An Iraqi inmate who died at a US detention camp was hit by several marines, including a sergeant accused of kicking him in the chest, a court heard...

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3409760


From Information Clearing House

USA Today

08/25/04

Twenty-seven members of an intelligence unit at Abu Ghraib prison either requested or condoned certain abuses of Iraqi prisoners there, an Army investigation found. 'We discovered serious misconduct and a loss of moral values,' said Gen. Paul Kern, the head of the investigation, while briefing reporters at the Pentagon. Kern and other officials on Wednesday detailed the results of the investigation, commonly called the Fay report, after one of the chief investigators...

http://tinyurl.com/63mst


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

August 25, 2004

An independent investigative panel led by former Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger and including another former defense secretary, Harold Brown, found that current Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is at least partially responsible for the torture that occurred in the Abu Ghraib prison between October and December 2003. Calling the 300 alleged instance of abuse "brutality and purposeless sadism," the panel blamed the entire chain of top-level generals and military officials, including Rumsfeld, Gen. Tommy Franks and Gen. John P. Abizaid. "The aberrant behavior on the night shift in Cell Block 1 at Abu Ghraib would have been avoided with proper training, leadership and oversight," the report reads.

SEE THE DOCUMENT:
http://www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/abughraibrpt.pdf

Source: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/brutality_and_purposeless_sadism.php

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0823-03.htm


Guantanamo Farce:

The U.S. criminal justice system, including its military stepchild, is supposed to stand for due process, impartiality and openness. These are the same principles, after all, that U.S. troops are fighting - and dying - to seed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090304E.shtml

Seattle Times

08/24/04

The blame for abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison lies mainly with the American soldiers who ran the notorious jail, but senior commanders and top-level Pentagon officials including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld can be faulted for failed leadership and oversight, an independent commission said Tuesday. 'There was chaos at Abu Ghraib,' said James R. Schlesinger, who headed the four-person commission appointed by Rumsfeld...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/APWires/headlines/D84LVPLO0.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Ahmed Janabi / Al Jazeera

August 19, 2004 -- Dr Muthana al-Dhari, editor-in-chief of al-Basaer newspaper and media officer of the Association of Muslim Scholars recounts his abduction by US forces: "They handcuffed us and blindfolded us and put us in a military vehicle. We spent the whole night sitting on a chair. The food was terrible, some cheap soup, a piece of mandarin, and dry biscuits. They asked why we hate them? I told them that we do not hate the American people, they are welcomed as tourists, traders…etc., but not as occupiers…. CIA officers have not a clue about what they are doing. Their questions … indicated serious ignorance of the Iraqi scene. Some of them … are very angry at George Bush. But … some (US soldiers) are just thieves. They stole my agenda and wrist watch in front of my eyes."

http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=86430:740526

Reuters

KABUL (August 22, 2004) -- A UN human rights expert criticized US military authorities in Afghanistan on Saturday for barring him from visiting detention centers, and he described one Kabul prison he did visit as "inhuman." The lack of transparency "raises serious concerns about the legality of detention and conditions of those detainees," M. Cherif Bassiouni said. Former prisoners have said they were tortured and abused while in US custody in Afghanistan.

http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=86422:740526

Steven H. Miles / The Lancet

August 21st, 2004 -- The complicity of US military medical personnel during abuses of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay is of great importance to human rights, medical ethics, and military medicine. Government documents show that the US military medical system failed to protect detainees' human rights, sometimes collaborated with interrogators or abusive guards, and failed to properly report injuries or deaths caused by beatings. An inquiry into the behavior of medical personnel in places such as Abu Ghraib could lead to valuable reforms within military medicine.

http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=86419:740526
or:
http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=86420:740526