Tuesday, 4 May 2004

Assorted Iraqi Torture Scandal Stories

Lifted from whatreallyhappened.com

FLASHBACK: U.S. Pledges to Avoid Torture"The Bush administration pledged yesterday for the first time that the United States will not torture terrorism suspects or treat them cruelly in an attempt to extract information."BULL BISCUITS!

30 More Torture Scandals Probed

The Pictures That Lost The War"According to the British soldiers, the military police have found a video of prisoners being thrown from a bridge, and a prisoner was allegedly beaten to death in custody by men from the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment."

The Picture That Became An Icon of the Iraq War

Torture At Abu Ghraib"A fifty-three-page report…written by Major General Antonio M. Taguba and not meant for public release, was completed in late February. Its conclusions about the institutional failures of the Army prison system were devastating. Specifically, Taguba found that between October and December of 2003 there were numerous instances of"sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses"at Abu Ghraib. This systematic and illegal abuse of detainees, Taguba reported, was perpetrated by soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company, and also by members of the American intelligence community."

Tales from Abu Ghraib

Soldiers say pictures are 'tip of the iceberg'"British soldiers in Iraq swapped hundreds of photographs of civilians being mistreated, according to new claims made in the Daily Mirror."You think that's cool, look what we did to these kids! Oooh, AWESOME!

Iraqi Prison Photos 'Beyond Disgust' - Arab League

Troops Behaviour 'Out Of Control'"Maybe the officers don't know what is going on but everybody else does. I've seen hundreds of pictures."

US media alibis for torture in Iraq"Photographs of the sadistic torture of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of US troops became front-page news around the world after their release last week. Only in two countries were they largely suppressed by the media—the United States and Iraq itself."That was true until today, when the US media finally started dealing with the issue. They could hardly ignore it, with the photos of torture on every computer in the world by now.

‘Sadistic torture ordered by U.S. military’

FLASHBACK: In Torture We Trust?"The recent capture of Al Qaeda leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is the latest indication that the taboo on torture has been broken. In the days after Mohammed's arrest, an unnamed official told the Wall Street Journal that US interrogators may authorize‘a little bit of smacky-face’while questioning captives in the war on terrorism."There is an interesting and overlooked dimension to this torture scandal. Despite a year of torturing Iraqi prisoners, the American torturers have had no more luck finding real weapons of mass destruction than the torturers of Torquemada had finding real witches. QED one of two cases aplies. Either torture does not work, or there really were no Iraqi WMDs. The US continues to use torture, so clearly they think it does work. That leaves only one possible conclusion. Meanwhile, those photos of tortured prisoners will be how history judges the US for the next century.

US turns to torture to crack prisoners of war‘But this is okay, see? Hitler's and Stalin's and Saddam's torturers are all BAAAD, but our torturers are GOOD because we're doing this for mom, the flag, and apple pie. That makes it okay. Really.’

U.S. Accused Of Torture In IraqSun accused of rising this morning.

FLASHBACK: US finds strange bedfellows in UN vote on torture"Washington has found itself on the same side as Cuba, Libya, and Syria, among other states, in trying to block a proposal before the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva designed to give more teeth to the Convention Against Torture."Bush can drop the phony look of surpirse at the Iraqi POW pictures. The fact is that use of torture was being set as US policy long ago.

Torture commonplace, say inmates' families"He told me: 'Mum, they are taking our clothes off. We are nude all the time. They are getting dogs to smell our arses. They are also beating us with cables.'"

FLASHBACK: US demands total impunity on war crimes"In May, the US formally rejected the treaty establishing the ICC, the first permanent international institution dedicated to trying cases of genocide, war crimes and other human rights abuses."Now we knowWHYthe US wanted to be exempt from war crimes trials.

Bush's Torturous Logic"George Bush is shocked, shocked that there is torture being used by U.S. forces on Iraqi prisoners of war, in direct violation not only of basic human rights but of the Geneva Convention on Treatment of Prisoners of War of which the United States is not only a signatory, but a founding writer. So shocked that he had his Pentagon try to get CBS not to show the pictures of the shocking behavior."Obviously, the US efforts to exempt itself from war crimes trials before the war should prove that the use of torture is not only not a surprise, but was planned from the very start.

Attempt To Claim Pow Abuse Pictures FailsPhoto surfaces showing that British in Iraq DO wear the floopy hat shown in abuse photos.

Abuse may have been 'order'"Abuse of Iraqi prisoners that sparked worldwide condemnation may have been ordered by US military intelligence to extract information from the captives, and was possibly more cruel than officially acknowledged, The New Yorker magazine and Britain's daily Guardian reported on Saturday."

British troops in torture scandalThe controversy over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners deepened last night when photographs were released apparently showing the torture of a PoW by a British soldier.

Iraqi Prison Photos Mar U.S. Image"This is the straw that broke the camel's back for America,"said Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi."The liberators are worse than the dictators."

Accused Soldiers Didn't Know Geneva Rules"The six U.S. soldiers facing courts-martial in connection with mistreatment of detainees at an Iraqi prison did not receive in-depth training on the Geneva Conventions, which govern the handling of captives, a military spokeswoman said Friday."(Note that nobody is being coirt-martialed.)

Shame Of Abuse By Brit TroopsA hooded Iraqi captive is beaten by British soldiers before being thrown from a moving truck and left to die.

UK troops in Iraqi torture probeOh the delicious timing. Only hours after the UK described photos of Americans abusing Iraqis, a photo of a British soldier urinating on an Iraqi hits the front pages! The abuse is not isolated. It is systemic. And this is how Americans and British will be judged by the rest of the world for decades to come.

Shopworker‘sickened’by POW photos"One of the images allegedly showed an Iraqi, bound and gagged, hanging from a rope on a fork-lift truck."Looks like Amnesty International is right, abuse of POWs by coalition forces is system-wide.

Controversy Swirls Over Humiliation Of Iraqi Prisoners

POWs Were Paraded Naked In Public A Year Ago

Amnesty: Iraqis Complain of Torture by U.S. ForcesIraqis detained by U.S. troops have complained of torture and degrading treatment, Amnesty International said Wednesday. There were also reports of troops shooting detainees, the London-based human rights watchdog said in a report based on interviews with former prisoners of the Americans across Iraq.

Torture of Iraq Prisoners Prompts Wave of Revulsion

Arab TV stations broadcast images of U.S. forces humiliating Iraqi prisonersSomehow I think the price of crude oil is about to go up. The US Government has become a severe liability for the American people.

Torture pictures 'the end' for USA in IraqChilling TV pictures of Iraqi prisoners being tortured and abused by US soldiers will damage Britain and signal the"end of the story"for America in Iraq, it was claimed today. The pictures taken by US soldiers guarding Iraqis were broadcast on TV news bulletins in the US last night. The graphic photos show hooded and naked prisoners being abused, some sexually, with US soldiers smiling and looking on.

Iraqi torture images 'will damage Britain'

US war crimes: how troops tortured Iraqi prisoners

Arab Stations Show Iraqi Prisoner Images

Photos show jail abuse by US troopsThis is the top story around the globe—except for the US media, which remains focused on Michael Jackson's court appearence.

US general suspended over Iraq prison abuseA senior US military spokesman says Brigadier General Janis Karpinski was suspended from her duties in late January after six US soldiers were indicted for mistreating prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.

US military in torture scandal"Graphic photographs showing the torture and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners in a US-run prison outside Baghdad emerged yesterday from a military inquiry which has left six soldiers facing a possible court martial and a general under investigation."

Iraq: Torture not isolated -- independent investigations vitalThe torture captured on photographs appears to be just one example of a pattern of systemic abuses.

Iraqi abuse photos spark shockThe world reacts in horror to prisoner abuse that would make a Nazi blush. Meanwhile, the US media frets about Michael Jackson's arraignment.

Abuse Of Iraqi Prisoners Probed

Six coalition personnel charged over alleged Iraq prisoner abuse"He said footage showing alleged abuse might be shown on US television later on Wednesday but rejected suggestions that the announcement of the charges was linked to the public exposure which the case might receive."

CBS Airs Alleged GIs Abuse of Iraqis

Abuse Of Iraqi POWs By GIs Probed

US general suspended over abuse"A US general has been suspended in Iraq over the alleged abuse of prisoners by US troops in jails she ran."