KENT STATE KILLINGS BY NATIONAL GUARD (1970) OR HOW TO DEAL WITH ANY WHO CRITICIZE U.S. POLICIES
VIETNAMESE OFFICER EXECUTES VIETCON PRISONER ALL JUST PART OF THE TRADITIONAL AMERICAN WAY OF FIGHTING WARS !!!
NAPALM VICTIMS FLEEING IN VIETNAM : THAT OTHER DIRTY LITTLE WAR
IRAQI DETAINEES HUMILIATED BY BRITISH SOLDIERS
TORTURE OF DETAINEES BY U.S. PERSONNEL
ALL IN THE NAME OF GOD DEMOCRACY & FAMILY VALUES !!!
(REMINDS ME OF BIRMINGHAM , ALABAMA )
Yes here we go again Torture & MORE TORTURE !!!
Anyway The CBC on Wednesday November 16 broadcast a disturbing report about the detainees being abused at Abu Ghraib .
The report is based largely on eye-witness accounts of what took place . It documents that the abuse which took place was not an isolated event & that the abuses were sanctioned & were part of a deliberate policy of torture by those closest to Pres. Bush.
In typical fashion the Bush Administration labels all who criticize US policies as being un-American & as traitors who give aid & comfort as it were to the enemy by questioning the Bush administration's policies regarding its way of dealing with detainees in Iraq or elsewhere.
Similarly all who dare raise questions about how the US is conducting the war in Iraq are labeled un-American & supporters of the terrorists. This therefore includes those who raise questions about US forces using Napalm , WHITE PHOSPOROUS, as a form of Chemical Warfare in Iraq.
The US &her allies are now Threatening to shut down any News Agency which persists on publishing any material which questions American policies in the way it conducts its War on Terrorism.
What bothers the US administration is not that torture is taking place within its detention Centres but that some individuals have leaked these facts to the press.
The belief of the present US administration is that whatever actions it takes are justified because of the attack on 9/11.
The administration is out for revenge & its pound of flesh as it were . But one wonders when will they be satisfied & what other atrocities & War Crimes will they commit before they are satisfied.
One of the more recent examples of this is the leak of the talks between Pres. Bush & Prime Minister Tony Blair which lends some credence to allegations by Al Jazeera that its facilities are personnel were being targeted by US & her allied forces. To Tony Blair's credit it seems even he saw such actions as going too far as being unjustified or more to the point as counter-productive.
For more details go to CBC website:
CBC NEWS: THE FIFTH ESTATE - ABUSES AT ABU GHRAIB ENCOURAGED AND CONDONED BY US GOVERNMENT A FEW BAD APPLES
see website: CBC-TV News: the fifth estate - A Few Bad Apples
CBC-TV, the fifth estate, Abu Ghraib
David Studer is the Executive Producer of the fifth estate. Sally Reardon is Senior Producer
www.cbc.ca/fifth/badapples/
According to the report, the abuses of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison was not the work of rogue elements, but was behaviour condoned, even encouraged, by the American military command in Iraq and members of the US government.
Gillian Findlay investigates and interviews some of the soldiers who served at Abu Ghraib’s infamous Tier 1A where detainees were routinely stripped, beaten, shackled, attacked by dogs and degraded by being forced to simulate sexual acts. The powerful first-person testimony of the soldiers takes the viewer inside Abu Ghraib on one night in October, 2003 when one of the iconic photographic images of American soldiers tormenting Iraqi detainees was taken.
Aggressive interrogation policies that contravened the Geneva Conventions were condoned and, in many instances, encouraged by the highest levels of the American government. High-level commanders insisted detainees be "broken". Soldiers in the field now understood that the "gloves [were] coming off."
Young, inexperienced reserve soldiers like Israel Rivera were ordered to help break the detainees. Rivera told the fifth estate's Gillian Findlay: "I mean, prior to being an [intelligence] analyst I worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken, so it was quite a big jump from being a 19-year-old wage worker to, you know, people coming toward you and saying well, what do you think."Aggressive interrogation policies that contravened the Geneva Conventions were condoned and, in many instances, encouraged by the highest levels of the American government. High-level commanders insisted detainees be "broken". Soldiers in the field now understood that the "gloves [were] coming off."
Israel Rivera witnessed the abuse against Iraqi prisoners that night and walked away. The next day he reported the incident to his commander.
The report also uncovers never-before-seen photographs: images that were swapped among the soldiers like trading cards.
Findlay also describes a White House desperate for military intelligence in its war on terror and its decision to reject the Geneva Convention by writing a legal framework to justify the abusive interrogation techniques used at Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan and Abu Ghraib. Findlay interviews John Yoo, the senior member of the US legal team, whose job was to define the word “torture” and ensure that Geneva Conventions on prisoner detainment and treatment no longer applied in the US context.
(The interview with John Yoo illustrates how legal training has little to do with ethical or moral concerns. The law as such is just to be re-interpreted & manipulated to support a particular group’s agenda . According to this view on the law International agreements like the Geneva Convention & The Declaration of Human Rights are just silly notions of naive quixotic liberals & leftists. Though not all lawyers hopefully are as cynical as he & his bosses like Dick Cheney & Donald Rumsfeld etc. are. Amnesty International, for instance, is a group which includes a number of lawyers who are not of Mr. Yoo’s mind-set also decent human beings.)
AND about the photos:
The images that the world came to know as the Abu Ghraib photos come from, not one, but many cameras. Soldiers who worked in the prison burned pictures on cd’s and traded them amongst themselves. They were even used as screen savers on office computers.
In late April 2004, the CBS News program 60 Minutes II broke a story involving abuse and humiliation of Iraqi inmates by U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
CBS News, at first, delayed its report on the story for two weeks on a request from Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Myers told CBS the story could hurt the American war effort and jeopardize lives.
See the following related news items on the NET:
And what was even more damaging to the Bush administration were the candid revelations provided by retired U.S. Army Col. Larry Wilkerson on CNN on Sunday November 20, 2005.
( In this instance even CNN had to sit up & take notice though in their attempt at “ balanced journalism “ they allowed Cheney & Rumsfeld to give their little fear-mongering statements or lectures as it were on the matter.
In their usual style when some official or former member of the Bush administration criticizes its policies CNN brings out a dozen or so Neo-Cons & spokespersons for the Religious Right to try to undermine what that particular critic has said- the other U.S. networks are just as bad most of the time.)
Powell aide: Torture 'guidance' from VP
Former staff chief says Cheney's 'flexibility' helped lead to abuse
Sunday, November 20, 2005; Posted: 5:18 p.m. EST (22:18 GMT)
-- A former top State Department official said Sunday that Vice President Dick Cheney provided the "philosophical guidance" and "flexibility" that led to the torture of detainees in U.S. facilities.
Retired U.S. Army Col. Larry Wilkerson, who served as former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff ( from 2002-2005), told CNN that the practice of torture may be continuing in U.S.-run facilities.
"There's no question in my mind that we did. There's no question in my mind that we may be still doing it," Wilkerson said on CNN's "Late Edition."
"There's no question in my mind where the philosophical guidance and the flexibility in order to do so originated -- in the vice president of the United States' office," he said. "His implementer in this case was [Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld and the Defense Department."
Also check out these articles:
WASHINGTON POST
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 24, 2005
www.washingtonpost.com
A 30-page report by Human Rights Watch describes an Army captain's 17-month effort to gain clear understanding of how U.S. soldiers were supposed to treat detainees, and depicts his frustration with what he saw as widespread abuse that the military's leadership failed to address. The Army officer made clear that he believes low-ranking soldiers have been held responsible for abuse to cover for officers who condoned it.
YAHOO NEWS
White House declines to totally rule out torture
Sun Nov 13, 6:23 PM ET
and from HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
CIA Whitewashing Torture
Statements by Goss Contradict U.S. Law and Practice
(New York, November 21, 2005)
also see THE GUARDIAN UNLIMITED
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
'They couldn't take away my dignity'
Four former Guantánamo detainees talk about their experiences
Mark Oliver
Friday November 18, 2005
AND:
ABC NEWS NOVEMBER 21, 2005
HARSH TREATMENTS OF DETAINEES
By BRIAN ROSS and RICHARD ESPOSITO
ABC NEWS NOVEMBER 21, 2005
AND:
New Reports Surface About Detainee Abuse
Mistreatment Was Routine, Soldiers Say
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
also see DAILY TIMES
NOVEMBER 22, 2005
http://www.dailytimes.com
How the CIA tortures some prisoners
And for the Neo-Cons perspective :
Tony Blankley
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
September 12, 2005 'An Islamist threat like the Nazis'
& on September 13, 14 2005
http://www.washingtontimes.com/
Tony Blankley, editorial-page editor of The Washington Times, describes the present danger posed by militant Islam and what must be done to counter it in his new book, "The West's Last Chance: Will We Win the Clash of Civilizations?" (Regnery Publishing 2005 )
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