U.S.: No Widespread Abuse in Iraq Prisons

White House - AP Cabinet & State


U.S.: No Widespread Abuse in Iraq Prisons

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WASHINGTON - Top U.S. military officer Gen. Richard Myers said Sunday there is no widespread pattern of abuse of Iraqi prisoners and that the actions of "just a handful" of U.S. troops at a Baghdad prison have unfairly tainted all American forces.


An internal Army report found that Iraqi detainees were subjected to "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, according to The New Yorker magazine, which said it obtained a copy of the report.

~snip~

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said "categorically" that "there is no evidence of systematic abuse" in the U.S. detention operations in the region.


"We review all the interrogation methods. Torture is not one of the methods that we're allowed to use and that we use," Myers said. "I mean, it's just not permitted by international law, and we don't use it."
~snip~

much more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&e=2&u=/ap/20040502/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_prisoner_abuse

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Myers admits he hasn't even read the 54 page report, so he can't comment on the veracity. My God...when will they quit the spin.



Gen. BLUE SUIT MEYERS puppet boy, US military catamite, appointed by Cheney Caesar in
the year of Our Lord 2001

His quotes “Duh, we are winning” and on the increased violence that flared up this month is "a
symptom of the success that we're having here in Iraq"

And "No my hand is not grabbing at her breast"

Also on the subject of Fallujah "We went in because we had to find the perpetrators and what
we found was a huge rat's nest that is still festering today. It needs to be dealt with,"

Also on the subject of Fallujah "We went in because we had to find the perpetrators and what we found was a huge rat's nest that is still festering today. It needs to be dealt with." ---Meyers

So he goes and hires Saddam's Republican Guard generals to deal with it.
But Meyers, my darling, aren't these Baath generals the biggest rats of them all? Or have we switched sides and become allies with the terrorists?

What a fucking bullshitter Meyer is! :eyes:

:eyes:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1513947


FreakinDJ (1000+ posts) Sun May-02-04 11:28 AM
Original message
US Forces restrict Red Cross access in Iraq
This is from the International Red Cross's web site.
It appears US Forces have restricted their access to some of the prisons and camps for quite some time.
Based on its humanitarian mandate defined by the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions, the ICRC visits detainees – prisoners of war and civilians – in all major detention places under the authority of the Occupying Power. Family visits to detainees are only authorized in some prisons and camps, which means that for many detainees and their families Red Cross messages offer the only possibility to send a sign of life.
http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/iwpList322/02BD49A599DE9593C1...
Look for many of these detainees to be released into obscurity of the countryside or transfered to camps in other countries. The Administration and Armed forces are in Full Cover Up mode on this one

Then why the fuck are you restricting the ICRC visits to prisons?

And he hasn't even read the damn investigation report! What an a-----e!

:mad:


P.S. DU Reader, your link to the ICRC doesn't work and I can't find the article there. Can you please redo the link? Thanks.

from FreakinDJ's thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1513947


http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/iwpList322/02BD49A599DE9593C1256DA400389ECB

There's a big difference.

That is why the Red Cross brings letters back to the families.

prisoners, but in the beginning at the time of these incidents perhaps they were not.


~snip~
She acknowledged that she "probably should have been more aggressive" about visiting the interrogation cellblock, especially after military intelligence officers at the prison went "to great lengths to try to exclude the I.C.R.C. from access to that interrogation wing."
~snip~

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040502/ZNYT03/405020391

.
.
.

and so on.

the rest of the world." EU: "That's just fine, let the US play its silly games and before they know it, our economy will steamroll theirs; then the fun really begins!"

should we believe them now?

When the military runs banners like this on the internet -




then you know the problem is cultural and goes all the way to the top.

and rampant!



I feel better now and much at peace. No worries anymore.

AI INDEX: MDE 14/017/2004 30 April 2004

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE


AI Index: MDE 14/017/2004 (Public)
News Service No: 111
30 April 2004


Iraq: Torture not isolated -- independent investigations vital

There is a real crisis of leadership in Iraq -- with double standards and double speak on human rights, Amnesty International said today.

"The latest evidence of torture and ill-treatment emerging from Abu Ghraib prison will exacerbate an already fragile situation. The prison was notorious under Saddam Hussein -- it should not be allowed to become so again. Iraq has lived under the shadow of torture for far too long. The Coalition leadership must send a clear signal that torture will not be tolerated under any circumstances and that the Iraqi people can now live free of such brutal and degrading practices," Amnesty International said.

"There must be a fully independent, impartial and public investigation into all allegations of torture. Nothing less will suffice. If Iraq is to have a sustainable and peaceful future, human rights must be a central component of the way forward. The message must be sent loud and clear that those who abuse human rights will be held accountable.

"Our extensive research in Iraq suggests that this is not an isolated incident. It is not enough for the USA to react only once images have hit the television screens".

Amnesty International has received frequent reports of torture or other ill-treatment by Coalition Forces during the past year. Detainees have reported being routinely subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment during arrest and detention. Many have told Amnesty International that they were tortured and ill-treated by US and UK troops during interrogation. Methods often reported include prolonged sleep deprivation; beatings; prolonged restraint in painful positions, sometimes combined with exposure to loud music; prolonged hooding; and exposure to bright lights. Virtually none of the allegations of torture or ill-treatment has been adequately investigated by the authorities.

Amnesty International is calling for investigations into alleged abuses by Coalition Forces to be conducted by a body that is competent, impartial and independent, and seen to be so, and that any findings of such investigations be made public. In addition reparation, including compensation, must be paid to the victims or to their families.

http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde140172004

That pillow helped reduce my red hot anger, and I neither drew blood or hurt another human being.

O8)

The denial and misrepresentations and flat out lies are worse than appalling or outrageous or disgusting,...they are just plain SICK!!!

...to the US attorney's office for a grand jury? What about the intelligence personnel?

My first thought was that these violations of the Conventions may have been isolated until I read Gen. Taguba's report. I guess that's why Myers claims he can't speak to it. The report makes clear that the abuse was systemic. I mean, after all, the Armed Forces is actually too vast and spread out for its commander to actually know what happened. What does this say about command and control at his level?

What's that?

Since 9-11, which was not an Intelligence Failure, it was a failure of Command and Control, we have been living in a rogue country with a rogue military.

When are these bastards going to be forced to resign in disgrace? And what is going to happen to America when they finally do?

But 911 was an operational plan. When the security screen is let down, you know it's an inside job.

George Stephanopoulos asked this very obvious question, and Myers couldn't answer it.

Myers actually did comment on the veracity of the report, he very strongly suggested
it was false, a number of times, even though he didn't read it, and it doesn't look
like he has any intention ever of reading it.

were false? :crazy:

with videos and photographs in the public domain. After all, if someone were to torture someone, 99.9999% of the time they would document it with videos.

:eyes:

whatever. :eyes:

Here are snips from the CBS transcript:

http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CBS405A.html

<RATHER: (Voiceover) This is Brigadier General Janice Karpinsky who ran Abu Ghraib for the Army. She was also in charge of three other Army prison facilities housing thousands of Iraqi inmates. The Army investigation determined that her lack of leadership and clear standards led to problems system-wide.>

<RATHER: Any indications, General, that anything approaching these kinds of things have happened in other prisons?

Gen. KIMMITT: Well, Dan, I'd like to sit here and say these are the only prisoner abuse cases that we're aware of, but we know that there have been some other ones since we've been here in Iraq.>

Seymour Hersh says "people were killed" at the prison. He says he has photographs of deceased. He says that intelligence people are hoping that the low ranking people will take the fall. The prison system was an interogation system run by intel types. Army lost control. Also, "It's a terrible thing that General Myer didn't read Taguba's report." It's inexcusable.

that SOME military intelligence operatives may have been involved. I just watched the show...

The General in charge of the prison (a woman) has been removed...

I suppose it depends on what your definition of 'widespread' is...

As long as they have shit to hide, it will continue. And they DO have shit to hide. LOTS of it. They're just MOST anguished that all this has come to light.

Probably also since they know if they did admit to anything, it might open the way to criminal prosecution - for people like Myers and others at his level. And we can't have that, now, can we?

Especially since Joseph Wilson indicated on "Meet the Press" this morning that White House operatives were calling news directors and editors and threatening them if their reporters wrote anything, ANYTHING even slightly negative. People are afraid for their jobs and their careers - one guy apparently told Wilson he had a mortgage and two kids in private school.

Y'know something? These ring VERY hollow. I'm sorry for the guy with the mortgage and two kids in private school. But we NEED our reporters and anchors to be fearless. If they speak truth to power - and there are enough of them, the White House can't threaten ANYBODY. All it takes is SOMEONE to stand up to them and others to follow suit. Remember, for example, when Helen Thomas got The Treatment? Shamed and shown to the back of the room, never called upon again? Remember the huge outcry of protest and indignation from her peers at the way she was treated?

(crickets chirping)

Anyone?

(MORE crickets chirping)

I rest my case.

DAMN, but I'm glad I'm NOT one of them anymore. I couldn't stomach that. And if I were in a position to report on White House politics (wasn't because I was an entertainment reporter), I would have gone ahead anyway, and would have undoubtedly received the Helen Thomas Treatment, and nobody would have stood up for me, either. Or my supervisor would have given me grief. I would probably have wanted to leak the info about that grief to somebody so it'd get out, and I would have been alone. Nobody in my upper management would have taken a stand about it.

I know this for a fact. The closest I ever came to this was, indeed, as an entertainment reporter. We in radio were being shut out of the big interviews for the big films, because the studios wanted to restrict their biggest names only to entities like "The Today Show" and "Good Morning America" or "The Tonight Show" or "USA Today" or "People Magazine" or "TV Guide" or "Entertainment Tonight." or CNN's "Showbiz Today" as it existed then. Just the biggies. And mostly TV shows. They had NO respect for radio. A group of us radio people banded together and decided to form an advocacy group that would speak for MANY of us and have clout and weight, to get past the anti-radio barricades. I mean, I was at the AP, which had something like 5 or 6 THOUSAND radio and TV stations as subscribers/members/affiliates. But because I was in radio, I faced that same discrimination.

I went back to my newsroom after our meeting together, wherein we had all determined to band together to exercise more clout. My mission was to speak to the newsroom chief - the News Editor - about possibly having the AP do a company-wide boycott of these movies if their studios refused to give our radio network access to their stars for interviews. The guy said no. He was afraid to be boycotted, because our competitors would get the interviews and the quotes and we wouldn't, so we'd look bad. So he turned me down. Then I went to my supervisor on the radio end - the Entertainment Editor. Told him of our group and my mission. HE turned me down, too! And he, of all people, was one of the WORST about calling me on the carpet, at least once or twice a week, for not being able to get the big interviews and what was the matter with me and what kind of intrepid reporter was I and why couldn't I pull this off. ALL THE TIME he crawled up my ass about this and held my feet to the fire. I'd complain right back to him that we were being shoved to the back of the room because the studios didn't want to bother with radio. When I presented him with a solution, and told him about our group and our hopes for a broad boycott, HE turned me down, too. AFRAID that we couldn't afford not to cover the big movies because our competitors would get them anyway and then we'd look bad. It was BEYOND frustrating. And he went back to reaming me a new one every week because I couldn't deliver many of the big interviews - which were not being made available to me and others like me in radio at press junkets, simply because we were RADIO, and we had to be satisfied with the lesser stars than the headliners, OR, if we did get access to a really big name, it was in a huge "gang-bang" of a press conference, while the TV people all got private one-on-ones.

It was awful. Funny, I'd forgotten about this. But I know what this coercion is like, from a very silly, superficial standpoint. It was awful. I was hamstrung. And incredibly frustrated. And hung out to dry repeatedly because my company refused to make a stand or have the guts to defy the studio bans to back me up. Because my management (and sometimes I worked for the printside, too, providing them all the quotes they needed or wanted to do a print story when they didn't have anybody to go out and cover something and knew they could piggyback on me. But did they support me when I came to them about this? NO. It just absolutely sucked. My morale was in the toilet about it most of the time. TERRIBLY demoralizing, especially when I'd be repeatedly browbeaten and memo'ed and emailed with complaints from higher up because I didn't have the one-on-one that "USA Today" just got or that they had on "Entertainment Tonight." I didn't have the weight of THE Associated Press behind me, supporting me and backing me up so we could end this shit for everybody in radio, once and for all. All it would have taken would have been a little backbone. It just stunk. I hated it. And I started to dislike them more and more for it, and eventually it became very difficult to go to work every day and be enthusiastic and keep the faith every day, and bust my ass and put in all kinds of unpaid overtime and take all their nonstop grief gracefully and try, still, to do right by them when they refused to do right by me in return. Just one of many reasons why I finally got fed up and quit. It just wasn't worth it anymore.

It takes guts. And most of these simpering, pandering, shameless fools just don't have any. The term Media Whores is a good one. COMPLETELY accurate, relevant, and applicable. And VERY well-deserved.

By the way, that group we formed is still around, and gaining in prominence (mainly because it's expanded to TV people also - HAH!). It's now known as the Broadcast Film Critics Association. Watch for it, next awards season. Its awards banquet is always in January, right after the Golden Globes - taped for a cable-cast a few weeks afterwards.

Take Back the Media.com we attempt to be fearless but it's pretty expensive :)

symbolman

added some new info since this am...

But like Rumsfeld said about the WMD, the prisons (and abuse) are North, South, East & west of Baghdad.

LIAAAAAARRRRRRRRRSSSSSSSS!!!!!!?

I think we cannot beleve one damn thing coming from our own government. It is the mode of the Bush administration to LIE! and LIE and LIE.

We can believe nothing coming from them

They LIE and they LIE and they LIE.

either in the military or in this adminstration. Wait for when they retire or get out and then ask them what is really going on.

The LIHOP / MIHOP is well documented now (of course people that should be charged with the crime, would never charge themselves).

Bad things often happen when you try to deny others the truth, my guess is this probably will be no exception

Predictable.

They didn't have the Faux Entertainment Network back then or Hannity and Bill O'Reilly


Check out the FEMALE Ancesters of LYNNDIE ENGLAND SMILING AT THE CORPSES



Lynching 1930

A mob of 10,000 whites took sledgehammers to the county jailhouse doors to get at these two young blacks accused of raping a white girl; the girl’s uncle saved the life of a third by proclaiming the man’s innocence. Although this was Marion, Ind., most of the nearly 5,000 lynchings documented between Reconstruction and the late 1960s were perpetrated in the South. (Hangings, beatings and mutilations were called the sentence of “Judge Lynch.”) Some lynching photos were made into postcards designed to boost white supremacy, but the tortured bodies and grotesquely happy crowds ended up revolting as many as they scared. Today the images remind us that we have not come as far from barbarity as we’d like to think.

I believe my government. :o

last July (with Wolfowitz?) did he also tour the prison? Jamie MacIntyre of CNN spent the entire week with him. How about it Jamie? If he toured the Abu Ghraib prison in July AFTER Amnesty International and others expressed their concerns about the deaths and torture, then he KNEW as well as Wolfowitz.