Free Republic

July 27, 2004 Pg. 1 Senators Satisfied With Their 'No' Vote On Iraq ‘We were all firmly convinced we’d done the right thing’ By Lauren Shepherd By 1 a.m. that Friday morning, almost every senator had left the Capitol for home. Three Democrats, though, were still on the Senate floor, waiting for the final vote count on a resolution that would allow President Bush to launch a pre-emptive strike on Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Sens. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) — had voted against the resolution along with 18 other Democrats, one independent and one...

Afghan forces arrested three Americans, including a purported former Green Beret, after raiding a jail they were allegedly running in the Afghan capital and finding prisoners hanging from their feet, officials said Thursday. The U.S. military, facing a widening inquiry into prisoner abuse, quickly distanced itself from the three, who had been posing as American agents before being detained Monday. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday "the U.S. government does not employ or sponsor these men." Afghan officials also dismissed claims by the apparent ringleader, Jonathan K. Idema, that he was a "special adviser" to their security forces, saying...

Treating terrorists with kid gloves won't protect American soldiers. It was a when-did-you-stop-beating-your-wife moment. Attorney General John Ashcroft went before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week and declared, "This Administration rejects torture." Given the circumstances, it's hard to blame Mr. Ashcroft for being so defensive. But it sure would be helpful if someone in the Administration would take the initiative to challenge this latest Beltway uproar. At the very least, officials might muster some outrage over Democratic and media implications that U.S. officials have been in the business of justifying the use of torture.

Today's NY Times has a special section, a ten page layout entitled, "2004 THE YEAR IN PICTURES. In full color. Imagine my surprise, then disgust, and now loathing of that paper, when I see that the front page pic..all 22" x 13" of it.what the editors have chose as the the picture that best depicts the year is..well..in their own words.. "ON THE COVER: An Iraqi man captured by American forces during fighting in the Sunni enclave of Falluja sits bound and hooded near a heavily armed marine.."

The airplane is a Gulfstream V turbojet, the sort favored by CEOs and celebrities. But since 2001 it has been seen at military airports from Pakistan to Indonesia to Jordan, sometimes being boarded by hooded and handcuffed passengers....In this case, the agency is flying captured terrorist suspects from one country to another for detention and interrogation....

Two West Virginia lawmakers this week voted against historic legislation that overhauled the nation’s spy network in order to beef up the country’s counterterrorism network. The legislation passed overwhelmingly in both the U.S. House and the Senate. The vote in the Senate was 89-2, with U.S. Sens. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., and James Inhofe, R-Okla., voting against the legislation. In the House, U.S. Rep. Alan B. Mollohan, D-W.Va., voted against the bill. Mollohan, in an interview Thursday, cited four major concerns with the legislation. ... “Does it adequately address the problems that have been identified with our intelligence gathering, storage...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 - The International Committee of the Red Cross has charged in confidential reports to the United States government that the American military has intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion "tantamount to torture" on prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The finding that the handling of prisoners detained and interrogated at Guantánamo amounted to torture came after a visit by a Red Cross inspection team that spent most of last June in Guantánamo. The team of humanitarian workers, which included experienced medical personnel, also asserted that some doctors and other medical workers at Guantánamo were participating in planning...

SEAL on trial Questionable handling of a questionable case By Milt Silverman October 13, 2004 In death, terrorist Manadel al-Jamadi inflicted far more damage on the United States than he ever could have hoped for in life. News reports from around the world, quoting American sources, claim al-Jamadi died as a result of a blood clot in his brain caused by a "butt stroke" inflicted by a Navy SEAL. Government spokesmen recently announced several members of SEAL Team 7 have been charged with abusing enemy prisoners. I represent one of the team's members. I am speaking on his behalf. There...

5/8/2004: Nazimedia: Attack US Targets The San Francisco branch of Indymedia advocates violent attacks against “military targets” in the United States, in a post that was moved by the Indymedia overlords to their “hidden” area, but remains visible with a few clicks: Military Targets in the USA must be Attacked. (Hat tip: Rayra.) UPDATE: The incriminating page has now been removed completely, after the Morlocks noticed referrals from LGF. UPDATE: This is the text of the deleted Indymedia post: Military Targets in the USA must be Attacked by al-masakin — Thursday, May. 06, 2004 at 7:13 PM The torture of...

A Bellingham (Ma) High School teacher sued his principal and school superintendent yesterday, contending they unfairly took away one of his classes because two parents complained that students had to study graphic photographs of American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners.

Public editor: Guard leaders learned of abuse along with readers About midway into his -monthlong stint in Iraq, reporter Mike Francis was chatting with an Oregon National Guard member when the soldier asked, "You know about the detention facility thing, right?" He didn't. The soldier refused to tell Francis more because he had been ordered not to talk about it. But the casual comment got Francis' attention and set him off on a quest to learn and confirm the story. It's a long journey from a tip to a publishable story. This one revealed the conflicts and payoffs of journalists'...

our democratic senators are finally applying the desperately needed checks and balances regarding the out of control and lawless bu$hit administration! in regard to the ridiculous stonewalling and secrecy over their absurd torture memos: "Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) warned Ashcroft that his refusal might have consequences. In one testy exchange, Biden snapped, "Well, general, that means you may be in contempt of Congress." "You've got to have a reason not to answer our questions, as you know from sitting up here," Biden told Ashcroft, a former senator. "If such a memo existed . . ....

Unconfirmed Report: Kidnapped Tri-State Soldier Killed 1 hour, 24 minutes ago Add Local - WLWT ChannelCincinnati.com to My Yahoo! There are unconfirmed reports that a soldier from the Tri-State kidnapped in April in Iraq (news - web sites) has been killed, WLWT has learned. Pfc. Matt Maupin, 20, of Batavia, Ohio, a member of the 724th Transportation Company, was captured April 9. His convoy was attacked by gunmen using rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons. According to military representatives close to the Maupin family who spoke to WLWT, sources are reporting that the Al Jazeera TV network has a videotape of...

Scenes in Fahrenheit 911 of U.S. soldiers taunting and sexually humiliating Iraqi civilians following the successful invasion were shot by Urban Hamid, an embedded Swedish-Iraqi journalist who is presently a doctoral candidate at the University of Colorado, the university's student newspaper Camera disclosed today (Tuesday). Moore has declined to respond to questions from interviewers about whether he resorted to subterfuge in order to embed photographers among U.S. forces and has been criticized for not showing footage of the abuses to U.S. military authorities earlier. But Camera reported that the controversial footage by Hamid was actually shown at a theater in...

New Prisoner Abuses Revealed New evidence of yet even more abuses at the hands of the American occupiers in Iraq sparked worldwide outrage today as classified reports leaked to the media Tuesday point to mistreatment of more detainees. The allegations, as detailed in the reports, include the following: -A male detainee reportedly suffered emotional distress and humiliation from being verbally scolded for jumping up and down on his heated waterbed. -Another detainee suffered severe anxiety after receiving a pack of filtered cigarettes when the detainee specifically requested non-filtered cigarettes. -One detainee was fed a hot fudge sundae without any kind...

After prisoner abuse, can we decry others’ atrocities? June 21, 2004 I am not usually a politically active person. Like many people, I conscientiously vote, but am otherwise uninvolved with politics. Then, I saw the news of prisoner abuse in Iraq and knew that whether or not my voice is heard, I have to speak my outrage, sorrow and concern. Credible sources such as the Red Cross tell us prisoner abuse is widespread in Iraq. How can we, as a nation, decry the actions of Saddam Hussein, how can we decry atrocities that have occurred in Europe, South America, Africa,...

BEIJING, China (AP) - The United Nations investigator on torture said Thursday that China postponed his visit by several months, again thwarting a decade-long effort to pursue claims of abuse in the country's prisons. Theo van Boven had planned a two-week visit later this month to investigate reports of torture in Chinese jails, but China wanted more time to prepare, a statement on van Boven's Web site said. "The need for additional time to prepare for the two-week visit, especially given the different authorities, departments, and provinces involved, was cited by the government as a reason for the postponement," the...

08:09 PM PDT on Thursday, May 27, 2004 By ABE ESTIMADA, kgw.com Staff SALEM – Sgt. Donald Walters was captured then killed by his Iraqi captors after his U.S. Army convoy took a wrong turn into the town of Nasiriyah during the beginning of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. A photo of U.S. Army Sgt. Donald Walters of Salem, which was on display during a past memorial ceremony. (AP Photo) Walters, a Salem man who was thought to have been killed in action and posthumously awarded the Silver Star for his valor in combat, is now considered a prisoner...

Dear Mom & Dad, Word has reached us about some soldiers who are in trouble for allegedly abusing war prisoners. I don't know the details of the situation, but from what we've heard, it's pretty ugly and all over the news. I wanted to tell you a story about a night in the desert a few weeks ago that you won't see in the news, but is more representative of what's going on over here. Due to operational security constraints, I can't go into great detail in this story, but I think you'll get the picture. In the course of...

NEW YORK - Photos of two American soldiers posing with thumbs up near a body packed in ice at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison were shown on ABC-TV. The photos showed Army Sgt. Charles A. Graner Jr. and Spc. Sabrina Harman, both of whom have already been charged in the prisoner abuse scandal. They also were shown Thursday on the Arabic TV station Al-Arabiya. The detainee, whose badly bruised corpse was in a body bag packed with ice, died in the prison's showers while being interrogurated by the CIA (news - web sites) or other civilian agents, ABC reported Wednesday. It...

Army General Says U.S. Has 75 Prison Abuse Cases 47 minutes ago Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Alan Elsner WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military has investigated 75 cases of abuse of prisoners in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites) since late 2002, suggesting that mistreatment was more widespread than previously acknowledged, the head of the U.S. Central Command said on Wednesday. · Official: Abuse Troops May Face Charges AP - 4 minutes ago · U.S. Soldier Gets Year Jail Term for Prisoner Abuse Reuters - 17 minutes ago · US...

WITH THE 1ST BATTALION, 5TH MARINE REGIMENT, NEAR FALLUJAH, IRAQ – It was early morning chow time in the 1st Battalion's rear area mess hall, and as Marines fresh in from the field were shoveling down their breakfasts - sausage, cold pancakes and greenish- hued scrambled eggs - CNN's Larry King came on the flickering big-screen TV in the corner. King announced that the subject of his show was, once again, the ongoing prisoner- abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib. And one Marine probably spoke for most Marines here when he shouted at the TV: "Aw, shut the (blank) up!"

I Got'cher Apology, Right Here J. D. PendryIt is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them. - from The Man Upstairs, P. G. Wodehouse, 1914 I had a great week. My bride and I spent our 31st wedding anniversary at Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Thanks to those of you that sent your condolences to my wife. We were unplugged for a week. No computers, no phones, no news and no concerns. The toughest decision we made all week was if we...

WASHINGTON -- Shortly before U.S. troops photographed a series of abuses against Iraqi prisoners last fall, their commander issued guidelines allowing interrogation techniques including sleep deprivation, prolonged isolation and the presence of military dogs -- if written permission was given. Pentagon officials say the commander, Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, never granted such written permission. But the now-infamous photos of U.S. forces abusing prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison demonstrate that sometimes extreme versions of techniques were used after the orders were issued in October 2003. A report by the International Red Cross organization, moreover, says that some of the techniques were...

The Sacred Muslim Practice of BeheadingBy Andrew G. BostomFrontPageMagazine.com | May 13, 2004 Reactions to the grotesque jihadist decapitation of yet another "infidel Jew," Mr. Berg, make clear that our intelligentsia are either dangerously uninformed, or simply unwilling to come to terms with this ugly reality: such murders are consistent with sacred jihad practices, as well as Islamic attitudes towards all non-Muslim infidels, in particular, Jews, which date back to the 7th century, and the Prophet Muhammad's own example. According to Muhammad’s sacralized biography by Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad himself sanctioned the massacre of the Qurayza, a vanquished Jewish tribe. He appointed...

<p>May 13, 2004 -- IMAGES are important. That's why America's major TV networks and newspapers have a responsibility to show the full Nick Berg video. Forget Abu Ghraib: Those are the words I've heard most often since the tape of militant Islamists cutting off Berg's head was made public Tuesday - though the first word was seldom forget.</p>

Frist said the photos were "consistent" with those that have been publicized to date. He added, "They go beyond that in many ways in terms of the various activities that are depicted, some totally unrelated to the Abu Ghraib prison or to the prisoners there." He said, "Many of these photographs . . . appeared to relate to the abuse of prisoners. And then there were many, many others that were unrelated, but very, very appalling to all of the senators who saw them." He provided no further explanation. [I'll speculate those those "unrelated" photos probably involved the sexual acts...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army general under investigation for anti-Islamic remarks has been linked by U.S. officials to the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, which experts warned could touch off new outrage overseas. A Senate hearing into the abuse of Iraqi prisoners was told on Tuesday that Lt. Gen. William Boykin, an evangelical Christian under review for saying his God was superior to that of the Muslims, briefed a top Pentagon (news - web sites) civilian official last summer on recommendations on ways military interrogators could gain more intelligence from Iraqi prisoners. Critics have suggested those recommendations amounted to a...

Kristinn just called me and asked me to post this thread. He just called CBS Evening News and asked them if they were going to show the militant Islamists' video of the beheading of American Nick Berg.The woman who answered the phone said that they were going to do a story on it, but they were NOT going to show the full video.He asked them, "Why not, since you had no problem showing the pictures of the Iraqis being abused by our guys in the prison. Don't you think turnabout is fair play?"The woman got mad and said, "Thank you...

WITH THE NATION’S FAUX INTELLIGENTSIA still reeling from “shame-shock-horror,” and the Hounds of the Blathervilles in full cry for Donald Rumsfeld's head on a pike, the likelihood of the picture above being seen on the front pages of the "leading" newspapers, or at the top of the news on any of the network news shows approaches absolute zero. After all, just what is the story here? Why should it be of interest to the Americans these “news organizations” supposedly serve? The story concerns a medal given to a Marine: Marine receives Navy Cross. The marine in question is Capt....

In light of the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq, what should happen?: A.) President Bush should fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld 16.4% B.) Donald Rumsfeld should resign 19.7% C.) Their apologies are acceptable 63.9% Total Votes: 61Vote in Poll Poll on left hand side of page

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- In the wake of controversy surrounding photographs of the alleged abuse of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison, Talon News is asking the White House to release images of Saddam Hussein's torture chambers. As reported in a Talon News story in March 2003, the regime of the deposed dictator operated "rape rooms" where the sexual abuse of women was videotaped in order to humiliate them and their families. Acts of torture, mutilation, and murder were photographed and shown to Iraqis in order to intimidate or terrorize them. On Monday, Talon News suggested that the visual...

WASHINGTON -- President Bush viewed still-secret photographs of U.S. soldiers mistreating Iraqi prisoners on an unusual visit to the Pentagon on Monday, during which he praised his Defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, for doing "a superb job" and said "our nation owes you a debt of gratitude." [snip] A military official who has seen the photos said that one depicts soldiers sodomizing prisoners with chemical lights and another depicts sex between two U.S. soldiers. The official could not confirm a CNN report that said a video exists that shows guards fondling and kissing a female detainee. "They apparently show some...

The trial next week of an American military policeman on charges of mistreating Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison is likely to disappoint people eager for a thorough airing of the available evidence. It may also frustrate those who would like to see tough punishment should his guilt be established. Both the speed with which the policeman, Specialist Jeremy Sivits, has been brought to trial and the relatively minor sanctions he faces suggest that prosecutors are working their way up the chain of culpability from the bottom. These factors also suggest that Specialist Sivits has entered into a plea agreement...

From Monday's White House press briefing: JEFF GANNON, TALON NEWS: In your denunciations of the Abu Ghraib photos, you've used words like "sickening," "disgusting" and "reprehensible." Will you have any adjectives left to adequately describe the pictures from Saddam's rape rooms and torture chambers? And will Americans ever see those images? MR. McCLELLAN: I'm glad you brought that up, Jeff, because the President talks about that often. We did remove a brutal regime from power that was responsible for mass graves and torture chambers and rape rooms. And this was a regime that encouraged and tolerated that kind of activity....

See link. I have not excerpted the report as there are many interesting parts covering various topics and they are scattered throughout. Perhaps others can post what they find most significant. The MSNBC link does not include the report annexes.

As Ani, 47, repeated his story, he was interrupted by Jabber al-Okaili, a member of one of the human rights groups that organized the gathering. "He's lying," al-Okaili shouted. "He's a liar!" Al-Ani was rushed to an office, where al-Okaili and others unwound the bandage on his left arm and found the elbow unscarred and healthy. They cut off half of the cast on his forearm, even as al-Ani insisted, "By God, it's true, everything I say is true." "All his papers were forged," al-Okaili, of the Free Iraq Institute, said after al-Ani left the building. "Who knows why he...

A former POW in Iraq names an Ashley-based reservist in a complaint against the U.S. Army. And he compared the treatment at his camp to the abuse that's making international news. Hossam Shaltout said widespread mistreatment from soldiers in Camp Bucca, where he was imprisoned last year, was as inhumane as that depicted in recent photos from Camp Abu Ghraib in Iraq. Shaltout described Camp Bucca as a "torture camp" where soldiers beat and humiliated prisoners, had them lie naked atop each other or pose in sexual positions. "They wanted us to have sex with each other," Shaltout said. He...

In his latest article, Harry Browne, who I used to admire, draws several conclusions. Among them: He says that war and atrocities go together and that the best way to avoid atrocities is to not go to war in the first place. He claims that although Bush was informed of the atrocities in January, nothing significant was done until CBS broke the story recently. To illustrate his point he cites a link to a timeline of events. Ironically, Browne's own cited timeline link shows significant action had been taken much earlier and that Harry Browne is a liar. He also...

The discovery of persistance of image and the application thereof to photography, brought about the invention of moving pictures and forever changed the history of the world. It is common practice to value a picture at a rate of a thousand words. What is not understood as widely is the power placed in the hands of the person editing a sequence of film, and how much the edit job can change what 1,000 words get conveyed by a roll of moving pictures. The Soviet filmmakers employed by Josef Stalin first discovered how to utilize cutting and splicing between different scenes...

One of the biggest complaints about the Iraqi prison abuse scandal is the claim that U.S. soldiers violated the Geneva Convention by subjecting detainees to humiliation and intimidation tactics in a bid to get them to talk. Democrats are griping the loudest about this. Typical was Tuesday's tirade by Sen. Hillary Clinton to CNN's Wolf Blitzer: She fumed: "Well, first of all, Wolf, there is the Geneva Convention about the treatment of prisoners of war and there is protocol that certainly members of the Intelligence Committee and others have been briefed on as to what is expected with respect to...

WASHINGTON — President Bush (search) has granted interviews to Arab news outlets in an effort to temper rising fury over images of American troops abusing Iraqi prisoners. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday night that Bush will conduct two 10-minute interviews with the U.S.-sponsored Al-Hurra television network and the Arab network Al Arabiya. "This is an opportunity for the president to speak directly to the people in Arab nations and let them know that the images that we all have seen are shameless and unacceptable," McClellan said. "These images do not represent what America stands for, nor do they...

LONDON - Amnesty International said it has uncovered a "pattern of torture" of Iraqi prisoners by coalition troops, and called for an independent investigation into the claims of abuse. The London-based human rights group said it had received "scores" of reports of ill treatment of detainees by British and American troops. But the top U.S. military officer said Sunday there was no widespread pattern of abuse and that the actions of "just a handful" of U.S. troops at a Baghdad prison have unfairly tainted all American forces. "We review all the interrogation methods. Torture is not one of the methods...