Saturday, June 12, 2004

Links from the excellent POAC

Thanks (again) to TJ, at Project for the Old American Century for digging up these links.

Religious leaders ad to appear on Arab TV

A new non-profit organization has been formed, and with their first collection, they're creating an ad to be broadcast on al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya apologizing for and condemning the Abu Ghraib tortures.

"A salaam aleikum," the Rev. Donald Shriver, a former president of the Union Theological Seminary in New York, begins. "As Americans of faith, we express our deep sorrow at abuses committed in Iraqi prisons. We stand in solidarity with all those in Iraq and everywhere who demand justice and human dignity. We condemn the sinful and systemic abuses committed in our name, and pledge to work to right these wrongs."

The ad continues with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the founder and president of the American Sufi Muslim Association; Sister Betty Obal, of the Sisters of Loretto; and Rabbi Arthur Waskow, the director of the Shalom Center in Philadelphia.

..."When the administration is even considering the legality of torture, that seems like a moral regression," [the organization's co-director Tom] Perriello said, adding, "We don't see this as a matter of legal terms, we see it as a matter of right and wrong."

..."We believe that the abuses are both sinful and systematic and that the moral damage of this around the world will last a long time," he said.
  New York Times article


A California Guardsman reports more abuse

A California National Guardsman says three fellow soldiers brazenly abused detainees during interrogation sessions in an Iraqi police station, threatening them with guns, sticking lit cigarettes in their ears and choking them until they collapsed.

Sgt. Greg Ford said he repeatedly had to revive prisoners who had passed out, and once saw a soldier stand on the back of a handcuffed detainee's neck and pull his arms until they popped out of their sockets.

"I had to intervene because they couldn't keep their hands off of them," said Ford, part of a four-member team from the 223rd Military Intelligence Battalion that questioned detainees last year in Samarra, north of Baghdad.

Ford's commanding officers deny any abuse occurred, and say investigations within their battalion and by the Army's Criminal Investigation Division determined they had done nothing wrong.

"All the allegations were found to be untrue, totally unfounded and in a number of cases completely fabricated," said the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Drew Ryan.

Ford's allegations are being further investigated by the CID, which would not comment on the probe.

Ford told The Associated Press that when he reported the problems last June to his commanding officers, they pressured him to drop his claims.

"Immediately, within the same conversation, the command said, 'Nope, you're delusional, you're crazy, it never happened.' They gave me 30 seconds to withdraw my request for an investigation," Ford said. "I stood my ground."

When he insisted on an official investigation, they ordered him to see combat stress counselors, who sent him out of Iraq, he said.

...Ford, 49, said has worked for 18 years as a state prison guard and has more than 30 years of military experience. He was sent out of Iraq last June and, after about six months in Fort Lewis, Wash., returned home to the Sacramento suburb of Fair Oaks.

He said his three fellow team members were not properly trained to do interrogations and got carried away with their power.
  Guardian article


Kidnapping is becoming big business in Iraq, where crime is rampant

At the headquarters of the Iraqi police serious crime organisation, Lieutenant-Colonel Farouk Mahmoud, the deputy head of the 40-member kidnap squad, said criminals turned to kidnapping as highly profitable and almost risk-free. He says: "Their favourite targets are doctors and businessmen. In 95 per cent of cases, the kidnappers have been tipped off by somebody close to the victim such as a friend or an assistant."

Usually the family of the hostage is told to call a Thuraya satellite phone number. The failure of the US security forces to help Iraqi police track a Thuraya call is a major source of complaint among the officers. "They gave us the information only once," Col Mahmoud says. "We found the house where the kidnappers were immediately though the victim, a doctor for whom $10,000 was being asked, had been killed already."

...The dangerous anarchy of everyday life is one reason why Iraqis are so hostile to the occupation. Even the kidnap squad officers did not have a good word to say for it. Iraqi criminals are in a confident mood.
  CounterPunch article


Army controls a chemical antidote

A New York City police department physician thinks she has found a promising antidote for emergency workers to use if terrorists launch a chemical weapons attack, but the federal government won't let the city buy it - even though the U.S. Army can.

The product, Reactive Skin Decontamination Lotion, was developed by the Canadian military years ago, won Food and Drug Administration approval in 2003 and is sold in other NATO countries for neutralizing sarin, mustard gas and other chemical agents.

It is being tested by the Army. But the companies that make it aren't permitted to sell it or even advertise it to state and local governments in the United States.

...The Army says it wants to do more testing on issues such as whether the lotion is safe to use with bleach, before it making it standard issue for its troops or letting police, firefighters and other first responders buy it.

"The manufacturer will have to be patient. Until the compatibility with bleach solutions is determined and can be clearly defined, we can't field it," said Maj. Gary Tallman, an Army spokesman. "It wouldn't be proper to field it to our war fighters and our first responders."

In the United States, the Army rather than O'Dell Engineering obtained the FDA's approval, meaning O'Dell cannot sell it to state and local governments without Army permission.
  AP article


Torture is only the tip of the iceberg

The Bush Administration is committing war crimes and other serious violations of international law in Iraq as a matter of routine policy, according to a report released today by the Center for Economic and Social Rights. The report, Beyond Torture: U.S. Violations of Occupation Law in Iraq, documents ten categories of war crimes and rights violations regularly committed by U.S. forces. The report can be downloaded here. The Executive Summary can be downloaded here.

"Torture is only the tip of the iceberg," said Roger Normand, an international lawyer who directs the Center. "From unlawful killings, mass arrests, and collective punishment to outright theft and pillage, the U.S. is violating almost every law intended to protect civilians living under foreign military occupation."

The report blames the Bush Administration for misusing the war against terrorism to exempt itself from the Geneva Conventions and other legal norms, creating a climate of impunity in which ordinary soldiers feel free to torture and abuse Iraqis. Rather than scapegoat those caught on camera, the report recommends that George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and other responsible U.S. officials be held accountable for war crimes resulting from their policies.
  Center for Economic & Social Rights article