Friday, June 18, 2004

Other ghosts

I couldn't remember where I'd read about 'ghost detainees' before the incident of Mr. Triple-X. Recall that Rumsfiend told the press he didn't know if there were other such prisoners. And we all believe anything Mr. Rumsfiend says, I know. At any rate, I remembered that I'd read about a report that claimed one of the prisons actually did move prisoners around to avoid Red Cross detection of them. I just couldn't remember where I'd read it, and after some failed Googling, I gave up.

Well, here it is in an article that's come across my e-desk today: it was in the Taguba report! Doesn't know if there were others, indeed.

This is a good article on the issue of the culture of torture in the military and the culpability of the Commander in Chief. Bush, Torture and American Values in Iraq

And in case you missed my post linking articles about the prison abuse and torture which were published throughout the entire time of the war, so that anyone could have known about it, that's here.

In the War on Terror those at the top sought solutions to the problem of gathering valid intelligence. As revealed by veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, “The solution, endorsed by Rumsfeld and carried out by Stephen Cambone, was to get tough with those Iraqis in the Army prison system who were suspected of being insurgents. A key player was Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the commander of the detention and interrogation center at Guantánamo, who had been summoned to Baghdad in late August to review prison interrogation procedures...” Miller turned Abu Ghraib into an interrogation center instead of a detention facility. “Rumsfeld and Cambone went a step further, however: they expanded the scope of the SAP [special-access program], bringing its unconventional methods to Abu Ghraib. The commandos were to operate in Iraq as they had in Afghanistan. The male prisoners could be treated roughly, and exposed to sexual humiliation.” Beginning in the late 1970s neocons had been interested in exploiting the Muslim obsession with sex.

...Officials interviewed by Seymour Hersh said that “...the operation stemmed from Rumsfeld’s long-standing desire to wrest control of America’s clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A.” He created a secret spy agency within the Pentagon to conduct covert kill or kidnapping, and info extraction ops in Afghanistan against al-Queda, and then expanded it in Iraq to discover the secrets of the insurgency. “The operation had across-the-board approval from Rumsfeld and from Condoleezza Rice, the national-security adviser. President Bush was informed of the existence of the program...” CIA ceased cooperation in the fall of 2003 when it looked like the SAP was dealing more and more with arbitrarily abducted Iraqi civilians.

...On 13 May 2004 Rumsfeld told troops in Baghdad he had just visited the Abu Ghraib prison and received assurances from those in charge that abuses had ceased. “We’ve spent the day talking to people and seeing the steps that have been taken to see that those types of abuses to people for whom we have responsibility and custody will not happen again,” and that the abusers “betrayed our values and sullied the reputation of the country.” He was not being ironic. He had authorized everything.
  article

Seymour Hersh also says that, even with everything the public has seen, we haven't seen anything yet. He's seen photos.

And don't forget....

Although Americans can sue foreign governments for war crimes committed as long ago as World War II, Iraqis will not be able to sue either the US or UK military over war crimes in 2003-04, because CPA Order 17, which granted immunity from prosecution in Iraq, was extended past the 30 June 2004 handover of “sovereignty” to the puppet regime appointed by the Bush government.


....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

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