Torture brought America more enemies
- From: "Faris Jawad" <ana_faris_bila_jawad@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005 09:07:13 -0400
Torture brought America more enemies
9/28/2005 9:00:00 AM GMT
Following the massive worldwide demonstrations in which thousands of
anti-war activists took part, denouncing Iraq War, the U.S.-based human
rights organization, Human Rights Watch, (HRW), issued an embarrassing
report about torture and abuse by the American Army of prisoners in the "War
on Terror."
More than a year ago, reports and appalling photographs emerged depicting
numerous instances of abuse and torture of prisoners in Iraq's Abu Ghraib
prison, by U.S. military personnel, CIA officers and contractors involved in
the occupation of Iraq, beginning in 2003.
What makes the HRW report significant is:
First that it contradicts the myth that the torture that took place at Abu
Ghraib jail outside the Iraqi capital, was just acts of "an isolated unit".
And second that it allows us to hear testimony, not of ex-prisoners but of
American soldiers.
The abusive interrogation techniques and torturing detainees as stated a
captain and two sergeants who confided in HRW are not new: they were used in
other U.S.-run prisons in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
Investigations by numerous American NGO's and Western media prove, since Abu
Ghraib Abuse scandal broke out in April, 2004, that those brutal and
humiliating tactics were systematic practices. Investigations also uncovered
several cases of the [non-judicial] execution of prisoners.
Army investigation concluded that the U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib were not
trained at all in Geneva Convention rules, most of them were reservists,
part-time soldiers who didn't get the kind of specialized prisoner of war
training given to regular Army members.
Instead of issuing a satisfactory response to the scandal that has indeed
tarnished the U.S. image worldwide, Bush's admin claimed that military units
responsibles for the abuse and torture of Iraq detainees at Abu Ghraib were
acting on their own and haven't received orders from the army or the
intelligence services.
With soldier Lynndie England, who appeared in several photographs standing
with naked detainees at Abu Ghraib jail, found guilty of abusing prisoners
in Iraq, will the American public accept the official story they were given
about the abuse scandal?"
The American pacifist movement has not yet seized on these questions. It's
attention was mostly focused on Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son, Casey in
Iraq war. As is often in war, it is difficult to listen to the other side,
the "enemy."
While authorizing its military to commit "serious violations of the laws of
the war," international law, such as "torture" or "inhumane treatment" of
prisoners and "war crimes" - the United States placed itself in a position
of illegality in the service of the cause that they allege to defend:
freedom, justice and democracy.
The death or torture of every Afghan of Iraqi and precisely because the
United States claims to be a "democratic country", is a defeat for America
and whoever defends the values and morals for which it claims to stand for.
Using torture and abuse limits Washington's chances to win its wars, because
for each Iraqi prisoner killed, for each horrifying image of Abu Ghraib or
Guantanamo, ten fighters rise against the United States.
Source: Watching America
http://islamonline.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=9587
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