Monday, May 3, 2004

Iraqi Torture Chambers FEATURED ARTICLES - The Abu Ghraib Prison Photos - Debate Over 'Nightline' Tribute to War Dead Grows, as McCain Weighs In, NY Times, - Iraqi Prison Photos Mar U.S. Image, Reuters - UK Troops In Iraqi Torture Probe, BBC News, - Torture At Abu Ghraib, by Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker QUOTE OF THE DAY "A year ago I did give the speech from the carrier saying we had achieved an important objective, accomplished a mission, which was the removal of Saddam Hussein.  And as a result, there are no longer torture chambers or rape rooms or mass graves in Iraq." - - George W. Bush  (April 30, 2004) KNOW YOUR HISTORY - MAY 3rd 1971 -- 7,000 people arrested in attempt to shut down the Pentagon; the last of the 14,000 arrests related to May Day Vietnam War protests 1981 -- 100,000 march on the Pentagon to protest US aid/intervention in El Salvador. RHINO HERE: First off, referring to the "Quote Of The Day", lest anyone doesn't recognize the spinning lie, when the shrub so smirkingly made his "mission accomplished" speech on the aircraft carrier, he wasn't declaring the removal of Saddam. He was declaring the end of major military operations.  Besides the obvious lie, the shrub's comments of last Friday wreaks with sad irony given the photographic revelations of US & UK military abuse of Iraqi civilians in the infamous Abu Ghraib Prison. Some of the photos were revealed last Wednesday on the CBS News program "60 Minutes II."    Today's blog looks into the story and associated investigations, including an in depth report by veteran investigative journalist, Seymour M. Hersh, and  a link to some of the photos which have been posted on the Anti-War.com website. The Abu Ghraib Prison Photos  - WARNING - These photos are graphic & revolting. http://www.antiwar.com/news/?articleid=2444 There have been plenty of right wing talk radio hounds howling about how CBS & Dan Rather are traitors for revealing the prison abuse story & photos. Similarly, last week when ABC's news show, "Nightline" announced they would devote an entire show to the recitation of the names of every member of the military killed in action in Iraq, some owners of local affiliates refused to air it. Senator McCain stood up and denounced that as unpatriotic.   Debate Over 'Nightline' Tribute to War Dead Grows, as McCain Weighs In By Bill Carter, NY Times, Published: May 1, 2004 The decision by the Sinclair Broadcast Group to pre-empt a broadcast of "Nightline" devoted to reciting the names of every member of the military killed in action in Iraq ran into a torrent of protest yesterday from viewers, media watchdog groups, and one prominent veteran of the Vietnam War, Sen. John McCain. Senator McCain made public a letter he had sent to the chief executive of Sinclair, one of the country's largest owners of local television stations. He wrote that he found Sinclair's removal of the "Nightline" news program from the eight ABC affiliates it owns "deeply offensive." "Your decision to deny your viewers an opportunity to be reminded of war's terrible costs, in all their heartbreaking detail, is a gross disservice to the public, and to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces," he added. "It is, in short, sir, unpatriotic. I hope it meets with the public opprobrium it most certainly deserves."... MORE: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/01/business/media/01TUBE.html Iraqi Prison Photos Mar U.S. Image By Paul Majendie, Reuters, Apr 30, 2004 LONDON - Photos of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners drew international condemnation on Friday, prompting the stark conclusion that the U.S. campaign to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis is a lost cause.  "This is the straw that broke the camel's back for America," said Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi. "The liberators are worse than the dictators."  "They have not just lost the hearts and minds of Iraqis but all the Third World and the Arab countries," he told Reuters.  The CBS News program "60 Minutes II" on Wednesday broadcast photos taken at the Abu Ghraib prison late last year showing American troops abusing some Iraqis held at what was once a notorious center of torture and executions under toppled President Saddam Hussein.  The pictures showed U.S. troops smiling, posing, laughing or giving the thumbs-up sign as naked, male Iraqi prisoners were stacked in a pyramid or positioned to simulate sex acts with one another... MORE: Photos Mar Image UK Troops In Iraqi Torture Probe BBC News, May 1, 2004 The Ministry of Defence has launched an investigation into allegations that British soldiers have been pictured torturing an Iraqi prisoner.  The photographs, obtained by the Daily Mirror newspaper, show a suspected thief being beaten and urinated on. Downing Street swiftly condemned the pictures, echoing concerns it earlier expressed over images of Iraqi prisoners being abused by US troops... MORE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3675215.stm . 7:29:55 AM    comment

RHINO'S WEEKEND BOTTOM LINE - Torture At Abu Ghraib "SEND THIS ARTICLE TO A REPUBLICAN!" Torture At Abu Ghraib American soldiers brutalized Iraqis. How far up does the responsibility go? by Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker, May 10th, 2004 ...Last June, Janis Karpinski, an Army reserve brigadier general, was named commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade and put in charge of military prisons in Iraq. General Karpinski, the only female commander in the war zone, was an experienced operations and intelligence officer who had served with the Special Forces and in the 1991 Gulf War, but she had never run a prison system. Now she was in charge of three large jails, eight battalions, and thirty-four hundred Army reservists, most of whom, like her, had no training in handling prisoners. General Karpinski, who had wanted to be a soldier since she was five, is a business consultant in civilian life, and was enthusiastic about her new job. In an interview last December with the St. Petersburg Times, she said that, for many of the Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib, "living conditions now are better in prison than at home. At one point we were concerned that they wouldn't want to leave." A month later, General Karpinski was formally admonished and quietly suspended, and a major investigation into the Army's prison system, authorized by Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior commander in Iraq, was under way. A fifty-three-page report, obtained by The New Yorker, written by Major General Antonio M. Taguba and not meant for public release, was completed in late February. Its conclusions about the institutional failures of the Army prison system were devastating. Specifically, Taguba found that between October and December of 2003 there were numerous instances of "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" at Abu Ghraib. This systematic and illegal abuse of detainees, Taguba reported, was perpetrated by soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company, and also by members of the American intelligence community... ENTIRE ARTICLE AT: http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040510fa_fact "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 6:33:05 AM    comment

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