Cockburn
/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
Now Available!
Today's
Stories
May
13, 2004
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.
|
May
13, 2004
An Open Letter
to George Bush
Inhumane Treatment
of Prisoners Produces Blowbacks and Backlashes
By RALPH NADER
Dear Mr. President:
The reported widespread abuse
of prisoners by your Administration adds another condition that
reflects on your failure of leadership. Anticipation and prevention
of such tragedies should have been routine by the top officials
whom you command. How can you imagine winning the hearts and
minds of the Iraqi people? You are expanding what the intelligence
agencies call "blowbacks" - expanding the networking
of stateless terrorists against the United States. In addition,
your Administration's actions put US soldiers and civilians in
Iraq at increased risk from the backlash to the abuse of Iraqi
prisoners, most of whom the press reports were charged with no
wrongdoing when imprisoned.
With the publication of photos
from Abu Ghraib prison the truth is beginning to come out. In
recent years newspaper articles, human rights reports and expressions
of concern from the International Red Cross, Red Crescent and
other human services agencies have claimed that torture, degradation
and inhuman treatment had become the mode of operation under
your Administration in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, and Iraq.
This has included repeated reports in the media of deaths and
suicides of people being held in US military custody.
General Antonio Taguba, who
wrote the Pentagon's report looking into the abuses at Abu Ghraib
prison, testified on May 11 before the Senate Armed Services
Committee describing systemic problems with the prison. He testified
that what happened was the result of a rampant failure of leadership
"from the brigade commander on down, lack of discipline,
no training whatsoever and no supervision."
The International Committee
of the Red Cross issued a report concerning prisoner abuse based
on private interviews with prisoners of war and civilian internees
during the 29 visits ICRC staff conducted in 14 places of detention
across Iraq between March 31 and October 2, 2003. The report
said that as far back as last May, the Red Cross reported to
the military about 200 allegations of abuse, and that in July
it complained about 50 allegations of abuse at a detention site
called Camp Cropper -- including one case of treatment that included
being deprived of sleep, kicked repeatedly and injured and having
a baseball tied into the prisoner's mouth. On May 10 the Red
Cross stated that the organization's president, Jakob Kellenberger,
complained about the prison abuses directly to top administration
officials during a two-day visit to Washington in mid-January
when he met with Secretary of State Colin Powell, national security
advisor Condoleezza Rice and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul
Wolfowitz.
You cannot claim that you were
unaware of these allegations. You are briefed daily. In addition
to these allegations being reported in the media, human rights
groups have specifically written to your Administration about
them. In July 2003, Amnesty International sent your administration
a Memorandum on Concerns Relating to Law and Order in Iraq. The
Memorandum included allegations of torture and ill-treatment
of Iraqi detainees by US and Coalition forces.
A May 7, 2004 letter signed
by nine leading human rights organizations states: "For
over a year, the undersigned organizations and others have repeatedly
asked you and senior officials in your Administration to act
promptly and forcefully to publicly repudiate the statements
of intelligence officials and to assure that the treatment of
detainees is consistent with international humanitarian law."
Amnesty International also alleged torture and degradation in
the treatment of prisoners and detainees resulting from the war
in Afghanistan held in that country as well as Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba. And, The Washington Post has reported that your State Department
and Department of Defense had conflicts over the treatment of
prisoners. As commander-in-chief, certainly you were or should
have been aware of these assertions - often repeated in the media,
by various organizations - and of the conflicts within your own
Administration.
Now that the photographs are
beginning to make their way into the media, the public is seeing
that US treatment of detainees, prisoners and people held in
enemy combatant status includes acts abhorred by the American
people. Sadly, there will be more - more photos, videos, testimony
- where more of the facts will come out.
Human rights groups wrote you
on May 7 saying: "Extraordinary action on your part is now
required to begin to repair this damage and, at long last, bring
an end to this pattern of torture and cruel treatment."
You and your aides have a disquieting
habit of not responding at all to such letters going back to
the pre-invasion of Iraq early last year, when 13 groups representing
millions of Americans (e.g., religious, veterans, business, labor,
retired intelligence) wrote you requesting a meeting. They did
not even receive the courtesy of a reply.
In order to restore public
confidence around the world an independent international investigation
is needed. The Department of Defense investigating itself, or
investigation by Republican controlled congressional committees
in a presidential election year, will not be sufficient to restore
the confidence of the world.
The following steps are needed:
1. Get the truth out through
an impartial, international commission. This should include people
of unquestioned integrity from within the United States and around
the world. You should state that you or anyone in your Administration
will testify in public before this fact-finding Commission. This
should include involvement of the International Humanitarian
Fact-Finding Commission provided for by Article 90 of Additional
Protocol II of the Geneva Conventions to look into the allegations
of abuse and related US investigations. The US should agree to
pay restitutions to all individuals whose rights were violated.
2. Renounce interrogation techniques
that destroy basic human dignity and the very purpose of eliciting
valuable information. Remove those in the chain of command who
in anyway countenanced or ordered such activity. Direct the Department
of Defense and US intelligence agencies not to engage in any
practices that are inconsistent with the US Constitution forbidding
cruel and unusual punishment, the Geneva Convention, and the
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment. This includes banning "stress and
duress" techniques, incommunicado detentions and transfer
of prisoners to countries that use torture techniques. Strong
and clear penalties should be announced for anyone who uses such
interrogation techniques. Adequate funding should be provided
to allow for investigation of allegations of abuse.
3. Ban the use of private civilian
corporate contractors in interrogation and any direct contacts
with prisoners or detainees held by the United States. These
are essential governmental functions under established rules
of military, domestic and international law. You would do well
to examine the corporate contracts in Iraq for waste, corruption,
non-performance and favoritism - before the media gets there.
4. Allow access to all prisons,
prisoners, detainees and people held in non-combatant status
to the Red Cross, Red Crescent and UN International Humanitarian
Fact-Finding Commission. This should include private interviews
of prisoners as well as visits by medical personnel.
The photos showing abusive
treatment are serious. They come on top of reports of US military
actions that took the lives of hundreds civilians - including
women and children - in Fallujah, as well as reports of over
10,000 Iraqi civilians being killed in the US war and occupation
of Iraq. It comes at a time when it is evident that under your
leadership as commander-in-chief there has been inadequate planning
for post-war Iraq and moving that country to independence from
US military and corporate occupation. Further, it has now become
evident that the reasons you gave for the invasion and occupation
of Iraq were fabrications and deceptions. In truth the United
States and the stronger countries surrounding Iraq were never
threatened by a tottering dictator with a dilapidated military
having no command and control over his troops. Richard Clarke,
former White House Terrorism Advisor has argued that the Iraq
War and occupation diverted us from preventing stateless terrorism
and has been counterproductive to making the United States safer.
Gen. William Odom who served as director of the National Security
Agency under President Reagan, has called for withdrawal from
Iraq saying: "I don't think that the war serves U.S. interests.
I think Osama bin Laden's interests and the Iranian interests
are very much served by it, and it's becoming a huge drain on
our resources both material and political."
The combination of these actions
under your leadership as commander-in-chief amounts to an accumulating
failure. You are clearly not able to win the hearts and minds
of mainstream Iraqis. You are making the United States less safe
by producing more stateless terrorist recruiting, as leading
security specialists have pointed out in the media. Your attempt
to restore our relations with the international community and
involve them in winning the peace in Iraq is too little and too
late. Polls report that the majority of Iraqis now want the US
to leave immediately - a sharp turnaround by desperate people
who wanted Saddam Hussein out.
You need to make major adjustments
by giving the Iraqi people truthful expectations - no puppet
government (See Yochi Dreazen and Christopher Cooper, "Behind
the Scenes, US Tightens Grip on Iraq's Future," Wall Street
Journal, May 13, 2004, page 1, 8) a responsible withdrawal of
both US military and corporate occupations - to protect our troops
by bringing them home - and internationally supervised elections
with international peacekeepers from neutral countries. This
withdrawal from Iraq is consistent with the recommendations of
General Odom who explained in an interview on Nightline: "[T]o
say you can't fail at that now, is to fail to realize that you've
already failed. Now, when I say get out, I don't mean just pull
out and walk out today. I would go through the procedures of
going to the United Nations and encouraging a United Nations
resolution to approve some U.N. force there. And I would be quite
prepared to participate in that for a while, if we could get
allies and others to come in. But then I would make it clear
that I am slowly moving that responsibility to this force and
withdrawing the U.S. over six months or so."
Perhaps you now see the wisdom
of meeting with some of the thirteen groups of Americans - including
those composed of retired military officers and intelligence
officials, business, church and labor - who asked to meet with
you before you declared your unconstitutional war. They could
have cautioned you about the Iraqi quagmire.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
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
|