So, what do we mean by American torture? |
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Here are excerpts from a few official documents and articles that should convince you that Abu Graib was not an isolated instance, but an outgrowth of official U.S. policy: From FBI internal memos (recently released to the ACLU via Freedom of Information Act) June 25, 2004 - “REDACTED observed numerous physical abuse incidents of Iraqi civilian detainees conducted in REDACTED Iraq. He described that such abuses included strangulation, beatings, placement of lit cigarettes into the detainees ear openings, and unauthorized interrogations” July 23, 2004 - “I did observe treatment that was not only aggressive, but personally very upsetting, although I can't say that this treatment was perpetrated by Bureau employees. It seemed that these techniques were being employed by the military, government contract employees and REDACTED.” Aug 8, 2004 - “Here is a brief summary of what I observed at GTMO (Guantanamo). On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand a foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food, or water. Most times they had urinated or defecated on themselves and had been left there for 18 24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold. . . . On another occasion, the A/C had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room probably well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his own hair out throughout the night. . .
Torture in Iraq Still Routine, Report SaysBy Doug Struck The Washington Post Tuesday 25 January 2005 BAGHDAD - Twenty months after Saddam Hussein's government was toppled and its torture chambers unlocked, Iraqis are again being routinely beaten, hung by their wrists and shocked with electrical wires, according to a report by a human rights organization. Iraqi police, jailers and intelligence agents, many of them holding the same jobs they had under Hussein, are "committing systematic torture and other abuses" of detainees, Human Rights Watch said in a report to be released Tuesday. The New Yorker - Issue of Feb-14-2005OUTSOURCING TORTURE The secret history of America’s “extraordinary rendition” program. Rendition is the C.I.A. practice of sending detainees to other countries known for using interrogation tactics that include excruciating torture. Since 9/11, it is a program that has expanded beyond recognition—becoming, according to a former C.I.A. official, “an abomination.”
NY TIMES BOOK REVIEW | 'THE TORTURE PAPERS' Following a Paper Trail to the Roots of Torture| Published: February 8, 2005 As one of its editors. Karen J. Greenberg, executive director of the Center on Law and Security at the New York University School of Law, observes, it leaves the reader with "a clear sense of the systematic decision to alter the use of methods of coercion and torture that lay outside of accepted and legal norms." The book is necessary, if grueling, reading for anyone interested in understanding the back story to those terrible photos from Saddam Hussein's former prison, and abuses at other American detention facilities. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• There is so much more out there. Just don’t look for it on television. The US government has begun to plan for the possible lifetime imprisonment of detainees it does not have enough evidence to charge in court, according to The Washington Post. We’ve created a horror show as sick as anything that Saddam Hussein could dream up, and we are now desperate to bury the mess.
DON’T LET THIS CONTINUE PLEASE MAKE YOURSELF HEARD WE CANNOT FIGHT THE ENEMY BY BECOMING THE ENEMY ACT ON YOUR CONSCIENCE, NOT ON YOUR FEAR
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