at the TOP because junior people do NOT give orders; they only follow them.

What would be interesting is to know at what GS rank (General Service) rank these people were brought in at. My guess would be about GS-11 / GS-12 on up which puts them in the Officer rank equivalent. Their field would be 132 which is Intel. A GS-12 is the equivalent of a Major and is owed the same "respect" even if that soldier isn't subordinate to them.

Another thing... Alot of these contractors are ex-military types who got their security clearances and training in the military.

They know the rules, the Geneva convention and they are the government's insurance policy for plausible deniability. That plausible deniability bit can be blown sky-high with a story like this... That's what I am thinking tonight... This story has to be stopped immediately and the public made to believe that this is an isolated incident, that it was investigated by the military, that the guilty ones were properly "punished" and that the regrettable incident must now be closed.

So protect your escape-hatch of plausible deniability and KILL THIS STORY QUICKLY because Heaven forbid angry people get a mind to investigate the rumors that have been coming from Guantanamo for YEARS. Or from the Palestinians.

The Germans too took pictures but there pictures never did justice to the survivors' stories. Only a few pictures for 11 million war crimes.

We mustn't let this story die.

[Judi Lynn]

37. Glad Saigon68 brought up your background, Tinoire

I haven't read enough here to have learned this much about your life experience yet.

I appreciate your response to his remarks. This is a field those of us who haven't had personal experience need to know far more about, as it definitely affects us all.

I noticed today's coverage on tv as well ALL stated the people involved were, (with real emphasis) LOW RANKING service members, and it DID appear they took every effor to make it sound about as rare as being struck by a meteor.

You'll have more of us looking for more on this "isolated event," for sure.

By the way, I've been looking unsuccessfully for a reference to British soldiers beating and kicking and hanging upside down some prisoners, but I can't remember if they were still in Afghanistan when this happened. I remember that it's said there are photos of that, too. It was many months ago. I don't think those photos ever were published.

[Tinoire]

39. I think that incident was in Afghanistan

Judylin, Seemslikeadream & Wonk seem to be the best resources for those type of stories thought I am sure others book-marked them. It is such a DAMN shame we can't search the old DU archives. If it's that important, we should ask how much it would cost to get that upgrade and see what we can do...

If I see anything, I'll PM you.

www.whatreallyhappened.com and www.antiwar.com have a GREAT archive of all that stuff too.

Peace and thanks for your vote of confidence. Together, I am certain we WILL make a difference. There are simply too many of us with our eyes wide open now.

Peace

[Eye and Monkey]

40. Here's your story -"Soldier arrested over Iraqi torture photos" (Guardian)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0%2C11816%2C967527%2C00.html

Saturday May 31, 2003
The Guardian

Military police are questioning a British soldier about photographs of alleged "torture" of Iraqi prisoners of war, including one gagged and bound, and dangling in netting from a fork-lift truck.
Other photos allegedly show soldiers commiting sex acts in front of captured Iraqis.

Photograph developers are understood to have called the police after a film had been handed in to their shop in Tamworth, Staffordshire. The soldier under arrest, who has not been named, is in the 1st Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

MORE -

[Tinoire]

42. Terrific! THAT was quick! Thanks

:)

[Judi Lynn]

43. Exactly the story. The Guardian story you shared shows SO MUCH DIFFERENCE

between the British government's reaction and our own:

The regiment was part of the 7th Armoured Brigade, the Desert Rats, in southern Iraq during the war. It is based in Celle, Germany, but the soldier is believed to have been on leave in Britain.

He was handed over to the military authorities who are holding him at a secret location. The special investigations branch of the Royal Military police has launched an inquiry.

An MoD spokeswoman yesterday confirmed an investigation was under way into "allegations of photos depicting maltreatment of Iraqi PoWs". She added: "We cannot comment further. But if there is any truth in these allegations the MoD is appalled. We take responsibility to PoWs extremely seriously."

If the allegations turn out to be true, soldiers involved would be guilty of a breach of the Geneva convention which rules that PoWs have to be treated humanely. Appropiate action would be simple, defence sources said. "They would be kicked out of the army and imprisoned."
(snip)

Really clears up the question of who there were. Never heard anything later, but hope it's safe to imagine they were all treated the way promised in the article: "kicked out of the army and imprisoned."

Isn't it amazing the British government refers to prisoners like this as being POW's, rather than "turrarists?"

Thanks to Eye and Monkey. :hi:

[Barkley]

67. Thanks Tinoire for your insights! -nt

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

52. "This is what comes of empire building."

[TahitiNut]

63. Not 'scapegoats' -- fallguys.

[IndianaGreen]

56. Nazi concentration camp guards were also low ranking

The point that is being missed is that we have been getting reports in the foreign press of American atrocities and mistreatment of prisoners going back to our invasion of Afghanistan.

Like My Lai, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Did anyone else found it ironic that our homophobic military was forcing the prisoners to engage in simulated "gay sex"? We have some seriously disturbed people in uniform!

[Judi Lynn]

61. You bet it's ironic.

WHY did they immediately zero in on thoughts of forcing them to appear to have sex with each other?

I think it would indicate they were fantastically repressed, themselves. They have limited imaginations in finding ways to entertain themselves.

How socially stunted would someone have to be, after reaching adulthood, to even consider acting like this toward others?

Of course, they don't have a very good example in a pResident who proudly announces how he plans to "smoke'em out and get 'em on the run."

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

3. Gee, guess what?

Natural consequence of war. I'm surprised that anyone would be shocked by this, after everything we learned (or didn't learn, aparently) from the horrors of the 20th century. Guess what you do when your job is to kill?

...

[izzie]

6. Like to know more here. A women is the General?

I read that yesterday but now we hear about 'our gun for hire' companies? Some thing really sounds odd about all this. When people have control over others they always have to be watched. It is just the way life is.I have a feeling that the smell will come out of Iraq for years on what very odd things have gone on. The money for one thing. Where is it and who got it.

[NYC]

11. Brigadier General Janice Karpinski.

[saigon68]

91. On Rather's show she said there was nothing wrong

In an interview from last year

[Tinoire]

12. Well we do have female Generals

Brigadier isn't that high, it's just a one-star and what with reserve rank (if she was a reservist) and accelerated war-time promotions, there's nothing strange there.

There are quite a few on active-duty and higher than her.

Visions of Ravensbruck too huh?

I know we were "out-sourcing" Intelligence there but not at THIS rate!

[AussieInCA]

4. The mercenaries are out of control - lawless and no accountability

"Lawyers for the soldiers argue they are being made scapegoats for a rogue military prison system in which mercenaries give orders without legal accountability. "

"One civilian contractor was accused of raping a young, male prisoner but has not been charged because military law has no jurisdiction over him. "

"She did not specify the accusation facing the contractor, but according to several sources with detailed knowledge of the case, he raped an Iraqi inmate in his mid-teens"

"Colonel Jill Morgenthaler, speaking for central command, told the Guardian: "One contractor was originally included with six soldiers, accused for his treatment of the prisoners, but we had no jurisdiction over him. It was left up to the contractor on how to deal with him."

"It's insanity," said Robert Baer, a former CIA agent, who has examined the case, and is concerned about the private contractors' free-ranging role. "These are rank amateurs and there is no legally binding law on these guys as far as I could tell. Why did they let them in the prison?"

Just let that sink in folks...these people have no accountability other than the profits of their corporation.

[Eye and Monkey]

14. " there is no legally binding law on these guys" - Perhaps -

Perhaps such a law could be found. If, that is, one were actually looking for it.

[Tinoire]

16. "If" as you say

I thought about that today.

These thugs sure as hell fall under someone's jurisdiction and I distinctly remember from my time in Germany, that except for Berlin (which was an occupied city which I guess applies here) civilians fell under German jurisdiction.

During war time though, I thought EVERYONE in the occupied territories fell under the military's jurisdiction.

But check this out:

Opening Statement of Chairman Bill McCollum
on H.R. 3380, the "Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 1999"

Today the Subcommittee will consider H.R. 3380, the "Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 1999." This bill was introduced by Congressman Saxby Chambliss and I was pleased to be the original cosponsor of the bill. H.R. 3380 would amend the Federal criminal code to apply it to persons who commit criminal acts while employed by or otherwise accompanying the U.S. Armed Forces outside of the United States. It would also extend Federal criminal jurisdiction to persons who commit crimes abroad while a member of the Armed Forces but who are not tried for those crimes by military authorities before being discharged from the military.


Civilians have served with or accompanied the American Armed Forces in the field or ships since the founding of the United States. In recent years, however, the number of civilians present with our military forces in foreign countries has dramatically increased. Many of these civilians are nonmilitary employees of the Defense Department and contractors working on behalf of DOD. In 1996, there were more than 96,000 civilian employees of the Department of Defense working and living outside the United States.

Family members of American service personnel make up an even larger group of the civilians who accompany U.S. forces overseas. In 1999, there were almost 300,000 family members of military personnel and DoD civilian employees living abroad.

While military members who commit crimes outside the United States are subject to trial and punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, civilians are not. In most instances, American civilians who commit crimes abroad are also not subject to the criminal laws of the United States because the jurisdiction for those laws ends at our national borders. As a result of these jurisdictional limitations, American citizens who commit crimes in foreign countries can be tried and punished only by the host nation. Surprisingly, however, host nations are not always willing to prosecute Americans, especially when the crime involves acts committed only against another American or against property owned by Americans.

Because of this, each year incidents of rape, sexual abuse, aggravated assault, robbery, drug distribution, and a variety of fraud and property crimes committed by American civilians abroad go unpunished because the host nation declines to prosecute these offenses. And this problem has been compounded in recent years by the increasing involvement of our military in areas of the world where there is no functioning government -- such as Somalia, Haiti, and the Balkans. Because, in those places, no government exists at all to prosecute crimes, American civilians who commit crimes there go unpunished.

The bill before us today would close this gapping hole in the law by extending Federal criminal jurisdiction to crimes committed by persons employed by and accompanying the U.S. Armed Forces overseas. Specifically, the bill creates a new crime under Title 18 that would make it a crime to engage in conduct outside the United States which would constitute an offense under Title 18 if the crime had been committed within the United States. The new crime would apply only to two groups of people. First, persons employed by or who accompany the Armed Forces outside the United States. This group includes dependents of military members, civilian employees of the Department of Defense, and Defense Department contractors or subcontractors and their employees. This group also includes foreign nationals who are relatives of American military personnel or contractors, or who work for the Defense Department, but only to the extent that they are not nationals of the country where the act occurred or ordinarily live in that country.

The second group of people to whom the bill would apply are persons who are members of the Armed Forces at the time they commit a criminal act abroad but who later are discharged from the military without being tried for their crime. This portion of the bill is designed to authorize the government to punish persons who are discharged from the military before their guilt is discovered and who, because of that discharge, are no longer subject to court-martial jurisdiction.

We simply cannot allow violent crimes and crimes involving significant property damage to go unpunished when they are committed by persons employed by or accompanying our military. The only reason why these people are living in foreign countries is because our military is there and they have some connection to it. And so, our government has an interest in ensuring that they are punished for any crimes they commit there. Just as importantly, as many of the crimes going unpunished are committed against Americans and American property, our government has an interest in using its law to punish those who commit these crimes.

I wish to point out that both the Defense Department and the Justice Department support the legislation before the Subcommittee here today. The legislation is the product of close collaboration between the staff of the Subcommittee on Crime and the representatives of these agencies, and I am pleased that both Departments have seen fit to send representatives to our hearing today. I welcome all the witnesses before the Subcommittee today and look forward to receiving their testimony.

http://www.house.gov/judiciary/mcco0330.htm

Whatever happened to that bill?


HAH! Just found this:

Office of the Command Counsel

UNCLASSIFIED
AMSEL-LG POINT PAPER 1 NOVEMBER 2002

SUBJECT: The Status of Contractors on the Battlefield
PURPOSE: To summarize the rules and regulations concerning the use of contractors on
the battlefield.
FACTS:
· The contract establishes the responsibilities of the Government and the
support contractor with respect to the use of contractors on the battlefield.
Every effort should be made, therefore, to specifically incorporate the
respective duties of the two parties from the outset of that agreement. AMC
has issued AMC-P 715-18 ‘Contracts and Contractors Supporting Military
Operations’. This pamphlet seeks to integrate operations and contracting for
support of operations. Included at Appendix C of the pamphlet is a
compilation of suggested contract special requirements. Specific contractual
areas that should be addressed include: pay, accounting for personnel,
logistics, risk assessment and mitigation, force protection, legal assistance,
central processing and departure point, identification cards, medical coverage,
clothing and equipment, weapons and training, vehicle and equipment
operation, passports/visas and customs, staging, living under field conditions,
morale, Status of Forces Agreement, tour of duty, health and life insurance,
management and next-of-kin notification.

<snip>

As a general rule, the UCMJ does not cover contractor personnel although
court-martial jurisdiction may be expanded to cover contractors in time of war.
The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000 does provide for federal
jurisdiction over crimes committed outside of the United States. This
jurisdiction covers members of and persons employed by or accompanying the
Armed Forces. The Act allows the Secretary of Defense, under specified
conditions, to authorize DOD law enforcement personnel to arrest suspected
offenders outside the United States involved with crimes punishable by
imprisonment of more than one year.
BRIEFER: John Reynolds, AMSEL-LG-B, ext. 29780.
REVIEWED/APPROVED BY:

Mark Sagan
Deputy Chief Counsel

http://www.amc.army.mil/amc/command_counsel/resources/documents/newsletter03-2/encl01.pdf

From JAG

Civilians and dependent family members accompanying US forces abroad are normally considered subject to the terms of the applicable SOFA



--- While the HN may exercise its jurisdiction, the US commander does not have UCMJ authority over these persons.? Until very recently, the US had no way of obtaining jurisdiction over these personnel



--- If the HN waives primary jurisdiction to the US, the options of the commander are limited.? (See articles entitled Debarment and Family Member Misconduct, Chapter 9, this Deskbook.)



--- To remedy this problem, Congress passed the Military Extraterritoriality Jurisdiction Act of 2000. The Act criminalizes behavior that would have been a crime in the US punishable by more than one year in confinement. The provision applies not only to military members, but also to civilian dependents of military members as well as civilian contractors.

http://milcom.jag.af.mil/ch15/foreign.htm

[Eye and Monkey]

23. Well, that was too difficult to find, was it?

Good work, T. Could you describe how difficult that was, so that we can again demonstrate the willful ignorance of the illegal occupation?

[Tinoire]

33. It took me 2 minutes of googling and those were the first

two appropriate results. Both found on page 1 of my search.

Another 2 minutes to skim, cut and paste.

Wonder what's taking the government so long?

And gee, you'd think the Military would know to look on the Judge Advocate's site (much less, gasp, files) :shrug:

Very reminiscent of the collective amnesia the Nazis had.

[Eye and Monkey]

38. By the time this is forced into their faces, the merc in question -

will probably be "re-assigned" and "no longer in the jurisdiction".

Homosexual rape of a minor - it seems that this ALLEGATION triggers automatic "black-letter" requirements of investigative and prosecutorial follow-through in many states in the US.

[Just Me]

59. If memory serves me correctly, the administration worked hard to,...

,...exempt their crony corporations from any liability, criminal or civil,...in addition to exempting the US, in general, from the application of international law.

It's pretty freakin' dictatorial-like that this administration can simply wave a wand to exclude themselves and their cronies from application of any laws.

[Judi Lynn]

30. That was fast, Tinoire. You've really got the talent here!

I really have trouble understanding how the dependents of service people are within the U.S. jurisdiction, rather than that of the host country.

It seems so hard to imagine a teenager or spouse of a military person committing a crime and being tried by U.S. military courts. That seems strange, although I fully believe they will do it.

McCollum's statement you found said that often (maybe ALWAYS?) other countries are reluctant to try Americans in certain situations. One might wonder if that's because they are simply AFRAID of U.S. reprisal.

[Tinoire]

34. AFRAID of U.S. reprisal & wanting to maintain good relations

yep, that's about it.

But you know why it was fast? Because the information is out there for all to see except those who don't WANT to see it and use it and we very well know who they are.

Thanks ;)

[Misunderestimator]

55. Yet another reason for Bushco not to call this a WAR

"court-martial jurisdiction may be expanded to cover contractors in time of war..."

[RapidCreek]

47. Well why don't they implement Iraqi law?

After all, these are private non-citizens commiting crimes against Iraqi nationals. I saw on the news the other day...that the great and wonderful Paul Bremmer is teaching Iraqi's how to hold "proper jury trials" what better vote of confidence could be offered Iraqi's than to have them to try these torturers in their newly minted judicial system?

RC

[Tinoire]

5. "CACI International"

News Release
CACI International Inc · 1100 North Glebe Road · Arlington Virginia 22201

CACI Reports Record Third Quarter and Nine Months Results
Net Income up 38% for the quarter to $15.8 million
Revenue up 30% for the quarter to $288.4 million
Trailing twelve month revenue exceeds $1 billion
Company increases guidance for Fiscal Year 2004

<snip>
The increase in earnings and revenue in the quarter and for the first nine months of FY04 resulted from continuing growth in CACI's systems integration, engineering services, and knowledge management offerings of its domestic operations. This growth is a result of the company's strategic focus on national security, the global war on terrorism, and the reshaping of the way government agencies communicate, use and disseminate information, deliver services, and conduct business.

<snip>

Third Quarter Highlights

The following highlights occurred during the third fiscal quarter:

- Contract awards for the quarter totaled approximately $395 million.
- Revenue from DoD customers increased 37 percent, driven primarily by higher demand from customers such as strategic and tactical organizations in the military intelligence community, the U.S. Army's Intelligence and Security Command, the U.S. Navy's Chief of Naval Aviation, and the Naval Surface Warfare Command.
-Federal civilian agency revenue grew 17 percent primarily from higher volumes of work for customers such as the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other federal civilian agencies.

http://www.caci.com/about/news/news2004/04_21_04_NR.html





================

Top Secret Clearance Candidate Opportunity Site ((separate from normal job site))

Puzzled about your future?
If you hold a Top Secret security clearance we invite you to join our Opportunities Database. We provide a unique and completely confidential service for qualified individuals who want to consider new opportunities.

http://www.caci.com/ts-recruiting/
====


<snip>

http://www.caci.com/phpdb/newsroom.php

Nope- nothing going on there at all ;)

Maybe in the FAQ? :shrug:
---

<snip>

http://www.caci.com/main_faq.shtml
----

Nope. Nothing worth mentioning there either. Search term "torture" turns up nothing :shrug:

http://www.caci.com/

[starroute]

69. CACI, Titan, and BBV

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0308/S00283.htm

This is a page with various links on the ITAA and its links to The Election Center and R. Doug Lewis -- all names that will be familiar to people who have been following Bev's investigations. As I recall, the ITAA Enterprise Solutions Division has acted as a sort of lobbying agency for electronic voting.

The ITAA Enterprise Solutions Division Board of Directors -- which is top-heavy with government contractors -- includes both "Mr. L. Kenneth Johnson President CACI International Inc." and "Mr. Kenneth Touloumes VP, Business Development Titan Corporation."

[starroute]

70. A lot more on CACI

http://www.breakyourchains.org/surveillance_whores.htm
Many links on CACI in the context of Homeland Security and spying on Americans.

http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2001/01may/may01bushcc.html
Richard Armitage was on CACI's board of directors.

http://digitalwarfighter.com/article.php?story=20040327130556782
Article on military outsourcing to private security companies, with particular reference to CACI and Dyncorp.

[seemslikeadream]

72. Just incredible isn't it ? Thanks starroute

[starroute]

78. And a couple of items on Titan

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15985
Iraq: A Corporate Gold Mine

"Back in California, two San Diego companies were hired for more secretive operations before the war: Titan corporation was recruiting Kurdish spies and translators while its neighbor, Science Applications International Corporation, was hired to run a government of Iraqis in exile.

"The wholesale privatization of the U.S. military is not surprising given that the three bureaucrats Bush hired to run the Army, Navy and Air Force when he became president in 2000 were all plucked from corporate America: Gordon England of General Dynamics was appointed secretary of the Navy, James Roche of Northrop Grumman was appointed Air Force secretary, and Thomas White of Enron was appointed secretary of the Army.

"Although all three men have resigned in the last 12 months, the two former military men recruited to run Iraq, Jay Garner and Paul Bremer, were chief executives of consulting companies to the multinationals – SY Technologies and Marsh McLellan. SY helps design missiles while Marsh advises companies in crisis."


http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3117.htm
Carving Up The New Iraq

"James Woolsey: A long-time supporter of war on Iraq and PNAC and Jinsa member, the former director of the CIA has been named as the likely minister of information in the new Iraq. His business interests have included: the arms company British Aerospace; the Titan Corporation, which provides military interpreters and DynCorp, which provides bodyguards for Hamid Karzai, the Afghani president and has installed a police force monitoring service in Bosnia."


I'm starting to think that the fact that the same corporations show up in BBV as in these Iraq stories is no coincidence. (Note the mention of SAIC in the Alternet story.) This whole business of privitization of military functions potentially dwarfs all the other misdeeds of the Bush administration and will threaten the very heart of our democracy long after Bush is gone.

[seemslikeadream]

81. Thanks again

I'm putting these as fast as I can to other places, I hope you don't mind?

[starroute]

85. That would be great

There's a big picture here that's only slowly coming into focus -- you might call it the military-industrial complex on steroids. Or maybe the essential factor is the shift of emphasis from military hardware to intellectual technology and security functions.

It isn't even just the military -- it's government contracting in general. For example, last year I was doing a little research on companies connected with BBV and kept running into mentions of corruption in bidding for Medicare billing contracts.

The corruption is bad enough. The abuses overseas by companies like Dyncorp are worse. But what terrifies me most is the lack of accountability when you outsource essential government functions (like voting or torturing prisoners.) Control of our democracy is slipping out of our hands, and we have to make people aware of that before we lose any chance of getting it back.

[Tinoire]

7. "Titan Corporation"

The Titan Corporation : Homeland Security and War on Terrorism ...



http://www.titan.com/products-services/load_image.html?

Sheesh. These guys offer the ENTIRE SHABANG!

Let's just head straight to Investor Relations :)

===

Titan Reports Record Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2003 Results Quarterly Revenues $488 million, up 29%; 2003 Revenues $1.78 billion, up 28% over 2002


San Diego, CA - February 23, 2004 - The Titan Corporation (NYSE: TTN), a leading provider of comprehensive information and communications systems solutions and services to the Department of Defense, intelligence agencies, and other federal government customers, today reported record quarterly revenues of $488 million for the fourth quarter of 2003, an increase of 29% over $379 million in the fourth quarter of 2002. The organic growth for the quarter was 28% over the fourth quarter a year ago.
For full year 2003, Titan reported revenues of $1,775 million, an increase of 28% over $1,392 million for the full year 2002. The organic growth rate for 2003 was 26%. Results reflect record revenue growth for Titan driven by the Company’s ability to bid, win, and execute on large procurements from the U.S. Department of Defense and other government agencies in areas such as defense secure communications and intelligence systems, government enterprise IT systems, transformational programs, and homeland security applications. Net income for the fourth quarter of 2003 was $4.1 million, or $0.05 per share, compared with a net loss of $0.8 million or $0.01 per share for the fourth quarter of 2002. Included in net income for the fourth quarter of 2003 are the following items:


<snip>


About Titan
Headquartered in San Diego, The Titan Corporation is a leading provider of comprehensive information and communications systems solutions and services to the Department of Defense, intelligence agencies, and other federal government customers. As a provider of national security solutions, the company has approximately 12,000 employees and annualized sales of approximately $2.0 billion.

http://www.titan.com/investor/press-releases/press_releases_display_2004.html?id=9&select=6



Press releases? Nope... Nothing there about the torture scandal :shrug:

[seemslikeadream]

58. start programming early

Visit our childrens department
Start programming early don't wait till they have a mind of their own

[deminflorida]

9. Let the word get out to these victims....

That they have the right to sue these corporations asses off in U.S. Federal Court....

That should put a stop to this shit....

[Tinoire]

13. EXCELLENT idea!

Now how?

I wonder if we have the right to bring a class action law-suit for "defamation of America's character" while we're at out... Some sort of a people's suit for putting us on the path of going down in history books as the New Nazis.

[deminflorida]

51. Now your thinking Tinoire....

That's one for the Law Students at Harvard...but you know what...

I think it just might work. Especially if we win in November and change the make-up of the Supreme Court.

Somethink like this would remove the GOP from Politics for years to come. It happened in Italy after the Christian Democrat's Corruption scandal.

[Tinoire]

10. First they said there were only 7 people there and now....

I thought I heard/read that somewhere because I remember being shocked that there were so few people for 900 prisoners. Apparently I either misunderstood or someone mis-spoke. Will edit my previous post.

====================================
<snip>

The photos have surfaced in connection with the suspension in March of 17 members of the 800th Military Police Brigade for mistreatment and abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in November and December of last year.

<snip>

While the US Army revealed these violations last month, it has attempted to prevent any detailed information leaking to the media. Army officials, however, were forced to appear on the high-rating television program after other news outlets were given copies of the photographs.

<reluctant snip>

Contrary to Kimmitt’s claims—slavishly echoed by the corporate media—this is the logic and modus operandi of imperialist conquest and colonial occupation. The pictures of torture, brutality and sexual sadism are representative of the entire criminal operation being conducted in Iraq.

Washington anticipated and prepared in advance for the war crimes now being committed against the Iraqi people. No criminal charges can be brought against a US soldier in Iraq because the puppet Iraqi Governing Council has given the American military a blanket amnesty from prosecution. Secondly, with the backing of Germany and a number of other countries, no US soldier or citizen can be prosecuted for war crimes in the International Criminal Court.

The “60 Minutes II” broadcast has provided only a partial glimpse of the crimes being carried out by US forces in Iraq and elsewhere. The conditions in Iraqi jails, where over 18,000 prisoners are being held, are replicated in a network of US-run concentration camps around the world. These include Guantanamo Bay, Diego Garcia, Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. According to current estimates, the US is incarcerating over 25,000 detainees in these hellholes, in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/apr2004/tort-a30.shtml

[seemslikeadream]

15. One of the soldiers in a phone interview

said that there were only 7 to guard all the prisoners.
I was wondering why Al-jazeera is not plastering this photos all over the place.

[Tinoire]

17. That's what I DISTINCTLY recalled.

Now there are 17 who were suspended and out of those 17, these 6 were charged??!

Makes no effing sense! Unless they expect us to believe that there were 17 suspended and that these 6 were mysteriously re-instated to run the prison alone only to be the only ones found guilty after the investigation was completed :shrug:

Dubya must have personally supervised this script!

On edit, thank you for confirming that :hi:

[seemslikeadream]

18. Great stuff Tinoire

I can't believe what you've found. Private Military Companies their everywhere! I don't remember seeing those two on any list of contractors working in Iraq. I maybe wrong, I'll have to look again.

The Guantanamo guy is taking over for that Bridgader too.

and this needs to be repeated

Bush's Terrorist: John Negroponte Sent to Iraq

Iraqi ambassador pick grilled on hand-over

By Steven Weisman
The New York Times

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's nominee for ambassador to Iraq on Tuesday defended the limits that would be placed on Iraqi self-rule, particularly those on control over security forces, asserting that after June 30 Iraqis will have "a lot more sovereignty than they have right now."
Facing skeptical questions about the new constraints emerging in the long-planned transfer of power before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the nominee, John Negroponte, said he saw his major challenge as trying to avert conflicts if the new Iraqi government objected to U.S. military actions. "These are the kinds of questions that I think our diplomacy is going to have to deal with," said Negroponte, who is now ambassador to the United Nations.
The toughest questions came from Democrats, but all the senators said they would support Negroponte's confirmation, which the committee could approve on Thursday. Senate aides said Negroponte could be confirmed by the full Senate as early as next week.
Negroponte said that any decisions on whether to attack rebel strongholds, as the United States is threatening now in Fallujah and Najaf, would require "great political sensitivity" even though American s will nominally be in charge of such decisions.

http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Apr/04282004/nation_w/161439.asp





Bush's Terrorist: John Negroponte Sent to Iraq


Dems Ignore Negroponte's Death Squad Past, Look to Confirm Iraq Appointmen


As Negroponte, responded to Hagel, he was interrupted by an activist, Andres Conteris of Non-violence International.

Andres Conteris, is program director for Latin America and the Caribbean for the human rights group Non-violence International. He disrupted yesterday's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on John Negroponte's appointment as US ambassador to Iraq.

As ambassador to Honduras, Negroponte played a key role in coordinating US covert aid to the Contra death squads in Nicaragua and shoring up a CIA-backed death squad in Honduras. During his term as ambassador there, diplomats alleged that the embassy's annual human rights reports made Honduras sound more like Norway than Argentina. In a 1995 series, the Baltimore Sun detailed the activities of a secret CIA-trained Honduran army unit, Battalion 3-16, that used "shock and suffocation devices in interrogations. Prisoners often were kept naked and, when no longer useful, killed and buried in unmarked graves." In 1994, Honduras's National Commission for the Protection of Human Rights reported that it was officially admitted that 179 civilians were still missing.

A former official who served under Negroponte says he was ordered to remove all mention of torture and executions from the draft of his 1982 report on the human rights situation in Honduras. During Negroponte's tenure, US military aid to Honduras skyrocketed from $3.9 million to over $77 million. Much of this went to ensure the Honduran army's loyalty in the battle against popular movements throughout Central America.

http://www.pacifica.org/programs/dn/040428.html

Bush's Terrorist: John Negroponte Sent to Iraq




Negroponte's "embassy" in Baghdad will, according to press reports, constitute the largest US "embassy staff" in the world with some 3000 employees, including up to 1,000 Americans.


Yet according to a four-part series in the Baltimore Sun in 1995, in 1982 alone the Honduran press ran 318 stories of murders and kidnappings by the Honduran military.

Opponents of Negroponte are demanding that all Senators read the full report before voting on his nomination.http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/ROF111A.html
In a cruel irony, the Bush administration has appointed a bona fide "terrorist" to wage its "war on terrorism" in Iraq.


It should come as no surprise that "on the day he was appointed to Iraq, Honduras decided to bring its troops in Iraq home." (Financial Times, April 21, 2004)

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=2&contentid=1189



Face-off: Bush's Foreign Policy Warriors


On August 27, 1997, CIA Inspector General Frederick P. Hitz released a 211-page classified report entitled "Selected Issues Relating to CIA Activities in Honduras in the 1980's." This report was partly declassified on Oct. 22, 1998, in response to demands by the Honduran human rights ombudsman. Opponents of Negroponte are demanding that all Senators read the full report before voting on his nomination.

Reich, unlike Negroponte, is primarily a lobbyist and anti-Castro activist rather than a diplomat. He is director of the Washington-based Center for a Free Cuba and works for some of America's favorite industries: liquor (Bacardi), tobacco (British-American Tobacco), and weapons (Lockheed Martin). He also serves as vice-chairman of the Worldwide Responsible Apparel Program, or WRAP, an apparel industry-backed group characterized by union activists as an artifice for clothing importers to avoid serious scrutiny of their factories in developing countries.

In the 1980s, he headed a propaganda department in the State Department called the Office of Public Diplomacy. This unit, staffed with CIA and Pentagon psychological warfare specialists, reported to Oliver North. The function of the operation was to win support for administration policy in Central America. They wrote op-eds under the name of Nicaraguan rebel leaders and attacked those who differed with Reagan's policies. The Congressional investigation of the Iran-contra scandal identified numerous illegalities which led to the closure of the Office of Public Diplomacy.

Reich followed up these activities by serving as ambassador to Venezuela from 1986-89, at the height of the Iran-contra scandal. The Venezuelan government tried unsuccessfully to block his nomination.

While working for Bacardi, he successfully lobbied to slip Section 211 into the 1998 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, thus stripping Cuba of trademark protection. Ironically, he will be overseeing the Helms-Burton Act, which he helped to draft, which the administration has just decided not to carry into effect.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/ROF111A.html


NEGROPONTE - Sleeping Ambassador or Death Squad Diplomat?

The widespread use of American aerial surveillance to direct the Contra murderers to villages where only women and children were present to be killed, the routine use of torture, the encouragement of drug-smuggling into the U.S. to provide funding for the U.S.-backed forces all were revealed only after Negroponte had left his post as U.S. Ambassador to the Honduras. And who could forget the Honduran Anti-communist Liberation Army's ever popular practice of dropping victims from helicopters while they were in flight?

Make no mistake about it -- both Iraqi rebels and Al Qaeda terrorists see Negroponte's appointment as the first stage in implementing a policy of covert violence against their right to sovereignty and will effectively use it to recruit and incite radicals to commit more acts of violence against us. It's no coincidence that our Office of Homeland Security issued a heightened security alert just as Bush announced his plans for Negroponte.

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/04/con04178.html

US Martyrs Pose Questions for Negroponte
October 28, 2003
By TONI SOLO

US nuns murdered in El Salvador 4

In 1981, a couple of decades before Rachel Corrie was murdered, the bodies of four women were found in a shallow grave in a rural district not far from San Salvador, El Salvador's capital. They had been raped and shot dead by members of the Salvadoran army on the orders of senior officers. In the context of the time, the atrocity would hardly have merited reporting. But the women were United States citizens. Two were religious sisters of the New York based Maryknoll order, Ita Ford and Maureen Clarke. One was an Ursuline Sister, Dorothy Kazel, the fourth a lay missioner, Jean Donovan. By virtue of their nationality, the story did make the news, just--the back page of the New York Times, to that paper's eternal shame.

Those four women had helped defend Salvadorans from the terror unleashed against their own people by the Salvadoran government with support from the United States administrations of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. They gave their lives working alongside vulnerable people and communities in El Salvador. The murders followed the assassination in 1980 of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. The women's deaths were manipulated by the US government and its ever-pliant news media. The full facts took years to emerge. US ambassador to the UN, Jean Kirkpatrick, falsely accused the women of having supported the Salvadoran armed opposition, the FMLN. In fact, the four women were passionate advocates of non-violence, accompanying the rural villagers they served while caught up in a violent civil war.

Ambassador Kirkpatrick's statements on the case of the four women were to be expected from an unrepentant supporter of the bloodthirsty Argentinian military dictatorship. Her successor at the UN was Vernon Walters, former deputy director of the CIA, co-organiser of the continent wide terrorist blueprint Plan Condor and promoter of Ronald Reagan's terrorist war against Nicaragua. In 1986 Vernon Walters threw in the face of the UN his government's rejection of the International Court of Justice verdict convicting the US of terrorism against Nicaragua.

Kirkpatrick's and Walters' apologetics for mass murder helped John Negroponte, then US ambassador to Honduras, cover up his support for the systematic forced disappearances used to destroy Honduran civilian opposition to the presence of Contra bases in their country. Thomas Pickering, US ambassador to El Salvador at the time, also gave misleading information on local army and paramilitary murders, probably an essential qualification for his subsequent posting in 1989 as US ambassador to the UN, taking over from Vernon Walters.

Jean Kirkpatrick, Vernon Walters, Thomas Pickering, John Negroponte and other US government representatives sent clear signals that the local military in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala were to be allowed a free hand by the United States government to murder tens of thousands of civilians and anyone who spoke out against the slaughter. Perhaps the defining climax to the sickening murder campaign came in 1989 when the Salvadoran army killed six Jesuit academics and two of their domestic staff at the University of Central America in San Salvador. These crimes were made possible because the United States government consistently tried to conceal its institutional role in funding, training and supporting the military and paramilitary perpetrators. The Iran-Contra scandal was the culmination of that sustained program of regional deceit.


http://www.counterpunch.org/solo10282003.html

[Tinoire]

19. Let's hope the Generals aren't contracted ;)

but what with all those idiotic decisions they're all making, you really MUST wonder.

Do you recall Bush & Rumsfeld forcing a ton of seasoned Generals to retire about 2 years ago and promoting their own?

I'm off to see if I can find that story.

[seemslikeadream]

20. Yes you're right

good hunting to you I've got to back to sleep.

[saigon68]

68. KICK

[seemslikeadream]

73. Hey buddy wasup? I'm thinking I'll use these pictures

and do an add for one of the PMCs. What do you think? Have you seen the toys?

[saigon68]

77. They certainly fit in with the whole SCHEME of things

I had a bare knuckle fight about this three months ago ---when I got in a violent argument with at least three apologists for the TROOPIES.

I called them MILITARY JOCK SNIFFERS (a term I got from A Colter)

They said our troops were providing teddy bears to the orphans.

I told them there was this THUG Colonel, who used to put sand bags on prisoners heads and bust a couple of caps about an inch from dudes ear, WAS A WAR CRIMINAL

they said this behavior was OK

It was disgusting.

I want those motherfuckers to come back and debate this shit W/ me

[seemslikeadream]

79. Let me know when

I want to get a front row seat!

[Tinoire]

21. UGH! Here's the story about Rumsfeld forcing older Generals to retire

Rumsfeld, Army leaders in discord
By Robert Schlesinger, Globe Staff, 9/1/2003

WASHINGTON -- In nearly three years with President Bush as commander in chief, the US Army has led the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the repressive regime in Iraq. But in the halls of the Pentagon, its leaders are losing bitter battles to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld that have broad implications for national security and the future of the nation's half-million soldiers.

Rumsfeld and the Army leadership have clashed on issues ranging from the number of troops in Iraq to the size of the overall force needed to defend America.

Rumsfeld's critics say the skirmishing is taking a toll on the Army, with casualties that include the loss of a prized weapons system last year, the resignation of Army Secretary Thomas White last spring, and, in recent weeks, the retirement of four top generals, with more expected in the coming months.

"You look at Rumsfeld, and beyond all the rationale, spoken and unspoken, he just dislikes the Army. It's just palpable. . . . You always have to wonder if when Rumsfeld was a Navy lieutenant junior grade whether an Army officer stole his girlfriend," said Ralph Peters, a former Army intelligence officer who writes on national security issues.

<snip>
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/09/01/rumsfeld_army_leaders_in_discord/

Now I'm off to digest your post and then off to bed :)

Peace

[seemslikeadream]

22. I have to get some sleep

but it's gonna be hard now. This is just too much. Way worse than I had thought.

[saigon68]

31. Good point there is something going on

Maybe they want better quality photos. The ones I have were video grabs---low quality frames of a television stream (mp-3).

The uncensored high resolution ones are what they want. I can't believe A J is keeping this under wraps.

[seemslikeadream]

24. Iraq: Thousands of Private Contractors

Iraq: Thousands of Private Contractors Support U.S. Forces in Persian Gulf

by Kenneth Bredemeier, Washington Post
March 3rd, 2003

CACI International Inc. chairman and chief executive J.P. "Jack" London said the computer-network services firm has "a meaningful presence" in Bahrain and "two or three other countries." He declined to say exactly how many employees the Arlington company has in the region.



"We're playing a role in a large choreography to make sure the president and Rumsfeld have the right information at the right time and can disseminate their decisions back to the battlefield," London said. "We'll be ahead of the enemy's ability to outmaneuver us."



The U.S. Central Command in Tampa, which is directing the troop buildup near Iraq, said it does not know how many U.S. companies have people in the Persian Gulf area or the number of workers they have sent there.



P.W. Singer of the Brookings Institution in Washington has studied the growth of private contractors in war zones. Based on civilian contractors' presence in the Balkans and more recently in Central Asia, Singer estimated that several hundred companies will send about 20,000 contractors to a war with Iraq, about one civilian for every 10 military personnel.



Singer, whose book "Corporate Warriors" is to be published in May, said such a sizable deployment of "privatized military firms" would be 10 times the size of their presence in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

http://www.warprofiteers.com/article.php?id=11165

War Profiteers


Issues Library - Profiting off of war is a complex business. It involves policy and planning "experts", intelligence services, mercenary companies, public and private finance, weapons makers and more.

About Us - The War Profiteers website is maintained and updated by Corpwatch, an organization based in Oakland, California, that counters corporate-led globalization through education, network-building and activism. The orginal site was created by the Ruckus Society, an organization that specializes in engaging nonviolent direct action, also based in Oakland, California.

Tool Kit - In this toolkit you'll find resources and fact sheets that show where these companies are based and information on how they're profiteering from war. Print out our fact sheets and pay a visit to a war profiteer near you.


Press - CorpWatch and War Profiteers press releases, contact information and media sign-in form.

Company Profiles - Find more about the top ten military contractors in the United States -- their unsavory histories, deadly products, and the campaign contributions and spin that keep them in business.
http://www.warprofiteers.com/article.php?list=type&type=124

[Judi Lynn]

25. How many people are aware of a torturer working for the Nixon admin.?

He worked in Uruguay, and Brazil, and other places. He had been a policeman in Indiana. He was a monster. When he was killed, Nixon sent people to his funeral from Washington and eulogized him as a great hero. You will find quite a bit to read in a search.

Once you have read sufficiently, you will see that torture has actually been one of the tools used quietly by certain U.S. regimes for a long time.

Dan Mitrione had built a soundproofed room in the cellar of his house in Montevideo.
In this room he assembled selected Uruguayan police officers to observe a demonstration of torture techniques. Another observer was Manuel Hevia Cosculluela, a Cuban who was with the CIA and worked with Mitrione. Hevia later wrote that the course began with a description of the human anatomy and nervous system
Soon things turned unpleasant. As subjects for the first testing they took beggars ... from the outskirts of Montevideo, as well as a woman apparently from the frontier area with Brazil. There was no interrogation, only a demonstration of the effects of different voltages on the different parts of the human body, as well as demonstrating the use of a drug which induces vomiting-I don't know why or what for-and another chemical substance. The four of them died.
In his book Hevia does not say specifically what Mitrione's direct part in all this was but he later publicly stated that the OPS chief "personally tortured four beggars to death with electric shocks''.
(snip/...)

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/Uruguay_KH.html

You might want to spend a moment reading the whole article. It reveals the Tupamaros, a group of "revolutionaries" who were the focus of Mitrione's endeavors were actually normally non-violent, working more as activists, exposing government corruption, bringing attention and embarrassment to dirty politicians in a filthy, brutal government which got along perfectly with Nixon's regime.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From a tv show in Australia:

Everything that I had discovered in Uruguay was confirmed in amazingly similar detail. In his book, the difference was that he talked about conversations he had with Mitrione, where Mitrione bragged about how good he had become at stamping out subversion, and in the process he talked about the beggars that they had had to practice with, people that they could pick up and test to be sure that they were torturing them, but keeping them alive.

One of the truly disheartening things for so many of the torture victims, was having a doctor come into the room where they were being tortured, and they thinking, 'Well now he'll put a stop to it. He's from the medical profession'. And instead, the doctor was just there to monitor life signs and be sure that they weren't torturing to death. And Mitrione bragged about that kind of thing.
(snip/...)

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s10766.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since the mid-60’s Uruguay, known then as the “Switzerland of Latin America,” had seen its exemplary democratic tradition and high standard of living decay in face of a crumbling economy, government corruption and social upheaval. Washington established an AID Public Safety office in Uruguay in 1964 to assist the local counterinsurgency operations of the police. In 1969, amidst a growing political crisis and a strong Tupamaro guerrilla challenge, U.S. Public Safety assistance, particularly training, was doubled.

The crisis quickly escalated into a violent conflict in 1970. As the U.S.-trained officers came to occupy key positions in the police, the claims of torture grew. A. J. Langguth in his book Hidden Terrors (Pantheon Books, 1978, p. 286) tells how older police officers were replaced “when the CIA and the U.S. police advisers had turned to harsher measures and sterner men.” He also describes that under the new head of the U.S. Public Safety program in Uruguay, Dan Mitrione, the United States "introduced a system of nationwide identification cards, like those in Brazil… torture had become routine at the Montevideo jefatura.”

Between mid-1970 and early 1971, the Tupamaros kidnapped Mitrione and an American agronomist, as well as a Brazilian and a British diplomat, and requested in exchange the liberation of 150 guerrilla prisoners. After negotiations with relatives and foreign governments the majority of the victims were freed unharmed, but the Uruguayan and U.S. governments as a matter of policy refused to negotiate with the kidnappers. The Tupamaros killed Mitrione and his body was found in early August 1970. Violence between the U.S.-supported police and the Tupamaros spiraled upward.
(snip/...)

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB71/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mr. Hevia had served the C.I.A. in Uruguay’s police program. In 1970, his duties brought him in contact with Dan Mitrione, the United States policy adviser who was kidnapped by the Tupamaro revolutionaries later that year and shot to death when the Uruguayan Government refused to save him by yielding up politician prisoners.
(snip)
Thanks to Mr. Hevia, I was finally hearing Mr. Mitrione’s true voice:

"When you receive a subject, the first thing to do is to determine his physical state, his degree of resistance, through a medical examination. A premature death means a failure by the technician.

"Another important thing to know is exactly how far you can go given the political situation and the personality of the prisoner. It is very important to know beforehand whether we have the luxury of letting the subject die…

"Before all else, you must be efficient. You must cause only the damage that is strictly necessary, not a bit more. We must control our tempers in any case. You have to act with the efficiency and cleanliness of a surgeon and with the perfection of an artist…
(snip/...)

http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/langguthleaf.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As you see, torture is actually a reality with our most extreme Presidents going back quite a long time. Will we ever live long enough to see the end of this behavior, AND wildly hypocritical proclamations of "compassion" in our dirtiest politicians?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another name I just found looks good for future searches:

URUGUAY, 64-70 WILLIAM CANTRELL WAS A CIA OFFICER IN MONTEVIDEO OSTENSIBLY AS PART OF OFFICE OF PUBLIC SAFETY (OPS) TEAM. IN MID 60s HE INSTRUMENTAL IN SETTING UP DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION AND INTEL (DII) AND FUNDING AND EQUIPPING IT. SOME OF THE EQUIPMENT FROM CIA'S TECHNICAL SERVICES DIV (TSD) WAS FOR TORTURE. EVENTUALLY DDI CAME TO SERVE AS COVER FOR ESCUADRON DEL LA MUERTE (DEATH SQUAD) COMPOSED PRIMARILY OF POLICE OFFICERS. TSD GAVE THE POLICE SPECIAL EXPLOSIVE MATERIAL DAN MITRIONE AND HIS ACTIVITIES IN URUGUAY.

http://www.webcom.com/~pinknoiz/covert/urubu.html

O.K. I took a fast look for "William Cantrell" & the first hit goes to Brazil, and Mitrione, too:

U.S. AID officials knew of and supported police participation in Death Squads. In Uruguay, a CIA operations officer, William Cantrell, used the cover of an AID Public Safety Advisor to help set up the Department of Information and Intelligence (DII).37 Cantrell's chauffeur, Nelson Bardesio was himself a member of the Death Squad in Montevideo. Under interrogation by Tupamaros guerrillas in 1972, Bardesio testified that the DII served as a cover for the Death Squad. Bardesio's testimony further revealed that a Brazilian diplomat offered to set up radio communications between Brasilia and Montevideo. Uruguayan intelligence officials, claimed Bardesio, received Death Squad-type training in Brazil. The living link between the two countries' Death Squads is Sergio Fleury, a top officer of the political police in Brazil. A leader in the elimination of the Brazilian left, Fleury has been identified by hundreds of political prisoners as the man who supervised their torture.38 Through his work in the Death Squads, Fleury's infamy has spread from Sao Paulo to all of Brazil and on to Uruguay. On at least two occasions, he met with groups of Uruguayan police through CIA contacts.39

The systematic use of torture was also condoned if not encouraged by U.S. AID officials. Police in Brazil once speculated on what the Public Safety Advisor Dan Mitrione would do if he were witness to the torturing of a prisoner. One said he would leave. Another asked, "Where, the country?" "No," said the first, "leave the room."40 To this day, the U.S. Public Safety Program in Brazil has assisted in the training of over 100,000 federal and state police personnel. Moreover, 600 high-ranking officers have received training at the now-defunct International Police Academy (IPA) on the campus of Georgetown University in Washington DC.41 The United States is also responsible for the construction, equipping, and development of the curriculum and faculty of Brazil's National Police Academy, its National Telecommunications Center; and the National Institute of Criminalistics and Identification.42

In the actual torturing of prisoners, the military and civilian police worked hand in hand. It was a common practice for prisoners to be taken from a prison run by the civilian police to one run by a branch of the military and then back again to a facility run by the police. CENIMAR, the navy's intelligence section, had its main prison and torture center in the basement of the Ministry of the Navy, near the docks of the harbor in Rio de Janeiro. U.S. Navy officers based at the naval mission often heard screams from across the courtyard. But none of them -- not even mission commander, Rear Admiral C. Thor Hanson -- ever raised the matter with their hosts.43

From the CENIMAR facility, prisoners were shipped across Guanabara Bay by motor launch to a prison on the Isle of Flowers. Inside the low white buildings were interrogators who specialized in torture. The staff there was made up of members of the Department of Political and Social Order (DOPS). The island's commander was Clemente Jose Monteiro Filho, a graduate of the School of the Americas (commonly referred to as the escuela de golpes, the school of coups) at Fort Gulick in the Panama Canal Zone.44 The leader of interrogation and torture was Alfredo Poeck, a navy commander who had taken a three month course at the Special Warfare School at Fort Bragg in 1961.45
(snip/...)

http://www.namebase.org/brazil.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So you see, the closer you look, the more pervasive, and more ancient the practise by U.S. Presidents and agencies gets. The world needs to lose this savagery.

[Tinoire]

35. Argh! You're a GEM! If anyone ever defends SOA here again

I SWEAR I WILL KICK THEIR ASS FROM THE LOUNGE TO THE "ASK THE ADMINISTATOR"'S FORUM!!

I am too tired to search on your excellent find tonight but I did quickly put in Mitrione + "School of the Americas" and all sorts of stuff is popping up.

Finishing school for officers indeed!

A former Uruguayan intelligence officer declares that US manuals were being used to teach techniques of torture to his country’s military. He said that most of the officers who trained him had attended classes run by the United States in Panama . Among other niceties, the manuals list 35 nerve points where electrodes can be applied. — San Francisco Chronicle, 11/2/81

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~lormand/poli/soa/uruguay.htm

In the late 1960s, Dan Mitrione, an employee of the US Office of Public Safety (part of the Agency for International Development), which trained and armed foreign police forces, was stationed in Montevideo, Uruguay. Torturing political prisoners in Uruguay had existed before Mitrione’s arrival. However, in a surprising interview given to a leading Brazilian newspaper, Jornal do Brasil in 1970, the for­mer Uruguayan Chief of Police Intelligence, Alejandro Otero, declared that US advisers, and Mitrione in particular, had instituted torture as a more routine measure; to the means of inflicting pain, they had added scientific refinement; and to that a psychology to create despair, such as playing a tape in the next room of women and chil­dren screaming and telling the prisoner that it was his family being tortured.

http://www.discerningtimes.com/archives/sep16ussupter.htm

====

I know this stuff goes on. Is condoned. Is taught but all these specifics are SHAMEFUL to see!

[Judi Lynn]

41. Great quote from Nixon's Ron Ziegler!

"Mr. Mitrione’s devoted service to the cause of peaceful progress in an orderly world will remain as an example for free men everywhere." — Ron Ziegler, White House spokesperson

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~lormand/poli/soa/uruguay.htm


Elvis and Ron!
Nixon, Mitchell(?), Ziegler


God, they all hate us for our freedoms, don't they?

[Tinoire]

48. And then people have the nerve

(or is it merely a regrettable lack of knowledge?) to ask us what was so wrong about voting for Nixon and/or Reagan.

Great quote!

[DavidFL]

26. I have a question...

Is any kind of psychological exam done before someone enters the military or while they're serving? What about contractors? When I signed up to take the NYPD exam, I was given a specific, written notice telling me that if I passed the written part of the exam, I would have to consent to a psychological exam in order to become a cop, which I found out was done, in part, to weed out people that would be prone to this twisted kind of behavior.

I'm just speechless though. I'm disgusted and mad as hell about this.

[Tinoire]

36. OMG. Psychological Examination?

You'd cut recruitment by half!

Recruit them all. Make them conform and follow orders is the way it's done. That's one reason Basic Training is so brutal. As long as you'll follow orders, that's all the military cares about & in all fairness that does give some kids from troubled youths a fresh start but the flip side is as you see...

[seemslikeadream]

28. This thread in 9/11 is a must read

for anyone who is new to the Dogs of War business

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=9558&mesg_id=9558

[gottaB]

44. UN Convention against Torture

UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

How does it apply?

[Judi Lynn]

46. Thanks for posting this document.

No doubt so many of us have been spread too thin to take time to actually take a long hard squint at it.

Don't know what have been done to make it clearer.

[Just Me]

60. I believe the Busholinis UNILATERALLY exempted the US from any law,...

,...applicable to human rights or war crimes.

<on edit - just had to add "unilaterally">

[bobthedrummer]

66. Yep, and it fits the LIHOP pattern as well as PNAC too-it's treason imo.

[gottaB]

80. at the least seditious conspiracy

Conspiring to violate a treaty which the US is a party to.

Title 18, Chapter 115, Section 2384.

If the Convention against Torture isn't "any law of the United States," conspiring to get around it must certainly be considered to undermine US authority. Does that have to be done by force for seditious conspiracy to apply?

But I can only speculate here. Why, for instance, has the Senate Foreign Relations Committee consented to the appointment of the Honorable John Negroponte to the Ambassadorship of Iraq? By those standards, we should be appointing Abdel Rahmen to be our next ambassador to Luxembourg.

[Vladimir]

49. Thanks for a great thread everyone

I don't have much time to comment right now (about to go into an all-day student union meeting) but the amount of information here is sensational. Definitely bookmarking this!

[Judi Lynn]

50. One of the soldiers is talking more than they probably like!

Four more lines from an article I found a few minutes ago and posted, here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x520206

``Prisoners have a mosque at the facility but are not allowed the privilege to go to it. Prisoners do not have a minister at the facility.''


``I have had training dealing with convicted felons of the U.S. I have never had any training dealing with POWs, civilian internees or detained persons.''


``Brigade should have had rules and regulations and the Geneva Convention in the establishment from the beginning.''


``A prisoner with a clearly visible mental condition was shot with nonlethal rounds for standing near the fence singing.''
(snip/...)

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/National/AP.V5468.AP-Prisoner-Abuse-.html
(Free registration required)

[Judi Lynn]

53. Pravda article: Americans follow Saddam"s traditions of torturing prisoner

Americans follow Saddam"s traditions of torturing prisoners
04/30/2004 14:50
CBS TV Channel broadcast the photos of the US soldiers humiliating Iraqis in Abu-Garaib prison.
Iraqi prisoners were forced to make oral sex and fight each other, they were beaten by Americans who made pictures of all this. Smiling Americans are in these photos as well.

The prisoner on the photo has electric wires attached to his genitals - he was probably tortured with electric power. On another photo a dog is attacking a prisoner. A dead body of a fiercely beaten Iraqi is on the next photo. However, the most shocking images will remain unknown to public: a prisoner testifies that the male soldier working as a translator, raped the Iraqi while his female fellow-soldier was watching the scene and making pictures - there are no these photos in CBS "collection".

The US Army Command established an investigation task force which is studying the several dozens of photos and is investigating the case. According to the investigators, there are no doubts in the prison wards" guilt. 17 soldiers and officers were dismissed, charges were brought to the six of them. US authorities forbade broadcasting the photos, but CBS did it without permission.

Currently the name of only one torturer is known - sergeant Chip Frederic who had worked as a prison warder back in the USA and came to Iraq on a contract basis. He tried to find excuses for his conduct, but they did not sound convincing enough,
(snip/...)

http://english.pravda.ru/accidents/21/93/375/12666_UStroops.html

[Judi Lynn]

54. Blair 'appalled' by Iraq prison torture

12.30pm update

Blair 'appalled' by Iraq prison torture

Matthew Tempest, political correspondent
Friday April 30, 2004

Downing Street today said the prime minister was "appalled" by pictures that emerged last night of Iraqi prisoners being tortured by American soldiers.
No 10 said the behaviour shown - with Iraqis stripped naked and hooded and being tormented by their captors - was in "direct contravention of all policy under which the coalition operates".

Mr Blair's official spokesman said: "The US army spokesman has said this morning that he is appalled, that those responsible have let their fellow soldiers down, and those are views that we would associate the UK government with."

Asked if the prime minister was appalled, the spokesman replied: "The government view is the same as that of the US army."
(snip/...)

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1207045,00.html

[soup]

75. CACI hiring interrogators in Afghanistan

March-April 2004 International & Metro DC Edition - Defense Systems and Intelligence Careers- page 25

80871 - Interrogators - Afghanistan
CACI, International - Kandahar, Afghanistan
Clearance: Clearance Required
Description: Conducts interrogations of detainees. When not employed as interrogators
and producing reports, individuals will assist in the HUMINT reporting system
maintenance to include Brigade Black/White/Gray list, support screening operations
and conducts analysis or liaison to support interrogation operations. All actions will be
managed by the Senior CI Agent. Individuals must be trained interrogators with at least 5
years of experience in interrogation.
www.intelligencecareers.com/magazine/ edition-international/dsic_pg25.pdf

note: sorry about the link, can't seem to get it to transfer.
It's the top link on this Google search page
http://www.google.com/search?q=afghanistan+caci%2C+inc&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

-----


March 8, 2004

>snip<
Human Rights Watch is also concerned about the treatment of those arrested.

"The United States is setting a terrible example in Afghanistan on detention practices," said Brad Adams, executive director of the organisation's Asia division.

"Civilians are being held in a legal black hole with no tribunals, no legal counsel, no family visits and no basic legal protections."

The US holds detainees at its Bagram, Kandahar, Jalalabad and Asadabad bases, where there have been complaints of their being severely beaten, doused with cold water, forced to stay awake or made to stand or kneel in painful positions for long periods.

"There is compelling evidence suggesting that US personnel have committed acts against detainees amounting to torture or cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment," Mr Adams said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1164276,00.html
-----

January 10, 2004

>snip<
Worldwide, the experiment is becoming the norm. It has been estimated that at least 15,000 people are being held without trial under the justification of the "war on terrorism". They include more than 3,000 detained in Iraq after the war, of whom at least 1,000 are still in detention; an estimated further 1,000 to 3,000 detained at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan; and an unknown number being held on the British territory of Diego Garcia.

Bagram is a CIA interrogation centre, practising "stress and duress" or "torture lite". An investigation has reportedly begun there after the deaths of two prisoners in suspicious circumstances. US personnel stationed at Bagram have described the regular practice of sensory deprivation and sleep starvation, as well as incidents of throwing prisoners against walls while hooded.

Ironically, such revelations have surfaced not through any desire to expose human rights abuses, but in order to justify describing such treatment as "torture lite". Meanwhile, three US soldiers were discharged this week for beating and harassing Iraqi prisoners of war, and there are reports that British troops beat eight young Iraqis, one of whom died in custody as a result.
http://strike-free.net/dead_list/popup/prison.htm
-----


November 30, 2003

U.S. Won't Release Results of Bagram Investigation

Remember the two Afghans who died mysteriously while in U.S. custoday at Bagram Air Force base in Afganistan? Their deaths were ruled homicides, caused by blunt force injuries. The U.S. promised an investigation. Turns out, they won't tell us what they found.
>snip<

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said in Bagram on Saturday, "I accept that people under custody died here. I deny that they were mistreated."
http://talkleft.com/new_archives/004526.html
-----


March 31, 2003
>snip<
He must start with prisoners from America's "war on terrorism." Brutal conditions have been reported in the U.S. prison at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Prisoners are forced to sit or kneel naked for hours while being questioned. They are hooded, doused with ice water, hung from the ceiling by chains, deprived of sleep, forced to stand for long periods, and are the target of humiliating verbal abuse by women soldiers.

According to The Wall Street Journal, one U.S. intelligence official acknowledged they might authorize a "little bit of smacky-face" during interrogations. Maybe sometimes more. In December, two prisoners at the U.S. Bagram prison died of beatings. Though the military coroner ruled both as homicides, no charges have been brought.

One dare not imagine the fate of those we turn over for questioning by countries we know use "real torture."

Conditions at our military prisons cannot be verified because the Bush administration has said international law does not apply to these prisoners. We may be waging a "war on terrorism," but according to the administration, they are not "prisoners of war" and have no rights under the Geneva Convention. Thus, despite requests from human-rights groups, no agency like the Red Cross is allowed into Bagram.
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0331-06.htm
-----

December 27, 2002
The CIA has used "stress and duress" techniques on al-Qaida suspects held at secret overseas detention centres, as well as contracting out their interrogation to foreign intelligence agencies known to routinely use torture, said a report published yesterday.
>snip<

Earlier this month, officials said they would launch a criminal inquiry into the death of two prisoners at Bagram. One reportedly died of a heart attack, the other of a pulmonary embolism.

US laws apparently do not apply at the centres, where CIA agents oversee - or take part in - the interrogations. While the US publicly denounces torture, the Post says each of the 10 serving national security officials interviewed by the paper defended the use of violence against captives.

"If you don't violate someone's human rights some of the time, you probably aren't doing your job," an official who has supervised the capture of suspects told the newspaper. "I don't think we want to be promoting a view of zero tolerance on this. That was the whole problem for a long time with the CIA."
http://www.prisonplanet.com/cia_accused_of_torture_at_bagram_base.htm

[seemslikeadream]

76. Bastards

[Tinoire]

82. A Terrible Secret

Families of the 372nd tormented by stories of POW abuses in Iraq
Soldier detailed problems in journal sent to father in Md.


CUMBERLAND - For months, members of the 372nd Military Police Company harbored a terrible secret.

<snip>

((From Frederick Chip's journal))

"Prisoners were forced to live in damp cool cells," says an entry said to be from January. "MI has also instructed us to place prisoners in an isolation cell with little or no clothes. No toilet or running water, no ventilation or window for as much as three days."

<snip>

He wrote that prisoners were abused and forced to sleep in tents wet with rain.

"A prisoner with a clearly visible mental condition was shot with non-lethal rounds for standing near the fence singing, when a lesser means of force could have been used," he wrote.

"It's really very upsetting to me that the military is doing this," his father said. "They put him in there with no experience taking care of enemy prisoners of war."

Interviewed at his home, the white-haired man came to the door with a drawn expression to defend his son.

"I don't think he did those things unless he was ordered to do so," Frederick said.


<snip>

Yesterday afternoon, her mother, Terrie England, pressed her fingers to her lips when a reporter showed her a newspaper photo of her daughter smiling in front of what a caption said were nude Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

"Oh, my God," she said, her body stiffening as she sat on a cooler on the trailer's small stoop.

<snop>

Lynndie England, a railroad worker's daughter who made honor roll at the high school near here, had enlisted in the 372nd for college money and the chance to widen her small-town horizons. In January, however, she gave her family the first inkling that something had gone woefully wrong.

<snip>

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-te.md.soldier30apr30,0,160127.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

[Judi Lynn]

86. "Lynndie England," also in the service to make money for college

Just like Jessica Lynch!

I really wonder which one she is. Her mother seems defiant about her actions, as if it's all justfied, or at least understandable, I think.

Most people simply won't bother themselves to try to find out what's really going on. What a damned, damned shame. That's what keeps people like _Bush in bidness.

[daleo]

87. Perhaps this partly explains the mutilation of contractors in Fallujah

Word of what went on in this prison may well have made it out to Fallujah, with the knowledge that "contractors" played a central role in these crimes.

[Junkdrawer]

88. Many of the same prisoners were later killed in a "mortar attack"...

Mortar attack on a prison near Baghdad today killed 22 Iraqi detainee and injured more than 90, the U.S. military said.

Military spokesmen said everyone killed at the Abu Ghraib prison, about 10 miles west of the capital, was classified as security detainees, meaning they were either former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist government or people involved in attacks on U.S. forces.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said at a news briefing that the prison was hit with 18 mortar rounds early in the afternoon. Kimmitt said the Iraqi Red Crescent had been contacted for assistance at the scene.

The military also confirmed that on Monday the U.S. forces killed two press-credentialed employees of al-Iraqiya, a television station funded and operated by the U.S. occupation authority, after their vehicle failed to heed warning shots as it approached a base in the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad.

The three-person crew was filming police and civil-defense checkpoints in violation of photography restrictions in such areas, Kimmitt said. Although the troops fired warning shots into a nearby river as the crew filmed, the crew then got into a car and drove towards the base, ignoring subsequent warning shots, Kimmitt said. Troops then fired directly at the vehicle, killing two occupants and wounding a third, who also is an al-Iraqiya employee. An Iraqi police officer in the car was unhurt, Kimmitt said.

...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26962-2004Apr20.html

[Tinoire]

89. FROM THE ARAB WORLD: READ THIS

((with thanks to Chookie))

<snip>

The real facts are that there is report after report of US abuses; on the internet, in the back pages of our newspapers, in personal accounts that with a little luck will now make their way to mainstream press. This is not an isolated few – this is business as usual for the US military and their collaborating band of thugs in Iraq. Is it any wonder that bodies of US soldiers who fall into Iraqi hands are mutilated and displayed?

The pictures of US soldiers dishonoring Iraqi detainees came as no surprise to JUS (Jihad Unspun). We have been reporting alleged abuses since shortly after the fall of Baghdad. We received several reports over the past months of US soldiers raping Iraqi woman, only to find these photos posted to US porn sites. While these photos and reports were put down to “loose” Iraqi women (which shows a fundamental understanding of Iraq’s religion and culture) we discovered later that those who were detained, some at Abu Ghraib prison, who refused to provide US officials with intelligence where given a prod to garner “cooperation” by rounding up the female relatives, forcing then into sexual acts that were filmed and then shown to their husbands, fathers and brothers and to the general public through porn sites. Now the CBS 60 Minutes II report legitimizes the incidents we have been reporting all along.

The Arab world is outrage. The Muslim Ummah is outraged. Iraqis are outraged and so are people of conscience everywhere. I pity the next soldiers that fall into Resistance hands. And contrary to its belief – America can be defeated and most likely will be defeated and dangled at the end of its own pathetic rope for all the world to see.

http://www.jihadunspun.com/intheatre_internal.php?article=2811&list=/home.php&