US regrets need to detain Iraqi children-envoy

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSN20281565

Tue May 20, 2008 3:56pm EDT

UNITED NATIONS, May 20 (Reuters) - The United States accused Iraqi extremists on Tuesday of using children to attack government and coalition forces, forcing authorities to detain them.

Last week, the United States told the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child that since 2002 it had detained some 2,500 people under age 18, mostly in Iraq, often for a year or more, as part of its anti-terrorism campaign.

"We're heartbroken that terrorists and extremists use kids for their campaign of violence," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters after a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on peace-building after wars.

"It's very unfortunate that insurgents, terrorists, use young people in their campaign of violence and as a result ... we've had to detain young people who should be in school learning and preparing for a productive life," he said.

http://www.boingboing.net/2004/07/15/hersh-children-raped.html

Hersh: children raped at Abu Ghraib, Pentagon has videos

July 15, 2004

From Daily Kos' partial transcript of a video (link to REAL stream) of Seymour Hersh speaking at an ACLU event. He says the US government has videotapes of children being raped at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

" Some of the worst things that happened you don't know about, okay? Videos, um, there are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib ... The women were passing messages out saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened' and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It's going to come out."

Link (via Warren). There's also a piece worth reading in this week's Newsweek about new allegations of rape and sexual torture at Abu Ghraib. Feature includes details on the identities of the Iraqi prisoners shown in those widely-circulated photographs -- including Satar Jabar (charged with carjacking, not terrorism), whose iconic hooded figure with wires attached is derisively described by many Iraqis as the "Statue of Liberty." Link


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/08/iraq/main616338.shtml

May 7, 2004

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters, "The American public needs to understand we're talking about rape and murder here. we're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience." He did not elaborate.

[midnight]

1. Ya, but my country has to do this for safety. Everything is for safety.

" Some of the worst things that happened you don't know about, okay? Videos, um, there are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib ... The women were passing messages out saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened' and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It's going to come out."

Sen. Graham has known this for so long and nothing stopped congress from fueling this? I can't think legally what the ramifications are here, but I'm sure in time. People who like Sen. Graham and others will get what is coming.

[FirstLight]

2. more war crimes, anyone?

This is not fun to wake up and read this morning. I hate this war and the damage it has caused to the regular people of Iraq, people with families and lives and homes, the irreversible psychological damage done to children of both countries, (because and 18 yr old in combat with a uniform IS still a mental child in many ways)the humanity of it all. I loathe ANYONE who would MOLEST a child under any circumstances.

...all for greed...

would someone please take the damn criminals and put them in a wet cell wit electrodes on their balls? please?


:grrr: :nuke:

[EFerrari]

3. Clive Stafford Smith, a lawyer for some prisoners at Gitmo,

says that there have been about 64 mnors there as our guests. I remember reading in 2004 about a handful of kids as young as 10. Apparently, that was b#llshit.

And I want to know how many children are in those ICE detention camps. Yesterday there was a report -- maybe from ACLU? -- that 83 individuals have died in those camps since 2004. That number is ten times the number of people that have died in US custody in the War of Terror.

[countryjake]

5. Off Topic - That report you heard about ICE camps...

was in our county paper a couple weeks ago. No way to post link to this paper, but I think this was the original source for the article I've got - WaPo:

System of Neglect
http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/node/866

[EFerrari]

6. Thank you! I've been looking for that link.

:hug:

[EFerrari]

4. Kick

[countryjake]

7. Kick

[Postman]

8. Why haven't the tapes been released? Is any news agency filing FOIA requests to get them?

n/t