Iraqi prisoner abuse and the fallout, pt. 3. The Retributions Begin

An Islamic militant website has shown a video purporting to show the beheading of an American in Iraq.
The video - the contents of which could not be verified - showed five men in headscarves and ski masks cutting off the man's head with a knife.

Moments earlier, the victim said he was an American from Philadelphia.

The group, thought to be linked to al-Qaeda, said it was carrying out the execution in retaliation for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers.

The poor-quality tape - shown on the Muntada al-Ansar site - began with the victim, bound and wearing an orange jumpsuit, sitting on the floor with five masked men behind him.

The victim identified himself as Nick Berg, a US contractor whose body was found near a highway overpass in Baghdad on Saturday.

One of the masked men read out a statement, saying they had offered to exchange the man for inmates of Abu Ghraib prison but the coalition authorities refused.

They then pulled the man to the side and put a knife to his neck.

The man screamed as he was executed.

His killers shouted "Allah is great" before holding what appeared to be a head up to the camera.

Taguba's testimony today provides further information:

Asked who had given orders for prisoners to be "softened up" for interrogation, the general replied: "I did not find any evidence of a policy or a direct order given to these soldiers to conduct what they did."

"I believe that they did it on their own volition. I believe that they collaborated with several MI [military intelligence] interrogators at the lower level, based on the conveyance of that information through interviews and written statements."

The findings of the report have led to seven US army reservists facing charges over their alleged treatment of detainees.

The under-secretary of defence for intelligence, Stephen Cambone, told the committee there had been a clear breakdown of observance of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners in Iraq, although he said it was hard to explain how the abuse had happened.

(Baghdad, Iraq-AP) -- New information that the abuse of some Iraqi prisoners may have been a form of revenge for alleged abuse experienced by Jessica Lynch after she was captured in the early days of the Iraq war.
A letter from the commander of an Army military police battalion alleges that a female soldier took ``vigilante justice'' on Iraqi prisoners she believed had raped the former Army private.
The Associated Press has obtained a copy of Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Phillabaum's letter.
He made his allegation against Master Sergeant Lisa Girman and three other M-P's in a memo to the deputy commander of coalition forces in Iraq.
Phillibaum writes that the alleged abuse occurred in southern Iraq last year. He says he did not condone the alleged mistreatment

could it be that the difference might also have something to do with the way our government works? Or that Al Sadr isn't exactly an elected government? Or that no one really knows who's behind or responsible for this atrocity yet?

I love that 'told the world' part. It so matches with how this information came to everyone's attention too.

'But some Republican committee members charged that the prisoner abuse scandal was being exploited for partisan gain.

"I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment," Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said during the hearing.'

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4855930/

That's pretty f'ed up.

http://inhofe.senate.gov/

why, hes the greatest secretary of defense the world has known!

okthanksbye,
dick cheney

DONALD RUMSFELD!
DONALD RUMSFELD!
DONALD RUMSFELD!
DONALD RUMSFELD!

Rock over London...Rock on Chicago.
Pepsi, uh huh.

x-post: it's the "whip a camel's ass" part that makes it

Point is: when things like this happen over and over in Arabic countries, who is wringing their hands? Where is the internal criticism? It's either a Zionist plot or *crickets*

"I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment," Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., said during the hearing.'

What do you mean?

(xpost I was right!)

It's hypocrisy. Not holding everyone to the same standard enables those who do not abide by those standards to continue doing whatever they please. This is precisely why certain provisions of the Geneva Conventions no longer apply to one party of a conflict once they have been violated by an opposing party.

Were there leaders in other Arabic countries at a safe distance from Saddam demanding his ouster? (Not meant rhetorically, fwiw.)

nope, they were quietly advocating his exile, but Dubya beat them to the punch.

This is precisely why certain provisions of the Geneva Conventions no longer apply to one party of a conflict once they have been violated by an opposing party.

makes no sense since Dubya declared the war over a year ago.

It doesn't matter if Iraq is a signatory. They're protected by the Conventions as long as they abide by them. If a signatory to the conventions goes to war with a non-signatory, and the non-signatory violates certain conventions, the signatory is no longer bound by those conventions.

You cannot be "crippled" by the geneva conventions due to your opponent's willingness to fight dirty.

http://www.breakfornews.com/NickBergEnemiesList.htm

(I think it's wild conspiracy, personally)

(CAUTION: there are two still photos of the beheading on this page if you don't want to see such stuff)

If that's true, it doesn't say much, given that these particular Muslims are also publicly beheading a guy.

x-post

And seeing as we know of actual, undisputed Muslims who have commited "un-Islamic" murders in the past few years, neither of these details does anything to disprove the idea that they are, in fact, Muslim militants.

Well, I'm not saying I know who or what the beheaders were. The whole thing does take the heat off Abu Ghraib and reincense the Yankee fighting spirit. I put nothing - I repeat nothing - past BushCo.

Rumsfeld has maintained a positive image with much of America because he controls information fanatically and tolerates no deviation from the party line. Differing opinions are punished in today's Pentagon - and every field general who has spoken plainly of the deficiencies of either the non-plan for the occupation of Iraq, the lack of sufficient troops (in Iraq or overall) or any aspect of Rumsfeld's "transformation" plan has seen his career ended.

It isn't treason to tell the truth in wartime. But it verges on treason to lie. And Rumsfeld lies.

Our military needs vigorous, continual internal debate. Contrary to popular myth, our officer corps has a long tradition of dissenting opinions. And the grave new world in which we find ourselves is not susceptible to party-line solutions.

---

Rumsfeld's "vision" was to lavish money on the defense industry and administration-friendly contractors, while sending too few troops to war, with too little battlefield equipment, inadequate supplies and no long-range plan. As one Army colonel put it in the heat of battle, "We're winning this despite OSD."

---

I'm privileged to spend a good bit of time with our military officers, from generals to new lieutenants. And I have never seen such distrust of a public official in the senior ranks. Not even of Bill Clinton. Rumsfeld & Co. have trashed our ground forces every way they could. Only the quality of those in uniform saved us from a debacle in Iraq.

Of course, those in uniform don't get to pick the SecDef. And they continue, as they always will, to loyally carry out their orders to the letter. But to be effective, a SecDef must be respected. He doesn't have to be liked. But, especially in wartime, he must be trusted.

Rumsfeld has failed the most important test of all.

Clinging to power isn't a mark of strength, but of weakness, arrogance and brute obstinacy. Rumsfeld has wounded our military and sent our troops to die for harebrained schemes. In place of sound plans, he substituted political prejudices. Election year or not, he has to go.

It's time to bring integrity, mutual respect and a focus on the realities of warfare back to the Pentagon. The White House has Sen. McCain's phone number.

The emphasis on Bill Clinton was mine. I want every Bush supporter ever to read that one -- because I want to see them flail and whine in response.

With a $500 billion deficit, we do not have the money for new wars. With an Army of 480,000 stretched thin, we do not have the troops. With April-May costing us a battalion of dead and wounded, we are not going to pay the price. With the squalid photos from Abu Ghraib, we no longer have the moral authority to impose our "values" on Iraq.

Bush's "world democratic revolution" is history.

Given the hatred of the United States and Bush in the Arab world, as attested to by Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, it is almost delusional to think Arab peoples are going to follow America's lead.

It is a time for truth. In any guerrilla war we fight, there is going to be a steady stream of U.S. dead and wounded. There is going to be collateral damage – i.e., women and children slain and maimed. There will be prisoners abused. And inevitably, there will be outrages by U.S. troops enraged at the killing of comrades and the jeering of hostile populations. If you would have an empire, this goes with the territory. And if you are unprepared to pay the price, give it up

In the days of Saddam Hussein, hangings at Abu Ghraib prison took place on Wednesdays and Sundays--up to fifty or sixty a day, year after year, decade after decade. Prisoners were often shuttled to Abu Ghraib—a vast complex twenty miles west of Baghdad, with three miles of cinder-block walls and twenty-four watchtowers—in an ice-cream truck. Tens of thousands never came out. In the nineteen-eighties, according to a Washington Post report by Peter Finn, the executioner was a tall, burly man known as the Sword. He wore a pistol with Saddam’s name inscribed on the handle, and his breath reeked of whiskey. The Sword’s successor used to embrace the condemned prisoner from behind on the scaffold, so that when the trapdoor opened the two dropped together and the prisoner’s neck snapped more efficiently. Torture was routine in Abu Ghraib: isolation, beatings, rapes, attack dogs, electric shocks, starvation. In the death house, the walls were covered with graffiti. Most marked the days left to the prisoners. “God save me,” one man wrote, “and I will pray seventy thousand times.” A report published in 1993 by Human Rights Watch quoted a former inmate as saying, “No one, not Pushkin, not Mahfouz, can describe what happened to us.”

Meanwhile, on the CNN site, a breaking news crawl:

At least one technique removed from list of interrogation methods used by U.S. military in Iraq, sources tell CNN. Details soon.

Gee, wonder why.

(x-post)

"To our knowledge, he was detained by the Iraqi police in Mosul," coalition spokesman Dan Senor told CNN. "He was in Iraqi police custody. He was met by U.S. officials, he was visited three times by the FBI, but at all times, he was in Iraqi custody."

"I think some of the confusion emanates from the fact that a number of the detention facilities throughout the country, there are American MPs who play a support role there," Senor added. "But it doesn't detract from the fact it's still an Iraqi facility, and I think once we do a little more investigating we can hope to provide more clarity."

---

Berg's body arrived Wednesday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. His parents had requested permission to be at the base when the coffin arrived, but that request was denied. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, said Thursday that refusal came from the Department of Defense.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry also spoke with Michael Berg, Kerry said at a campaign stop in Little Rock, Arkansas. He would not discuss the details of the conversation. "There's no word to describe how as a father I know I would feel if it was one of my daughters or one of my stepsons," the senator told a local television station. Kerry's campaign said Michael Berg contacted them Wednesday night.

That note of refusal from the DoD about Berg's coffin -- I REALLY want to know what the explanation was there.

Two Pentagon officials have been asked to stay away from the details of the detainee abuse scandal in an effort to have unbiased officials review future legal decisions.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz has been told to stay out of the scandal issue and focus on issues such as troop rotation and the June 30 handover.

Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been taken out of the day-to-day Pentagon management of the scandal, according to several Pentagon sources.

Sources close to Pace say taking him "out of the loop" on the abuse scandal is necessary because Myers has deliberately talked publicly about the matter, in part to openly address the crisis with the American public and with U.S. military troops.

Wolfowitz and Pace appeared Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee in a hearing on the administration's request for an additional $25 billion to pay for military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. But senators also used the time to press the two about interrogation techniques -- an issue at the heart of the Abu Ghraib scandal.

The two Pentagon officials appeared to express doubts about interrogation rules applied to military prisoners in Iraq and could not give lawmakers a clear answer on who signed off on them.

Three techniques removed from list of interrogation methods approved for use by U.S. troops in Iraq, sources tell CNN. Details soon.

Who's for five?

Donald Rumsfeld's "save my job" tour of Baghdad was just the beginning.

More fun:

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2004/ALLPOLITICS/05/14/fri/story.rumsfeld.ap.jpg

"OBEY."

How did the U.S. get Berg's body back from wherever it was, anyway?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3821536,00.html

Two British men detained in the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, allege they were tortured & forced to listen to Eminem at deafening levels. The men described their abuse in an open letter to George Bush released by the NY based Center for Constitutional Rights, which is providing counsel for the men. In December of 2003, a Lebanese man who was on a pilgrimage to Islamic holy sites & was instead detained by U.S.troops, made the same accusations.

>>The boogie monster of rap, yeah, the man's back
With a plan to ambush this Bush administration, mush the Senate's face in, Push this generation of kids to stand and fight for the right to say Somethin' you might not like, this white hot light that I'm under, no Wonder I look so Sunburnt, oh no I won't leave no stone unturned
Oh no I won't leave, won't go nowhere, do-si-do, oh, yo, ho, hello there
Oh, yeah, don't think I won't go there, go to Beirut and do a show there
Yeah, you laugh till your muthafuckin' ass gets drafted, while you're at Band camp thinkin' the crap can't happen
Till you fuck around, get an Anthrax napkin, inside a package wrapped in saran wrap wrappin'
Open the plastic and then you stand back gaspin', fuckin' assassins hijackin' Amtraks crashin'
All this terror America demands action, next thing you know you've got Uncle Sam's ass askin'
To join the Army or what you'll do for they Navy
You just a baby, gettin' recruited at eighteen
You're on a plane now, eatin' their food and their baked beans
I'm twenty-eight, they gonna take you 'fore they take me
Crazy insane or insane crazy? When I say Hussein, you say Shady<<

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Two disc jockeys were fired after playing an audiotape of the beheading of American Nick Berg by Iraqi militants, and cracking jokes about the grisly death.

Listeners called the radio station to complain after hearing Berg's bloodcurdling screams in the broadcast of the tape, followed by the DJs laughing and playing musical accompaniments.

The DJs, known as Marconi and Tiny, were fired Thursday from their morning show perch at Portland's KNRK-FM, which is owned by Pennsylvania-based Entercom Communications Corp. Station employees would not release the legal names of the DJs.

The station's manager sent an apology out over the airwaves, saying: "The actions of the KNRK news morning show were insensitive, inappropriate and repulsive. On behalf of Entercom Portland and KNRK, I apologize to our listeners."

One of the DJs apologized on his Web site, posting a statement that read, "I have become so numb to the horrific things that happen in this world that I sometimes forget there are still people who feel. I in no way meant to be insensitive to anyone. My comments on this were inapropriate (sic)."

Berg's headless body was found Saturday in Baghdad. Three days later, a videotape posted on an al-Qaida-related Web site showed him decapitated by hooded, armed men.'

What kind of sick fucks?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3716151.stm

Several US newspapers, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, have reported allegations made by Spc Jeremy Sivits, the first soldier to face court-martial over the scandal, about the extent and nature of the abuse at Abu Ghraib.

The papers said they had seen the statement he gave to US investigators.

The New York Times said he portrayed in "graphic but unemotional language" how guards had forced inmates to strip, masturbate and pile on top of each other.

He alleged that in one instance Cpl Graner "punched the detainee with a closed fist hard in the temple that it knocked the detainee unconscious," the paper said.

"He [Graner] was joking, laughing... Like he was enjoying it," Mr Sivits said, according to the transcript.

---

However, lawyers for the soldiers named by Mr Sivits said his statements were questionable because he was entering into plea bargaining with prosecutors.

Paul Bergrin, a lawyer representing Sgt Davis, described Spc Sivits' statement as "fabricated" and "self-serving".

---

The Reuters news agency quoted a US soldier recently returned from Abu Ghraib as saying sex and violence were rife at the jail.

"There was lots of affairs. There was all kinds of adultery and alcoholism... going on," said Dave Bischel, before going on to describe how chairs were set up round a mattress for an audience to watch.

they don't have page a8 online?

doesn't change the fact that there are currently 37 civilian deaths at the hands of british forces under investigation, anecdotal evidence on some of these suggests rogue battle groups pot-shotting at unarmed non-combatants, and countless beatings and abuses.

'i was just following orders' as an get-out has been trashed under international law as far back as Nuremberg. all UK combat troops undergo mandatory annual ICRC certification - they know the salient points of the Geneva Convention inside out before they go to war.

QLR will take a pasting over this, pictures or no pictures.