G
Gilbert Mouget
Guest
THE SHAME BE WITH EVERY US CITIZEN
USA IS NOT A CIVILIZED COUNTRY ANYMORE
BUSH = BIN LADIN
WASHINGTON - As investigations into U.S. military abuse of Iraqi
captives gathered steam, Pentagon officials revealed Tuesday that
they have investigated the deaths of 25 prisoners overseas and
labeled two of them homicides.
The widening scandal threatened to seriously damage America's
image abroad, especially in the Muslim and Arab world.
On Capitol Hill, angry lawmakers - some reliable Republican
allies of the Bush administration - demanded that Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld appear at a public hearing to explain
how American jailers could have been allowed to sadistically
abuse Iraqi prisoners.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., called the abuse
disgusting and degrading and questioned why Congress had been
kept in the dark.
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Committee, called the incidents the most "serious a problem of
breakdown in discipline as I've ever observed."
"Who is responsible for what happened?" asked Sen. Joseph Biden,
the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"I think it starts with Rumsfeld and works its way down."
Biden said the abuse "warrants somebody's resignation" but
declined to say whether it should be Rumsfeld.
Making his first remarks about the abuse at the Abu Ghraib
prison, Rumsfeld on Tuesday called the actions "totally
unacceptable and un-American." He said an internal Pentagon
report that described the prisoners as being beaten, sodomized
and drenched in phosphoric liquid and cold water left him
"deeply disturbed."
Rumsfeld pledged that those responsible would be brought to
justice.
"I have no doubt that we will take these charges and
allegations most seriously," he said.
Photos of naked Iraqi prisoners stacked on top of each other and
forced to simulate sex acts while their American captors looked
on laughing have been broadcast around the world to widespread
condemnation.
Since then, other Iraqis have alleged that they too have been beaten.
Six U.S. soldiers are facing criminal charges and another six have
been reprimanded. Several investigations are under way at the Pentagon.
Appearing at the United Nations in New York City on Tuesday, Secretary
of State Colin Powell said that even though the abuse had been
perpetrated by a small number of troops, he worried about the impact
it will have on U.S. foreign policy.
"I'm deeply concerned about the horrible image that this has sent
around the world," Powell said.
Powell, a retired Army general, called the abuse of detainees
"illegal" and "immoral."
A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said Powell's tough comments were prompted by a concern that other
administration officials, including Rumsfeld, hadn't expressed
sufficient remorse.
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice also went into damage
control mode in interviews on several Arab television networks.
"We all feel outraged at these pictures," Rice told al Arabiya.
"I want to assure people in the Arab world ... that the president
is determined to get to the bottom of it."
The White House said Tuesday evening that President Bush also is
planning to do interviews with Arab TV outlets.
But a European diplomat for the United Nations said: "The damage
is overwhelming."
"Clearly it makes things more difficult for the Americans" in the
Arab world and beyond, said the diplomat, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
New revelations on Tuesday about prisoner deaths in Afghanistan and
Iraq seemed certain to add fuel to the fire.
An Army soldier was accused of using excessive force in the shooting
death of an Iraqi prisoner. He was convicted in the U.S. military
justice system but served no jail time. His rank was reduced to
private and he was thrown out of the service.
The second homicide was committed by a private contractor working
with the CIA, said a government official, who spoke on condition
of anonymity. The case has been referred to the Justice Department.
Officials are continuing to investigate 10 deaths and 10 assaults.
A third homicide was ruled justifiable by authorities.
Military coroners ruled that two detainee deaths at the Bagram Air
Base in Afghanistan in December 2002 were homicides. But the results
of military investigations into those deaths haven't been made public.
It has also been reported that a former Iraqi general, Abed Hamed
Mowhoush, died during American interrogations late last year.
It's unknown whether any of those cases is included in the Pentagon
statistics released Tuesday.
Gen. George Casey, vice chairman of the Army, briefed the Senate Armed
Services Committee behind closed doors Tuesday morning. Afterward, he
told reporters that the actions at Abu Ghraib prison - while horrific -
were an aberration.
"What you see on those pictures is not indicative of our training or
values," Casey said.
Still, there were calls for more hearings to investigate further,
including whether civilian contractors should be dealing with foreign
prisoners as some are in Iraq.
"Any incident like this would lead to an overall review of how
prisoners are treated," said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., chairman
of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Some warned that the images could spark fresh violence against
U.S. soldiers.
"There is going to be a wave of revulsion that is going to sweep
over us, I am afraid," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the top
Democrat of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"It's going to hurt our troops and make this country a lot less
secure."
Tom Daschle, D-S.D., the Senate minority leader, questioned why
Bush hadn't learned of the incident sooner. He complained that
Rumsfeld and key Pentagon leaders had briefed lawmakers on the
same day that the prisoner abuse story broke on the CBS newsmagazine
show "60 Minutes," but failed to mention the allegations.
"Now, why were we not told in a classified briefing why this happened
and that it happened at all?" Daschle said.
Rumsfeld allowed Tuesday that he hadn't read all of an internal
Pentagon report, completed about a month ago, detailing the abuses at
the Abu Ghraib prison.
And the defense secretary bridled at the portrayal of the guards'
activities as torture. "I'm not a lawyer. My impression is that what
has been charged thus far is abuse, which I believe technically is
different from torture."
Although the report by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba was classified as
secret and not distributed to lawmakers, the Pentagon said there
was no attempt at a cover-up.
"There has been no attempt to hide this," said Gen. Peter Pace,
vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "What we've been trying
to do is find out the truth of the matter so we can get on about
correcting, finding out who did what and then taking proper action."
Human rights groups say they have been kept at arms length from U.S.
military detention facilities. As a result, some say, jailers are
largely unaccountable and a lawless culture has been allowed to develop.
"We've visited prisons in places like Libya, which is not exactly
known for its openness," said Amnesty International spokesman Alistair
Hodgett said. "But with the United States, the answer is no" to access.
The top human rights agency of the United Nations also said Tuesday that
it has launched an investigation into the state of Iraqi civil rights,
which will include a look at the prison abuses.
--
"We, citizens of the world, call for the universal abolition of the death penalty and
for an immediate halt to executions of those condemned to death throughout the world."
<URL:http://www.moratorium2000.org/action/petition.lasso>
USA IS NOT A CIVILIZED COUNTRY ANYMORE
BUSH = BIN LADIN
WASHINGTON - As investigations into U.S. military abuse of Iraqi
captives gathered steam, Pentagon officials revealed Tuesday that
they have investigated the deaths of 25 prisoners overseas and
labeled two of them homicides.
The widening scandal threatened to seriously damage America's
image abroad, especially in the Muslim and Arab world.
On Capitol Hill, angry lawmakers - some reliable Republican
allies of the Bush administration - demanded that Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld appear at a public hearing to explain
how American jailers could have been allowed to sadistically
abuse Iraqi prisoners.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., called the abuse
disgusting and degrading and questioned why Congress had been
kept in the dark.
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Committee, called the incidents the most "serious a problem of
breakdown in discipline as I've ever observed."
"Who is responsible for what happened?" asked Sen. Joseph Biden,
the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"I think it starts with Rumsfeld and works its way down."
Biden said the abuse "warrants somebody's resignation" but
declined to say whether it should be Rumsfeld.
Making his first remarks about the abuse at the Abu Ghraib
prison, Rumsfeld on Tuesday called the actions "totally
unacceptable and un-American." He said an internal Pentagon
report that described the prisoners as being beaten, sodomized
and drenched in phosphoric liquid and cold water left him
"deeply disturbed."
Rumsfeld pledged that those responsible would be brought to
justice.
"I have no doubt that we will take these charges and
allegations most seriously," he said.
Photos of naked Iraqi prisoners stacked on top of each other and
forced to simulate sex acts while their American captors looked
on laughing have been broadcast around the world to widespread
condemnation.
Since then, other Iraqis have alleged that they too have been beaten.
Six U.S. soldiers are facing criminal charges and another six have
been reprimanded. Several investigations are under way at the Pentagon.
Appearing at the United Nations in New York City on Tuesday, Secretary
of State Colin Powell said that even though the abuse had been
perpetrated by a small number of troops, he worried about the impact
it will have on U.S. foreign policy.
"I'm deeply concerned about the horrible image that this has sent
around the world," Powell said.
Powell, a retired Army general, called the abuse of detainees
"illegal" and "immoral."
A State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said Powell's tough comments were prompted by a concern that other
administration officials, including Rumsfeld, hadn't expressed
sufficient remorse.
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice also went into damage
control mode in interviews on several Arab television networks.
"We all feel outraged at these pictures," Rice told al Arabiya.
"I want to assure people in the Arab world ... that the president
is determined to get to the bottom of it."
The White House said Tuesday evening that President Bush also is
planning to do interviews with Arab TV outlets.
But a European diplomat for the United Nations said: "The damage
is overwhelming."
"Clearly it makes things more difficult for the Americans" in the
Arab world and beyond, said the diplomat, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
New revelations on Tuesday about prisoner deaths in Afghanistan and
Iraq seemed certain to add fuel to the fire.
An Army soldier was accused of using excessive force in the shooting
death of an Iraqi prisoner. He was convicted in the U.S. military
justice system but served no jail time. His rank was reduced to
private and he was thrown out of the service.
The second homicide was committed by a private contractor working
with the CIA, said a government official, who spoke on condition
of anonymity. The case has been referred to the Justice Department.
Officials are continuing to investigate 10 deaths and 10 assaults.
A third homicide was ruled justifiable by authorities.
Military coroners ruled that two detainee deaths at the Bagram Air
Base in Afghanistan in December 2002 were homicides. But the results
of military investigations into those deaths haven't been made public.
It has also been reported that a former Iraqi general, Abed Hamed
Mowhoush, died during American interrogations late last year.
It's unknown whether any of those cases is included in the Pentagon
statistics released Tuesday.
Gen. George Casey, vice chairman of the Army, briefed the Senate Armed
Services Committee behind closed doors Tuesday morning. Afterward, he
told reporters that the actions at Abu Ghraib prison - while horrific -
were an aberration.
"What you see on those pictures is not indicative of our training or
values," Casey said.
Still, there were calls for more hearings to investigate further,
including whether civilian contractors should be dealing with foreign
prisoners as some are in Iraq.
"Any incident like this would lead to an overall review of how
prisoners are treated," said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., chairman
of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Some warned that the images could spark fresh violence against
U.S. soldiers.
"There is going to be a wave of revulsion that is going to sweep
over us, I am afraid," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the top
Democrat of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"It's going to hurt our troops and make this country a lot less
secure."
Tom Daschle, D-S.D., the Senate minority leader, questioned why
Bush hadn't learned of the incident sooner. He complained that
Rumsfeld and key Pentagon leaders had briefed lawmakers on the
same day that the prisoner abuse story broke on the CBS newsmagazine
show "60 Minutes," but failed to mention the allegations.
"Now, why were we not told in a classified briefing why this happened
and that it happened at all?" Daschle said.
Rumsfeld allowed Tuesday that he hadn't read all of an internal
Pentagon report, completed about a month ago, detailing the abuses at
the Abu Ghraib prison.
And the defense secretary bridled at the portrayal of the guards'
activities as torture. "I'm not a lawyer. My impression is that what
has been charged thus far is abuse, which I believe technically is
different from torture."
Although the report by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba was classified as
secret and not distributed to lawmakers, the Pentagon said there
was no attempt at a cover-up.
"There has been no attempt to hide this," said Gen. Peter Pace,
vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "What we've been trying
to do is find out the truth of the matter so we can get on about
correcting, finding out who did what and then taking proper action."
Human rights groups say they have been kept at arms length from U.S.
military detention facilities. As a result, some say, jailers are
largely unaccountable and a lawless culture has been allowed to develop.
"We've visited prisons in places like Libya, which is not exactly
known for its openness," said Amnesty International spokesman Alistair
Hodgett said. "But with the United States, the answer is no" to access.
The top human rights agency of the United Nations also said Tuesday that
it has launched an investigation into the state of Iraqi civil rights,
which will include a look at the prison abuses.
--
"We, citizens of the world, call for the universal abolition of the death penalty and
for an immediate halt to executions of those condemned to death throughout the world."
<URL:http://www.moratorium2000.org/action/petition.lasso>
480)460-2350 | |