U.S. Soldiers Say Torture Against Iraqi People Was Authorized And Routine

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/23b15362e4463acbeedc1df741c0c24e.htm

U.S.: Soldiers Tell of Detainee Abuse in Iraq

(New York, July 23, 2006) ? Torture and other abuses against detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq were authorized and routine, even after the 2004 Abu Ghraib scandal, according to new accounts from soldiers in a Human Rights Watch report released today. The new report, containing first-hand accounts by U.S. military personnel interviewed by Human Rights Watch, details detainee abuses at an off-limits facility at Baghdad airport and at other detention centers throughout Iraq. In the 53-page report, "No Blood, No Foul: Soldiers' Accounts of Detainee Abuse in Iraq," soldiers describe how detainees were routinely subjected to severe beatings, painful stress positions, severe sleep deprivation, and exposure to extreme cold and hot temperatures. The accounts come from interviews conducted by Human Rights Watch, supplemented by memoranda and sworn statements contained in declassified documents.

"Soldiers were told that the Geneva Conventions did not apply, and that interrogators could use abusive techniques to get detainees to talk," said John Sifton, the author of the report and the senior researcher on terrorism and counterterrorism at Human Rights Watch. "These accounts rebut U.S. government claims that torture and abuse in Iraq was unauthorized and exceptional ? on the contrary, it was condoned and commonly used."

The accounts reveal that detainee abuse was an established and apparently authorized part of the detention and interrogation processes in Iraq for much of 2003-2005. They also suggest that soldiers who sought to report abuse were rebuffed or ignored.

The Human Rights Watch report comes at a time when Bush administration officials and congressional leaders are hotly debating the applicability of the Geneva Conventions to detainee treatment. The report provides vivid demonstration of the abuses that result when these basic international standards are ignored.

Some of the most serious abuses detailed in the report concern a special task force, which was called at various times Task Force 20, Task Force 121, Task Force 6-26, and Task Force 145, and was stationed at an off-limits detention center at the Baghdad airport, called Camp Nama.

[Gman]

1. If the complete truth be known...

we have no idea of the number and frequency of the atrocities and war crimes that have been committed in Iraq. and the Bush "administration" knows full well they are completely culpable and could be prosecuted not only here but in the ICC>

[dipsydoodle]

2. Maybe they should have read up on the Nuremburg Trials

"deemed to have committed crime under if individual: (a)is principal; (b)is accessory; (c)took consenting part; (d)was connected with

They are all as guilty as sin with no defence.

[Toots]

3. Bush* signed the paper saying his Cabal didn't have to follow those laws

Of course it was authorized. It was even encouraged and the evidence is in Bush*'s signing statements. Why would he even bother with putting his name on such a statement if they didn't plan on continuing the torture of innocents. IMO this is absolute evidence that can be used in a courtroom of law over war crimes. His name is attached to a statement saying they could use torture even though US law forbids it. What more do we need?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. But, it was for a good cause.

The stabilization, pacification, and the foundation of a non-secular Iraqi democracy.

We can see how well it worked and is working.

[Canuckistanian]

5. If torture is such a good idea, where are the results?

They've tortured so many, they should have broken the insurgency by now with all that "good intelligence".

[DistressedAmerican]

6. But That Can't Be!

We're leading the fight against torture BY EXAMPLE!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1707411

[The Cleaner]

8. Recently I wrote to an RW columnist

regarding her article on torture. She was lamenting that liberals want to give terrorists fair trials, fair treatment, etc. I wrote her back and told her that many there in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, etc. weren't even terrorists. Also I told her that it's a complex issue that could possibly wreak havoc on our standing in the world, and our reputation. I didn't hear back from her of course.

Funny that we went into Iraq to depose an evil dictator who tortured his own people, and then what do we go in there and do? Torture their people.

What an utterly ironic, dispicable foreign policy.

[NNN0LHI]

9. Don't forget Iraq's "rape rooms" that we don't hear anything about any more

We have our own "rape rooms" over there now.

Welcome to DU.

Don

[DistressedAmerican]

10. Good For You!

I get so sick of this "They're terrorists" crap. We don't know what the hell they are and never will at this point.

Bush's own words make it clear, "freedom from torture is an inalienable human right". That means ALL PEOPLE. Could not have said it better myself.

[NicRic]

7. Favorite book & fav passtime !

Lets see during his first run for President he claimed his favorite book ,which of course he never read (you have to know how to read) was the Bible .So in this favorite book of his ,it says Blessed are the peace makers ,then he turns around and calls himself a war President ,invades a country ,kills thousands of inocents. Iam wondering if he just found the Bible a good read ,however did not agree with any of its premise ?

[hootinholler]

11. FUCK THIS! Sign my damned petition!

Or do something! This must be stopped!

I want investigations! I want trials! I want convictions!

I want Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld in the Hague!

-Holler

[fasttense]

12. The bushes used those soldiers not only for war but

as scapegoats for their war crimes.

"Soldiers were told that the Geneva Conventions did not apply, and that interrogators could use abusive techniques to get detainees to talk," said John Sifton, the author of the report and the senior researcher on terrorism and counterterrorism at Human Rights Watch. "These accounts rebut U.S. government claims that torture and abuse in Iraq was unauthorized and exceptional ? on the contrary, it was condoned and commonly used."

Each of those soldiers who ignored the Geneva Convention are war criminals themselves. Ignorance of the law is no excuse and in the UCMJ you don't have to follow an illegal order. While we are sorting out the petty criminals who carried out those illegal orders, the bushes will have escaped justice.