Cockburn
/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
Now Available!
Today's
Stories
May
15 / 16, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Green Lights for Torture
May
14, 2004
Dr.
Susan Block
Bush's POW Porn
Ron
Jacobs
Secret History of the War on Drugs
William
Blum
God, Country and Torture
Michael
Donnelly
The People v. Corporate Greed: A Victory on the North Coast
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
India Shines
Stephen
Gowans
Building Democracy in Iraq and Other
Absurdities
May
13, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Where is Kerry?
Colm
O'Laithian
Torture and Degradation: Revenge American Style?
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassan
Wal-Mart: Scrooge with Hi-Tech Accounting
Practices
Ralph
Nader
An Open Letter to Bush on the Inhumane Treatment of Iraqi Prisoners
Willliam
James Martin
Deir Yassin Massacre Recalled
Marc
Salomon
Reality TV Bites
Forrest
Hylton
Law 'n Order in La Paz: All Quiet
on the Southern Front?
May
12, 2004
Blanton
/ Kornbluh
Prisoner Abuse: Cheney Warned in
1992
Virginia
Tilley
So, Who's to Blame?
Bruce
Jackson
James Inhofe, the Dumbest Senator
of Them All
Thomas
P. Healy
No Enemies: Making Peace with Bert Sacks
Linda
S. Heard
Racism and Ignorance: a Lethal Cocktail in Iraq
Norman
Solomon
Spinning Torturegate
Lisa
Viscidi
The People's Voice: Community Radio in Guatemala
Jack
Heyman
View from the Bay Bridge: Longshoremen Plan Mass Workers March
on DC
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Rummy's Reprieve
CounterPunch
Wire
Teamsters Corruption Scandal: Hoffa Exec. Assistant Alleged to
Have Quashed Investigation into Mob Influence
Christopher
Brauchli
Detention Camp, USA
William
S. Lind
Bush's Waterloo?
May 11, 2004
Mark
Engler
On the "Necessity" of Torture
Ray
McGovern
More Troops? A March of Folly
Kurt
Nimmo
Dirty Nukes and Jefferson's Grand Experiment
Mickey
Z.
Less Than Hero
Christopher
Reed
Torture on the Homefront: America's Long History of Prison Abuse
Dennis
Hans
When John Negroponte was Mullah Omar
Bruce
Jackson
Pete Seeger at 85
Mike
Whitney
Killing al Sadr
Simon
Helweg-Larsen
Shrinking the Guatemalan Military
William
A. Cook
The Unconscious Country: Righteous Indignation,
Nakedly Displayed
May
10, 2004
Robert
Fisk
From Hollywood to Abu Ghraib: Racism
and Torture as Entertainment
Wayne
Madsen
The Israeli Torture Template: Rape,
Feces and Urine-Soaked Cloth Sacks
Col.
Dan Smith
The Shame of Abu Ghraib
Joe
Bageant
John Ashcroft, Keep Your Mouth Off My Wife!
Ron
Jacobs
Rummy's Prisongate Blues: Don't Leave Mad; Just Leave
Ben
Tripp
Getting in Touch with Your Inner Savage
Ray
Hanania
Why They Hate Us: Racism, Bigotry and Abuse
Reza
Fiyouzat
"Mishandled" Invasions
Diane
Christian
Images & Abstractions &
Genitals
Website
of the Day
Crushing Iraqi Skulls with Tanks for Sport?
May
8 / 9, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Torture: as American as Apple Pie
Adam
Jones
America's Srebrenica: What About the Hundreds of POWs Suffocated
and Shot at Kunduz?
Douglas
Valentine
Who Let the Dogs Out?: Torture, the CIA and the Press
Kurt
Nimmo
Rush Limbaugh and the Babes of Abu Ghraib
Brian
Cloughley
Humpty Dumpty is Falling
Lucia
Dailey
Forbidden Games
Joanne
Mariner
* * * *: Redacting Moussaoui
Mickey
Z.
Please Forgive U.S.? (There Are No Innocent Bystanders)
John
Chuckman
The Thing with No Brain
Doug
Giebel
Someone Knew: There Were No WMDs
Norm
Dixon
How the Bush Gang Exploited 9/11
Sam
Bahour
A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah
Susan
Davis
Disorderly Conduct as Fine Art
Dave
Marsh
In a Pig's Eye: Alan Lomax, Dead But Still Stealing
Laura
Flanders
Life with Dick and Lynne
Dave
Zirin
Fans Push Spiderman Off Base
Carolyn
Baker
Why I Won't Vote in 2004
Prince
"Ain't No Sense in Voting"
Dr.
Susan Block
Onan for Two: Liberating Masturbation
Poets'
Basement
Smith, Sleeth, Ford, Albert and Saska
May
7, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
10 Prisons; 9,000 Prisoners: US Detention
Facilities in Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
UnAmerican? I Wish It Were So
Robert
Fisk
An Illegal and Immoral War
Ahmad
Faruqui
The 50th Anniversary of Dien Bien
Phu
Alexander
Zaitchik
From Terrell Unit in Texas to Abu Ghraib: Doesn't It Ring a (Prison)
Bell?
Mike
Whitney
The Price of Victory
Norman
Solomon
This War, Racism and Media Denial
M.
Shahid Alam
A Comic Apology
May
6, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
They Did It for Jessica: Smeared with
Shit; Kicked to Death
Kathy
Kelly
May Day in Pekin Prison: Prison Labor
for the War Machine
Werther
The Sunk Cost Fallacy: War as Vegas
Casino Game
Lawrence
Ferlinghetti
Totalitarian Democracy
Robert
Fisk
"Smoke Him": Video Shows Wounded
Men Being Shot by US Helicopter
John
Janney
Torturing the Way to Freedom?
Christopher
Ketcham
Outlaw Heterosexual Marriage Now!
Alan
Farago
Dead Oceans: So Long, Thanks for the Fish
Sam
Hamod
Bush on Arab TV: Worthless and Demeaning
James
Brooks
Sullen Spring
William
S. Lind
On the Brink of Defeat in Iraq
May
5, 2004
Maj.
Gen. Antonio M. Taguba
Complete US Army Report on Abuse of
Iraqi Prisoners
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Kerry: a Lost Cause for Progressives?
Will
Youmans
Deal with the Devil: a Palestinian
Zionist and the End of the World
Patrick
B. Barr
Terrorists R Us: the Powerful are Exempt from the Label
Lawrence
Magnuson
Nightline's All-American Morgue
Greg
Moses
Pocketbook of Denuded Ideals
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Tormenting Prisoners, Torturing
Truth
Lee
Ballinger
Cinco de Mayo and Unity
Gilbert
Achcar
Bush's Cakewalk into the Iraq Quaqmire
Website
of the Day
Operation Phoenix & Iraq
May
4, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
A Timeline of Torture and Abuse Allegations
and Responses
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Privatized Torture
David
Peterson
CBS, Self-Censorship & Iraq
Barry
Lando
CACI's Private Torture Chambers
Patrick
Cockburn
Torture: Iraqis Disgusted, But Not Surprised
Dr.
Susan Block
Indecent Insurgents: Watch What You Say
Fidel
Castro
A Mindless, Unnecessary War
Mike
Whitney
Empire of Torture
Sonali
Kolhatkar
How to Stop the War: Demonstrate Against
John Kerry
Josh
Frank
The Lost Sierra Club
Stan
Goff
The Role: Another Open Letter to US Troops in Iraq
Agustin
Velloso
Spare Us Your Disgusting Ethics
Stew
Albert
American Know-How
Website
of the Day
Scenes from a Cover-Up
May
3, 2004
Virginia
Tilley
Let the Wall of Silence Fall
May
1 / 2, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
An Army in Disgrace, a Policy
in Tatters, the Real Prospect of Defeat
Robert
Fisk
"Good Guys" Who Can Do No
Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
Watching Niagara: Stupid Leaders,
Useless Spies, Angry World
Heather
Williams
Gringo, We're Going Home: Latin
American Troops Flee Iraq
Diane
Rejman
An Army Vet on Torture in Iraq:
Abu Ghraib as My Lai?
Diane
Christian
Blood Spilling: Osama, Bush and
Sharon Speak the Same Language
Patrick
Cockburn
Seems Like Old Times in Fallujah
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Torturous Logic: Shocked,
Shocked, Shocked
Chris
Floyd
Suicide Bomber: Neocons, Nihilists
and Annihilation
April
29 / 30, 2004
Dave
Zirin
A Pawn in Their Game: the Unlonesome
Death of Pat Tillman
Kathy
Kelly
The Warden's Tour
Greg
Weiher
Fallujah and the Warsaw Ghetto: the
Banality of Evil
Michael
S. Ladah
Terrorism and Assassination: the
Ultimate Depception
Patrick
Cockburn
The Fallujah Mutinies
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
Weekend
Edition
May 15/16, 2004
Rancid from
Top to Bottom
Green Lights
for Torture
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
So there were WMDs in Iraq after all.
They're called digital cameras. Partly because of them the US
faces one of the most humiliating defeats in imperial history.
But there's also a clear paper trail. Not just the long and copiously
documented record of US torture, with many of its refinements
acquired by the CIA from the Nazis after World War Two, but the
more recent lineage of encouragement.
Within in a few days of the
Trade Towers going down in September, 2001, a vacationing FBI
agent told an acquaintance of mine in Puerto Vallarta that torture
was being used on detainees in the US. On May 3, 2004, two such
detainees, a Pakistani called Javaid Iqbal and an Egyptian, Ehab
Elmaghraby, filed a civil complaint with a US court describing
their beatings in the Brooklyn Detention Center, being forced
to walk naked in front of female guards, put in a tiny cell lit
24 hours a day without blankets, mattress or toilet paper. Both
were expelled from the US, pleading guilty to charges unrelated
to terrorism. The Detention Center was harshly criticized in
a 2003 DOJ report for serious maltreatment of inmates.
By early November, 2001, public
opinion here in the US was being softened up for the use of torture.
At the start of November the Washington Post published a piece
by Walter Pincus citing FBI and Justice Department investigators
as saying that "traditional civil liberties may have to
be cast aside if they are to extract information about the Sept
11 attacks and terrorist plans." Pincus reported that "alternative
strategies under discussion are using drugs or pressure tactics,
such as those used occasionally by Israeli interrogators."
Jonathan Alter, Newsweek's
in-house liberal pundit, confided to his readers in the weekly's
edition for November 5, 2001, that something was needed to "jump-start
the stalled investigation." His tone was facetiously upbeat,
in line with the "just hazing" approach now promoted
by the pain-averse Rush Limbaugh. Alter: "Couldn't we at
least subject them [detainees] to psychological torture, like
tapes of dying rabbits or high decibel rap?" Alter also
made respectful reference to Harvard's pride, Alan Dershowitz,
then running around the country promoting the idea of "torture
warrants" issued by judges and recommending needles under
detainees' fingernails, and to Israel, where (in Alter's terms)
"until 1999 an interrogation technique called 'shaking'
was legal. It entailed holding a smelly bag over a suspect's
head in a dark room", a decorous way of referring to how
Palestinians were nearly suffocated by having their heads stuffed
in sacks of excrement by Israeli toturers.
It was not far into the war
in Afghanistan that Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld made plain
his views of the treatment of prisoners, after horrifying accounts
began to surface of the treatment of Taliban POWs.
Recall that after the surrender
of the Kunduz fortress in November 2001 hundreds of Taliban were
taken prisoner along with an American called John Walker Lindh.
Rumsfeld had originally stated that the US was "not inclined
to negotiate surrenders". He then amended this to say that
the Taliban should be let out of the net but that foreign fighters
should expect no mercy: "My hope is they will either be
killed or taken prisoner."
It turned out they endured
both Rumsfeld's options. A year later Jamie Doran, a British
television producer, aired his documentary establishing beyond
reasonable doubt that hundreds of these prisoners - with no distinction
between Taliban or "foreign fighters"- died either
by suffocation in the container trucks used to transport them
towards the Shebarghan prison, or by outright execution near
Shebarghan.
On the basis of interviews
with eyewitnesses, Doran said U.S. soldiers were present when
the containers were opened. "When the containers were finally
opened, a mess of urine, blood, faeces, vomit and rotting flesh
was all that remained ... As the containers were lined up outside
the prison, a [U.S.] soldier accompanying the convoy was present
when the prison commanders received orders to dispose of the
evidence quickly. Newsweek's investigation into the Afghan atrocities
("The Death Convoy of Afghanistan," 26 August 2002)
stated that "American forces were working intimately with
'allies' who committed what could well qualify as war crimes."
Witnesses also stated "600
Taliban PoWs who survived the containers' shipment to the Shebarghan
prison ... were taken to a spot in the desert and executed in
the presence of about 30 to 40 U.S. special forces soldiers"
(The Globe and Mail, 19 December 2002). Other U.S. soldiers are
said to have involved themselves directly and enthusiastically
in the "dirty work" of prisoner torture and the disposal
of corpses. "The Americans did whatever they wanted,"
stated one Afghan witness. "We had no power to stop them.
Everything was under the control of the American commander."
John Walker Lindh was kept
in a coffin sized box. As his lawyer later stated, the photographs
left no doubt as to what kind of treatment he had endured. Part
of his lawyer's final deal with the prosecution was a dropping
of any possible charges of torture.
From May , 2003, the Red Cross
was complaining to US army commanders and to proconsul Bremer
in Iraq, to Rumsfeld, assistant defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz
and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice about frightful
treatment of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. "The
elements we found were tantamount to torture," Pierre Kraehenbuehl,
operations director for the Swiss-based International Committee
of the Red Cross, told reporters in Geneva at the end of the
first week in May, 2004, after the Wall Street Journal disclosed
the contents of a major Red Cross report. "They were clearly
incidents of degrading and inhuman treatment."
Kraehenbuehl said said the
ICRC investigations showed "a pattern, a broad system"
rather than "isolated acts of individual members of the
coalition forces." During an unannounced October visit to
Abu Ghraib, for example, the ICRC monitors witnessed "the
practice of keeping persons completely naked in totally empty
concrete cells in total darkness for several consecutive days,"
the report said.
The Red Cross teams also saw
guards forcing male prisoners to parade around in women's underwear,
according to the summary report. When an ICRC official complained
to the military officer in charge, the report says, the American
explained that the practice was "part of the process."
The ICRC report said the suspects were "beaten severely
by [coalition forces] personnel" and one man, identified
as 28-year-old Baha Daoud Salim, died. In the words of the report,
"His co-arrestees heard him screaming and asking for assistance."
The Red Cross began making
its complaints just about the time, back in May and June 2003,
the U.S. was on a full-press diplomatic campaign to compel other
countries to sign bilateral agreements exempting U.S. citizens,
whether military or civilians, from the potential jurisdiction
of the new International Criminal Court (ICC) in Rome.
What's clear enough is that
the quality of US leadership from the very top down, both civilian
and military, is rancid. Accountability has long gone out of
the window. The venality and corruption of Bremer's coalition
officials and many of Sanchez's officers have naturally allowed
many in the armed forces to degenate into criminal thuggery.
Iraqi families complain that after US troops have searched and
smashed up their homes, the occupants return to find their safes
broken open and their savings and valuables stolen.
The Red Cross report cites
some coalition military intelligence officers as reckoning that
"between 70 per cent and 90 per cent of the persons deprived
of their liberty in Iraq had been arrested by mistake."
It's ironic how the great moral
crusade for freedom and democracy in Iraq has foundered on a
photo of Private Lynndie England hauling around The Other on
a dog leash. Even the images of torture degrade one's moral instincts
with appalling speed. I''d love to see a photo of Anne Coulter
clipping the leash on Rush Limbaugh, though not being Muslim
he probably wouldn't care. Remember, being forced to strip naked
and have one's genitals menaced by savage dogs is something Muslims
apparently find abhorrent. Those Others are a bunch of ninnies,
aren't they? Not like us Christians.
Weekend
Edition Features for May 8 / 9, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Torture: as American as Apple Pie
Adam
Jones
America's Srebrenica: What About the Hundreds of POWs Suffocated
and Shot at Kunduz?
Douglas
Valentine
Who Let the Dogs Out?: Torture, the CIA and the Press
Kurt
Nimmo
Rush Limbaugh and the Babes of Abu Ghraib
Brian
Cloughley
Humpty Dumpty is Falling
Lucia
Dailey
Forbidden Games
Joanne
Mariner
* * * *: Redacting Moussaoui
Mickey
Z.
Please Forgive U.S.? (There Are No Innocent Bystanders)
John
Chuckman
The Thing with No Brain
Doug
Giebel
Someone Knew: There Were No WMDs
Norm
Dixon
How the Bush Gang Exploited 9/11
Sam
Bahour
A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah
Susan
Davis
Disorderly Conduct as Fine Art
Dave
Marsh
In a Pig's Eye: Alan Lomax, Dead But Still Stealing
Laura
Flanders
Life with Dick and Lynne
Dave
Zirin
Fans Push Spiderman Off Base
Carolyn
Baker
Why I Won't Vote in 2004
Prince
"Ain't No Sense in Voting"
Dr.
Susan Block
Onan for Two: Liberating Masturbation
Poets'
Basement
Smith, Sleeth, Ford, Albert and Saska
|