françois yves le gal

"USA: Pattern of brutality and cruelty -- war crimes at Abu Ghraib
Press release, 07/05/2004

In an open letter to US President George W. Bush today, Amnesty
International said that abuses allegedly committed by US agents in the Abu
Ghraib facility in Baghdad were war crimes and called on the administration
to fully investigate them to ensure that there is no impunity for anyone
found responsible regardless of position or rank.

Amnesty International said that it has do***ented a pattern of abuse by US
agents against detainees, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, stretching back
over the past two years.

Despite claims this week by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld to be "stunned" by
abuses in Abu Ghraib, and that these were an "exception" and "not a pattern
or practice", Amnesty International has presented consistent allegations of
brutality and cruelty by US agents against detainees at the highest levels
of the US Government, including the White House, the Department of Defense,
and the State Department for the past two years.

Last July, the organization raised allegations of torture and ill-treatment
of Iraqi detainees by US and Coalition forces in a memorandum to the US
Government and Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq. The
allegations included beatings, electric shocks, sleep deprivation, hooding,
and prolonged forced standing and kneeling. It received no response nor any
indication from the administration or the CPA that an investigation took
place.

Despite repeated requests, Amnesty International has been denied access to
all US detention facilities.

"If the administration has nothing to hide, it should immediately end
incommunicado detention and grant access to independent human rights
monitors, including Amnesty International and the United Nations, to all
detention facilities," said Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty
International.

"The US administration has shown a consistent disregard for the Geneva
Conventions and basic principles of law, human rights and decency. This has
created a climate in which US soldiers feel they can dehumanize and degrade
prisoners with impunity.

"What we now see in Iraq is the logical consequence of the relentless
pursuit of the 'war on terror' regardless of the costs to human rights and
the rules of war."

Amnesty International has expressed concern about the mixed messages which
the US government has sent regarding its commitment to international human
rights standards.

Abuses have not been restricted to Abu Ghraib. Numerous people held in the
US Air Bases in Bagram and Kandahar in Afghanistan say they were subjected
to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in US custody, and
the administration has failed to comply with the Geneva Conventions with
regard to the Guantánamo detainees.

Former Guantánamo detainee Wazir Mohammad told Amnesty International of
excessive and cruel use of shackles and handcuffs, sleep deprivation, and of
being forced to crawl on his knees from his cell to the interrogation room
during his detention in Afghanistan.

At Bagram and Kandahar, he was held incommunicado, with no opportunity to
challenge the lawfulness of his detention, no lawyer, and no access to his
family. He never met a delegate from the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC). In over a year in Guantánamo he says he met an ICRC delegate
once, on the first day.

Former Guantánamo prisoner, Walid al-Qadasi, was held in a secret detention
facility in Kabul. He said prisoners termed the first night of interrogation
by US agents "the black night". He said that: "They cut our clothes with
scissors, left us ***** and took photos of us ... handcuffed our hands
behind our backs, blindfolded us and started interrogating us ... threatened
me with death, accusing me of belonging to al-Qa'ida." He alleged that
detainees were subjected to sleep deprivation, including through use of loud
music.

An individual who worked in Guantánamo told Amnesty International that most
if not all detainees he had contact with there claimed to have been
physically abused in Kandahar or Bagram. This person expressed no surprise
at the evidence from Iraq, and stated that abuse in Afghanistan appeared to
be part of softening up detainees for interrogation and detention.

Amnesty International is concerned that the investigation headed by Major
General Antonio Taguba, which found "systematic and illegal abuse of
detainees" in Abu Ghraib, was not intended for public release, and that the
administration's current response only came once the report and photographic
evidence became public.

Apparently attempting to downplay the seriousness of the allegations at a
news briefing on 4 May, Secretary Rumsfeld suggested that: "what has been
charged so far is abuse ... technically different from torture". In fact the
"numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuse" found
by Taguba constitute acts of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment and are war crimes.

Incidents include punching and kicking detainees; jumping on their *****
feet; forcibly arranging detainees in various ***ually ******** positions
for photographing; positioning a ***** detainee on a box with a sandbag on
his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate
electric torture; and placing a dog chain or strap around a ***** detainee's
neck and having a female soldier pose for a picture.

Those responsible for what Taguba concluded are "proven abuse ... inflicted
on detainees" should be brought to justice in accordance with the USA's
obligations under international and US law. Investigations should cover the
higher chain of command responsibility as well as direct perpetrators.

Comments this week by Major General Geoffrey Milller, in charge of detainee
operations in Iraq, that sleep deprivation and stress positions could be
used against detainees show that the US administration still has not learnt
that ill-treatment and abuse are a slippery slope to torture and should be
totally prohibited.

Restraining detainees in very painful positions, hooding, threats, and
prolonged sleep deprivation violate the prohibition on torture and cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment.

Amnesty International calls on President Bush to ensure impartial and
transparent investigations into torture and deaths in US custody and that
anyone found responsible be brought to justice."

http://news.amnesty.org/mav/index/ENGAMR510772004

timl

In article <jd72a09tca70mp5hqbgj9rabvjaaq5sqh6@4ax.com>,
flegal@aingeal.com stated...


I know, right!...I feel the same way. I once saw a poodle dog eat a
whole pot of chicken bones. Later it was walking around yapp'n and
dragg'n it's butt on the grass. It was brutal and cruel. I felt sorry
for the dog.
--
TimL

clint

I wonder where all the outrage is over the beheading?

Ted Kennedy is silent...
....Al Jazeera said that showing the video would be "tasteless"...
....France is silent...
....Germany is silent...

And if they come over here, they will kill us as well.

OOPS, sorry, I forgot about political bias.

It's okay to talk crap about america and turn a blind
eye to real evil. Must be nice to be Paul Cook, ivler and
all the others on thier amoral side of the fence and not
have a conscience.

Clint

--
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Time is the fire in which we burn.....

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miss elaine eos

You are outrageous, Clint.

--
Please take off your shoes before arriving at my in-box.
Lots of good cigar info, the ASC Birthday page, FAQs, vendors and more at
<http://www.ManyFriends.com/Cigars/>

françois yves le gal

Sure, beginning with you, armchair hero: they will find you in your trailer
park.

Don't post while drunk, Bozo.

françois yves le gal

Nope. He's drunk, again.

james gentry

Did I mention that goat cheese is disgusting? Gives me gas, something
awful. Kinda like some of the threads around here. *poot* Oops.
Excuse me.

-James

Remove the _CATION to send email.

alex w.

Try fresh goat's cheese. It's a bit like cream cheese, very
"un-goaty", and it goes very well with smoked salmon.
You do eat salmon, don't you?

timl

In article <2se5a0porre0c20gnhs3la6s10mcshikmp@4ax.com>,
fnjfg@uaf.edu_CATION stated...


You crack me up!
--
TimL

marc j. schneiderman

Yes it does Alex. I thought I was the only one complementing smoked
salmon with goat cheese.
CigarBaron