Fox News

06/22/04

President Bush claimed the right to waive anti-torture laws and treaties covering prisoners of war after the invasion of Afghanistan, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized guards to strip detainees and threaten them with dogs, according to documents released Tuesday. The documents were handed out at the White House in an effort to blunt allegations that the administration had authorized torture against Al Qaeda prisoners from Afghanistan and Iraq. 'I have never ordered torture,' Bush said a few hours before the release. The Justice Department, meanwhile, disavowed a memo written in 2002 that appeared to justify the use of torture in the war on terror. The memo also argued that the president's wartime powers superseded anti-torture laws and treaties...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,123419,00.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Iraqi doctors who treated Zoman shortly after his release confirmed there were point burns on his feet and hands, lash marks on his back, bruises on his arms and a blunt force injury to the back of his head...

http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=579&printmode=true


From Information Clearing House

Washington Times

06/22/04

Abu Ghraib prison scandal won the right yesterday to question top U.S. generals to bolster arguments that their clients were following orders in their treatment of inmates. ... The order, issued at pretrial hearings, compels Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Gen. John Abizaid, chief of the U.S. Central Command, to give depositions on polices and practices at the Abu Ghraib prison...

http://washingtontimes.com/world/20040621-103215-6621r.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Peter Dale Scott / Pacific News Service

The CIA, for one, has been using photographic documentation as part of its interrogation techniques for years, writes PNS contributor Peter Dale Scott. At least one Army official says the CIA helped set standards for treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib...

http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=85110:740526

Mercenaries

Spencer E. Ante and Stan Crock / Newsweek

The American public was shocked at news that privately owned companies were profiteering on the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. The shock continued when other private frims were implicated in the torture of prisoners. The private war-for-profit contractor biz is hot, vast, and largely unregulated. Is it out of control?...

http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=85102:740526

Raymond Whitaker, Andy McSmith and Andrew Johnson / Independent U.K.

A secret report from notorious Baghdad jail reveals beatings, rape and torture of captive Iraqi prisoners by US troops...

http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=85096:740526

Red Cross Accuses

Afsane Bassir Pour / Le Monde

The International Committee for the Red Cross has known for a long time that horrific abuses were taking place inside Iraqi prisons under the control of the US but Washington refused to respond to the concerns. Meanwhile, Washington's "persistent" refusal to respect the Geneva conventions on POWs has lead the ICRC to declare the detention facilities at Guantanamo "illegal" under world law...

http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=85087:740526

Reuters

Returning troops have begun to reveal the extent of the abuses inside US military prisons in Iraq -- abuses that appear to rival in kind (if not in scale) the crimes of Saddam Hussein. "It was not just these six people," one soldier declared. The abuse of captives was long-standing and widely tolerated...

http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=85081:740526

Luke Harding / The Guardian

While the focus has been on the abuse of men, there is growing evidence that US troops have humiliated and sexually abused women, girls and boys detained inside Abu Ghraib. This story contains links to other reports documenting US torture and abuse of detainees, many of whom are reportedly innocent of criminal activities...

http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/t.pl?id=85066:740526