Above qoute by :David Shiner, one of the lawyers taking the current case to the High Court, says the abuse is systemic and any inquiry has to be public.
Anyway the issue of detainee abuse and torture is still an ongoing concern. There are those in the Bush/Cheney administration who were complicit in the abuse and torture of Iraqis and Afghans who still need to be put on trial for their Crimes Against Humanity and for War Crimes.
Yet Obama is still refusing to deal with this issue. In fact he appears to agree with the GOP , Neocons, Uberconservatives and the Christian Dominionists that what was done was necessary and is a US private matter.
But such abuses have been condemned by various human rights organizations and the United Nations and are pressuring the United States and the UK to take action against the perpetrators. As we have seen over the past nine years the abuse , torture, assassinations, and summary executions and the use of Shia Death Squads are not just the actions of a "Few Bad Apples " but was in fact widespread and either ignored by the US and UK governments or in fact encouraged. By not pursuing these charges diligently and arresting perpetrators over the past nine years has led to tacit approval of these illegal and immoral tactics.
Under the Bush and Obama administrations the ongoing attitude is to ignore the UN or International condemnations of such actions. In their arrogance and their belief that America can do no wrong these administrations and the US military, Pentagon, Special OPS and the CIA and FBI they believe that they are not accountable to the International Community for their illegal and immoral actions .
It appears that Obama has continued with these criminal activities as he ignores abuses by the US military and other agencies . He wants everyone to just forget about it as if it never happened which has just led to a climate in which the US military and security forces feel they have been given Carte Blanche to do whatever they feel is necessary to do in the so-called War on Terror". But this attitude and these criminal actions are in fact just fueling more hatred and distrust of America and its allies by Iraqis, Afghans, Pashtan, Pakistanis and the International Community.
Over and over again the US and its allies have shown they have no regard for the lives of the citizens of these countries . This is all just part of America's determination to call the shots and do as it pleases to maintain its Rogue Empire and World Dominance and hegemony .
We also see that Obama has continued and even extended the illegal surveillance of US citizens and those citizens of other nations around the globe.
Obama has also ramped up investigations and laying criminal charges against courageous and heroic "Whistleblowers" who see wrong being done and so go public with their information in order to make all members of the US government and its various departments accountable to the American public.
Iraqi victims of UK abuse want public inquiry, RT News, Nov. 5, 2010
Lawyers of 142 Iraqi civilians, who claim they suffered abuse by British soldiers, are pushing for the UK's High Court to allow a full public inquiry.
The allegations include torture, sensory deprivation, forced nakedness and stress positions.
The abuse allegedly took place in British-controlled detention centers in Iraq between 2003 and 2008.
The UK Ministry of Defense says it is investigating claims and there is no need for a public inquiry.
Journalist and editor Chris Ames believes that is because British military service is afraid of a public inquiry.
“The Ministry of Defence is certainly very much opposed and afraid of the public inquiry. I'm not so sure about the government and the politicians. The Secretary of Defence, Leon Fox, has said that he has an open mind if things come out that will justify a wide range of inquiries, they will allow that,” Ames told RT.
Such probes have already been launched for two similar cases involving alleged torture and killing of civilians by British soldiers.
David Shiner, one of the lawyers taking the current case to the High Court, says the abuse is systemic and any inquiry has to be public.
“There is no doubt that this is systemic within the interrogation policy,” David Shiner said. “We know for example, that there was a policy of getting them naked. This is clearly a systemic issue. It is absolute nonsense to suggest this is a few bad apples.”
The United Nations and other international human rights groups allege that from the beginning of the US invasion of Iraq the plan has been to dismantle the Nation of Iraq. This explains the massive bombardment of Iraq's infrastructure , highways, hospitals, utilities followed by attacks on its educational system and attacks which have led to a complete breakdown of Iraqi's civil society.
The Americans as we now know used Shia Death Squads using terrorist tactics, assassinations, targeted killings, torture and murder to Ethnically Cleanse whole areas of Iraq of Sunnis to defeat the insurgency.
Beyond the WikiLeaks Files: Dismantling the Iraqi State by Dirk Adriaensens, Truthout Op-Ed , Nov. 5, 2010
The United Nation's Human Rights Council in Geneva reviews the human rights record of the United States on November 5, 2010, on the occasion of the Ninth Session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), November 1 to 12, 2010. The following is an edited version of the presentation given by Dirk Adriaensens in Geneva on November 3.
Just days after the devastating attacks of 9/11, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz declared that a major focus of US foreign policy would be "ending states that sponsor terrorism." Iraq was labeled a "terrorist state" targeted for termination. President Bush went on to declare Iraq the major front of the global war on terror. US forces invaded the country illegally with the express aim of dismantling the Iraqi state. After World War II, the social sciences focused on state-building and development models. Little has been written about state destruction and de-development. We can now, after seven years of war and occupation, state for certain that state ending was a deliberate policy objective.
The consequences in human and cultural terms of the destruction of the Iraqi state have been enormous: notably the death of over 1.3 million civilians; the degradation in social infrastructure, including electricity, potable water and sewage systems; over eight million Iraqis are in need of humanitarian assistance; abject poverty: the UN Human rights report for the first quarter of 2007 found that 54 percent of Iraqis were living on less than $1 a day; the displacement of minimum 2.5 million refugees and 2,764,000 internally displaced people as to end 2009. One in six Iraqis is displaced. Ethnic and religious minorities are on the verge of extinction. UN-HABITAT, an agency of the United Nations, published a 218-page report entitled "State of the World's Cities, 2010-2011." Prior to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the percentage of the urban population living in slums in Iraq hovered just below 20 percent. Today, that percentage has risen to 53 percent: 11 million of the 19 million total urban dwellers.
also see: US Weathers Calls for Torture Probes at UN Rights Meet by Peter Capella Agence France Presse via Common Dreams.org, Nov. 5, 2010
GENEVA - The United States faced a barrage of calls to investigate allegations of torture and shut down Guantanamo Bay detention centre on Friday in its first review by the UN's top human rights assembly.
European countries joined appeals for a halt to the death penalty, and there was trenchant criticism of Washington's recent human rights record during wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the detention and interrogation of terror suspects.
It prompted a robust defence from senior US officials at the 47-member Human Rights Council, although US Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner acknowledged that they "were not satisfied with the status quo.
Cuban ambassador Rodolfo Reyes Rodriguez called on the United States to "halt war crimes and the killing of civilians," while Venezuela's German Mundarain Hernandez recommended that Washington "put to trial those responsible for victims of torture."
China and Russia acknowledged progress in health and education, as well as attempts to tackle what the Russian ambassador called the "more odious" human rights violations during conflicts.
But they both urged the swift closure of terror detention centres, while Russia recommended "a careful investigation of the facts in the use of torture especially in Guantanamo and Bagram" air force base in Afghanistan.
The half-day public debate came just two weeks after whistleblowing website WikiLeaks published 400,000 classified US documents on the Iraq war, reviving concern about a lack of accountability for abuse.
Koh insisted that cases had been subject to disciplinary action, although he made no mention of the broader judicial prosecution demanded by human rights campaigners.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that former US president George W. Bush wrote in his new memoir that he personally gave the go-ahead for CIA officers to waterboard self-confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
The Western reaction on allegations of torture and abuse was more muted.
European countries including Britain, as well as Australia, recommended a moratorium or abolition of the death penalty, while France urged President Barack Obama to "honour his promise" in 2009 to close Guantanamo.
Koh responded: "While the commitment has not wavered, the task is complex. President Obama cannot do it alone."
A total of 172 detainees remain there, out of 242 when Obama took office in 2008, he added, insisting on the need for help from Congress, the courts and US allies willing to host ex-detainees.
After Arab countries raised concerns about "Islamophobia" in the United States, Posner acknowledged that US Muslims had also highlighted "a pattern of intolerance and discrimination" during a civil society meeting.
also see on what the midterm election results mean regarding the American initiated wars in Iraq, Aghanistan etc.
Midterm Election Results a Setback for Peace by Tom Hayden, The Nation , Nov. 5, 2010
The November election was a setback for the peace movement, not only because of the defeat of Sen. Russ Feingold but for deeper reasons.
Both parties collaborated in keeping Afghanistan out of the national election debate and media coverage - while during the period June-November alone, 274 American soldiers were killed and 2,934 were wounded on the battlefield.
(The official American toll under Obama in Afghanistan has become at least 730 deaths and 6,400 wounded; the taxpayer costs under Obama currently are $113 billion per year.)
Democratic candidates this year chose not to use Afghanistan-Iraq as an issue perhaps because they have become Obama's wars. According to the New York Times, the US even plans to orchestrate an invitation to remain in Iraq after the current 2011 deadline, but desperately wanted to keep the controversy out of the election debates.
With Republican control of the House, antiwar Democrats will have little room to hold hearings or maneuver against the wars. There were 162 House members, nearly all Democrats, who voted against funding the war or in favor of an exit strategy earlier this year, one-fourth of the House. In the Senate, Feingold authored similar legislation that obtained 18 votes, a number not likely to increase either.
The notion among some that ultra-right fiscally conservative Republicans will vote with the peace Democrats is largely a fantasy. Republicans like Karl Rove did not want to advertise their support for Obama's troop escalation this fall while they prepare to blast him for drawing down short of "victory" next July. For example, Sen. John McCain, who is planning a trip to Afghanistan, told Reuters that "this date for withdrawal that the president announced without any military advice or counsel has caused us enormous problems in our operations in Afghanistan, because our enemies are encouraged and our friends are confused over there."
and British groups and others are concerned about the USA still using barbaric practice of "The Death Penalty". The majority of Western Nations have banned "The Death Penalty" while Americans appear to be proud of such an outdated regressive punishment. The American populace seem to get a thrill out of watching someone getting a lethal injection, or being gassed or electrocuted in the same way they have that they enjoy a killing , slaughtering the citizens of other nations. Their bloodlust appears to have no bounds. Meanwhile they retreat into their know nothing Pollyanna mindset whenever they or their government are criticized by the international community. They claim they are the innocent victims and that the rest of the world is involved in a conspiracy to destroy America.
This past election shows America wants more war not less , more torture and abuse of POWS and a more strident proactive strategy to deal with the Islamic threat at home that is they want to see more roundups of Muslim Americans. Though of course according to America's shadow governments spokespersons at Fox News and the GOP they believe it is a contradiction in terms for someone to call themselves real Americans if they are in fact Muslim.
:British Group Says It's Suing to Stop Export of Execution Drug to U.S.
http://act.commondreams.org/go/3012?akid=251.45481.MRWoUI&t=10
and see via Common Dreams.org:
Karl Frisch: Fox News Wins The 2010 Election
http://act.commondreams.org/go/3026?akid=251.45481.MRWoUI&t=34
Chase Madar: Guantánamo, Exception or Rule?
http://act.commondreams.org/go/3027?akid=251.45481.MRWoUI&t=36
and so it goes,
GORD.
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