U.S. Troops Tortured Iraqis in Mosul, Documents Show:

American soldiers tortured Iraqi prisoners at a military base in Mosul but nobody was court martialed over the abuse, U.S. army documents say.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8373.htm

by Sister Dianna Ortiz, TomPaine.com

A torture survivor speaks on the U.S. policy of systematically passing off the blame in torture cases.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/no_blood_on_our_hands.php

Army Documents Shed Light on CIA 'Ghosting': Systematic Concealment Of Detainees Is Found

Senior defense officials have described the CIA practice of hiding unregistered detainees at Abu Ghraib prison as ad hoc and unauthorized, but a review of Army documents shows that the agency's "ghosting" program was systematic and known to three senior intelligence officials in Iraq.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=3028

George W. to George W.: On Killing Prisoners

Of all the stories about the abuse of prisoners of war by American soldiers and C.I.A. agents, surely none was more troubling and important than the March 16 report by my Times colleagues Douglas Jehl and Eric Schmitt that at least 26 prisoners have died in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002 - in what Army and Navy investigators have concluded or suspect were acts of criminal homicide.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=3022

Afghan Detainee's Leg Was 'Pulpified,' Witness Says: The testimony comes at a hearing for an MP who delivered beatings. The inmate later died.

http://tinyurl.com/5na6r

by Bob Burnett

Common Dreams

03/22/05

Has the Iraqi war been worth it? Only if you believe that the ends justify the means. Iraq has become America's continuing moral nightmare. America has lost the battle for the hearts and minds of Saddam's former subjects, and the vast majority of those in the Middle East. We've had two years of torture and America's heart will never be the same...

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0322-30.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

03/19/05

Outside Kabul, Afghanistan is bleaker, its provinces more inaccessible and lawless, than it was under the Taliban. If anyone leaves town, they do so in convoys. Afghanistan is a place where it is easy for people to disappear and perilous for anyone to investigate their fate. Even a seasoned aid agency such as Médécins Sans Frontières was forced to quit after five staff members were murdered last June. Only the 17,000-strong US forces, with their all-terrain Humvees and Apache attack helicopters, have the run of the land, and they have used the haze of fear and uncertainty that has engulfed the country to advance a draconian phase in the war against terror. Afghanistan has become the new Guantánamo Bay...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1440836,00.html

from Guardian [UK], by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

03/20/05

According to Congress, investigating whether Mark McGwire was pumped up with steroids when he made baseball home run history is a question of vital public concern. But what the CIA and our military are doing to prisoners during overseas interrogations, well, that doesn't merit the same interest. After all, what's at stake isn't our national pastime, it's only our national soul. As human rights groups continue to compile evidence that prisoners held under U.S. control have been brutalized, and as new reports emerge that at least 26 prisoners have died at the hands of our military or intelligence services, Congress twiddles its thumbs...

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/03/20/Columns/Congress_drops_ball_o.shtml

from St. Petersburg Times, by Robin Blumner


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp