Free Republic

Until now, I have not commented on the abuses at the Abu Gharib prison for lack of solid information. Were, for example, the Iraqi prisoners captured after firing on Americans and other Iraqis? Or, were they caught with weapons on them or in their homes or cars? Or, were they only under suspicion. Or, thouht to be spies? Who they are means quite different treatment according to the Geneva Conventions. Indeed, in almost all these cases, as the rebellion against the American occupation is being fought by those in civilian dress, those captured would not be considered prisoners of war...

Press Release Source: Newsweek NEWSWEEK: Report on Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal Expected to Blame Systemic Failures at the Pentagon Sunday August 1, 10:38 am ET Rumsfeld's Office May Be Rebuked for Not Setting Clear Interrogation Rules NEW YORK, Aug. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The panel that has been investigating the Abu Ghraib prison scandal is leaning toward the view that failures of command and control at the Pentagon helped create the climate in which the abuses occurred, Newsweek reports in the current issue. The four-member commission's report is still being drafted and its final conclusions are not yet definite. But, as...

July 23, 2004IRAQ PRISON SCANDALArmy Report Says Flaws in Detention Didn't Cause AbuseBy ERIC SCHMITT ASHINGTON, July 22 - A new Army report concludes that military detention operations in Iraq and Afghanistan suffered from poor training, haphazard organization and outmoded policies, but that those flaws did not directly contribute to the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison. The report, by Lt. Gen. Paul T. Mikolashek, the Army inspector general, differs from conclusions in an earlier inquiry by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, an inquiry that uncovered abuses in what became a major scandal over American military treatment of prisoners in Iraq. Unlike...

Woman in Abu Ghraib Case Appears in Court By ESTES THOMPSON ASSOCIATED PRESS FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) - Pfc. Lynndie England, the Army reservist at the center of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse case, was read her rights in military court Monday and given a date of Aug. 3 for a hearing on whether she is to face a court-martial. England appeared in court for the five-minute hearing, held before Col. Denise Arn, who is the judge - or "investigating officer," in military parlance - presiding over her case. Dressed in a jungle-green camouflage Army uniform and visibly pregnant, England...

Beneath the Hoods Many of the tortured at Abu Ghraib were common criminals, not terrorists July 19 issue - What if the FBI had tortured Zacarias Moussaoui, the would-be 20th hijacker, into revealing the plot to destroy the World Trade Center in time to stop it? Who could blame it? These were not people playing by any rules of civilized warfare, and nor are terrorists in Iraq. At Abu Ghraib, military-intelligence officers were concerned about the poor "product" they were getting from prisoner interrogations, and they pressured the military-police guards there to "soften up" their charges between sessions. That, at...

THIS IS A TIMELY REPOST AS CLINTON AND KERRY TRY TO SHOUT THE TRUTH DOWN AND USE ABU GHAIB TO RUIN PRESIDENT BUSH.Graphic photos appearing on Arabic websites of U.S. servicemen raping and sexually abusing Iraqi women were actually taken from American and Hungarian pornography sites. Albasrah.net and a Tunisian website produced in France by Committee for the Defense of Saddam Hussein [Comité de Défonce de Saddam Hussein En Tunisie], posted not only the recently broadcast photos of U.S. troops abusing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners but additional ones of alleged group rape of women by American soldiers, some who are...

The Cuban government and state-controlled press have disseminated the same bogus GI gang-rape photos that WorldNetDaily reported originated on porn sites. As previously reported by WND, the publication of the images and stories about the images added confusion to the unfolding Abu Ghraib crisis especially in the Middle East, where top newspapers and political sites published the hard-core porn photos side-by-side with genuine photos of abuse. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba has published eight of the gang-rape porn photos under the heading, "Accusing Photos." A link on the Ministry's main page, called "The photos that...

LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. general who was in charge of Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison said on Saturday she had met an Israeli interrogator in Iraq, a claim Israel denied but which was likely to irritate many in the Arab world. Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski, who was responsible for military police guarding all Iraqi jails at the time prisoners were abused by U.S. troops there, told the BBC she met the Israeli at a Baghdad interrogation center. "He was clearly from the Middle East and he said: 'Well, I do some of the interrogation here and of course I speak...

Rumsfeld gave go-ahead for Abu Ghraib tactics, says general in charge By Julian Coman in Washington (Filed: 04/07/2004) The former head of the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad has for the first time accused the American Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, of directly authorising Guantanamo Bay-style interrogation tactics. Brig-Gen Janis Karpinski, who commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade, which is at the centre of the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal, said that documents yet to be released by the Pentagon would show that Mr Rumsfeld personally approved the introduction of harsher conditions of detention in Iraq. In an interview with The...

The mortification of Iraqi prisoners by American military personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad has been discomfiting far beyond the impact of the now-infamous images. Coupled with other reports about harsh post-9/11 tactics to garner information from captured terrorists, and with ongoing investigations into deaths alleged to have occurred in connection with interrogations, Abu Ghraib and the reaction to it have forced front and center a profound national evasion: the propriety of torture. As one would expect, the scandal has produced no small amount of righteous indignation. The civil-libertarian lobby, operating in overdrive, has issued ringing declarations that...

June 24, 2004 -- AFTER terrorists beheaded Korean hostage Kim Sun-il, The New York Times kept the photo showing the horror of his final moments off yesterday's front page. Instead, the Times' front page bizarrely describes Kim as "sitting or kneeling quietly" as he waited to die — in reality the photo, back on Page A-11, shows Kim with his mouth open wide in terror, and the video shows him shaking with fear.

British Muslims are calling for a boycott of chocolate giant Cadbury because of alleged links with the American firm accused of torturing prisoners in Iraq. The UK Islamic Mission made the shock plea as the Bournville-based company has previously employed business advisers CACI Ltd. The firm, which has offices in Coventry, is a subsidiary of US firm CACI International, which was hired by the CIA and coordinated interrogations at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. Iraqi inmates at the prison were stripped, chained, sexually humiliated and threat-enedwithelectrocution byUSguards.There have also been allegations of rape and murder. Last night, Haq...

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration didn't ease its hard-line tactics for interrogating terror suspects until after concerns were raised repeatedly by State Department and military officials worried about violating international and U.S. law, memos released by the White House show. In an order less than four months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President Bush said the Geneva Conventions on treatment of prisoners did not apply to al-Qaida and Taliban suspects such as those imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Rumsfeld did approve several techniques that are otherwise forbidden by U.S. military doctrine. Those used at Guantanamo included interrogating prisoners...

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- The White House released several hundred pages of documents Tuesday that showed how the administration developed its policies for the interrogation of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. White House Counsel Judge Alberto Gonzales said the unprecedented declassification and release was necessary to correct misperceptions created by the leak of a few of the documents that were obtained and published by the Washington Post. Gonzales began the briefing at which the ream of documents was released to the press with a reminder of the nature of the enemy America faces in the war on terror. He said that...

Bush: 'I have never ordered torture' Administration releases memos on interrogation tactics Tuesday, June 22, 2004 Posted: 8:40 PM EDT (0040 GMT) WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush said Tuesday that he had never sanctioned any torture techniques, as the White House sought to defuse questions about the interrogation of military prisoners. "Look, let me make very clear the position of my government and our country," Bush said in the Oval Office. "We do not condone torture. I have never ordered torture. I will never order torture. The values of this country are such that torture is not a part of...

ALLEGATIONS that British soldiers mutilated the bodies of Iraqi insurgents will be investigated, Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, said yesterday. However, he said it was important to remember that the lurid claims could be "false allegations against British troops". Mr Hoon was responding in the Commons to a story in yesterday’s Guardian which included new allegations of brutality by coalition troops. The newspaper claimed to have seen death certificates which stated that corpses handed over to hospital authorities had shown signs of "mutilation" and "torture". A certificate relating to one 37-year-old Iraqi listed extensive injuries, including bullet wounds to his...

CAIRO, Egypt - A handful of American clergy of different faiths may have succeeded where the U.S. administration has failed. This week, a simple 30-second advertisement expressing disapproval of the abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has aired on Arab television — and it has touched the heart of at least some skeptical viewers. The ad, paid for by the organization FaithfulAmerica.org with funding from the private contributions of U.S. citizens, has been broadcast on two of the most popular Arab satellite channels, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. The advertisement shows close-ups of a Presbyterian minister,...

<p>Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday said his review has revealed no evidence that a senior civilian or military officer ordered the abuse of Iraqi detainees in the war on terrorism.</p> <p>The military has started a series of investigations into the maltreatment of Iraqi insurgents and criminal suspects last fall at the Abu Ghraib prison and other detention facilities. One major question has been whether the physical, and in some cases, sexual abuse was ordered by senior commanders.</p>

Rumsfeld Says No 'Wiggle Room' on Prisoner Torture WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration sees no "wiggle room" on the definition of torture, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Monday, even as a classified Justice Department memo stated some "cruel, inhuman or degrading" acts may not amount to torture. Rumsfeld's comments followed the disclosure in the past week of classified memos in which administration lawyers argued that U.S. and international laws banning torture did not restrict President Bush (news - web sites), as commander in chief, in the way he ordered interrogations of prisoners. "There is no wiggle room in...

June 16, 2004 -- THE video only lasts four minutes or so — grue some scenes of torture from the days when Saddam Hussein's thugs ruled Abu Ghraib prison. I couldn't bear to watch, so I walked out until it was over. Some who stayed wished they hadn't. They told of savage scenes of decapitation, fingers chopped off one by one, tongues hacked out with a razor blade — all while victims shriek in pain and the thugs chant Saddam's praises. Saddam's henchmen took the videos as newsreels to document their deeds in honor of their leader. But these awful...