Iraqi Abuse - Fire Rumsfeld Now --- Good Email to send to your friends

First he used his special Pentagon intelligence sources to tell us that Saddam's weapons of mass destruction were an imminent threat and we had to go to war. Then he told us that his Pentagon planners were sure that the war would be fast and cheap. Now he is telling us that if those under him in the chain of command committed acts of torture, well, it's not his fault.

The Washington Post reports that "U.S. officials said Rumsfeld and the Pentagon resisted appeals in recent months from the State Department and the Coalition Provisional Authority to deal with problems relating to detainees." Even the Red Cross repeatedly asked the US to take corrective action. Then why were these atrocities allowed to happen? For what reason?

Despite what the military says, there is no proof that this is an isolated incident. Since the start of the war, abuse has been reported by many independent new sources, but are nowhere to be found in the ‘liberal’ mainstream media.

The US is not bringing peace to the Arab world, it is delivering a bloody tragedy funded by our tax dollars – and now they want $25,000,000,000 more! The repercussions are something we will have to deal with for generations to come. Any government official who has made such profound mistakes should no longer be the head of the deadliest force humanity ever created, the United States armed forces. Demand an accountable government and call for the removal of Donald Rumsfeld .

Call your Senators, Representatives and the White House now:

http://www.senate.gov
http://www.house.gov

White House comment line
202-456-1111 or
202-456-1112

Also send your representative and senator an email:
http://action.truemajority.com/action/index.asp?step=2&item=10169&ms=rum1


The photos can be viewed here:
http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/iraqis_tortured/

More abuse by US Soldiers
http://www.iraqvictims.com/
http://www.robert-fisk.com/iraqwarvictims_mar2003.htm

US Army Report on Torture of Iraqis in Abu Ghraib Prison
http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/iraqis_tortured/taguba_report.htm


ICRC 'knew of Iraqi prison abuse'
The International Committee of the Red Cross has said it was aware of abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

The Red Cross repeatedly asked the US to take corrective action, an ICRC spokeswoman said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3690413.stm


Accused Soldier's Journal Details Prison
A soldier facing a court-martial for his role in the alleged abuse of Iraqi war prisoners says commanders ignored his requests to set out rules for treating POWs and scolded him for questioning the inmates' harsh treatment.

Army Reserves Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick wrote that Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad lacked the humane standards of the Virginia state prison where he worked in civilian life, according to a journal he started after military investigators first questioned him in January.

The Iraqi prisoners were sometimes confined naked for three consecutive days without toilets in damp, unventilated cells with floors 3 feet by 3 feet, Frederick wrote in materials obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

"When I brought this up with the acting BN (battalion) commander, he stated, 'I don't care if he has to sleep standing up.' That's when he told my company commander that he was the BN commander and for me to do as he says," Frederick wrote.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040430/ap_on_re_us/prisoner_abuse_families&cid=519&ncid=1480


Soldiers Back in U.S. Tell of More Iraq Abuses
Three U.S. military policemen who served at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison said on Thursday they had witnessed unreported cases of prisoner abuse and that the practice against Iraqis was commonplace.

"It is a common thing to abuse prisoners," said Sgt. Mike Sindar, 25, of the Army National Guard's 870th Military Police Company based in the San Francisco Bay area. "I saw beatings all the time.

"A lot of people had so much pent-up anger, so much aggression," he said. Sindar and the other military policemen, who have returned to California from Iraq, spoke in interviews with Reuters.

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=NW_1-T&oldflok=FF-RTO-rontz&idq=/ff/story/0002%2F20040507%2F0741856132.htm&sc=rontz


US soldiers abused young girl at Iraqi prison
The US military has said it will investigate claims by a former inmate of Abu Ghraib prison that a girl as young as 12 was stripped and beaten by military personnel.

Suhaib al-Baz, a journalist for the al-Jazeera television network, claims to have been tortured at the prison, based west of Baghdad, while held there for 54 days.

...He said: "They brought a 12-year-old girl into our cellblock late at night. Her brother was a prisoner in the other cells.

"She was naked and screaming and calling out to him as they beat her. Her brother was helpless and could only hear her cries. This affected all of us because she was just a child.

http://www.itv.com/news/623337.html


Officer Suggests Iraq Jail Abuse Was Encouraged
An Army Reserve general whose soldiers were photographed as they abused Iraqi prisoners said Saturday that she knew nothing about the abuse until weeks after it occurred and that she was "sickened" by the pictures. She said the prison cellblock where the abuse occurred was under the tight control of Army military intelligence officers who may have encouraged the abuse.

The suggestion by Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski that the reservists acted at the behest of military intelligence officers appears largely supported in a still-classified Army report on prison conditions in Iraq that documented many of the worst abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad, including the sexual humiliation of prisoners.

The New Yorker magazine said in its new edition that the report by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba found that reservist military police at the prison were urged by Army military officers and C.I.A. agents to "set physical and mental conditions for favorable interrogation of witnesses."

According to the New Yorker article, the Army report offered accounts of rampant and gruesome abuse from October to December of 2003 that included the sexual assault of an Iraqi detainee with a chemical light stick or broomstick.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/02/international/middleeast/02ABUS.html?th


Bush Privately Chides Rumsfeld
Officials Say Pentagon Resisted Repeated Calls for Prison Changes
President Bush privately admonished Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday, a senior White House official said, as other U.S. officials blamed the Pentagon for failing to act on repeated recommendations to improve conditions for thousands of Iraqi detainees and release those not charged with crimes.

Other U.S. officials said Rumsfeld and the Pentagon resisted appeals in recent months from the State Department and the Coalition Provisional Authority to deal with problems relating to detainees. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell urged action in several White House meetings that included Rumsfeld, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5733-2004May5.html


A Timeline of the Abuse Controversy
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&ncid=542&e=7&u=/ap/20040507/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/prisoner_abuse_timeline


The Nightmare at Abu Ghraib
The American military made a strange and ill-starred decision when it chose to incarcerate Iraqis in Abu Ghraib, the prison that had become a byword for torture under Saddam Hussein and a symbol of everything the invasion of Iraq was supposed to end. As United States officials have known for months, some of the American soldiers brought their own version of sadism to the site. Now that the rest of the world knows as well, the Bush administration will have to do more than denounce the scandal as the work of a few bad apples.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/03/opinion/03MON1.html?th


$25 Billion More Sought to Fund Wars
White House Hoped to Delay Request Until After Election
The White House yesterday asked Congress for an additional $25 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the fiscal year that begins in October, reversing course on its plan to wait until after the election to seek more money.

White House budget director Joshua B. Bolten and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz made an unscheduled trip to Capitol Hill yesterday afternoon to lay out the request in a meeting with House and Senate Republican leaders. The administration's request was driven by unanticipated combat, higher-than-expected troop levels and rising political pressure, White House and congressional aides said.

"While we do not know the precise costs for operations next year, recent developments on the ground and increased demands on our troops indicate the need to plan for contingencies," President Bush said in a statement. "We must make sure there is no disruption in funding and resources for our troops."

Virtually all the money would go to Army operations and maintenance, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said. But a senior administration official speaking to reporters said the $25 billion will be treated as a reserve, to be tapped only at the president's request.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5641-2004May5.html

I've made several phone calls already, and I must say, those lines are busy!

:kick:

;)

:toast: