| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Sat May 08, 2004 9:26 am Post subject: Torture Inherent to War Against Evil |
| Subj: Torture Inherent to War Against Evil
Date: 5/7/04 7:30:56 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: hectorpv@comcast.net
To: hectorpv@comcast.net
Sent from the Internet (Details)
Friends,
Torture Inherent to War Against Evil
Paul Craig Roberts points out that the widespread use of torture and murder in Iraq is not an aberration, as the war’s defenders would have it, or part of traditional American "racism," as some critics would maintain, but actually an intrinsic part of current America’s imperialist spirit of hubris and self-righteousness that has propelled this war. According to America’s current imperialist ideology, America’s "inherent and unique virtue gives it the right—Bush says the duty—to exercise unlimited power in the name of enforcing American values elsewhere in the world." Because of America’s inherent goodness it need not obey international law, including the cardinal international law that prohibits aggressive war—the major crime charged against the against the Nazi leadership at Nuremberg. As chief American prosecutor at Nuremberg Robert Jackson proclaimed: "And we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into a trial of the causes of the war for our position is that no grievances or policies will justify resort to aggressive war. It is utterly renounced and condemned as an instrument of policy."
Robert Jackson emphasized that Nuremberg standards of justice should be applied to all countries, including the United States. "If certain acts in violation of treaties are crimes," he said, "they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them, and we are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us."
In contrast, according to the new imperialist ideology, America has the right to invade and take over countries to teach them "democracy." If the inhabitants resist, they are simply evil and must be destroyed. Roberts writes: "Only evil people would resist the good we are imposing on them. Thus has Bush cast the conflict as one of good vs. evil."
Roberts observes: "It is an imperialistic spirit whose arrogant moral purpose justifies mowing down whatever is seen to stand it its way. Those most imbued with this spirit are trapped firmly within it. If Iraqis resist military imposition of US values, then they must be ‘thugs and outlaws’ deserving to be exterminated for standing in the way of America’s virtue and superior morality."
"Some US soldiers have caught the spirit that Bush has infused into the conflict. If you pay attention to Bush’s speeches, you will see that he is trying to infuse this spirit into the American people." At the very least, such a spirit provides cover for brutality, perverse sadism, racial and ethnic hatred.
Where does this insane imperialistic vision come from. "The new aggressive spirit of America is embodied in the neoconservative ideology that drives the Bush administration." It is to be recalled that neocons David Frum and Richard Perle title their recent book on the war on terrorism, _An End to Evil_. When fighting evil, anything goes.
Roberts concludes:
"Just as the Nazi claim to be the master race trumped all traditional moral standards, the neoconservatives claim that America is uniquely virtuous justifies America’s domination over the rest of the world."
"Unless Americans stand firm against this spirit, Americans will endure endless wars and great disasters." Unfortunately we already have a disaster and the stage has been set, perhaps unalterably set, for unending war.
_______________________________
http://www.vdare.com/roberts/anti_neo.htm
VDARE.COM - http://www.vdare.com/roberts/anti_neo.htm
May 04, 2004
Neoconservatives Are Anti-American
By Paul Craig Roberts
Is Bush correct when he reassures his war fans that torture is not indicative of American values?
Or is the US government merely treating Iraqis the same way it treated Randy Weaver’s family at Ruby Ridge, the Branch Davidians at Waco, Texas, and Gordon Kahl’s family at Medina, ND?
Why expect the US government to show more restraint to Iraqis than it shows its own citizens?
In view of the atrocities the federal government has committed against its own citizens, what is unusual in the US Army report that details "egregious acts" of cruelty and barbarism committed against Iraqi prisoners by US forces?
Why are we surprised that the CIA has launched an investigation of murder of Iraqi prisoners by US guards in Abu Ghraib prison, or that a French TV station has a video of a US helicopter gunship mowing down unarmed Iraqi civilians, or that evidence has come to light that the US is torturing prisoners in Afghanistan as well?
When Bush says that torture is not indicative of American values, he is speaking of the old America, the America of restraint, the America that did not believe that the ends justify the means, a classically educated America that understood that hubris brings nemesis.
The new emerging America is Jacobin. Its will to power has cast off restraint. Its inherent and unique virtue gives it the right—Bush says the duty—to exercise unlimited power in the name of enforcing American values elsewhere in the world.
The new aggressive spirit of America is embodied in the neoconservative ideology that drives the Bush administration. Professor Claes Ryn describes this new spirit in his recent book, America the Virtuous.
It is an imperialistic spirit whose arrogant moral purpose justifies mowing down whatever is seen to stand it its way. Those most imbued with this spirit are trapped firmly within it. If Iraqis resist military imposition of US values, then they must be "thugs and outlaws" deserving to be exterminated for standing in the way of America’s virtue and superior morality.
Only evil people would resist the good we are imposing on them. Thus has Bush cast the conflict as one of good vs. evil.
Some US soldiers have caught the spirit that Bush has infused into the conflict. If you pay attention to Bush’s speeches, you will see that he is trying to infuse this spirit into the American people.
Beware. It is an evil spirit. Because it brooks no objection, it will bring a police state at home and death and destruction abroad, just as the Jacobins brought to 18th century France and Europe.
Americans must understand that the neo-Jacobin spirit that guides the Bush administration is anti-American. It is not unpatriotic to resist this spirit. It is the same evil spirit that motivated Deutschland uber alles (Germany over all).
Just as the Nazi claim to be the master race trumped all traditional moral standards, the neoconservatives claim that America is uniquely virtuous justifies America’s domination over the rest of the world.
Unless Americans stand firm against this spirit, Americans will endure endless wars and great disasters. | |  | | Alpha | | Posted: Sat May 08, 2004 8:42 pm Post subject: Soldier: Unit's Role Was to Break Down Prisoners |
| http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A9130-2004May7?language=printer
washingtonpost.com
Soldier: Unit's Role Was to Break Down Prisoners
Reservist Tells of Orders From Intelligence Officers
By Jackie Spinner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 8, 2004; Page A01
There were no rules, by her account, and there was little training. But the mission was clear. Spec. Sabrina D. Harman, a military police officer who has been charged with abusing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, said she was assigned to break down prisoners for interrogation.
"They would bring in one to several prisoners at a time already hooded and cuffed," Harman said by e-mail this week from Baghdad. "The job of the MP was to keep them awake, make it hell so they would talk."
Harman, one of seven military police reservists charged in the abuse of detainees at the prison, is the second of those soldiers to speak publicly about her time at Abu Ghraib, and her comments echo findings of the Army's investigation into prisoner abuse there. That probe documented the maltreatment of detainees and found the prison was chaotically run, that there were no apparent rules governing interrogations and that Harman's military police unit was ill trained for the job it was asked to perform.
Harman, a 26-year-old Army reservist from Alexandria, said members of her military police unit took direction from Army military intelligence officers, from CIA operatives and from civilian contractors who conducted interrogations. She did not discuss abusive treatment of prisoners or clarify who specifically ordered such treatment, and she referred questions about the charges against her to her attorney, who declined to comment.
Her face is now famous as belonging to one of two soldiers posing in the widely published photograph of naked Iraqi detainees stacked in a pyramid. The picture is one of several that have inflamed the Arab world and brought condemnation from President Bush and other U.S. political and military leaders.
Harman is accused by the Army of taking photographs of that pyramid and photographing and videotaping detainees who were ordered to strip and masturbate in front of other prisoners and soldiers, according to a charge sheet obtained by The Washington Post. She is also charged with photographing a corpse and then posing for a picture with it; with striking several prisoners by jumping on them as they lay in a pile; with writing "rapeist" on a prisoner's leg; and with attaching wires to a prisoner's hands while he stood on a box with his head covered. She told him he would be electrocuted if he fell off the box, the documents said.
In her e-mails, Harman said detainees would be handed over to her military police unit by Army intelligence officers, by CIA operatives or by the contractors. The Army probe into Abu Ghraib said the U.S. government used employees of private companies as interrogators and interpreters along with intelligence officers. Two of the civilian contractors are under investigation in connection with the abuses.
Prisoners were stripped, searched and then "made to stand or kneel for hours," Harman said. Sometimes they were forced to stand on boxes or hold boxes or to exercise to tire them out, she said.
"The person who brought them in would set the standards on whether or not to 'be nice,' " she said. "If the prisoner was cooperating, then the prisoner was able to keep his jumpsuit, mattress, and was allowed cigarettes on request or even hot food. But if the prisoner didn't give what they wanted, it was all taken away until [military intelligence] decided. Sleep, food, clothes, mattresses, cigarettes were all privileges and were granted with information received."
She said the prison had no standard operating procedures and on Tier 1A, where suspected insurgents were held, Army and other intelligence officers "made the rules as they went."
Harman joined the Army as a reservist in 2001, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. She was assigned to the 372nd, based in Cresaptown, Md. The company was called up for duty in February of last year and deployed to Fort Lee, Va., for three months before heading to Iraq.
Harman, an assistant manager at a Papa John's Pizza in Fairfax County before being sent to Iraq, said the company received additional training at Fort Lee, but it was for "combat support, not I/R," the military term for internment and resettlement. She said she was never schooled in the Geneva Conventions' rules on prisoner treatment.
"The Geneva Convention was never posted, and none of us remember taking a class to review it," Harman said. "The first time reading it was two months after being charged. I read the entire thing highlighting everything the prison is in violation of. There's a lot."
In the Army report on conditions at the prison, Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba said that "soldiers were poorly prepared and untrained to conduct I/R operations prior to deployment, at the mobilization site, upon arrival in theater and throughout their mission."
The Army has launched several investigations into the abuse and has notified seven officers and sergeants that they will receive letters of reprimand or admonishment that could end their careers.
Harman is charged with conspiracy, dereliction of duty, cruelty and maltreatment, making a false statement, and assault. She faces an Article 32 hearing tentatively set in June, the military equivalent of a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to convene a court-martial.
In his investigation, Taguba used a portion of Harman's sworn statement to conclude that prisoners had been abused. Harman "stated . . . regarding the incident where a detainee was placed on box with wires attached to his fingers, toes, and penis, 'that her job was to keep detainees awake.' "
The other soldiers charged with abuse are Staff Sgt. Ivan L. Frederick II, Sgt. Javal S. Davis, Cpl. Charles A. Graner Jr., Spec. Jeremy C. Sivits, Spec. Megan M. Ambuhl and Pfc. Lynndie R. England. England, who was shown in a photo published in Thursday's Post, was charged yesterday.
Harman's mother, Robin Harman, said her daughter would never hurt anyone.
"She has this . . . attitude that she is going to save the world," said Robin Harman, who lives in Northern Virginia. "She got over there and got an eye-opener. You don't put unqualified kids in that situation."
Yesterday, as Robin Harman watched Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld testify, she called her daughter a "scapegoat." "They're passing the buck, putting it all on the little kids," she said. "That's what makes me so mad."
Harman took many photographs while in Iraq, her family said.
Among hundreds of digital pictures passed around her MP unit -- and obtained by The Post -- is one taken before the soldiers got to Abu Ghraib in October. In it, Harman is smiling, crouching slightly, a thumb up, and leaning toward a blackened, decaying corpse with long fingers and a gaping mouth.
The photo was taken at a makeshift combat morgue in Al Hillah, her family said, citing letters that Harman sent with the picture.
Sabrina Harman grew up around photographs of dead people, her family explained. Her father was a homicide detective, and her mother was a forensics buff. Robin Harman said her husband often brought home crime-scene photographs for the family to "profile."
"She has been looking at autopsies and crime-scene pictures since she was a kid," her mother said.
Shortly after Harman got to Abu Ghraib in October, her mother said, she began to take and collect pictures as evidence of the improper conditions.
Robin Harman said when her daughter told her what she was doing, she ordered her to stop. "We got into an argument about it at 4 a.m.," Robin Harman said. "Sabrina said she had to prove this. I told her to bring the pictures home, hide them and stay out of it."
Sabrina Harman brought the photographs home to Virginia in mid-November during a two-week leave. An Army investigator showed up on Jan. 16 and took a CD of photos and Harman's laptop computer, her roommate said.
In February, the Army moved Harman to Camp Victory, a base of trailers and tents near Baghdad's airport. Her weapon was confiscated, but she is not in confinement. She spends her days sweeping streets and planting flowers, her family said.
Robin Harman said her daughter had dreamed of following her father into a career as a homicide detective. Now she does not want to have anything to do with law enforcement, Robin Harman said.
"She just moved out two years ago," Robin Harman said. "She has no clue what people are really like. She thinks everyone is good."
© 2004 The Washington Post Company | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Sun May 09, 2004 3:21 pm Post subject: Who is Behind the Abuse at Abu Ghraib? |
| Who is Behind the Abuse at Abu Ghraib?
By Christopher Bollyn – Rumor Mill News May 6, 2004
Despite extensive coverage, the mainstream media has failed to ask the key questions about the abuse of the Iraqi detainees: Who is really behind the torture and humiliation of the Iraqi prisoners and why was it done?
“I share a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated,” President George W. Bush said about the published photographs of tortured and humiliated Iraqi prisoners from the U.S.-run prison near Baghdad. “Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the way we do things in America.”
Most Americans would agree that the abuse caught on film at Abu Ghraib prison seems utterly foreign. The media, however, is not exploring the question implied by the president’s statement: If not American, then who is behind the humiliation of the Iraqi prisoners?
While the mainstream media wallows in the details of the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad it avoids asking the questions that could reveal who is behind the sordid saga.
The lowly Army reservists seen smiling in scenes of abuse appear to be mere actors – useful idiots – in a drama directed by a hidden hand. But who is truly responsible for this drama? And why was it photographed?
A May 5 New York Times article about Hayder Sabbar Abd, a 34-year-old Shiite Iraqi being victimized in the infamous photos, raises the most obvious question: Why was the perverse abuse he and six other simple detainees suffered photographed?
Ordered by the Translator
“The curiosity, through much of the ordeal, was the camera,” Ian Fisher wrote. “It was a detail he mentioned repeatedly as he recalled being forced against a wall and ordered by the Arabic translator to masturbate.” It’s odd that, according to Abd, the translator was giving the orders.
“All the while, he [Abd] said, the flash of the camera kept illuminating the dim room that once held prisoners of Mr. [Saddam] Hussein, recording images that have infuriated the Arab world and badly sullied America’s image.”
It seems unlikely that a group of U.S. Army Military Police [MP] would allow themselves to be filmed indulging in “sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses.” The prisoners being abused in the photos were not being abused prior to interrogation, according to Abd. The mistreatment in the photos “appeared to be punishment for bad behavior,” the Times reported.
“The truth is we were not terrorists,” Abd said. “We were not insurgents. We were just ordinary people. And American intelligence knew that.”
Abd claims that he was never interrogated, and never charged with a crime. Most of the American soldiers had treated him well and with respect. “Americans did not mistreat me in general,” he said. “But these people must be tried.”
Taguba's Investigation
Major General Antonio M. Taguba, who conducted the Army’s investigation into the alleged abuses at Abu Ghraib earlier this year, said Army investigators have “extremely graphic photographic evidence” of abuse in “pictures and videos.”
Taguba’s report says “egregious acts and grave breaches of international law” were committed when an “ambiguous command relationship” existed at the prison. This breakdown in the chain-of-command was due to Fragmentary Order 1108, dated 19 November 2003.
“This effectively made an MI [Military Intelligence] Officer, rather than an MP Officer, responsible for the MP units conducting detainee operations at that facility,” Taguba wrote.
Fragmentary Order 1108 made Col. Thomas M. Pappas, Commander of the 205th MI Brigade, responsible for the MP units at Abu Ghraib prison.
Taguba’s report, which was presented to his superiors in early March, recommended that an investigation be conducted “to determine the extent of culpability of MI personnel.”
Apart from the failings of the senior officers who should have done more to prevent the abuse, Taguba names four individuals as key suspects. “Specifically,” Taguba wrote, “I suspect that Col. Thomas M. Pappas, LTC Steve L. Jordan, Mr. Steven Stephanowicz, and Mr. John Israel were either directly or indirectly responsible for the abuses at Abu Ghraib and strongly recommend immediate disciplinary action.”
Jordan is former director of the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center and Liaison Officer to the 205th MI Brigade.
Stephanowicz is a “civilian interrogator” employed by CACI International of Chantilly, Va., and “John Israel” is said to be a “civilian interpreter.” Both were working with the 205th MI Brigade at the time of the abuse. According to the report these private contractors were at times supervising the interrogations.
“In general,” Taguba wrote, “U.S. civilian contract personnel (Titan Corp., CACI, etc.) third country nationals, and local contractors do not appear to be properly supervised within the detention facility at Abu Ghraib.” The third country nationals are not identified in the report.
Although Stephanowicz and Israel are both named as being “directly or indirectly responsible for the abuses at Abu Ghraib,” very little has been said about either of them in the mainstream media. Why are they being overlooked?
Who is John Israel?
The Taguba report isn’t clear about John Israel. In the body of the report he is mistakenly identified as a CACI employee. Only in the annex on the last page is he noted as being with Titan Corp., a high tech military company based in San Diego.
Questions abound about “John Israel.” Ralph Williams, spokesman for Titan Corp., told the Times that Israel “worked for a Titan subcontractor that he would not name.”
“John Israel” is most likely the nom de guerre of an Arabic-speaking intelligence agent who was placed in Iraq through Titan. Both Titan and CACI have directors with strong ties to the Israeli military establishment.
The director of Titan with the largest stake in the company is Edward H. Bersoff, who received the Distinguished Leadership Award by the Washington Chapter of the American Jewish Committee in 1999. Bersoff has been an honored speaker at the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, along with the likes of Sharon’s right-wing ally Binjamin Netanyahu.
On January 14, Dr. J.P. (Jack) London, chairman, president, and CEO of CACI International, flew to Israel to receive the Albert Einstein Technology Award from the Jerusalem Fund. The award was presented by Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Uri Lupolianski, Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish Mayor at a ceremony in the occupied city on January 14, 2004.
CACI was awarded a $10,118,040 firm-fixed-price contract from the U.S. Army on Feb. 26, 2004 for 24 contract specialists, like Stephanowicz, to work in Iraq. Each CACI specialist is costing the U.S. taxpayer $421,585 per year.
On May 3, Titan reported a 21 percent growth in its first quarter revenues of $459 million. “Titan's linguist contract with the U.S. Army” was noted as a “primary driver” behind the companies increased revenues. The only language tool Titan offers on its website is for “Levantine Arabic,” i.e. the Arabic spoken in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria.
Last July, however, Titan Systems Corporation of Fairfax, Va., placed an ad for “native Arabic, Aramaic, Kurdish, Persian, Pashto, Turkish and Dari speakers.” Titan’s ad for interpreters required the native speakers be U.S. citizens and fluent in English. It is extremely unlikely that any native speaker of Arabic would be named “John Israel.”
Still on the Job
Taguba’s report called for Stephanowicz to be terminated and reprimanded, but on April 25 he was still on the job at Abu Ghraib hitting golfballs from the roof onto the highway in his free time, according to the “Iraq Diary” of one of his co-workers. Until recently, Joe Ryan, one of the interrogators, had his revealing journal about his work at Abu Ghraib posted on the website of KSTP, a St. Paul, Minnesota radio station. According to KSTP’s Ron Rosenbaum, the journal was removed at Ryan’s request when the photos of abuse surfaced.
As of May 5, however, two months after Taguba had called for Stephanowicz to be fired, CACI, Stephanowicz’s employer, said they had “received no information from the Dept. of Defense” on the matter.
Phenomenal Damage
"Everybody understands the phenomenal damage this accusation has caused in that part of the world," Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said. "This is the single most significant undermining act that's occurred in a decade in that region of the world, in terms of our standing."
The abuse at Abu Ghraib resembles Israeli methods applied in the occupied territories. “Israel is the only country in which the kind of abuse documented at Abu Ghraib occurs as a matter of policy,” Hussein Ibish, spokesman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the largest Arab-American organization, told American Free Press.
Palestinian news sources are replete with similar accounts of Israeli soldiers forcing Palestinians to strip and perform degrading sexual acts. Reports of Palestinian prisoners having been sodomized during torture sessions with Israeli military interrogators are common.
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs has articles on such abuse going back to 1996. Israeli soldiers paraded naked Palestinians through the streets of Jerusalem after the massacre of Deir Yassin in April 1948. Dr. Hazem Nusseibeh of Palestine Broadcasting witnessed the massacre and its aftermath. Nusseibeh said women were bayoneted and about 11 children were made to parade naked through the streets of Jerusalem.
Palestine Chronicle, an online news source, carried an article in November 2002 titled “Stripping Palestinians has Become Common Practice.”
The article described an incident in which Israeli soldiers ordered a young resident of the town of Nablus to strip completely naked in the street and act like a dog.
Deliberate Intelligence Tactic
“It was a deliberate intelligence tactic,” Ibish said when asked if he thought the photos could be part of an Israeli intelligence plot to damage U.S. relations in the Arab world. “[Ariel] Sharon plays a zero-sum game,” he said. “He thinks the worst possible relations between United States and the people of the Arab and Muslim world is good for Israel.”
American Free Press asked the coalition press desk in Baghdad if Israeli advisors worked with the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq or at the Abu Ghraib prison. “No to both,” was the response from Major Carolyn Dysart.
Rafael Barak, spokesman at the Israeli embassy in Washington, said he was “not aware” of any Israeli presence in Iraq.
The accused military personnel may face courts martial, but the civilian contractors can be charged with war crimes through the War Crimes Act of 1996 and the Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000, according to Francis A. Boyle, author and professor of international law at the University of Illinois.
War crimes cases against U.S. civilians working with the military in Iraq would be prosecuted by the Dept. of Justice, Boyle said.
“The question is how high this goes,” he added. “[Lieut. General Ricardo S.] Sanchez is letting the superiors off the hook.” Boyle’s latest book on Iraq is entitled Destroying World Order: U.S. Imperialism in the Middle East Before and After September 11th.
"Tell him to walk and bark like a dog." That's right, good. O.K., I've got the picture."
Question: Where have we seen this before?
Answer: ISRAELI OCCUPIED PALESTINE
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=48426
Also see:
Who is John Israel? Why was he Running the Show?
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?id=1788
_________________
Palestine Children's Relief Fund
http://pcrf.net
No War For Israel
http://www.nowarforisrael.com/ | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Sun May 09, 2004 4:58 pm Post subject: Digital Damage to Moral Image |
| http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/172436_fisk09.html
Sunday, May 9, 2004
Digital damage to moral image
ROBERT FISK
BRITISH COLUMNIST
First, our enemies created the suicide bomber. Now we have our own digital suicide bomber, the camera. Just look at the way Lynndie holds the leash of the naked, bearded Iraqi. Take a close look at the leather strap, the pain on the prisoner's face. No sadistic movie could outdo the damage of this image. In 2001, the planes smashed into the buildings; today, Lynndie smashes to pieces our entire morality with just one tug on the leash.
The Muslim suicide bomber cries Allahu Akbar , God is greater. And what does Lynndie England's partner in crime do? Why, his home garden is plastered with a legend from the Book of Hosea, about sowing and righteousness and plowing. Could ever Islam have come so intimately into contact with the sexuality of the Old Testament? Could neo-conservative Christianity -- Lynndie is also a church goer -- have collided so violently, so revoltingly, so obscenely with Islam? And who were the innocent in these vile photographs? The American torturers and humiliators? Or the Iraqi victims?
President Bush is fearful of Arab reaction to these pictures. Why? For a year now, Iraqis have been trying to tell journalists of the brutal treatment they are receiving at the hands of their occupiers. They don't need these incriminating photographs to prove to them what they already know to be true. But in the history of the Middle East, these pictures already have the status of those most damaging snapshots of the Vietnam War: the police chief in Saigon executing his Vietcong prisoner, the naked girl burned by Nepalm, the pile of bodies My Lai. For Arabs read Deir Yassin and the corpses piled in the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra and Chatila in 1982.
Not long after the occupation of Baghdad by U.S. troops in April of last year, we got our hands on videotape of the brutal whipping of Iraqi prisoners by Saddam's security police. I'm not sure which circle of hell the victims were enduring in the 45 minutes of sadism, which I still have on one tape. They are whipped, sticks are broken in their throats, they are kicked into sewers and they cower like dogs. And why were these war crimes filmed? I thought at first that it was intended for the enjoyment of Saddam or his disgusting son Oudai. But now I realize that the videos were taken so that the prisoners could be humiliated. Their suffering, their pathetic pleas for mercy, their animal-like behavior was to be recorded -- to add the final layer of degradation to their fate.
And now I realize, too, that the pictures of the Iraqis so cruelly treated -- so tortured -- by the Americans, were taken for precisely the same reason. Someone decided that the photos would be the final straw, the breaking point, the moment of capitulation for these young men. Make them simulate oral sex. Make them look at the penis of their best friend. Get a girl to admire their attempted erection. This was truly Saddamite in its perversity.
So let's, as the Americans say, get real. Who taught Lynndie and her boyfriend and the other American sadists of Abu Ghraib prison to do this? I used to ask who taught the Syrian and Iraqi secret police to do this. The answer to the latter question was simple: the East German secret police.
But the answer to the first question? Well, we have been told that there were "contracted" interrogators at Abu Ghraib. I have reason to believe that Gen. Janis Karpinski, the luckless prison commander who is going to be dumped out of the Army for interrogations over which she had no control, knew that "outsiders" were questioning her inmates. She was never allowed into the interrogation room. And I can see why. So, no doubt, can she.
So who were these mysterious "interrogators"? If they were not CIA or FBI staff, who were they? Several names are already going the rounds -- so far, journalists claim they have no final proof of them -- and a number, so I understand, hold more than one passport. Why were they brought into Abu Ghraib? Who brought them in? How much are they paid? And who trained them ? Who taught them that it was a good idea to get a girl to point at an Arab who was being forced to masturbate, to humiliate an Iraqi into submission by hooding him with a girl's lingerie?
We are not just talking sick here. We're talking professionals. Lynndie and her boyfriend were not part of a "rogue" unit. They were told to do these despicable things. They were encouraged to do it. This was an order from someone else. Who? When can we see their pictures, their identity, their passports, their orders?
Yes, it's part of a culture, a long tradition that goes back to the Crusades; that the Muslim is dirty, lascivious, un-Christian, unworthy of humanity -- which is pretty much what Osama bin Laden (now forgotten by Bush, I notice) believes about us Westerners. And our illegal, immoral, meretricious war has now brought forth the images that betray our racism.
The hooded man with the wires attached to his hands has now become an iconic portrait every bit as memorable as the picture of the second aircraft flying into the World Trade Center. No, of course, we haven't killed 3,000 Iraqis. We've killed many more. And the same goes for Afghanistan.
Robert Fisk writes for The Independent in Great Britain. | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon May 10, 2004 9:02 am Post subject: TORTURE IS NEWS BUT IT'S NOT NEW |
| John Pilger in the Daily Mirror, May 7th:
TORTURE IS NEWS BUT IT'S NOT NEW
When I first went to report the American war against Vietnam, in the 1960s, I
visited the Saigon offices of the great American newspapers and TV companies,
and the international news agencies.
I was struck by the similarity of displays on many of their office pinboards. "That's
where we hang our conscience," said an agency photographer.
There were photographs of dismembered bodies, of soldiers holding up severed
ears and testicles and of the actual moments of torture. There were men and
women being beaten to death, and drowned, and humiliated in stomach-turning
ways. On one photograph was a stick-on balloon above the torturer's head, which
said: "That'll teach you to talk to the press."
The question came up whenever visitors caught sight of these pictures: why had
they not been published? A standard response was that newspapers would not
publish them, because their readers would not accept them. And to publish them,
without an explanation of the wider circumstances of the war, was to
"sensationalise".
At first, I accepted the apparent logic of this; atrocities and torture by "us" were
surely aberrations by definition. My education thereafter was rapid; for this
rationale did not explain the growing evidence of civilians killed, maimed, made
homeless and sent mad by "anti-personnel" bombs dropped on villages, schools
and hospitals.
Nor did it explain the children burned to a bubbling pulp by something called
napalm, or farmers hunted in helicopter "turkey shoots", or a "suspect" tortured to
death with a rope around his neck, dragged behind a jeep filled with doped and
laughing American soldiers.
Nor did it explain why so many soldiers kept human parts in their wallets and
special forces officers who kept human skulls in their huts, inscribed with the
words: "One down, a million to go."
Philip Jones Griffiths, the great Welsh freelance photographer with whom I worked
in Vietnam, tried to stop an American officer blowing to bits a huddled group of
women and children.
"They're civilians," he yelled.
"What civilians?" came the reply.
Jones Griffiths and others tried to interest the news agencies in pictures that told
the truth about that atrocious war. The response often was: "So what's new?"
The difference today is that the truth of the equally atrocious Anglo-American
invasion of Iraq is news. Moreover, leaked Pentagon documents make clear that
torture is widespread in Iraq. Amnesty International says it is "systematic".
And yet, we have only begun to identify the unspeakable element that unites the
invasion of Vietnam with the invasion of Iraq. This element draws together most
colonial occupations, no matter where or when. It is the essence of imperialism, a
word only now being restored to our dictionaries. It is racism.
In Kenya in the 1950s, the British slaughtered an estimated 10,000 Kenyans and
ran concentration camps where the conditions were so harsh that 402 inmates
died in just one month. Torture, flogging and abuse of women and children were
commonplace. "The special prisons," wrote the imperial historian V.G. Kiernan,
"were probably as bad as any similar Nazi or Japanese establishments."
None of this was news at the time. The "Mau Mau terror" was reported and
perceived one way: as "demonic" black against white. The racist message was
clear, but "our" racism was never mentioned.
In Kenya, as in the failed American attempt to colonise Vietnam, as in Iraq,
racism fuelled the indiscriminate attacks on civilians, and the torture. When they
arrived in Vietnam, the Americans regarded the Vietnamese as human lice. They
called them "gooks" and "dinks" and "slopes" and they killed them in industrial
quantities, just as they had slaughtered the Native Americans; indeed, Vietnam
was known as "Indian country".
In Iraq, nothing has changed.
In boasting openly about killing "rats in their nest," US marine snipers, who in
Falluja shot dead women, children and the elderly, just as German snipers shot
dead Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, were reflecting the racism of their leaders.
Paul W Wolfowitz, the Deputy Defence Secretary who is said to be the architect of
the invasion of Iraq, has spoken of "snakes" and "draining the swamps" in the
"uncivilised parts of the world".
Much of this modern imperial racism was invented in Britain. Listen to its subtle
expressions, as British spokesmen find their weasel words in refusing to
acknowledge the numbers of Iraqis killed or maimed by their cluster bombs,
whose actual effects are no different from the effects of suicide bombers; they are
weapons of terrorism. Listen to Adam Ingram, the armed forces minister, drone
on in parliament, refusing to say how many innocent people are the victims of his
government.
In Vietnam, the shooting of women and their babies in the village of My Lai was
called an "American Tragedy" by Newsweek magazine. Be prepared for more of
the "our tragedy" line that invites sympathy for the invaders.
The Americans left three million dead in Vietnam and a once bountiful land
devastated and poisoned with the effects of the chemical weapons they used.
While American politicians and Hollywood wrung their hands over GIs
missing-in-action, who gave a damn for the Vietnamese?
In Iraq, nothing has changed.
By the most conservative estimates, the Americans and the British have left
11,000 civilians dead. Include Iraqi conscripts, and the figure quadruples.
"We count every screw driver, but we don't count dead Iraqis," said an American
officer during the 1991 slaughter. Adam Ingram may not be as literate, but the
dishonouring of human life is the same.
Yes, the atrocities and torture are news now. But how are they news? asks the
writer Ahdaf Soueif. A BBC news presenter describes the torture pictures as
"merely mementoes". Yes, of course: just like the human parts kept in wallets in
Vietnam.
BBC commentators - always the best measure of the British establishment
thinking on its feet - remind us that the torturing, humiliating of soldiers "does
not compare with Saddam Hussein's systematic tortures and executions".
Saddam, noted Ahdaf Soueif, "is now the moral compass of the West".
We cannot give back Iraqi lives extinguished or ruined by those acting in our
name. At the very least, we must demand that those responsible for this epic
crime get out of Iraq now and that we have an opportunity to prosecute and judge
them, and to make amends to the Iraqi people. Anything less disqualifies "us" as
civilised.
First published in the Daily Mirror - www.mirror.co.uk | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon May 10, 2004 6:19 pm Post subject: The Israeli Torture Template |
| May 10, 2004
The Israeli Torture Template
Rape, Feces and Urine-Dipped Cloth Sacks
By WAYNE MADSEN
With mounting evidence that a shadowy group of former Israeli Defense Force and General Security Service (Shin Bet) Arabic-speaking interrogators were hired by the Pentagon under a classified "carve out" sub-contract to brutally interrogate Iraqi prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, one only needs to examine the record of abuse of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in Israel to understand what Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld meant, when referring to new, yet to be released photos and videos, he said, "if these images are released to the public, obviously its going to make matters worse."
According to a political appointee within the Bush administration and U.S. intelligence sources, the interrogators at Abu Ghraib included a number of Arabic-speaking Israelis who also helped U.S. interrogators develop the "R2I" (Resistance to Interrogation) techniques. Many of the torture methods were developed by the Israelis over many years of interrogating Arab prisoners on the occupied West Bank and in Israel itself.
Clues about worse photos and videos of abuse may be found in Israeli files about similar abuse of Palestinian and other Arab prisoners. In March 2000, a lawyer for a Lebanese prisoner kidnapped in 1994 by the Israelis in Lebanon claimed that his client had been subjected to torture, including rape. The type of compensation offered by Rumsfeld in his testimony has its roots in cases of Israeli torture of Arabs. In the case of the Lebanese man, said to have been raped by his Israeli captors, his lawyer demanded compensation of $1.47 million. The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel documented the types of torture meted out on Arab prisoners. Many of the tactics coincide with those contained in the Taguba report: beatings and prolonged periods handcuffed to furniture. In an article in the December 1998 issue of The Progressive, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb reported on the treatment given to a 23-year old Palestinian held on "administrative detention." The prisoner was "cuffed behind a chair 17 hours a day for 120 days . . . [he] had his head covered with a sack, which was often dipped in urine or feces. Guards played loud music right next to his ears and frequently taunted him with threats of physical and sexual violence." If additional photos and videos document such practices, the Bush administration and the American people have, indeed, "seen nothing yet."
Although it is still largely undocumented if any of the contractor named in the report of General Antonio Taguba were associated with the Israeli military or intelligence services, it is noteworthy that one, John Israel, who was identified in the report as being employed by both CACI International of Arlington, Virginia, and Titan, Inc., of San Diego, may not have even been a U.S. citizen. The Taguba report states that Israel did not have a security clearance, a requirement for employment as an interrogator for CACI. According to CACI's web site, "a Top Secret Clearance (TS) that is current and US citizenship" are required for CACI interrogators working in Iraq. In addition, CACI requires that its interrogators "have at least two years experience as a military policeman or similar type of law enforcement/intelligence agency whereby the individual utilized interviewing techniques."
Speculation that "John Israel" may be an intelligence cover name has fueled speculation whether this individual could have been one of a number of Israeli interrogators hired under a classified contract. Because U.S. citizenship and documentation thereof are requirements for a U.S. security clearance, Israeli citizens would not be permitted to hold a Top Secret clearance. However, dual U.S.-Israeli citizens could have satisfied Pentagon requirements that interrogators hold U.S. citizenship and a Top Secret clearance. Although the Taguba report refers twice to Israel as an employee of Titan, the company claims he is one of their sub-contractors. CACI stated that one of the men listed in the report "is not and never has been a CACI employee" without providing more detail. A U.S. intelligence source revealed that in the world of intelligence "carve out" subcontracts such confusion is often the case with "plausible deniability" being a foremost concern.
In fact, the Taguba report does reference the presence of non-U.S. and non-Iraqi interrogators at Abu Ghraib. The report states, "In general, US civilian contract personnel (Titan Corporation, CACI, etc), third country nationals, and local contractors do not appear to be properly supervised within the detention facility at Abu Ghraib."
The Pentagon is clearly concerned about the outing of the Taguba report and its references to CACI, Titan, and third country nationals, which could permanently damage U.S. relations with Arab and Islamic nations. The Pentagon's angst may explain why the Taguba report is classified Secret No Foreign Dissemination.
The leak of the Taguba report was so radioactive, Daniel R. Dunn, the Information Assurance Officer for Douglas Feith's Office of the Under Secretary of Defense, Policy (Policy Automation Services Security Team), sent a May 6, 2004, For Official Use Only Urgent E-mail to Pentagon staffers stating, "THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS REPORT IS CLASSIFIED; DO NOT GO TO FOX NEWS TO READ OR OBTAIN A COPY." Considering Feith's close ties to the Israelis, such a reaction by his top computer security officer, a Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP), is understandable, although considering the fact that CISSPs are to act on behalf of the public good, it is also regrettable..
The reference to "third country nationals" in a report that restricts its dissemination to U.S. coalition partners (Great Britain, Poland, Italy, etc.) is another indication of the possible involvement of Israelis in the interrogation of Iraqi prisoners. Knowledge that the U.S. may have been using Israeli interrogators could have severely fractured the Bush administration's tenuous "coalition of the willing' in Iraq. General Taguba's findings were transmitted to the Coalition Forces Land Component Command on March 9, 2004, just six days before the Spanish general election, one that the opposition anti-Iraq war Socialists won. The Spanish ultimately withdrew their forces from Iraq.
During his testimony before the Senate Armed Service Committee, Rumsfeld was pressed upon by Senator John McCain about the role of the private contractors in the interrogations and abuse. McCain asked Rumsfeld four pertinent questions, ". . . who was in charge? What agency or private contractor was in charge of the interrogations? Did they have authority over the guards? And what were the instructions that they gave to the guards?"
When Rumsfeld had problems answering McCain's question, Lt. Gen. Lance Smith, the Deputy Commander of the U.S. Central Command, said there were 37 contract interrogators used in Abu Ghraib. The two named contractors, CACI and Titan, have close ties to the Israeli military and technology communities. Last January 14, after Provost Marshal General of the Army, Major General Donald Ryder, had already uncovered abuse at Abu Ghraib, CACI's President and CEO, Dr. J.P. (Jack) London was receiving the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah's Albert Einstein Technology award at the Jerusalem City Hall, with right-wing Likud politician Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski in attendance. Oddly, CACI waited until February 2 to publicly announce the award in a press release. CACI has also received grants from U.S.-Israeli bi-national foundations.
Titan also has had close connections to Israeli interests. After his stint as CIA Director, James Woolsey served as a Titan director. Woolsey is an architect of America's Iraq policy and the chief proponent of and lobbyist for Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress. An adviser to the neo-conservative Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, Jewish Institute of National Security Affairs, Project for the New American Century, Center for Security Policy, Freedom House, and Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, Woolsey is close to Stephen Cambone, the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, a key person in the chain of command who would have not only known about the torture tactics used by U.S. and Israeli interrogators in Iraq but who would have also approved them. Cambone was associated with the Project for the New American Century and is viewed as a member of Rumsfeld's neo-conservative "cabal" within the Pentagon.
Another person considered by Pentagon insiders to have been knowledgeable about the treatment of Iraqi prisoners is U.S. Army Col. Steven Bucci, a Green Beret and Rumsfeld's military assistant and chief traffic cop for the information flow to the Defense Secretary. According to Pentagon insiders, Bucci was involved in the direction of a special covert operations unit composed of former U.S. special operations personnel who answered to the Pentagon rather than the CIA's Special Activities Division, the agency's own paramilitary group. The Pentagon group included Arabic linguists and former members of the Green Berets and Delta Force who operated covertly in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan. Titan also uses linguists trained in the languages (Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Pashto, Urdu, and Tajik) of those same countries. It is not known if a link exists between Rumsfeld's covert operations unit and Titan's covert operations linguists.
Another Titan employee named in the Taguba report is Adel L. Nakhla. Nakhla is a name common among Egypt's Coptic Christian community, however, it is not known if Adel Nakhla is either an Egyptian-American or a national of Egypt. A CACI employee identified in the report, Steven Stephanowicz, is referred to as "Stefanowicz" in a number of articles on the prison abuse. Stefanowicz is the spelling used by Joe Ryan, another CACI employee assigned with Stefanowicz to Abu Ghraib. Ryan is a radio personality on KSTP, a conservative radio station in Minneapolis, who maintained a daily log of his activities in Iraq on the radio's web site before it was taken down. Ryan indicated that Stefanowicz (or Stephanowicz) continued to hold his interrogation job in Iraq even though General Taguba recommended he lose his security clearance and be terminated for the abuses at Abu Ghraib.
In an even more bizarre twist, the Philadelphia Daily News identified a former expatriate public relations specialist for the government of South Australia in Adelaide named Steve Stefanowicz as possibly being the same person identified in the Taguba report. In 2000, Stefanowicz, who grew up in the Philadelphia and Allentown areas, left for Australia. On September 16, 2001, he was quoted by the Sunday Mail of Adelaide on the 911 attacks. He said of the attacks, "It was one of the most incredible and most devastating things I have ever seen. I have been in constant contact with my family and friends in the US and the mood was very solemn and quiet. But this is progressing into anger." Stefanowicz returned to the United States and volunteered for the Navy in a reserve status. His mother told the Allentown Morning Call in April 2002 that Stefanowicz was stationed somewhere in the Middle East but did not know where because of what Stefanowicz said was "security concerns." His mother told the Philadelphia Daily News that her son was in Iraq but she knew nothing about his current status.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and columnist. He served in the National Security Agency (NSA) during the Reagan administration and wrote the introduction to Forbidden Truth. He is the co-author, with John Stanton, of "America's Nightmare: The Presidency of George Bush II." His forthcoming book is titled: "Jaded Tasks: Big Oil, Black Ops, and Brass Plates."
Madsen can be reached at: WMadsen777@aol.com
http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen05102004.html | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon May 10, 2004 11:20 pm Post subject: Fine essay by Mr. Madsen: The Israeli Torture Template |
| In reading the following, keep in mind that Miller (as in Major General Miller) is a common Jewish name as well:
Subj: Fine essay by Mr. Madsen: The Israeli Torture Template
Date: 5/10/04 3:47:52 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: captainmay@prodigy.net
To: Wayne Madsen
CPTMAYSEZ 2 Mr. Madsen:
Sir, I found much of interest in your May 10 CounterPunch analysis of Israeli parallels in our current interrogation woes. I published an essay in Al-Jazeerah.info last week making the same observation, though without much more than intuition and a knowledge of military intelligence (I was a Cold War, Russian-area specialist).
I believe a bit of investigation will reveal that the moderate US war parties realized by summer that the blitzkreig victory we'd been tempted with was going to bog down into mud. Ergo the grudging passage of the war continuation budget in September, and an instant emphasis on improving "human intelliegence" to win the War on Terror.
I believe that in the event of Abu Grayhib prison (and, no doubt, numerous others), we see the immediate increase in brutality in the fall, corresponding to the importation of Major General Miller, the former commandant of Gitmo (our proto-concentration camp). All of this is the same trend, originated in D.C. by the Establishment (Bush being the current psychotic cheerleader) in the fall:
"Let's get mean and root out this insurgency once and for all."
The reaction of EVERY echelon of command between the commander-in-chief and the night shift of cell block 1A was to look the other way while the brutality was allowed. "This is a violation of the rules of land warfare," military scholars in the officer and non-com corps rationalized, but not a violation of the laws of guerilla war, for there are none."
And they got mean. They used short-term high-stress tactics (i.e., torture) to extract information in an enviornment that both told them it was important and permissable to violate the norms of military conduct -- after all, it was their commanders (all the way to the prez) who were pushing the tactics, though perhaps maintaining "plausible deniability."
It's really boring and banal, just as Hannah Arendt, a Third-Reich survivor, said it would be when the Nazis (in this incarnation, the NeoCons) returned. Believe me, all that is under the surface is in the Third Reich parallels -- where the hell do you think they got the inspiration for the Reichstag Fire of 911, or the Gestapo of Homeland Security (in the works on 912). That's why the tie-in of the Bush diary entry on 911: "We've just had the Pearl Harbor of the twenty-first century." Bush didn't have the wit to figure that much history out in half a day, he was staying on script. 911 was a scripted Pearl Harbor -- a USS Maine if you prefer. It was just the right amount of disaster to make us follow the leader. The Germans did it with more style -- they had better uniforms.
Understand the recent revelations in light of the 912 statement by Bush: "I'm a nice guy, but I've got a tough job to do." Better yet, think about Cheney's 915 message on one of the networks: "In this new kind of war on terror, we'll have to embrace DARK SIDE tactics that we wouldn't usually embrace." (The quote is approximate, but the "dark side" part is verbatim, brother.)
Last part, the media in the fall, while the War Party (the Establishment) was "getting tough" (euphemised as exploiting human intelligence), the media set up three Moslems busted at Gitmo for a show trial. Captain Josef Yee was the chaplain, and was a definite political target. (It's my field, man... I know the marks.) I personally got involved, from my dubious leverage point in the underground media, to stand up for Chaplain Yee. I attach the essay below for your perusal -- and I hope you find mine as enlightening as I found yours. Should you want to look into the investigative work my associates (collectively known as Ghost Troop) and I have done on the particular issue of the cover-up and desecration of our comrades in Iraq by the US media, please look at the website report (magazine length) www.geocities.com/onlythecaptain/ and check out the intro essay. If you want to see how an ex-intelligence officer can get an assassination coming his way from the prez, read the Supporting Documents / July 03 Letters from July 15 to 18 (they're at the site).
Ciao, CPTMAY, CO, Ghost Troop, 3/7 Cybercav+
PS: Please w/b if you'd like to read more of our ongoing analysis of the military/media matrix. I'm prepared to explain the rationale behind the timing of the Abu Grahyab (and Niteline KIA recitation, for that matter) from the strategic point of view, should you be interested -- just remember that the media is taking its marching orders from the Establishment (indeed, they're its best henchmen, in the detached, distorted way). If we make it out of this mess without a world war, they must be reformed to the root.
September 24 essay: “Capt. James Yee, a new Capt. Alfred Dreyfus?”
By Captain Eric May
A captain from a suspect religious group is arrested for espionage by his government, tired by a court martial declared secret for purposes of national security, convicted and sent into confinement and disgrace…
But after a dozen years the whole affair is revealed to have been a right-wing frame up to fan nationalist fanaticism. The military, the media and majority religious groups are revealed as having plotted in a frame-up. The captain’s contrite country ends up acclaiming and decorating him, and promoting him major.
Will this be the history of Capt. James Yee, the American Moslem? I don’t know, but it is the history of Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, the French Jew, and it happened a century ago.
So is the past prologue in the case of Capt. Yee? Again, I don’t know, but as a former Army officer myself (alas, another mere captain), I’d like to examine the possibility that he is not receiving his fair due from the country he has served, both in war and peace, after his graduation from WestPoint.
As I watched Fox News broadcast the breaking story Saturday afternoon, I was a bit taken aback that there were already two “experts” on hand to state that the government always had strong evidence before it made an arrest. That seems a bit suspect to me because Capt. Yee still has not been charged with anything at all, although Fox News mentioned “suspicions” of treason and espionage.
I have to admit a bit of skepticism about Fox News. In a recent interview, CNBC’s Tina Brown asked CNN’s Christiane Amanpour whether media had been intimidated by the White House into modifying its war coverage. Amanpour’s answer was disturbing:
“I think the press was muzzled and I think the press self-muzzled. I'm sorry to say but certainly television and, perhaps, to a certain extent, my station was intimidated by the administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News. And it did, in fact, put a climate of fear and self-censorship, in my view, in terms of – of the kind of broadcast work we did.” [Topic A, Tina Brown, host, Sept. 10.]
I’ve kept the TV on Fox News since, and I’ve been a bit concerned by the announcements of the arrests of Capt. Yee and now Senior Airman Ahmad al-Halabi within a two-day period, when there were two months between their arrests. I’m a bit more concerned that Fox News is mentioning the possibility of a death penalty, because it smacks of intimidation. I’m even more concerned that talk radio is already beginning to talk of an Islamic Fifth Column in the United States.
We of the military and we of the media (and I’ve served both masters) are creating a strong climate of prejudice against American citizen service members who have yet to speak on their own behalf. Once you’ve fostered mistrust of the military, you’re pretty close to declaring a loyalty crisis in America.
It all seems a bit like the kind of half-suggestive, half-coercive manipulation of public affairs and military justice that happened a century ago in France – and that Ms. Amanpour alluded to on CNBC two weeks ago.
Capt. Yee and any other alleged participants in espionage deserve to have fair, open hearings, free from the veil of secrecy that ominously surrounds affairs at Guantanamo Bay. If they do not, the rest of the world, who also skeptically doubt our motives, may think that Capt. Yee, Airman al-Halabi, and any others swept up in the investigators’ net are victims of a political/military lynching intended to strengthen public paranoia, perhaps even launch a new McCarthyism.
A fair and open hearing is in order, and, if warranted, a fair and open trial, preferably in a civilian venue so as to remove any hint that a military kangaroo court rendered a political decision on White House orders. That’s all this true soldier wants. I yield to no one in loyalty to my country and its Constitution, and if loyalty means talking about foreign fall-guys like Capt. Alfred Dreyfus or domestic tyrants like Senator Joseph McCarthy, so be it. As President Bush mentioned when he recently honored the 3rd Infantry Division, this is America, not Iraq, and here no one gets executed for speaking their mind. That’s good to know. As long as we can discuss the prospect of oppressive government we need not fear it.
Capt. Eric May served as a military intelligence officer and public affairs officer on the General Staff of the Army’s 75th Division. He was the editorial writer for NBC affiliate KPRC in Houston, Texas.
justicequest2000 <******@aol.com> wrote:
May 10, 2004
The Israeli Torture Template
Rape, Feces and Urine-Dipped Cloth Sacks
By WAYNE MADSEN
With mounting evidence that a shadowy group of former Israeli Defense
Force and General Security Service (Shin Bet) Arabic-speaking
interrogators were hired by the Pentagon under a classified "carve
out" sub-contract to brutally interrogate Iraqi prisoners at
Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, one only needs to examine the record of
abuse of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in Israel to understand
what Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld meant, when referring to
new, yet to be released photos and videos, he said, "if these images
are released to the public, obviously its going to make matters
worse."
According to a political appointee within the Bush administration and
U.S. intelligence sources, the interrogators at Abu Ghraib included a
number of Arabic-speaking Israelis who also helped U.S. interrogators
develop the "R2I" (Resistance to Interrogation) techniques. Many of
the torture methods were developed by the Israelis over many years of
interrogating Arab prisoners on the occupied West Bank and in Israel
itself.
Clues about worse photos and videos of abuse may be found in Israeli
files about similar abuse of Palestinian and other Arab prisoners. In
March 2000, a lawyer for a Lebanese prisoner kidnapped in 1994 by the
Israelis in Lebanon claimed that his client had been subjected to
torture, including rape. The type of compensation offered by Rumsfeld
in his testimony has its roots in cases of Israeli torture of Arabs.
In the case of the Lebanese man, said to have been raped by his
Israeli captors, his lawyer demanded compensation of $1.47 million.
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel documented the types
of torture meted out on Arab prisoners. Many of the tactics coincide
with those contained in the Taguba report: beatings and prolonged
periods handcuffed to furniture. In an article in the December 1998
issue of The Progressive, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb reported on the
treatment given to a 23-year old Palestinian held on "administrative
detention." The prisoner was "cuffed behind a chair 17 hours a day
for 120 days . . . [he] had his head covered with a sack, which was
often dipped in urine or feces. Guards played loud music right next
to his ears and frequently taunted him with threats of physical and
sexual violence." If additional photos and videos document such
practices, the Bush administration and the American people have,
indeed, "seen nothing yet."
Although it is still largely undocumented if any of the contractor
named in the report of General Antonio Taguba were associated with
the Israeli military or intelligence services, it is noteworthy that
one, John Israel, who was identified in the report as being employed
by both CACI International of Arlington, Virginia, and Titan, Inc.,
of San Diego, may not have even been a U.S. citizen. The Taguba
report states that Israel did not have a security clearance, a
requirement for employment as an interrogator for CACI. According to
CACI's web site, "a Top Secret Clearance (TS) that is current and US
citizenship" are required for CACI interrogators working in Iraq. In
addition, CACI requires that its interrogators "have at least two
years experience as a military policeman or similar type of law
enforcement/intelligence agency whereby the individual utilized
interviewing techniques."
Speculation that "John Israel" may be an intelligence cover name has
fueled speculation whether this individual could have been one of a
number of Israeli interrogators hired under a classified contract.
Because U.S. citizenship and documentation thereof are requirements
for a U.S. security clearance, Israeli citizens would not be
permitted to hold a Top Secret clearance. However, dual U.S.-Israeli
citizens could have satisfied Pentagon requirements that
interrogators hold U.S. citizenship and a Top Secret clearance.
Although the Taguba report refers twice to Israel as an employee of
Titan, the company claims he is one of their sub-contractors. CACI
stated that one of the men listed in the report "is not and never has
been a CACI employee" without providing more detail. A U.S.
intelligence source revealed that in the world of intelligence "carve
out" subcontracts such confusion is often the case with "plausible
deniability" being a foremost concern.
In fact, the Taguba report does reference the presence of non-U.S.
and non-Iraqi interrogators at Abu Ghraib. The report states, "In
general, US civilian contract personnel (Titan Corporation, CACI,
etc), third country nationals, and local contractors do not appear to
be properly supervised within the detention facility at Abu Ghraib."
The Pentagon is clearly concerned about the outing of the Taguba
report and its references to CACI, Titan, and third country
nationals, which could permanently damage U.S. relations with Arab
and Islamic nations. The Pentagon's angst may explain why the Taguba
report is classified Secret No Foreign Dissemination.
The leak of the Taguba report was so radioactive, Daniel R. Dunn, the
Information Assurance Officer for Douglas Feith's Office of the Under
Secretary of Defense, Policy (Policy Automation Services Security
Team), sent a May 6, 2004, For Official Use Only Urgent E-mail to
Pentagon staffers stating, "THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS REPORT
IS CLASSIFIED; DO NOT GO TO FOX NEWS TO READ OR OBTAIN A COPY."
Considering Feith's close ties to the Israelis, such a reaction by
his top computer security officer, a Certified Information System
Security Professional (CISSP), is understandable, although
considering the fact that CISSPs are to act on behalf of the public
good, it is also regrettable..
The reference to "third country nationals" in a report that restricts
its dissemination to U.S. coalition partners (Great Britain, Poland,
Italy, etc.) is another indication of the possible involvement of
Israelis in the interrogation of Iraqi prisoners. Knowledge that the
U.S. may have been using Israeli interrogators could have severely
fractured the Bush administration's tenuous "coalition of the
willing' in Iraq. General Taguba's findings were transmitted to the
Coalition Forces Land Component Command on March 9, 2004, just six
days before the Spanish general election, one that the opposition
anti-Iraq war Socialists won. The Spanish ultimately withdrew their
forces from Iraq.
During his testimony before the Senate Armed Service Committee,
Rumsfeld was pressed upon by Senator John McCain about the role of
the private contractors in the interrogations and abuse. McCain asked
Rumsfeld four pertinent questions, ". . . who was in charge? What
agency or private contractor was in charge of the interrogations? Did
they have authority over the guards? And what were the instructions
that they gave to the guards?"
When Rumsfeld had problems answering McCain's question, Lt. Gen.
Lance Smith, the Deputy Commander of the U.S. Central Command, said
there were 37 contract interrogators used in Abu Ghraib. The two
named contractors, CACI and Titan, have close ties to the Israeli
military and technology communities. Last January 14, after Provost
Marshal General of the Army, Major General Donald Ryder, had already
uncovered abuse at Abu Ghraib, CACI's President and CEO, Dr. J.P.
(Jack) London was receiving the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah's
Albert Einstein Technology award at the Jerusalem City Hall, with
right-wing Likud politician Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and
ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party Jerusalem Mayor Uri
Lupolianski in attendance. Oddly, CACI waited until February 2 to
publicly announce the award in a press release. CACI has also
received grants from U.S.-Israeli bi-national foundations.
Titan also has had close connections to Israeli interests. After his
stint as CIA Director, James Woolsey served as a Titan director.
Woolsey is an architect of America's Iraq policy and the chief
proponent of and lobbyist for Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National
Congress. An adviser to the neo-conservative Foundation for the
Defense of Democracies, Jewish Institute of National Security
Affairs, Project for the New American Century, Center for Security
Policy, Freedom House, and Committee for the Liberation of Iraq,
Woolsey is close to Stephen Cambone, the Undersecretary of Defense
for Intelligence, a key person in the chain of command who would have
not only known about the torture tactics used by U.S. and Israeli
interrogators in Iraq but who would have also approved them. Cambone
was associated with the Project for the New American Century and is
viewed as a member of Rumsfeld's neo-conservative "cabal" within the
Pentagon.
Another person considered by Pentagon insiders to have been
knowledgeable about the treatment of Iraqi prisoners is U.S. Army
Col. Steven Bucci, a Green Beret and Rumsfeld's military assistant
and chief traffic cop for the information flow to the Defense
Secretary. According to Pentagon insiders, Bucci was involved in the
direction of a special covert operations unit composed of former U.S.
special operations personnel who answered to the Pentagon rather than
the CIA's Special Activities Division, the agency's own paramilitary
group. The Pentagon group included Arabic linguists and former
members of the Green Berets and Delta Force who operated covertly in
Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan. Titan also uses
linguists trained in the languages (Arabic, Dari, Farsi, Pashto,
Urdu, and Tajik) of those same countries. It is not known if a link
exists between Rumsfeld's covert operations unit and Titan's covert
operations linguists.
Another Titan employee named in the Taguba report is Adel L. Nakhla.
Nakhla is a name common among Egypt's Coptic Christian community,
however, it is not known if Adel Nakhla is either an Egyptian-
American or a national of Egypt. A CACI employee identified in the
report, Steven Stephanowicz, is referred to as "Stefanowicz" in a
number of articles on the prison abuse. Stefanowicz is the spelling
used by Joe Ryan, another CACI employee assigned with Stefanowicz to
Abu Ghraib. Ryan is a radio personality on KSTP, a conservative radio
station in Minneapolis, who maintained a daily log of his activities
in Iraq on the radio's web site before it was taken down. Ryan
indicated that Stefanowicz (or Stephanowicz) continued to hold his
interrogation job in Iraq even though General Taguba recommended he
lose his security clearance and be terminated for the abuses at Abu
Ghraib.
In an even more bizarre twist, the Philadelphia Daily News identified
a former expatriate public relations specialist for the government of
South Australia in Adelaide named Steve Stefanowicz as possibly being
the same person identified in the Taguba report. In 2000,
Stefanowicz, who grew up in the Philadelphia and Allentown areas,
left for Australia. On September 16, 2001, he was quoted by the
Sunday Mail of Adelaide on the 911 attacks. He said of the
attacks, "It was one of the most incredible and most devastating
things I have ever seen. I have been in constant contact with my
family and friends in the US and the mood was very solemn and quiet.
But this is progressing into anger." Stefanowicz returned to the
United States and volunteered for the Navy in a reserve status. His
mother told the Allentown Morning Call in April 2002 that Stefanowicz
was stationed somewhere in the Middle East but did not know where
because of what Stefanowicz said was "security concerns." His mother
told the Philadelphia Daily News that her son was in Iraq but she
knew nothing about his current status.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and
columnist. He served in the National Security Agency (NSA) during the
Reagan administration and wrote the introduction to Forbidden Truth.
He is the co-author, with John Stanton, of "America's Nightmare: The
Presidency of George Bush II." His forthcoming book is titled: "Jaded
Tasks: Big Oil, Black Ops, and Brass Plates."
Madsen can be reached at: WMadsen777@aol.com
http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen05102004.html
Is Israel behind the orders for the tortures in Iraq?:
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