Mr. Obama is looking the other way: Seymour Hersh Describes "Battlefield Executions"

[Karmadillo]

http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/

Seymour Hersh Describes "Battlefield Executions" by U.S. in Afghanistan

Here's more from Seymour Hersh speaking at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva recently. Better looking highlights that don't include this can be found here.

HERSH: The purpose of my stories was to take it out of the field and into the White House. It's not that the President or the Secretary of Defense Mr. Rumsfeld, or Bush, or Cheney, it's not that they knew what happened in Abu Ghraib. It's that they had allowed this kind of activity to happen.

And I'll tell you right now, one of the great tragedies of my country is that Mr. Obama is looking the other way, because equally horrible things are happening to prisoners, to those we capture in Afghanistan. They're being executed on the battlefield. It's unbelievable stuff going on there that doesn't necessarily get reported. Things don't change.

<...>

What they've done in the field now is, they tell the troops, you have to make a determination within a day or two or so whether or not the prisoners you have, the detainees, are Taliban. You must extract whatever tactical intelligence you can get, as opposed to strategic, long-range intelligence, immediately. And if you cannot conclude they're Taliban, you must turn them free. What it means is, and I've been told this anecdotally by five or six different people, battlefield executions are taking place. Well, if they can't prove they're Taliban, bam. If we don't do it ourselves, we turn them over to the nearby Afghan troops and by the time we walk three feet the bullets are flying. And that's going on now.

[ZombieHorde]

1. Mr. Obama has no more power than you or I, however, President Obama may be able to

do something about the situation.

[Lost4words]

5. But he is not going to, mark my words! nt

[Karmadillo]

6. I don't think I can order US troops out of Afghanistan.

nt

[ZombieHorde]

8. Then you agree with my post. nt

[Karmadillo]

10. I doubt it

nt

[ZombieHorde]

12. Then go back and reread. nt

[Karmadillo]

13. It's late. Let's pretend

I went back and reread and we came to an amicable agreement and we parted friends forever. Sleep well, amigo. Fight the good fight tomorrow.

[ZombieHorde]

14. Let us part as cannibalistic lovers.

My post was about the title "Mr." versus the title "President."

So Mr. Obama has little power, but President Obama has great power.

[Karmadillo]

15. Sleep well,

you riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.

[inna]

17. "cannibalistic lovers"

it's not even funny, seriously.

[ZombieHorde]

18. Good, because it was meant to be romantic. nt

[G_j]

2. ICRC Confirms Existence of Second Secret Prison at Bagram, BBC Reports Torture

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8337484

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/46757

ICRC Confirms Existence of Second Secret Prison at Bagram, BBC Reports Torture
By: Jeff Kaye Tuesday May 11, 2010 8:42 am

Hilary Anderson at BBC has been following the Bagram prison story closely. Today, she reports that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has confirmed the existence of a second prison site at Bagram. The presence of a second site has long been suspected, a prison the Afghans call Tor Prison, or the "Black" Prison.

The US military says the main prison, now called the Detention Facility in Parwan, is the only detention facility on the base.

However, it has said it will look into the abuse allegations made to the BBC.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that since August 2009 US authorities have been notifying it of names of detained people in a separate structure at Bagram.

Obama Tortures, Too

Last month, BBC reported on conditions at the main Parwan facility. The scenes as described were right out of the iconography of Guantanamo. Prisoners in handcuffs and leg shackles, "moved around in wheelchairs" with blackout goggles and headphones "to block out all sound." This was the treatment for a prison population that even the U.S. military admits is far and away not made up of serious terrorists. Meanwhile, the number held at Bagram has swelled to approximately 800 prisoners.

But we don’t know how many are in the other, "the Black Hole." We don’t know because the U.S. still insists that no second prison exists. Prisoners held at Tor, according to investigations by BBC, are tossed into cold concrete cells, where the light is kept on 24 hours. Noise machines fill their cells with constant sound, and prisoners are sleep deprived as a matter of policy, with each cell monitored by a camera, so the authorities will know when someone is falling asleep and come to wake them.

Prisoners are beaten and abused. According to BBC’s article last month, one prisoner was "made to dance to music by American soldiers every time he wanted to use the toilet."

..more..

[Lost4words]

3. Is this a great country or what!?

nobody kills like the good ole USA, hell, innocent guilty young old we dont give a shit, its not like we are killing human beings.
we kill with drones now that takes great courage to go into an air conditioned room, soft lights for the monitors, quite except for crys of joy. You can even take a little break in the cafeteria a little coffee joke with friends and just enough time for some target practice before driving home in that damn rush hour traffic. Such glory such power such evil.

Why has the USA moral compass gone awry, its those damn gays, and pot smokers, oh and Illegals!

[BeFree]

4. eh?

And this is supposed to work to make Afghanistan safe for America?

Somehow I think they got this going ass-backwards.

Not good.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[amborin]

9. knr

[Rex]

11. We've gotten away with murder before in war and we will again

in the future. Battlefield executions do not surprise me, I bet that has been going on for years.

[MannyGoldstein]

16. Didn't Our Military Learn Their Lesson About Being Prosecuted For War Crimes

When Obama prosecuted Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest?

Oh... never mind.

[Karmadillo]

19. Maybe this is yet another look forward, not backwards moment.

nt

[JohnyCanuck]

20. kick n/t

[Karmadillo]

21. Kick.

nt