Voice of Revolution

Crimes of Massacres and Torture Organized at the Top

No to U.S. State Terrorism Against Iraqi People

The broad impunity and terrorism of the U.S. state is again being shown with the massacre of 24 civilians - many of them children - in the western Iraqi town of Haditha. Haditha, like Fallujah, is well known as a town of resistance to the U.S. occupation and war against the Iraqi people. The particular massacre referred to took place in November of 2005, but many others have and are taking place all across Iraq.

The evidence of repeated and on-going massacres is clear and abundant. Dr. Salam Ishmael, projects manager with the organization Doctors for Iraq, and former chief of the junior doctors in Baghdad's Medical City Hospital, emphasized, "There are many, many, many cases like Haditha that are still undercover and need to be highlighted in Iraq." In Haditha itself, he said, the U.S. military cut electricity and water to the entire city, attacked the hospital, and burned the pharmacy. "The hospital has been attacked three times. In November 2005 the hospital was occupied by the American and Iraqi Army for seven days, which is a severe breach of the Geneva Conventions," said Dr. Ishmael. The Iraqi Red Crescent reported at the time that nearly 1,000 families had been forced to flee their homes in Haditha following the November attacks by the U.S.

Abdul Salam Al-Kubaissi, spokesperson for the Muslim Clerics Association, speaking recently at a news conference in Baghdad said: "The situation has reached a level when the U.S. soldier becomes a professional killer, who kills with premeditation and deliberation. This should be among war crimes, and the ones who should be put on trial are the U.S. commanders and not the U.S. soldier, because the commanders are the ones who instruct those (soldiers) and justify their acts as it happened in Abu Ghraib's scandal."

Consistent with the government's policy of lying on principle, the Pentagon denies these massacres, usually claiming those killed were terrorists, or that they were killed by bombs planted by those resisting occupation, or were "collateral damage" from the massive U.S. bombing raids, and so forth. When the government can no longer get away with these lies, as occurred with Abu Ghraib and the photographs, and now with Haditha and witness testimony from survivors, then they target individual soldiers who are acting on their own, supposedly "against" government policy.

As President Bush claimed, "I am troubled by the initial news stories. I am mindful there is a thorough investigation going on. If in fact laws were broken there will be punishment." Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld went so far as to say that "U.S. troops respect the rights of Iraqis," something that is not possible as long as the U.S. is an occupying force.

These lies and complete denial of responsibility from the top are coming in the face of a recent UN report condemning the U.S. for its repeated violations of the Convention on Torture. The UN called for the closing of the Guantánamo concentration camp, and said the U.S. was violating the convention in prisons worldwide and in the U.S. All of these are crimes.

The Convention was signed by the U.S. in 1995 and is law of the land, as well as being international law. To date, none of those responsible for the crimes committed in Iraq, in Afghanistan, at Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo, and dozens of other concentration camps and prisons in the U.S. and worldwide has been punished. Such punishment would require first of all that Bush and Rumsfeld be tried for war crimes, an action that neither the Pentagon nor Congress will take.

The Pentagon has instead echoed Bush, targeting the soldiers directly involved, not the officers, not the Commander in Chief. An "investigation" is on going. Like Abu Ghraib, it is expected that the "investigation" will confirm that this is an "isolated" incident of a few soldiers, when in fact it is representative of the broad terrorism and impunity of the U.S. state.

The Pentagon is also launching yet another round of "ethical training" for American troops, much as they have "sensitivity training" for police and prison guards notorious for their brutality against the people. The soldiers and guards carry out their impunity in a situation where those in command have systematically organized such impunity and terrorism, beginning with Bush, Rumsfeld, Vice-President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the top military brass.

Outrage over the massacre of civilians has prompted leaders of the U.S.-installed government to respond to the Haditha massacre. Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki recently condemned the killings in Haditha as an "odious crime" and called for talks "to redefine the obligations of coalition forces." He said violence against civilians by U.S.-led coalition forces had become a "daily phenomenon." The American forces, he charged, "do not respect the Iraq people.... They crush them with their vehicles and kill them just on suspicion or a hunch." On June 1 Iraq said it was launching its own probe into the Haditha killings.

In addition, on June 3 the Iraqi government rejected the findings of a recent U.S. inquiry into the death of 11 civilians in a March 15 U.S. raid in the town of Ishaqi 60 miles north of Baghdad. It said it would conduct its own investigation. The government will demand an apology and compensation, said a government spokesman. These actions are indications of the failure of the U.S. state to install a government in Iraq and suppress the Iraqi people, despite using massive military might and broad impunity to commit war crimes.

The Iraqi people, like the Vietnamese before them, will emerge victorious against the criminal U.S. war and occupation. They are supported by the world's peoples, with Americans joining to take their stand to reject U.S. state terrorism and aggression, end the war and punish Bush and all those guilty of war crimes.

Reject the Failed U.S. State! Strengthen the Peoples' Forces!

[TOP]

My Lai, Vietnam, 1968. Haditha, Iraq, 2005

Say No to U.S. War Crimes!

- Troops Out Now Coalition -

The Troops Out Now Coalition calls on all youth and rank and file GI's to Resist! Don't Enlist! Don't Go! Don't fight, die, or massacre for big oil!

Our fight is at home against poverty, war and racism!

My Lai, Vietnam, 1968. Haditha, Iraq, 2005. Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush hate it when anyone mentions these two events - these two war crimes - in the same breath. This is all the more reason to examine them closely, to see that they have the same basis that they spell out the same lesson.

Thirteen-year-old Safa Yunis was the family's only survivor. She says U.S. Marines slaughtered her father and mother, Khafif and Aeda Yasin Ahmed, her four sisters aged 14, 10, 5 and 3, her 8-year-old brother, and a 1-year-old girl staying with the family. Neighbors said the family members were shot at close range or killed by grenades. The children died screaming. Safa survived because she was covered in her mother's blood when she fell to the floor. The Marines thought she was dead.

Pentagon officers are expected to announce a judgment on the Haditha war crime. Will they call it murder? Will they instead excuse the young Marines who killed the Iraqi children, women and men that day last November? What they won't do is put the blame where it belongs first of all: on those who conspired to invade Iraq, on those who lied to justify this conspiracy, on those who put young U.S. men and women in the horrible position where they kill babies. For if there were really justice not only the Marines would be put on trial but Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their whole gang who sent these Marines to kill for power, for "strategic interests," for oil profits. [ ]

There is no longer a way to hide the criminal nature of the war. It is out there before the world. And there are very few "ethical" or honorable choices before the young Marines, soldiers and other U.S. combat troops if they want to avoid being war criminals. Their only choice is to refuse to take part in these military operations in Iraq. This is a heroic choice but it is also the honorable choice. And it is up to the anti-war movement to give every support possible to those who refuse.

Organize Emergency Protests at Recruiting Centers

www.troopsoutnow.org

[TOP]

Join War Resisters

Military Officer Refuses to Fight in Iraq

On Wednesday, June 7, U.S. Army First Lieutenant Ehren Watada became the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to the criminal Iraq war. He announced his decision to disobey orders to deploy to Iraq in coordinated press conferences in Tacoma, Washington, and Honolulu, Hawaii, saying the war was illegal and immoral. Although he was blocked from attending the Tacoma press conference by his superior officers as planned, Lt. Watada’s videotaped statement was shown.

Watada said: “I refuse to be silent any longer. I refuse to watch families torn apart, while the President tells us to ‘stay the course.’ I refuse to be party to an illegal and immoral war against people who did nothing to deserve our aggression. I wanted to be there for my fellow troops. But the best way was not to help drop artillery and cause more death and destruction. It is to help oppose this war and end it so that all soldiers can come home.” In a separate interview Watada said, “I think the U.S. should pull out all troops immediately.”

When attempting to resign his commission, he made clear, “I am whole-heartedly opposed to the continued war in Iraq, the deception used to wage this war, and the lawlessness that has pervaded every aspect of our civilian leadership.” The Army refused his effort to resign.

Many of the veterans’ organizations opposing the war as well as those organizing against military recruitment are joining to support Watada. A petition has been organized, as well as a website with news and some of the many letters of support coming in (www.thankyoult.org).

Watada is 28, born and raised in Hawaii. He joined the Army in 2003, during the run-up to the Iraq war, and turned in his resignation to protest that same war in January of 2006. Watada faces a court-martial, up to two years in prison for “missing movement by design,” a dishonorable discharge, and other possible charges.

Statements in Support of Watada

While Army officers have a reputation, especially among enlisted, for simply going along with the program and trying to build their careers with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I have always thought that many of them deeply disagree and feel an ugly responsibility for being in charge of madness, death and destruction. I am very glad to see that an officer is willing to give up his career to help stop this war.

Ms. Jeri L. Reed, Mother of Iraq Veteran
Norman, Oklahoma

First Lieutenant Ehren Watada from Hawaii is the first U.S. military officer to publicly refuse orders and campaign for an end to the illegal and immoral war in Iraq, with the full support of his parents and of the anti-war movement. U.S. refuseniks such as Stephen Funk, Abdullah Webster, Camilo Mejia, Pablo Paredes, Jeremy Hinzman, and Kevin Benderman have made visible the groundswell of U.S. soldiers who are refusing to kill or be killed. Lt. Ehren will make a way for many other officers to refuse. In the U.S. at least 8,000 soldiers are officially deserters, hundreds are seeking refuge in Canada and other countries, and the number of young men and women signing up for the military (particularly people of color) is at an historic low despite the pressure of the poverty draft.

In defending Ehren, we are defending ourselves and our sisters and brothers in every country against the devastation brought on by Bush’s endless wars and the billions of dollars stolen — especially from those of us with least — to pay for it.

Ehren Watada says, “I refuse to be party to an illegal and immoral war against people who did nothing to deserve our aggression.” He echoes Malcolm Kendall-Smith, a Royal Air Force officer in the UK who was recently sentenced to eight months in prison for refusing to return to Iraq and serve in an “imperial invasion and occupation”.

The refusenik movement is growing in many countries. Supporting each other internationally strengthens us all. [ ]

From: www.refusingtokill.net

[TOP]

U.S. Soldiers: Iraq Massacre Not Exception

- Coral Wynter & Jim McIlroy -

The response of the Pentagon and White House to the massacre of more than 20 Iraqi civilians by U.S. marines in Haditha last year has followed a familiar pattern. Official investigations into the incident were finally forced by the publication in Time magazine of details of the killings. The massacre has been presented as a horrifying aberration of U.S. policy in Iraq.

However, on May 20, Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) issued a statement that explained: "The massacre at Haditha is not an exception to the situation in Iraq, it is a punctuation mark in a longer atrocity - the war itself."

The statement said that occupation troops "cannot simultaneously be empathetic to a population and be obliged to control that same population by pointing guns at them, breaking into their homes, turning them into collateral damage, and taking vengeance on them out of the inevitable frustration of fighting an urban counter-insurgency."

IVAW member Geoff Millard explained that U.S. soldiers are forced to dehumanize Iraqis to carry out Washington's brutal occupation policy. He said, "U.S. soldiers are put into a situation where they are forced to brutalize, forced to racialize, forced to sexualize everyone in order to dominate and control a people."

He added, "The way that has to be done is that you are forced to dehumanize that person. That's what they are doing in Iraq. You see this brutalization factor whenever you talk to World War II veterans about 'Japs.' In Vietnam they were 'gooks' and in Iraq the people are called 'haji' [among Muslims, haji refers to a person who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca and is used as a term of respect, but among U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan it has been turned into a racist epithet]. So the racist, class brutality continues. The real Iraqis getting bombed are the poor. It's the poor in Iraq who make up the resistance, just like anywhere, because the rich are still going to get theirs."

Millard said that when soldiers who go home to the U.S. suffer post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD), "the first thing the government does is deny all claims. Then they put you through an evaluation process, where doctors poke and probe - they're not actually treating you. This can go on for a number of months, possibly years. Then they diagnose you as having bi-polar disorder, not PTSD, because with bi-polar disorder, you don't get a disability pension ... or they say you have depression.

"Then they finally diagnose something, after god knows how long. Then they throw medication at you. You can take Prozac, or Xanax ... Whatever they prescribe is not working. They medicate and drug the veteran. Once this medication doesn't work, they might look into real treatment for PTSD."

He explained that "Vietnam Veterans Against the War have been working on this for 40 years, nd have a solution that works, and are counseling returned soldiers on this problem." But the Department of Veterans Affairs refuses to deal with it.

"We have spent $440 billion on a war on Iraq to brutalize and destroy them and our own people at the same time. They are closing down veterans hospitals and overworking the staff, both nurses and doctors, and are denying PTSD claims," Millard said.

Another issue facing veterans of Washington's wars in the Persian Gulf is so-called Gulf War Syndrome, often linked to the use by U.S. forces of "depleted uranium" munitions. The use of DU weapons in the 1991 Gulf War is believed to be a cause of the dramatic increase in cancer and birth defects among Iraqis in the war's aftermath.

"We don't see the problem of depleted uranium straight away. It takes five, 10, 12 years down he road before you see the main effects," Millard said. "Right now there is a ward full of people dying of Gulf War Syndrome in my town in Buffalo, New York. Most of that has been traced to depleted uranium. For years, the government denied [GWS] existed," he explained. [ ]

[Speaking to the false image painted in the U.S. that the people and soldiers are for the war, Millard brought out that,] "In reality, Veterans for Peace is a huge organization. Our veterans have seen the war, are fed up with war."

"We've been there," he explained. "We've been under fire, we take the mortar attacks, the gunshots. We've got members who've got PTSD so crippling they can't make it through the day. They commit suicide. We know the struggle of the Iraqi people, because we know what they are going through."

[Millard is now organizing the "Peace Has No Borders" action at the Peace Bridge in Buffalo, New York, to support war resisters and further strengthen the anti-war movement.]

Green Left Weekly, June 7, 2006.

[TOP]

Countless My Lai Massacres in Iraq

- Dahr Jamail -

The media feeding frenzy around what has been referred to as "Iraq's My Lai" has become frenetic. Focus on US Marines slaughtering at least 20 civilians in Haditha last November is reminiscent of the media spasm around the "scandal" of Abu Ghraib during April and May 2004.

Yet just like Abu Ghraib, while the media spotlight shines squarely on the Haditha massacre, countless atrocities continue daily, conveniently out of the awareness of the general public. Torture did not stop simply because the media finally decided, albeit in horribly belated fashion, to cover the story, and the daily slaughter of Iraqi civilians by US forces and US-backed Iraqi "security" forces had not stopped either.

Earlier this month, I received a news release from Iraq, which read, "On Saturday, May 13th, 2006, at 10:00 p.m., US Forces accompanied by the Iraqi National Guard attacked the houses of Iraqi people in the Al-Latifya district south of Baghdad by an intensive helicopter shelling. This led the families to flee to the Al-Mazar and water canals to protect themselves from the fierce shelling. Then seven helicopters landed to pursue the families who fled and killed them. The number of victims amounted to more than 25 martyrs. US forces detained another six persons including two women named Israa Ahmed Hasan and Widad Ahmed Hasan, and a child named Huda Hitham Mohammed Hasan, whose father was killed during the shelling."

The report from the Iraqi NGO called The Monitoring Net of Human Rights in Iraq (MHRI) continued, "The forces didn't stop at this limit. They held an attack on May 15th, 2006, supported also by the Iraqi National Guards. They also attacked the families' houses, and arrested a number of them while others fled. US snipers then used the homes to target more Iraqis. The reason for this crime was due to the downing of a helicopter in an area close to where the forces held their attack."

The US military preferred to report the incident as an offensive where they killed 41 "insurgents," a line effectively parroted by much of the media.

On that same day, MHRI also reported that in the Yarmouk district of Baghdad, US forces raided the home of Essam Fitian al-Rawi. Al-Rawi was killed along with his son Ahmed; then the soldiers reportedly removed the two bodies along with Al-Rawi's nephew, who was detained.

Similarly, in the city of Samara on May 5, MHRI reported, "American soldiers entered the house of Mr. Zidan Khalif Al-Heed after an attack upon American soldiers was launched nearby the house. American soldiers entered this home and killed the family, including the father, mother and daughter who is in the 6th grade, along with their son, who was suffering from mental and physical disabilities."

This same group, MHRI, also estimated that between 4,000 and 6,000 Iraqi civilians were killed during the November 2004 US assault on Fallujah. Numbers that make those from the Haditha massacre pale in comparison.

Instead of reporting incidents such as these, mainstream outlets are referring to the Haditha slaughter as one of a few cases that "present the most serious challenge to US handling of the Iraq war since the Abu Ghraib prison scandal."

Marc Garlasco, of Human Rights Watch, told reporters recently, "What happened at Haditha appears to be outright murder. The Haditha massacre will go down as Iraq's My Lai."

Then there is the daily reality of sectarian and ethnic cleansing in Iraq, which is being carried out by US-backed Iraqi "security" forces. A recent example of this was provided by a representative of the Voice of Freedom Association for Human Rights, another Iraqi NGO which logs ongoing atrocities resulting from the US occupation.

"The representative visited Fursan Village (Bani Zaid) with the Iraqi Red Crescent Al-Madayin Branch. The village of 60 houses, inhabited by Sunni families, was attacked on February 27, 2006, by groups of men wearing black clothes and driving cars from the Ministry of Interior. Most of the villagers escaped, but eight were caught and immediately executed. One of them was the Imam of the village mosque, Abu Aisha, and another was a 10-year-old boy, Adnan Madab. They were executed inside the room where they were hiding. Many animals (sheep, cows and dogs) were shot by the armed men also. The village mosque and most of the houses were destroyed and burnt."

The representative had obtained the information when four men who had fled the scene of the massacre returned to provide the details. The other survivors had all left to seek refuge in Baghdad. "The survivors who returned to give the details guided the representative and the Red Crescent personnel to where the bodies had been buried. They [the bodies] were of men, women and one of the village babies."

The director of MHRI, Muhamad T. Al-Deraji, said of this incident, "This situation is a simple part of a larger problem that is orchestrated by the government the delay in protecting more villagers from this will only increase the number of tragedies."

Arun Gupta, an investigative journalist and editor with the New York Independent Media Center, said, "The fact is, while I think the militias have, to a degree, spiraled out of US control, it's the US who trains, arms, funds, and supplies all the police and military forces, and gives them critical logistical support," he told me this week. "For instance, there were reports at the beginning of the year that a US army unit caught a "death squad" operating inside the Iraqi Highway Patrol. There were the usual claims that the US has nothing to do with them. It's all a big lie. The American reporters are lazy. If they did just a little digging, there is loads of material out there showing how the US set up the highway patrol, established a special training academy just for them, equipped them, armed them, built all their bases, etc. It's all in government documents, so it's irrefutable. But then they tell the media we have nothing to do with them and they don't even fact check it. In any case, I think the story is significant only insofar as it shows how the US tries to cover up its involvement."

Once again, like Abu Ghraib, a few US soldiers are being investigated about what occurred in Haditha. The "few bad apples" scenario is being repeated in order to obscure the fact that Iraqis are being slaughtered every single day. The "shoot first ask questions later" policy, which has been in effect from nearly the beginning in Iraq, creates trigger-happy American soldiers and US-backed Iraqi death squads who have no respect for the lives of the Iraqi people. Yet, rather than high-ranking members of the Bush administration who give the orders, including Bush himself, being tried for the war crimes they are most certainly guilty of, we have the ceremonial "public hanging" of a few lowly soldiers for their crimes committed on the ground.

In an interview with CNN on May 29th concerning the Haditha massacre, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace commented, "It's going to be a couple more weeks before those investigations are complete, and we should not prejudge the outcome. But we should, in fact, as leaders take on the responsibility to get out and talk to our troops and make sure that they understand that what 99.9 percent of them are doing, which is fighting with honor and courage, is exactly what we expect of them."

This is the same Peter Pace who when asked how things were going in Iraq by Tim Russert on Meet the Press this past March 5th said, "I'd say they're going well. I wouldn't put a great big smiley face on it, but I would say they're going very, very well from everything you look at "

Things are not "going very, very well" in Iraq. There have been countless My Lai massacres, and we cannot blame 0.1% of the soldiers on the ground in Iraq for killing as many as a quarter of a million Iraqis, when it is the policies of the Bush administration that generated the failed occupation to begin with.

Dahr Jamail is an independent journalist who spent over 8 months reporting from occupied Iraq, see dahrjamailiraq.com.

[TOP]

From My Lai to Haditha

The Abominations of War

- Cindy Sheehan -

This is the most difficult article that I have ever had to write, but I have to write it anyway, unfortunately.

I, and just about anyone and everyone who criticizes George Bush and this war are accused of "not supporting the troops." Since my son, Casey, was killed in Iraq because of lies and to actually make that country safe for our corporate interests, I have been saying the only way we can support our troops at this point is to get them the hell out of this illegal and immoral war.

The massacre in Haditha on November, 19, 2005, is just another way to underscore the fact that our troops are being turned into war criminals in what one article called: "The Worst War Crime of the Iraq War." (Sydney Morning Herald, May 28, 2006). In a stunning display of shameless hypocrisy George Bush said of the (not uncommon) butchering of innocent civilians in Haditha:

"Our troops have been trained on core values throughout their training, but obviously there was an incident that took place in Iraq." Bush also said this, following a meeting of his cabinet: the world will see a "full and complete" investigation.

Another false piece of propaganda that we are fed is that we need to support the president, especially when we are "at war." I say, "No, way!" Our kids know the difference between right and wrong before they are sucked into a military system that dehumanizes our soldiers and forces them to dehumanize the "enemy" to the point where it is apparently acceptable behavior to kill children and to cover up the murders.

The double standard that our leaders have set for themselves and the troops is amoral and corrupt. I have not seen anywhere in the discussion of this topic that, not only is Haditha not the worst war crime committed by American or coalition troops, but the entire war is a war crime. The Pentagon needs to be dismantled, cleansed with holy water and purified by incense and left to lie fallow for generations in atonement for all of the crimes that have been planned and committed within its walls.

The following list of illegal, immoral, and atrocious behavior is obvious and not all inclusive by any means:

. 12 years of devastating sanctions that were responsible for killing over 500,000 Iraqi children.

. Destroying antiquities and culture is a war crime and prohibited under Geneva Conventions.

. The invasion of Iraq is a preventive war of aggression against a country that was no threat to the USA or the world and was expressly prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.

. The invasion was not sanctioned or approved of by the United Nations.

. "Shock and awe" targeted civilian centers and killed many innocent people.

. Abu Ghraib.

. Guantanamo.

. "Extreme rendition."

. Use of chemical weapons, especially white phosphorous enhanced with napalm, particularly in the second siege of Fallujah.

. Targeting hospitals, clinics, and threatening medical doctors with execution if one treats "insurgents" (which can apparently include babies and pregnant women).

. Using highly compensated mercenaries to carry out executions and torture.

. Forcing a style of government on the citizens and manipulating the outcome of the elections.

. Dishonoring the Constitution of the United States by invading Iraq without a declaration of war by Congress and by breaking our treaties with the United Nations and the ratified Geneva Conventions.

George Bush is correct. A "full and complete" investigation needs to be made into the crimes against humanity in Iraq, and if justice prevails, this would in turn lead to the trial and conviction of George and the rest of the neocon purveyors of torture and murder, for which the maximum penalties should be applied.

The level of accountability needs to rise higher than Specialist or Private and should reach down the very blackest bowels of an administration that lied through its teeth to get our country into a war of aggression and occupation. The commander in chief needs to be prosecuted: Now! [ ]

[TOP]

UN Committee Against Torture

U.S. Guilty of Repeated Crimes of Torture

On May 19 the United Nations (UN) Committee Against Torture released an 11-page report documenting the serious and repeated U.S. violations of the Convention Against Torture. The Convention, signed in 1994 by the U.S., is law of the land in the U.S. and international law. Violations are serious crimes.

The report sharply rebuked the government for its continued and repeated violations of the Convention, both in its prisons and torture centers worldwide and inside the U.S. The UN Committee said the U.S. “should take immediate measures to eradicate all forms of torture and ill-treatment of detainees by its military and civilian personnel, in any territory under its jurisdiction, and should promptly and thoroughly investigate such acts and prosecute all those responsible for such acts and ensure they are appropriately punished, in accordance with the seriousness of the crime.”

The report criticized the U.S. for mistreating “terror suspects,” denying due process to detainees, holding prisoners incommunicado, a lack of information about what goes on in prisons, operating secret prisons overseas, shipping detainees to countries that will torture them, brutality and torture in U.S. prisons, and more.

Among the specific crimes of torture raised was the use of “water boarding,” where prisoners are repeatedly forced underwater and nearly drowned, then interrogated, then nearly drowned and interrogated again, over and over. Sexual humiliation and the use of dogs to induce fear were two of the other common means of torture used. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of detainees have died in U.S. custody worldwide.

In speaking to the U.S. prisons, the report brought out the crimes of police brutality and excessive use of force, sexual assault against prisoners and people in immigration detention and shackling of women during childbirth. It opposed the detention of children and the large number of children sentenced to life imprisonment.

The U.S. delegation’s leader, John B. Bellinger III, the State Department’s legal adviser, acknowledged that there had been “abuses” in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as in Guantánamo, but sought to cover-up and dismiss the systemic nature of such crimes. He claimed the widespread and documented examples of torture were “isolated incidents.” The UN did not accept this and instead called on the U.S. to close the concentration camp at Guantánamo and made clear the systemic nature of the U.S. violations of the Convention on Torture.

In the face of broad opposition to use of torture and repeated exposure of these crimes, the U.S., in May, for the first time since 9/11 — five years — sent a delegation to answer questions by the UN Committee about abuses and torture of prisoners and detainees. This long refusal is also a violation of the Convention.

None of the crimes addressed by the UN report are new. Torture and denial of due process has been widely documented, not only by the victims themselves, but also by human rights organizations, the International Red Cross, as well as the Army and the FBI. The government has continued its repeated lie, used again with the UN, as it is being used concerning the Haditha massacre in Iraq, as it was used with Abu Ghraib, that whatever crimes exist are “isolated incidents,” and not government practice and policy.

The UN Committee Against Torture is the world’s designated monitor for the international Convention Against Torture. It is composed of 10 special investigators, or rapporteurs, who periodically review each of the 141 countries that have ratified the Convention Against Torture. The Committee’s recommendations are not binding.

The U.S. government, responsible for the crimes, continues to refuse to take action to end them and punish those responsible.

[TOP]

UN Calls on U.S. to Close Guantánamo Concentration Camp

The United Nations Committee Against Torture called on the United States to close the concentration camp at its Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The report said the government "should cease to detain any person at Guantánamo Bay and close this detention facility, permit access by the detainees to the judicial process or release them as soon as possible, ensuring that they are not returned to any State where they could face a real risk of being tortured, in order to comply with its obligations under the Convention."

To date, the Bush administration refuses to comply with world demands to close the concentration camp. Bush claims the U.S. stands above both international and U.S. law and that they do not apply to the "war on terror." The Office of the President has systematically denied due process, labeled "second-guessing" by the courts of executive decisions.

About 500 detainees are still being held under horrible and illegal conditions at the Guantánamo concentration camp. These detentions started four and a half years ago and the large majority of prisoners have never been charged with any crime, yet are denied prisoner of war status. More than 60 of the detainees were under 18 at the time of their capture, some as young as 14.

So far, faced with repeated torture and abuse and indefinite detention, thirty-six detainees have killed themselves. About 90 are on a hunger strike to protest their conditions and detention. This is the second organized mass hunger strike at Guantanamo. Twenty-four prisoners are being force-fed.

In addition, untold numbers of people are being controlled by anti-anxiety drugs. On May 18, a day before the release of the UN report, an attack on prisoners by military guards injured six detainees.

Close Guantánamo Now! Release All the Prisoners and Punish the Guilty!

[TOP]

Conclusions and Recommendations of the UN Committee Against Torture

The following are some of the conclusions and recommendations from the May 19, 2006, United Nations Committee Against Torture report addressing the many U.S. violations of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The U.S. signed the Convention in 1994 and is bound by it. Violations of the convention are serious crimes.

The Committee emphasized that "The State party [U.S.] should recognize and ensure that the Convention applies at all times, whether in peace, war or armed conflict, in any territory under its jurisdiction and that the application of the Convention's provisions are without prejudice to the provisions of any other international instrument, pursuant to paragraph 2 of its articles 1 and 16."

It made clear that "The State party should rescind any interrogation technique, including methods involving sexual humiliation, 'water boarding', 'short shackling', and using dogs to induce fear, that constitute torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, in all places of detention under its de facto effective control, in order to comply with its obligations under the Convention."

"The State party should take immediate measures to eradicate all forms of torture and ill-treatment of detainees by its military or civilian personnel, in any territory under its jurisdiction, and should promptly and thoroughly investigate such acts and prosecute all those responsible for such acts, and ensure they are appropriately punished, in accordance with the seriousness of the crime."

"The Committee, noting that detaining persons indefinitely without charge, constitutes per se a violation of the Convention, is concerned that detainees are held for protracted periods at Guantánamo Bay, without sufficient legal safeguards and without judicial assessment of the justification for their detention (articles 2, 3 and 16)."

"The Committee is concerned with allegations of impunity of some of the State party's law enforcement personnel in respect of acts of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The Committee notes the limited investigation and lack of prosecution in respect of the allegations of torture perpetrated in areas 2 and 3 of the Chicago Police Department (article 12)."

The Committee also addressed the U.S. practice of secretly imprisoning people abroad, saying that it "is concerned by allegations that the State party has established secret detention facilities, which are not accessible to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Detainees are deprived of fundamental legal safeguards, including an oversight mechanism in regard to their treatment and review procedures with respect to their detention. The Committee is also concerned by allegations that those detained in such facilities could be held for prolonged periods and face torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The Committee considers the 'no comment' policy of the State party regarding the existence of such secret detention facilities, as well as on its intelligence activities, to be regrettable (articles 2 and 16)."

"The Committee is concerned by reports of the involvement of the State party in enforced disappearances. The Committee considers the State party's view that such acts do not constitute a form of torture to be regrettable (articles 2 and 16)."

"The Committee is concerned by the State party's use of 'diplomatic assurances', or other kinds of guarantees, assuring that a person will not be tortured if expelled, returned, transferred or extradited to another State. The Committee is also concerned by the secrecy of such procedures including the absence of judicial scrutiny and the lack of monitoring mechanisms put in place to

assess if the assurances have been honored (article 3)."

"The Committee is concerned by the difficulties certain victims of abuses have faced in obtaining redress and adequate compensation, and that only a limited number of detainees have filed claims for compensation for alleged abuse and maltreatment, in particular under the Foreign Claims Act (article 14)."

Addressing itself to crimes of torture inside the U.S., the Committee said it "is concerned by the treatment of detained women in the State party, including gender-based humiliation and incidents of shackling of women detainees during childbirth (article 16)."

"The Committee reiterates the concern expressed in its previous recommendations about the conditions of the detention of children, in particular the fact that they may not be completely segregated from adults during pre-trail detention and after sentencing. The Committee is also concerned by the large number of children sentenced to life imprisonment in the State party (article 16)."

"The Committee is concerned about reports of brutality and use of excessive force by the State party's law enforcement personnel, and the numerous allegations of their ill-treatment of vulnerable groups, in particular racial minorities, migrants and persons of different sexual orientation which have not been adequately investigated (article 16 and 12)."

"The Committee is concerned is concerned by reliable reports of sexual assault of sentenced detainees, as well as persons in pre-trial or immigration detention, in places of detention in the State party. The Committee is concerned that there are numerous reports of sexual violence perpetrated by detainees on each other, and that persons of differing sexual orientation are particularly vulnerable. The Committee is also concerned by the lack of prompt and independent investigation of such acts and that appropriate measures to combat these abuses have not been implemented by the State party (articles 16, 12, 13 and 14)."

Full text of Conclusions and Recommendations of the UN Committee Against Torture: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/19_05_06_torture.pdf

The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/h_cat39.htm

[TOP]