The Navy said Friday it has filed assault and other criminal charges against three more of its elite SEAL commandos in connection with probes of prisoner abuse in Iraq. The three, whose names were not released, are in addition to four SEALs charged Sept. 2 with assault and other alleged offenses in connection with the death of a prisoner last November.

At the time of the reported abuse, all seven were members of a Sea-Air-Land, or SEAL, unit known as SEAL Team-7, a counterterrorist group that sometimes operated in Iraq with CIA officers. It is based at Coronado, Calif., and reports to the Naval Special Warfare Command in San Diego.

http://makeashorterlink.com/?K2E424269

If we’re proud of the war on terror, we have to be proud of Jack Idema and his private torture chamber...

http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=


From Information Clearing House

To nobodies surprise I guess...the order had to have come from above

Ace


Abuse, Torture and Rape Reported at Unlisted U.S.-run Prisons in Iraq
by Lisa Ashkenaz Croke (bio)

http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=1029

PHOTOS AND VIDEOS FROM INSIDE NEW YORK'S PIER 57 DETENTION CENTER

by Jacob Richards and Connie Murillo

The Memory Hole

http://www.thememoryhole.org/policestate/pier57/

On 31 August 2004, during the Republican National Convention in New York City, around 1,200 people were arrested and sent to a makeshift detention/processing center, which used to house city buses, at Pier 57. (Over 1,800 were arrested during the entire RNC.)

Images from inside the facility are rare. The photos and videos featured here come from Jacob Richards and Connie Murillo, who were arrested that day. A couple of these photos were posted to NYC Indymedia, but Richards and Murillo have kindly allowed The Memory Hole to post more photos and several videos. Regarding how the images were taken and smuggled out, they write:

"It was a Sony digital camera. We were arrested around 10pm on 17th street around 5th ave, on Tuesday, August 31st. Pier 57 was a zoo. The degree of search depended on what officer you got. Some were thorough, some were not. The camera remained in my pocket through the first search before entering the large cage. Once in there, we were searched again. This time, I handed my camera and wallet to someone who had already been searched. I got it back after the second search and took what pictures and film I could. I was worried about getting the camera confiscated, so quality suffered, plus it's a little hard to take pictures with my hands still in cuffs behind my back. (Jacob's cuffs were later removed and he took some over head shots.)

During various searches while in Pier 57 and central booking, several friends helped by holding the memory card, which I removed from the camera (that later got confiscated). Most of the time it just stayed in my pocket."

http://www.thememoryhole.org/policestate/pier57/


Informant: NHNE

According to the new web site, The News Standard, "American legal investigators have discovered evidence of abuse, torture and rape throughout the US-run prison system in Iraq. A Michigan legal team meeting with former detainees in Baghdad during an August fact-finding mission gathered evidence supporting claims of prisoner abuse at some 25 US-run detention centers, most of them so far not publicly mentioned as being embroiled in the Iraq torture scandal."

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/NewsArticle.cfm?ID=2064

"American interrogators have tortured at least five prisoners to death." And from what we know, Mr. Schlesinger's figures, if anything, substantially understate the case.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17430


From Information Clearing House

Sydney Morning Herald [Australia]

09/15/04

A British lawyer said he had uncovered evidence that US troops mistreated detainees in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, suggesting abuse had spread far beyond the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. Phil Shiner sent Reuters statements by two Iraqis who said they were hooded, stripped naked, beaten and doused with cold water at lengthy torture sessions in a place called 'the disco' because of loud Western music constantly blasted at detainees. One said he had seen a 14-year-old boy bleeding from his anus. The other said he was threatened with sexual assault. The allegations appear to be the first reports of abuse in Mosul. Washington has acknowledged detainees were abused at Abu Ghraib, and Shiner is leading a case on behalf of Iraqis who say they were mistreated by British forces in Basra...

http://tinyurl.com/5yml3


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Allegations that American soldiers routinely tortured and maltreated detainees have emerged from a third Iraqi city, renewing fears that abuse similar to that inflicted in Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad has been systematic and widespread.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1304042,00.html


From Information Clearing House