An Army general who visited Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq last fall complained that the military was violating international war standards by incarcerating common criminals along with insurgents...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-06-01-prison-abuse_x.htm


From Information Clearing House

Shocking footage of US military conduct in Iraq is available through major news services, yet the American public seldom sees what reporters see...

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6269.htm

Blair must answer fully to all the evidence of abuse by British troops

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1228581,00.html


From Information Clearing House

06/01/04

Power and Interest News Report

by Michael A. Weinstein

Whether or not the abasement rituals were a matter of explicit or suggestive policy, they occurred within an environment of dismissive negligence. Treatment of prisoners according to international standards was not a top priority of military leaders and bureaucratic defense intellectuals who conceived and have managed the occupation of Iraq. Regarding the consequences of their neglect of their own power and interests, the leaders were short-sighted. The 'scandal' of Abu Ghraib -- as it is now called most frequently in the press -- is one of the many failures of the occupation. Those failures -- most notably, the appearance of Sunni and Shi'a resistances, general insecurity and poor public services, and the lack of legitimacy of the governing authorities -- can be traced to a fundamental miscalculation of power."

Read further under:
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=175


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

06/02/04

Christian Science Monitor

by Helena Cobban

"It is good that Congress and the military are seriously investigating
past abuses at Abu Ghraib and other US-run detention centers around the world. However, simply investigating past abuses isn't enough. Beyond that, President Bush and Congress need to declare -- and then verifiably implement -- a policy of zero tolerance for torture. There are a number of reasons such clear, high-level leadership is needed on this issue."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0602/p09s02-coop.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Armed Services chairman John Warner is determined to get to the bottom of the Abu Ghraib scandal -- even if it costs George W. Bush the election...

Read further under:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/06/02/john_warner/index_np.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Aggressive Verhörtechniken werden in der US-Armee seit Jahrzehnten gelehrt - die Folterbilder aus Irak erinnern beispielsweise an die Anleitung des "Kubark-Handbuchs" von 1963...

Weiter unter:
http://www.telepolis.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/co/17553/1.html

By ALFRED W. McCOY

The photos from Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison are snapshots, not of simple brutality or a breakdown in discipline, but of CIA torture techniques that have metastasized, over the past 50 years, like an undetected cancer inside the US intelligence community.

From 1950 to 1962, the CIA led massive, secret research into coercion and consciousness that reached a billion dollars at peak. After experiments with hallucinogenic drugs, electric shocks, and sensory deprivation, this CIA research produced a new method of torture that was psychological, not physical--best described as "no touch torture."

Read further under:
http://www.counterpunch.org/mccoy05292004.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Iraq

"Everyone in the company from the commander down" knew what was going on in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, said Lyndie England, an American soldier, famed by her villainous photo appearances, laughing and smoking beside naked male Iraqis.

According to a Los Angeles Times report, citing soldiers' testimonies, the CIA, military intelligence and army commanders were all involved in the making of the Abu Ghraib torture gala. Sgt. Javal Davis, one of the seven members of the 372nd Military Police Company -- one of the few designated scapegoats for the crime of torture of Iraqi prisoners -- described the death of an Iraqi man, interrogated with a sandbag covering his head. "He wasn't dead at first. We didn't know how much he was injured. He went into the showers -- where prisoners were stripped naked and shackled into the wall -- and about an hour later he died on them. After he passed [away], the sandbag was removed and I saw he was severely beaten on his face." And while England's lover would "stitch up detainees" himself to "take picture of his work," photos of tortured Iraqi prisoners were "shown to everyone who wanted to see them."

Read further under:

http://www.yellowtimes.org/article.php?sid=1954


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp