Posted on 10/25/2005 7:40:41 AM PDT by Irontank
At least 21 detainees who died while being held in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan were killed, many during or after interrogations, according to an analysis of Defense Department data by the American Civil Liberties Union (search). The analysis, released Monday, looked at 44 deaths described in records obtained by the ACLU. Of those, the group characterized 21 as homicides, and said at least eight resulted from abusive techniques by military or intelligence officers, such as strangulation or "blunt force injuries," as noted in the autopsy reports. The 44 deaths represent a partial group of the total number of prisoners who have died in U.S. custody overseas; more than 100 have died of natural and violent causes.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
There is not enough information to determine if any of these people died at the hands of US forces from injuries received after they were in US custody. Since the Army itself has charged at least some guards with mistreating prisoners, it's likely some did die under those conditions, but we can't tell from this story.
Heck if we were systematically beating or torturing prisoners to death, would we be doing autopsies at all, let alone letting the likes of the ACLU have access to them?
I am still not sure we have all the facts. Remember we are at war. The prisoners might have been wounded, wounded badly and maybe fatally, before they were captured. I am not so sure I would believe anything the anti-American ACLU says about anything, least of all anything that concerns our heroic service-men and women. JMHO.
Less, way less. 82 civilians, mostly women, children and the elderlyhalf of them people of color died at Waco in '93, counting both the initial raid and the fire, not counting the 4 BATF agents killed during the raid.
Don't recall the National ACLU weighing in against the FBI and Janet Reno's Justice Department on that one. The Utah branch however did, although not at the time, only in '97. Click here
You are assuming a symmetry of culture and belief that doesn't necessarily exist.
As an example the Japanese involved in the Bataan death march, and other guards of allied prisoners, felt that the Americans and others who had surrendered had lost all honor in doing so, rather than being killed or even killing themselves. Thus they saw the prisoners as beneath contempt. Many other Japanese felt the same, and thought the same of their own troops who had surrendered or been captured. It wouldn't have mattered a hill of beans to them how we treated those Japanese we had captured.
Add to that the fact that the Terrorists aren't really all that interested int good PR, just as long as they get some PR, and you can see that there is not a symmetry of views between the sides in this conflict, nor among the uninvolved western countries and the nominally uninvolved Islam ones.
Locusts are pretty tough when it comes to radiation.
BTW, you'd be much better off to use 60 or 70 10 MT devices, although it wouldn't take near that many. Because the blast effects go as the cube root of the energy (the megatons), several smaller bombs will destroy a lot more than one big one. There are of course situation where only a big one will do, especially considering the effects of (mis)timing and fratricide, but none of that probably would apply in this instance.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.