Rummy's Diaries

personal note

2007-01-31T10:51:00.000+11:00

A few people have contacted me wondering where I am. I'm sorry. I must confess that my motives for neglecting my blog are entirely selfish. I can't help but take human rights abuse "personally". The revelation that I am a citizen of a country involved in this, a country for which up to two-thirds of the citizens approve of it, has been the dark night of my soul. I honestly thought that letting everyone know that this was happening was all that was needed, but now I see that the problem runs much deeper than that, and may be fundamental to human nature itself. The size of the problem has overwhelmed me.

I need some time to recoup. I need to find that place again where this knowledge gives me the will to fight, rather than sapping it away in a morass of depression and fatalism. Please give me some more time. I wish to get back to it more than anything, but I am no good to anyone without the right frame of mind. Know that I am doing everything that I can to overcome my limitations.

Short break

2006-07-12T07:45:00.000+10:00

Rummy's Diaries will be taking a short break for the next month, but that doesn't mean that nothing's happening. Check out the collaborative project Bloggers Against Torture to see where all the action is, and please feel welcome join in.

Would you like this on your blog?

2006-05-20T14:38:00.000+10:00

We're starting a Bloggers Against Torture blogroll alliance here

Next month is Torture Awareness Month. To help NGOs like Amnesty and Human Right First with their campaign, I've created a blogroll called Bloggers Against Torture. To add yourselves to the blogroll, all you need to do is help promote Torture Awareness Month by mentioning it on your blog. You can simply talk about it, you can use the graphic and link above, or you can grab the blogroll script from Bloggers Against Torture for some reciprocal linking goodness.

Latest updates

2006-04-14T23:03:00.000+10:00

Happy Easter!

As this is when Christians the world over remember that Jesus was tortured to death for their sins, I thought it would be a good time to finally get around to two cases from the US detention facility at Bagram:

11-2002: Habibullah tortured to death (which, despite the title, is actually a fairly uplifting story), and
12-2002: Dilawar tortured to death, which includes a timeline revealing the initial cover-up of the two deaths.

For those following pre-Christian traditions in the Northern Hemisphere, Easter and the symbols of the egg and the bunny represent spring and renewal. With that tenuous connection, the following old posts have been updated:

09-2003: Mousa dies in British custody, to add details of how he was murdered, and to note that colonel charged with overseeing the troops who killed him is being promoted.
08-2002: Memo, Bybee: a narrow definition of torture, to note an American Republican Congressperson expressing moral concerns about the memo.
11-2003: Death in custody, Mowhoush, to add details about how he was murdered, and to note that the Chief Warrant Officer escaped the murder charge, and instead a panel of six Army officers convicted him of negligent homicide and negligent dereliction of duty.
04-2002: Benyam Mohammed renditioned, to add the detail that Mohammed's torture (scalpel cuts to the genitalia) led him to falsely confess to being in league with Jose Padilla, whom he'd actually never met.
11-2001: Tipton Three detained, to note that their torture led to them making a false confession, and to provide a link to a doco on their story.
01-2002: Arar, CCR, sues Ashcroft, to note that their case was dismissed.
04-2005: Passaro case, to note that Passaro will be allowed to present evidence that he was following orders when he interrogated an Afghan detainee to death.
12-2005: CPT hostages killed unless detainees freed, which now notes that Tom Fox was murdered, and the rest rescued, and that some American Republicans used the incident to make a political point.
01-2006: Carrol killed unless female Iraqi detainees freed, to note that she was released unharmed, and to observe that some American Republicans continued a recent theme by attacking Carrol's motives and questioned whether she really was kidnapped.

The following posts are new:

13 April 2006: Stolen US military flash drives includes torture photographs
14 October 2005: Dossari suicide attempts, with an update noting that he tried again recently, and his lawyers are having difficulty finding out if he's still alive
15 May 2004: Investigations into Afghan detention facilities reveal one murder, four deaths, and eight beaten.
07 September 2002: Abuse at Kandahar Detainee Facility

Stolen US military flash drives include torture photographs

2006-04-13T22:54:00.000+10:00

Today MSNBC will report on stolen US military flash drives being sold in a bazaar outside Bagram Airport. Bagram is a site at which US forces have commited numerous tortures and abuses against detainees (see third group of bullet points).

Among the photos of Americans are pictures of individuals who appear to have been tortured and killed, most too graphic to show. NBC News does not know who caused their injuries. The Pentagon would not comment on the photos.

(This entry concerns a current event, and will be updated)

Latest updates

2006-03-12T08:51:00.000+11:00

Latest updates:

03 March 2006: 3/4 Baghdad morgue deliveries executions, often tortured first
28 Feb 2006: Grievances fuelling insurgency
20 Feb 2006: Iran's Minister of Defence scores rhetorical points against US
17 February 2006: Washington Post on Iraqi sectarian violence
15 February 2006: Torture strengthens insurgency
08 February 2006: Republicans in house committee vote down torture investigation
05 February 2006: CIA chief fired for opposing torture
01 Feb 2006: Creating terrorists
24 January 2006: German hostages in orange overalls
08 December 2005: Marine tells of US torturing Afghans, commits murder-suicide
18 November 2005: Hamra bombing retaliation against Interior Ministry torture
27 September 2004: Evidence against prisoners at GTMO obtained by torturing other prisoners
04 March 2002: Incident: Kiyemba

Please direct comments to entries themselves, as this post will be deleted with the next update.

3/4 Baghdad morgue deliveries executions, often tortured first

2006-03-03T08:06:00.000+11:00

Today The Washington Post will quote former UN human rights chief for Iraq, John Pace, saying that between two-thirds and three-fourths of the victims brought to Baghdad's main morgue are recorded as casualties of gunshot wounds. Nearly all showed signs of having been executed, tortured or both.

The statistics of deaths and causes of death in Iraq are not without politicisation and controversy. Regarding other estimates by the Washington Post

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari said on Tuesday that 379 people had been killed since Feb. 22, and he described as inaccurate and exaggerated a Washington Post report that put the death toll at 1,300.
The acting director of the morgue, Qais Hassan, also denied The Post's figure... Hassan began running the morgue when the director, Faik Bakir, fled the country a few months ago after being threatened over the release of morgue information seen as linking many killings to death squads...

Further reading, opinions and commentary:

Grievances fuelling insurgency

2006-02-28T07:58:00.000+11:00

Today Knight Ridder will report on a National Intelligence Estimate completed in October 2003. According to the article

[the National Intelligence Estimate] concluded that the insurgency was fueled by local conditions - not foreign terrorists- and drew strength from deep grievances, including the presence of U.S. troops.

Iran's Minister of Defence scores rhetorical points against US

2006-02-20T07:56:00.000+11:00

Today Iran's Minister of Defence, Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, will make a speech at the first nationwide gathering on the goals of the Ministry (source). In that speech he will use US human rights abuse as a rhetorical device to criticise the US Administration. He is quoted as saying

the human rights favored by US President George Bush are based on clandestine cells, torture, terror, wire tapping of American civilians, sacrilege to religious sanctities, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and attack on civilians.
It is among the wonders of the 21st century that the US administration with its black record of activities claim leadership of the world towards democracy and human rights...
The US disgrace due to its crimes in Abu Ghraib prison indicates that the US administration has no respect for the most basic principles of human rights ... the US through such shameful acts has been completely isolated and hated in the world.

Washington Post on Iraqi sectarian violence

2006-02-17T07:52:00.000+11:00

Today Nelson Hernandez and Bassam Sebti of the Washington Post will write an article with the cautious title Apparent Death Squad Is Linked to Iraqi Ministry (another copy here). It will contain the following statement

The [arrest of 22 members of a death squad] is the first hard evidence to support the widely held suspicion among Sunni Arabs that vigilantes in the country's Shiite-dominated police force are rounding up Sunnis and killing them.

Australian viewers -- Dateline tonight

2006-02-15T09:47:00.000+11:00

According to today's Sydney Morning Herald:

MORE photographs have been leaked of Iraqi citizens tortured by US soldiers at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.
Tonight the SBS Dateline program plans to broadcast about 60 previously unpublished photographs that the US Government has been fighting to keep secret in a court case with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Other countries might want to check the Dateline website for transcripts.

From mparent7777's livejournal blog called Crimes and Corruption of the New World Order, this is one of 6 photos said to be from the new set. The rest of can be found here.

Torture strengthens insurgency

2006-02-15T08:08:00.000+11:00

Today the International Crisis Group will release Middle East Report No. 50 called In their own words: Reading the Iraqi insurgency. The objective of the report is to help the US defeat the insurgency by winning hearts and minds, which means understanding how the insurgency gains its legitimacy and delegitimises the occupation (page 4).

As U.S. officials repeatedly have acknowledged, this war will not be won on the battlefield, at least not on the battlefield alone. All three principal actors have been hobbled by non-military factors: the U.S. by the collapse of its legitimacy in Iraqi eyes and by growing scepticism at home; its Iraqi allies by a credibility deficit; and the insurgency by accusations of sectarianism and resort to ghastly methods. Perceptions, in others words, will play a critical part in the conflicts outcome. Prevailing in this arena requires, at a minimum, taking seriously what the armed opposition says, understanding how it resonates and why, and addressing the legitimate grievances it expresses.

The executive summary states that respect for human rights is key to countering negative perceptions about the occupation

Countering the insurgency requires taking its discourse seriously, reducing its legitimacy and increasing that of the Iraqi government. The harm from excessive use of force, torture, tactics that inflict widespread civilian injury and reliance on sectarian militias outweighs any military gain. It is essential for the U.S. to hold the new government accountable and make clear that long-term relations, economic aid and military cooperation depend on disbanding militias, halting political killings and respecting human rights.

In the body, the report describes the insurgency's tactic of legitimising the occupation

Mirroring the coalitions own accusations, the insurgency repeatedly charges its enemies with waging a dirty war in which U.S. forces engage in heavy military assaults while subcontracting torture and forced disappearances to local allies.[174] These include the Badr Corps, the Saqr and Dhib police commandos and the national guards.[175] The U.S. is condemned for relying on sectarian-based death squads and turning a blind eye to numerous crimes committed against Sunni Arabs in general.[176]

Consequently, of the 6 recommendations made at the end of the report (page 26), 4 of them relate to ending human rights abuses by the Coalition and its Iraqi allies. They are

closely monitoring, controlling and, if necessary, punishing, the behaviour of security forces;
halting recourse to the most questionable types of practices, including torture and extraordinary methods of interrogation and confinement, collective punishment and extra-judicial killings;
ending the use of sectarian militias as a complement to, or substitute for, regular armed forces and beginning a serious process of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) of militia fighters;
the U.S. holding the new government accountable and making clear that longer-term relations, economic assistance and future military cooperation will depend on the steps it takes to rein in and ultimately disband militias, halt politically-motivated killings and respect human rights and the rule of law;

Further reading, opinions and commentary:

The Truth about Iraqis, 15 February 2006, 'ICG: Iraqi resistance appears confident'

[174] In October 2005, al-Jaysh al-Islami devoted a special edition of al-Fursan to the alleged massacre in al-Iskan, a Sunni neighbourhood of Baghdad. The article included details of an alleged joint operation of Interior Ministry forces and the Badr Corps on 11 August 2005. Insurgents claimed there were mass detentions, and they later uncovered near the Iranian border the desecrated bodies of those who had been arrested. Numerous videos purporting to document such crimes have been released by Jaysh Ansar al-Sunna and Tandhim al-Qaida.

[175] The Badr Corps regularly is dubbed the Ghadr Corps (meaning perfidious, traitorous, insidious); the National Guard (al-Haras al-Watani) is called the Pagan Guard (al-Haras al- Wathani).

[176] See Jaysh Ansar al-Sunna communiqué, 12 August 2005, alleging that the Badr Corps had engaged in atrocities with U.S. blessing. The insurgents claims undeniably have been served by actions undertaken by the Coalition and its allies. A forthcoming Crisis Group report will examine these actions in more detail.

Republicans in house committee vote down torture investigation

2006-02-08T07:53:00.000+11:00

Today the vote on three resolutions seeking information about Administration torture policies will be reported. The resolutions demanded

Information on a practice that has been called extraordinary rendition, or sending suspects abroad to countries where they would allegedly be tortured for information.
Documents about U.S. policies regarding U.N. anti-torture conventions.
Documents and records involving Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's December trip to Europe, during which she was dogged by reports of alleged secret European jails.

It will be defeated by the Republican Party on almost straight party lines.

CIA chief fired for opposing torture

2006-02-05T08:05:00.000+11:00

This week Robert Grenier, head of the CIA counter-terrorism centre, will be fired. Vincent Cannistraro, a former head of counter-terrorism at the agency, will tell the Sunday Times that the reason for the firing was that Grenier "expressed misgivings about the secret prisons in Europe and the rendition of terrorists." Head of the CIA Poter Goss is also believed to have blamed Grenier for allowing leaks to the press about "black sites" in Europe on his watch.

Creating terrorists

2006-02-01T08:03:00.000+11:00

Today the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff signed a new classified counterterrorism. Included in the strategy is an order to the military to focus on terrorist information-gathering systems, personnel and ideology. The strategy will be reported on in the New York Times.

The document is unusual for admitting the negative impact military actions can have

"The way we conduct operations choosing whether, when, where and how can affect ideological support for terrorism. Knowledge of indigenous population's cultural and religious sensitivities and understanding of how the enemy uses the U.S. military's actions against us should inform the way the U.S. military operates."
That has been clear in the situations ranging from disgrace suffered by the United States after revelations of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib to instances when Arab media emphasized pictures of crosses or rosaries hung from artillery tubes by American soldiers. Such photographs were used to argue that the counterterrorism effort was a war on Islam. Pentagon officials involved in writing the strategy point out that the American military's efforts to aid tsunami victims in southeast Asia and to assist victims of Pakistan's earthquake did more to counter terrorist ideology than any attack mission.

The NYT quotes one senior Pentagon official involved in writing the strategy as saying that the Defense Department had identified more than 30 new terrorist organizations affiliated with Al Qaeda that had sprung to life since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

German hostages in orange overalls

2006-01-24T07:50:00.000+11:00

Today two German engineers, Rene Braeunlich and Thomas Nitzschke, will be abducted outside their workplace in the industrial town of Baiji, 180km north of Baghdad. According to news reports, Al Arabiya will air a hostage video of them dressed in orange overalls, the kind associated with Muslims detained at Guantanamo Bay. Hostage takers Ansar al-Tawhid Wa-Sunna will threaten to kill the men unless Germany ends its cooperation with the Iraq government and closes its mission in Baghdad, and German firms stop their dealings there.

Osama tape mentions US torture

2006-01-19T20:28:00.000+11:00

Today al-Jazeera will air an audio tape of a speech by Osama Bin Laden addressed to the people of the United States of America (BBC transcript). In it, he will refer to the US government's torture policy (links to what he's referring to have been added)

Jihad is continuing, praise be to God, despite all the repressive measures the US army and its agents take to the point where there is no significant difference between these crimes and those of Saddam.
These crimes include the raping of women and taking them hostage instead of their husbands. There is no power but in God.
The torturing of men has reached the point of using chemical acids [victims found with peeling skin?] and electric drills in their joints. If they become desperate with them, they put the drill on their heads until death.
If you like, read the humanitarian reports on the atrocities and crimes in the prisons of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.
I say that despite all the barbaric methods, they have failed to ease resistance, and the number of mujahideen, praise be to God, is increasing.

He will also misquote `Rogue State' by William Blum (actually the quote is from `Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire' by the same) to express the response he wants from the American people

If Bush declines but to continue lying and practicing injustice [against us], it is useful for you to read the book of "The Rogue State", the introduction of which reads: If I were a president, I would halt the operations against the United States.
First, I will extend my apologies to the widows, orphans, and the persons who were tortured. Afterwards, I will announce that the US interference in the world's countries has ended for ever.

As a curious side-note, `Rogue State' has jumped from No. 209,000 to No. 30 on the Amazon.com sales list (source).

Carroll killed unless female Iraqi prisoners released

2006-01-10T20:30:00.000+11:00

Today Time will be the first to report on the kidnap of freelancer journalist Jill Carroll, Al Jazeera will air a brief video of her from the hostage-takers.

In an accompanying statement, the hostage-takers will threaten to kill her within 72 hours unless female Iraqi prisoners held by the US are released. By many accounts Iraqi women have been raped while in US custody (e.g. (Selwa's case, what Saddam Selah saw while detained, the letter from "Noor" and the findings of the Taguba report, Saleh's observations while detained), which motivates extreme concern for their welfare when detained.

The abduction took place two days earlier, but was controversially kept quiet in a bid to win her release before her abductors discovered that she had worked for the Christian Science Monitor.

On 31 March, 2006, Jill Carrol will be released. In an initial interview, she will state that she was treated well and not harmed. Continuing a recent theme of making personal attacks against recently released hostages who disagree with the invasion of Iraqi, some American Republicans will subsequently question her mental stability, claim that she's a terrorist, and say that she was a willing participant in her kidnapping.

Suicide bombing of Interior Ministry retaliation for torture

2006-01-09T20:33:00.000+11:00

Today, on Iraq's National Police Day, two suicide bombers disguised as police will infiltrated the heavily fortified Interior Ministry compound in Baghdad and blow themselves up killing 29.

An Internet site known for publishing extremist material from Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi carried a claim of responsibility for yesterday's suicide attack, saying it was in revenge for the torture of Sunni Arab prisoners at two detention facilities run by the Shi'ite-led Interior Ministry.

Bush sidesteps McCain amendment

2005-12-30T20:15:00.000+11:00

Despite strong opposition from the Bush Administration, late last year, congress voted 90-9 in favour of an amendment to prohibit the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" against anyone in U.S. government custody.

Shortly after signing the legislation into law today, Bush will email out an accompanying "signing statement". Specifically, the statement will say that the administration would interpret the amendment "in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the president to supervise the unitary executive branch and as commander in chief and consistent with the constitutional limitations on judicial power." Democrats and some Republicans say assert that this implies that he could ignore the law if he wished.

Senator McCain, sponsor of the amendment, issued a strong statement rejecting Mr. Bush's assertion, even as the White House has repeatedly declined to say what the president meant. These actions will be met with cynicism by commenters (e.g. cartoon below).

Ted Rall cartoon in response to today's events.

(Sources: International Herald Tribune, New York Times. Hat tip to Bush Out and to Ted Rall.)

Bloggers defy UK gag order on info about complicity in Uzbek torture

2005-12-30T13:06:00.000+11:00

[The following post is a mirror of this page on Craig Murray's website. It is being reposted here in solidarity with this group, who are defying a gag-order on these documents. Readers pleased be advised before linking to this post or reproducing this information that the govt does not want these documents made public, and if too few people participate, may take legal action against those who do.]

Constituent: "This question is for Mr Straw; Have you ever read any documents where the intelligence has been procured through torturous means?"
Jack Straw: "Not to the best of my knowledge... let me make this clear... the British government does not support torture in any circumstances. Full stop. We do not support the obtaining of intelligence by torture, or its use."
-- Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, election hustings, Blackburn, April 2005

I was summoned to the UK for a meeting on 8 March 2003. Michael Wood gave his legal opinion that it was not illegal to obtain and to use intelligence acquired by torture... On behalf of the intelligence services, Matthew Kydd said that they found some of the material very useful indeed with a direct bearing on the war on terror. Linda Duffield said that she had been asked to assure me that my qualms of conscience were respected and understood.
--Ambassador Craig Murray, memo to the Foreign Office, July 2004

With Tony Blair and Jack Straw cornered on extraordinary rendition, the UK government is particularly anxious to suppress all evidence of our complicity in obtaining intelligence extracted by foreign torturers. The British Foreign Office is now seeking to block publication of Craig Murray's forthcoming book, which documents his time as Ambassador to Uzbekistan. The Foreign Office has demanded that Craig Murray remove all references to two especially damning British government documents, indicating that our government was knowingly receiving information extracted by the Uzbeks through torture, and return every copy that he has in his possession.

Craig Murray is refusing to do this. Instead, the documents are today being published simultaneously on blogs all around the world.

The first document contains the text of several telegrams that Craig Murray sent back to London from 2002 to 2004, warning that the information being passed on by the Uzbek security services was torture-tainted, and challenging MI6 claims that the information was nonetheless "useful".

The second document is the text of a legal opinion from the Foreign Office's Michael Wood, arguing that the use by intelligence services of information extracted through torture does not constitute a violation of the UN Convention Against Torture. Craig Murray says:

In March 2003 I was summoned back to London from Tashkent specifically for a meeting at which I was told to stop protesting. I was told specifically that it was perfectly legal for us to obtain and to use intelligence from the Uzbek torture chambers. After this meeting Sir Michael Wood, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's legal adviser, wrote to confirm this position. This minute from Michael Wood is perhaps the most important document that has become public about extraordinary rendition. It is irrefutable evidence of the government's use of torture material, and that I was attempting to stop it. It is no wonder that the government is trying to suppress this.

First document: Confidential letters from Uzbekistan

Letter #1 Confidential FM Tashkent
TO FCO, Cabinet Office, DFID, MODUK, OSCE Posts, Security Council Posts 16 September 02
SUBJECT: US/Uzbekistan: Promoting Terrorism

SUMMARY

US plays down human rights situation in Uzbekistan. A dangerous policy: increasing repression combined with poverty will promote Islamic terrorism. Support to Karimov regime a bankrupt and cynical policy.

DETAIL

The Economist of 7 September states: "Uzbekistan, in particular, has jailed many thousands of moderate Islamists, an excellent way of converting their families and friends to extremism." The Economist also spoke of "the growing despotism of Mr Karimov" and judged that "the past year has seen a further deterioration of an already grim human rights record". I agree.

Between 7,000 and 10,000 political and religious prisoners are currently detained, many after trials before kangaroo courts with no representation. Terrible torture is commonplace: the EU is currently considering a demarche over the terrible case of two Muslims tortured to death in jail apparently with boiling water. Two leading dissidents, Elena Urlaeva and Larissa Vdovna, were two weeks ago committed to a lunatic asylum, where they are being drugged, for demonstrating on human rights. Opposition political parties remain banned. There is no doubt that September 11 gave the pretext to crack down still harder on dissent under the guise of counter-terrorism.

Yet on 8 September the US State Department certified that Uzbekistan was improving in both human rights and democracy, thus fulfilling a constitutional requirement and allowing the continuing disbursement of $140 million of US aid to Uzbekistan this year. Human Rights Watch immediately published a commendably sober and balanced rebuttal of the State Department claim.

Again we are back in the area of the US accepting sham reform [a reference to my previous telegram on the economy]. In August media censorship was abolished, and theoretically there are independent media outlets, but in practice there is absolutely no criticism of President Karimov or the central government in any Uzbek media. State Department call this self-censorship: I am not sure that is a fair way to describe an unwillingness to experience the brutal methods of the security services.

Similarly, following US pressure when Karimov visited Washington, a human rights NGO has been permitted to register. This is an advance, but they have little impact given that no media are prepared to cover any of their activities or carry any of their statements.

The final improvement State quote is that in one case of murder of a prisoner the police involved have been prosecuted. That is an improvement, but again related to the Karimov visit and does not appear to presage a general change of policy. On the latest cases of torture deaths the Uzbeks have given the OSCE an incredible explanation, given the nature of the injuries, that the victims died in a fight between prisoners.

But allowing a single NGO, a token prosecution of police officers and a fake press freedom cannot possibly outweigh the huge scale of detentions, the torture and the secret executions. President Karimov has admitted to 100 executions a year but human rights groups believe there are more. Added to this, all opposition parties remain banned (the President got a 98% vote) and the Internet is strictly controlled. All Internet providers must go through a single government server and access is barred to many sites including all dissident and opposition sites and much international media (including, ironically, waronterrorism.com). This is in essence still a totalitarian state: there is far less freedom than still prevails, for example, in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. A Movement for Democratic Change or any judicial independence would be impossible here.

Karimov is a dictator who is committed to neither political nor economic reform. The purpose of his regime is not the development of his country but the diversion of economic rent to his oligarchic supporters through government controls. As a senior Uzbek academic told me privately, there is more repression here now than in Brezhnev's time. The US are trying to prop up Karimov economically and to justify this support they need to claim that a process of economic and political reform is underway. That they do so claim is either cynicism or self-delusion.

This policy is doomed to failure. Karimov is driving this resource-rich country towards economic ruin like an Abacha. And the policy of increasing repression aimed indiscriminately at pious Muslims, combined with a deepening poverty, is the most certain way to ensure continuing support for the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. They have certainly been decimated and disorganised in Afghanistan, and Karimov's repression may keep the lid on for years – but pressure is building and could ultimately explode.

I quite understand the interest of the US in strategic airbases and why they back Karimov, but I believe US policy is misconceived. In the short term it may help fight terrorism but in the medium term it will promote it, as the Economist points out. And it can never be right to lower our standards on human rights. There is a complex situation in Central Asia and it is wrong to look at it only through a prism picked up on September 12. Worst of all is what appears to be the philosophy underlying the current US view of Uzbekistan: that September 11 divided the World into two camps in the "War against Terrorism" and that Karimov is on "our" side.

If Karimov is on "our" side, then this war cannot be simply between the forces of good and evil. It must be about more complex things, like securing the long-term US military presence in Uzbekistan. I silently wept at the 11 September commemoration here. The right words on New York have all been said. But last week was also another anniversary – the US-led overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile. The subsequent dictatorship killed, dare I say it, rather more people than died on September 11. Should we not remember then also, and learn from that too? I fear that we are heading down the same path of US-sponsored dictatorship here. It is ironic that the beneficiary is perhaps the most unreformed of the World's old communist leaders.

We need to think much more deeply about Central Asia. It is easy to place Uzbekistan in the "too difficult" tray and let the US run with it, but I think they are running in the wrong direction. We should tell them of the dangers we see. Our policy is theoretically one of engagement, but in practice this has not meant much. Engagement makes sense, but it must mean grappling with the problems, not mute collaboration. We need to start actively to state a distinctive position on democracy and human rights, and press for a realistic view to be taken in the IMF. We should continue to resist pressures to start a bilateral DFID programme, unless channelled non-governmentally, and not restore ECGD cover despite the constant lobbying. We should not invite Karimov to the UK. We should step up our public diplomacy effort, stressing democratic values, including more resources from the British Council. We should increase support to human rights activists, and strive for contact with non-official Islamic groups.

Above all we need to care about the 22 million Uzbek people, suffering from poverty and lack of freedom. They are not just pawns in the new Great Game.

MURRAY

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Letter #2 Confidential Fm Tashkent
To FCO 18 March 2003
SUBJECT: US FOREIGN POLICY SUMMARY

1. As seen from Tashkent, US policy is not much focussed on democracy or freedom. It is about oil, gas and hegemony. In Uzbekistan the US pursues those ends through supporting a ruthless dictatorship. We must not close our eyes to uncomfortable truth.

DETAIL

2. Last year the US gave half a billion dollars in aid to Uzbekistan, about a quarter of it military aid. Bush and Powell repeatedly hail Karimov as a friend and ally. Yet this regime has at least seven thousand prisoners of conscience; it is a one party state without freedom of speech, without freedom of media, without freedom of movement, without freedom of assembly, without freedom of religion. It practices, systematically, the most hideous tortures on thousands. Most of the population live in conditions precisely analogous with medieval serfdom.

3. Uzbekistan's geo-strategic position is crucial. It has half the population of the whole of Central Asia. It alone borders all the other states in a region which is important to future Western oil and gas supplies. It is the regional military power. That is why the US is here, and here to stay. Contractors at the US military bases are extending the design life of the buildings from ten to twenty five years.

4. Democracy and human rights are, despite their protestations to the contrary, in practice a long way down the US agenda here. Aid this year will be slightly less, but there is no intention to introduce any meaningful conditionality. Nobody can believe this level of aid – more than US aid to all of West Africa – is related to comparative developmental need as opposed to political support for Karimov. While the US makes token and low-level references to human rights to appease domestic opinion, they view Karimov's vicious regime as a bastion against fundamentalism. He – and they – are in fact creating fundamentalism. When the US gives this much support to a regime that tortures people to death for having a beard or praying five times a day, is it any surprise that Muslims come to hate the West?

5. I was stunned to hear that the US had pressured the EU to withdraw a motion on Human Rights in Uzbekistan which the EU was tabling at the UN Commission for Human Rights in Geneva. I was most unhappy to find that we are helping the US in what I can only call this cover-up. I am saddened when the US constantly quote fake improvements in human rights in Uzbekistan, such as the abolition of censorship and Internet freedom, which quite simply have not happened (I see these are quoted in the draft EBRD strategy for Uzbekistan, again I understand at American urging).

6. From Tashkent it is difficult to agree that we and the US are activated by shared values. Here we have a brutal US sponsored dictatorship reminiscent of Central and South American policy under previous US Republican administrations. I watched George Bush talk today of Iraq and "dismantling the apparatus of terror… removing the torture chambers and the rape rooms". Yet when it comes to the Karimov regime, systematic torture and rape appear to be treated as peccadilloes, not to affect the relationship and to be downplayed in international fora. Double standards? Yes.

7. I hope that once the present crisis is over we will make plain to the US, at senior level, our serious concern over their policy in Uzbekistan.

MURRAY

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Letter #3 CONFIDENTIAL FM TASHKENT
TO IMMEDIATE FCO TELNO 63 OF 220939 JULY 04 INFO IMMEDIATE DFID, ISLAMIC POSTS, MOD, OSCE POSTS UKDEL EBRD LONDON, UKMIS GENEVA, UKMIS MEW YORK
SUBJECT: RECEIPT OF INTELLIGENCE OBTAINED UNDER TORTURE SUMMARY

1. We receive intelligence obtained under torture from the Uzbek intelligence services, via the US. We should stop. It is bad information anyway. Tortured dupes are forced to sign up to confessions showing what the Uzbek government wants the US and UK to believe, that they and we are fighting the same war against terror.

2. I gather a recent London interdepartmental meeting considered the question and decided to continue to receive the material. This is morally, legally and practically wrong. It exposes as hypocritical our post Abu Ghraib pronouncements and fatally undermines our moral standing. It obviates my efforts to get the Uzbek government to stop torture they are fully aware our intelligence community laps up the results.

3. We should cease all co-operation with the Uzbek Security Services they are beyond the pale. We indeed need to establish an SIS presence here, but not as in a friendly state.

DETAIL

4. In the period December 2002 to March 2003 I raised several times the issue of intelligence material from the Uzbek security services which was obtained under torture and passed to us via the CIA. I queried the legality, efficacy and morality of the practice.

5. I was summoned to the UK for a meeting on 8 March 2003. Michael Wood gave his legal opinion that it was not illegal to obtain and to use intelligence acquired by torture. He said the only legal limitation on its use was that it could not be used in legal proceedings, under Article 15 of the UN Convention on Torture.

6. On behalf of the intelligence services, Matthew Kydd said that they found some of the material very useful indeed with a direct bearing on the war on terror. Linda Duffield said that she had been asked to assure me that my qualms of conscience were respected and understood.

7. Sir Michael Jay's circular of 26 May stated that there was a reporting obligation on us to report torture by allies (and I have been instructed to refer to Uzbekistan as such in the context of the war on terror). You, Sir, have made a number of striking, and I believe heartfelt, condemnations of torture in the last few weeks. I had in the light of this decided to return to this question and to highlight an apparent contradiction in our policy. I had intimated as much to the Head of Eastern Department.

8. I was therefore somewhat surprised to hear that without informing me of the meeting, or since informing me of the result of the meeting, a meeting was convened in the FCO at the level of Heads of Department and above, precisely to consider the question of the receipt of Uzbek intelligence material obtained under torture. As the office knew, I was in London at the time and perfectly able to attend the meeting. I still have only gleaned that it happened.

9. I understand that the meeting decided to continue to obtain the Uzbek torture material. I understand that the principal argument deployed was that the intelligence material disguises the precise source, ie it does not ordinarily reveal the name of the individual who is tortured. Indeed this is true – the material is marked with a euphemism such as "From detainee debriefing." The argument runs that if the individual is not named, we cannot prove that he was tortured.

10. I will not attempt to hide my utter contempt for such casuistry, nor my shame that I work in and organisation where colleagues would resort to it to justify torture. I have dealt with hundreds of individual cases of political or religious prisoners in Uzbekistan, and I have met with very few where torture, as defined in the UN convention, was not employed. When my then DHM raised the question with the CIA head of station 15 months ago, he readily acknowledged torture was deployed in obtaining intelligence. I do not think there is any doubt as to the fact

11. The torture record of the Uzbek security services could hardly be more widely known. Plainly there are, at the very least, reasonable grounds for believing the material is obtained under torture. There is helpful guidance at Article 3 of the UN Convention; "The competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the state concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights." While this article forbids extradition or deportation to Uzbekistan, it is the right test for the present question also.

12. On the usefulness of the material obtained, this is irrelevant. Article 2 of the Convention, to which we are a party, could not be plainer: "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture."

13. Nonetheless, I repeat that this material is useless – we are selling our souls for dross. It is in fact positively harmful. It is designed to give the message the Uzbeks want the West to hear. It exaggerates the role, size, organisation and activity of the IMU and its links with Al Qaida. The aim is to convince the West that the Uzbeks are a vital cog against a common foe, that they should keep the assistance, especially military assistance, coming, and that they should mute the international criticism on human rights and economic reform.

14. I was taken aback when Matthew Kydd said this stuff was valuable. Sixteen months ago it was difficult to argue with SIS in the area of intelligence assessment. But post Butler we know, not only that they can get it wrong on even the most vital and high profile issues, but that they have a particular yen for highly coloured material which exaggerates the threat. That is precisely what the Uzbeks give them. Furthermore MI6 have no operative within a thousand miles of me and certainly no expertise that can come close to my own in making this assessment.

15. At the Khuderbegainov trial I met an old man from Andizhan. Two of his children had been tortured in front of him until he signed a confession on the family's links with Bin Laden. Tears were streaming down his face. I have no doubt they had as much connection with Bin Laden as I do. This is the standard of the Uzbek intelligence services.

16. I have been considering Michael Wood's legal view, which he kindly gave in writing. I cannot understand why Michael concentrated only on Article 15 of the Convention. This certainly bans the use of material obtained under torture as evidence in proceedings, but it does not state that this is the sole exclusion of the use of such material.

17. The relevant article seems to me Article 4, which talks of complicity in torture. Knowingly to receive its results appears to be at least arguable as complicity. It does not appear that being in a different country to the actual torture would preclude complicity. I talked this over in a hypothetical sense with my old friend Prof Francois Hampson, I believe an acknowledged World authority on the Convention, who said that the complicity argument and the spirit of the Convention would be likely to be winning points. I should be grateful to hear Michael's views on this.

18. It seems to me that there are degrees of complicity and guilt, but being at one or two removes does not make us blameless. There are other factors. Plainly it was a breach of Article 3 of the Convention for the coalition to deport detainees back here from Baghram, but it has been done. That seems plainly complicit.

19. This is a difficult and dangerous part of the World. Dire and increasing poverty and harsh repression are undoubtedly turning young people here towards radical Islam. The Uzbek government are thus creating this threat, and perceived US support for Karimov strengthens anti-Western feeling. SIS ought to establish a presence here, but not as partners of the Uzbek Security Services, whose sheer brutality puts them beyond the pale.

MURRAY

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second Document - summary of legal opinion from Michael Wood arguing that it is legal to use information extracted under torture:
From: Michael Wood, Legal Advisor
Date: 13 March 2003
CC: PS/PUS; Matthew Kidd, WLD Linda Duffield

UZBEKISTAN: INTELLIGENCE POSSIBLY OBTAINED UNDER TORTURE

1. Your record of our meeting with HMA Tashkent recorded that Craig had said that his understanding was that it was also an offence under the UN Convention on Torture to receive or possess information under torture. I said that I did not believe that this was the case, but undertook to re-read the Convention.

2. I have done so. There is nothing in the Convention to this effect. The nearest thing is article 15 which provides: "Each State Party shall ensure that any statement which is established to have been made as a result of torture shall not be invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement was made." 3. This does not create any offence. I would expect that under UK law any statement established to have been made as a result of torture would not be admissible as evidence.

[signed] M C Wood Legal Adviser

---------------

Previous entry concerning Murray's efforts

Technorati list of participators

CPT hostages killed unless detainees freed

2005-12-08T09:30:00.000+11:00

On 29 November, 2005, a Candian non-governmental organisation called Christian Peacemaker Teams confirmed that four of their members had been taken hostage in Iraq. The hostages were in Iraq on a fact-finding mission, gathering evidence of human rights abuses. The blog of one hostage, Tom Fox, can be found here. His entry about the "new" Iraq is worth reading.

Initial reports stated that the hostage-takers accused the hostages of being "spies". However on 02 December 2005, in video shown on Al Jazeera, the hostage takers will demand that all detainees held by US and Iraqi forces be freed by today, or the hostages will be killed.

On 08 March 2006, Tom Fox's corpse will be found in Mansour district, showing signs that he had been beaten before being killed.

On 23 March 2006 the remaining hostages will be freed after a raid led by British troops.

Right wing bloggers will object to the way in which the release was treated by media and bloggers alike, specifically, the use of the word "released" as opposed to "rescued", or some other word flattering to the occupying forces in Iraq. Conservatives will send inflammatory emails to the still-grieving friends of the hostages, stating, for example

I hope you quit sending your hippies to WAR regions risking not only their lives but the lives of the soldiers who end up having to secure their "release" by RESCUING them (source).

It will later be revealed that one of the informants was a guard holding the prisoners hostage. This person apparently got cold feet when Fox was murdered by other elements involved in the abduction (see also Guardian article).

Marine tells of US torturing Afghans, commits murder-suicide

2005-12-08T07:54:00.000+11:00

Today former Marine sergeant and veteran of the invasion of Afghanistan, Jeffrey Lehner (aged 42), will shoot his father, Edwin Lehner (aged 77), to death. He will then kill himself with a single gunshot wound to the head.

The veteran had previously been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome, which may have been brought on in part by an incident in which 8 Marines unit died (source). Another contributing factor was observing CIA officers torturing and killing mostly innocent Afghans at Kandahar airport.

Before his death he was working with LA Times reporter Ann Louise Bardach to air his allegations. From an article in the LA Times

In the beginning, Jeff supported the administration's policies in the region. But over time, that began to change. As we talked, Jeff brought out an album of photos from Afghanistan. He pointed to a series of photographs of a trailer and several huts behind a barbed-wire fence; these were taken, he said, outside a U.S. military camp not far from the Kandahar airport. He told me that young Afghans some visible in blue jumpsuits in his photos had been rounded up and brought to the site by a CIA special operations team. The CIA officers made no great secret of what they were doing, he said, but were dismissive of the Marines and pulled rank when challenged.
Jeff said he had been told by soldiers who had been present that the detainees were being interrogated and tortured, and that they were sometimes given psychotropic drugs. Some, he believed, had died in custody. What disturbed him most, he said, was that the detainees were not Taliban fighters or associates of Osama bin Laden. "By the time we got there," Jeff said, "the serious fighters were long gone."
Jeff had other stories to tell as well. He said the CIA team had put detainees in cargo containers aboard planes and interrogated them while circling in the air. He'd been on board some of these flights, he said, and was deeply disturbed by what he'd seen.

Further reading, opinions and commentary:

Sound Off! Vol 1 No. 11, The Newsletter of VETERANS UNITED FOR TRUTH, Inc. Page 6 onwards, which describes Sgt. Lehner's thwarted attempts to get help for himself, and discusses the high percentages of veterans that have post-traumatic stress.

Saddam's defence uses comparison to US Abu Ghraib abuses as rhetorical device

2005-12-07T09:18:00.000+11:00

Today the cross-examination of "Witness A" will be reported. After "Witness A" describes the appalling conditions of her detention under Saddam's regime, the defence will will seize the opportunity to make a comparison to Abu Ghraib under US command

"I agree that things in Abu Ghraib were, until recently, bad, but did they use dogs on you? Did they take photographs?" said one defense attorney, alluding to U.S. troops' abuse of Iraqi detainees at the prison.
"No," she replied.

Schulz taken hostage, murdered for detainees and compensation

2005-12-07T07:56:00.000+11:00

Today Al Jazeera broadcasted a video of a hostage Ronald Schulz, who had been abducted by Iraqi insurgents. The US security contractor is the second American abducted in the last two weeks. The kidnappers will claim that he is a spy. They will threaten to kill him unless all Iraqi detainees are freed, and compensation is paid to Anbar province for US attacks since last year.

On 14 January 2006, a memorial service will be held for him at St. John's Lutheran Church, the same church where Schulz was baptized.

Witness A describes torture by Saddam

2005-12-07T07:51:00.000+11:00

Today it will be reported that a woman identified as "Witness A" will testify to being tortured at Saddam's trial. She was 16 at the time of the incident, and was detained for four years. Weeping, she will claim:

I was forced to take off my clothes, and he [Wadah al-Sheik, an Iraqi intelligence officer] raised my legs up and tied up my hands. He continued administering electric shocks and beating me.
... I was beaten up and tortured by electrical shocks.

A photograph of a prominent Sheikh found tortured by the new Iraqi government shows him hanging from the ceiling in "a traditional style". Full size and more photographs of recent abuses can be found at Alive in Baghdad's photostream.

She will say outright that she was raped (source).

I begged them [not to force me to undress], but they hit with their pistols ... They made me put my legs up. There were five or more, and they treated me like a banquet.

When asked by the judge which of the defendants she wanted to accuse, "Witness A" identified Saddam. "When so many people are jailed and tortured, who takes such a decision?" she said.

Troops don't want to be made into torturers

2005-12-05T20:36:00.000+11:00

Today Salon (reprinted at Truth Out) will feature an article by Mark Follman titled 'America can't take it anymore'. In that article, several anonymous and named current and ex-military personnel will speak against the Bush Administration's torture policy.

Between them they will raise three major grievances with the policy. First, that the consequences of the policy will outweigh the benefits. Second, that the personnel lower on the hierarchy are being used as scape-goats for the policy. Finally, that the policy is damaging troops psychologically.

Quoting from the article on the first issue:

According to the senior Army JAG, who wasn't authorized to speak to the media and was granted anonymity by Salon, many fellow JAGs and military officers feel that the administration has long since veered into dubious territory. "There are plenty of us who think that the legal opinions put forth by the administration, while maybe passable from a technical standpoint, aren't serving our long-term interests. The feeling is that there are steep costs to the administration's views, and that we're just beginning to pay them."

Personnel lower on the hierarchy are being ordered by their superiors to torture detainees, yet these personnel know that they will be made the fall guys.

Although unwilling to talk on the record for fear of retribution by the military, a number of active-duty soldiers who've spoken with Human Rights Watch are increasingly angry about the torture scandals, according to researcher John Sifton. While some soldiers are wary that media and human rights groups are out to make the military look bad, Sifton says most of them realize that they are taking the sole blame for the abuses.
"A number of soldiers we've talked to have told us they were ordered by military intelligence to torture," Sifton told Salon. "And not just at Abu Ghraib but at forward operating bases across Iraq." According to Sifton, several soldiers who tried to report misconduct say their superiors told them to take a hike.
... One Army whistleblower who tried to report abuses in Iraq in 2003 was suddenly declared psychologically ill and forcibly shipped out of the country. "They were determined to protect their own asses no matter who they had to take down," said Sgt. Frank "Greg" Ford, in a Salon report last year.
"The message that's going out to guys is, as long as you're a senior military member or administration staffer, you're golden," says one active-duty Army officer, a veteran of combat in Iraq. "Just make sure either you've got a fall guy, or you're high enough up in the hierarchy, and you'll be fine."

Quoting from the article on psychological damage to soldiers

In an interview with Salon, [Army Capt. Ray Kimball] said [torture] also causes severe harm to U.S. soldiers themselves.
"Torture not only degrades the victim, it also ultimately degrades the torturer," said Kimball, who served in Iraq and now teaches history at West Point. "We already have enough soldiers dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder after legitimate combat experiences. But now you're talking about adding the burden of willfully inflicting wanton pain on another human being. You tell a soldier to go out there and 'waterboard' someone" - strap a prisoner to a board, bind his face in cloth, and pour water over his face until he fears death by drowning - "or mock-execute someone, but nobody is thinking about what that's going to do to that soldier months or years later, when it comes to dealing with the rationalizations and internal consequences. We're talking about serious psychic trauma."

US detentions fuelling terrorism in Iraq

2005-12-05T20:32:00.000+11:00

Today, John Pace, human rights chief for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), will warn the US that abusing human rights in Iraq is against its best interests.

Referring to accusations of corruption among Iraqi justice officials and police, Pace said illegal detentions were fuelling rather than curbing revolt.
"There is no question that terrorism has to be addressed. But we are equally sure that the remedies being applied ... are not the best way of eliminating terrorism," Pace said.
"More terrorists are being created than are being eliminated."

International support for torture high

2005-11-28T20:51:00.000+11:00

Between 15 and 28 November, approximately 1000 people from each of 9 countries were polled by IPSOS Public Affairs for The Associated Press. Results (ordered by support for torture) are shown below.

How do you feel about the use of torture against suspected terrorists to obtain information about terrorism activities? Can that be justified...?

	Often	Sometimes	Rarely	Never	Unsure
	%	%	%	%	%
Italy	9	14	14	60	3
Spain	7	14	16	54	9
Canada	9	19	21	49	2
UK	9	21	21	48	1
Germany	8	22	20	48	2
France	12	20	25	40	3
Mexico	9	22	18	40	11
US	11	27	23	36	3
S. Korea	6	47	33	10	4

Would you support or oppose allowing the United States to secretly interrogate suspected terrorists in (Country) to try to obtain information about terrorist activities?

	Support	Oppose	Unsure
	%	%	%
Mexico	13	78	9
S. Korea	25	71	4
Spain	22	66	12
Canada	35	63	2
UK	34	62	4
Germany	36	60	4
France	36	60	4
Italy	35	55	10
US	63	32	5

Allawi: "same as Saddam's time"

2005-11-27T16:27:00.000+11:00

Today, a report for The Observer will quote Iyad Allawi criticising the new Iraqi governments human abuses. The former appointed Interim Prime Minister of Iraq will be quoted as saying

People are doing the same as Saddam's time and worse. ... It is an appropriate comparison. People are remembering the days of Saddam. These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same things.

The article quotes him urging attention to the issue

He said that immediate action was needed to dismantle militias that continue to operate with impunity. If nothing is done, 'the disease infecting [the Ministry of the Interior] will become contagious and spread to all ministries and structures of Iraq's government', he said.
In a chilling warning to the West over the danger of leaving behind a disintegrating Iraq, Allawi added: 'Iraq is the centrepiece of this region. If things go wrong, neither Europe nor the US will be safe.'

It is noted that the first incident of Interior Ministry abuse recorded on this blog was in July 2004, less than one month after Allawi began his role as Interim Prime Minister. The abuses continued throughout the period in which he governed.

Request

2005-11-25T10:32:00.000+11:00

Brian Conley from the Alive in Baghdad site provides a valuable independent media resource. It is all run out of pocket and from donations. He respectfully asks that, if you find his work useful and can spare it, even $5 or $10 will be gratefully received.

You can go here to donate.

One third Arizonans oppose anti-torture legislation

2005-11-23T20:24:00.000+11:00

Today a KAET-TV poll conducted in Arizona will be reported on. Respondents were asked if they support proposed federal legislation that would ban the use of torture against terrorists, even if there is reason to believe they may have information that could save American lives. 55% said they supported the ban, 36% say they opposed the legislation, and 9% said they had no opinion.

CIA vets warn of psychological consequences to torturers

2005-11-19T20:38:00.000+11:00

Today, the National Journal will write an article summarising recent opposition to torture from high-profile retired CIA officers. Reasons for their opposition include: that it is inconsistent with America's identity, that it makes alliances difficult, and that it effects the officers psychologically.

Quoting from the article

Burton L. Gerber, a decorated Moscow station chief who retired in 1995 after 39 years with the CIA, surprised some in the audience when he said he opposes torture "because it corrupts the society that tolerates it." This is a view, he confirmed in an interview with National Journal last week ... "The reason I believe that torture corrupts the torturers and society," Gerber says, "is that a standard is changed, and that new standard that's acceptable is less than what our nation should stand for. I think the standards in something like this are crucial to the identity of America as a free and just society."
... A similar stance was articulated last year by Merle L. Pribbenow, a 27-year veteran of the agency's clandestine Directorate of Operations.
... "as Americans, must not let our methods betray our goals," he said. "There is nothing wrong with a little psychological intimidation, verbal threats, bright lights and tight handcuffs, and not giving a prisoner a soft drink and a Big Mac every time he asks for them. There are limits, however, beyond which we cannot and should not go if we are to continue to call ourselves Americans. America is as much an ideal as a place, and physical torture of the kind used by the Vietnamese (North as well as South) has no place in it."

(This may be contrasted with Naomi Klein's observation that torture has been integral to US foreign policy since the Vietnam war, and Pribbenow's observations in the article).

Apart from America's need to feel consistent with its own ideals, Gerber also notes that this ideal is useful for forming alliances. Quoting from the article

"Foreign nationals agree to spy for us for many different reasons; some do it out of an overwhelming admiration for America and what it stands for, and to those people, I think, America being associated with torture does affect their willingness to work with us," he says.

Finally, Pribbenow uses his work on the history of the Vietnamese war to shed light on the psychology of the torturer

"If you talk to people who have been tortured, that gives you a pretty good idea not only as to what it does to them, but what it does to the people who do it," he said. "One of my main objections to torture is what it does to the guys who actually inflict the torture. It does bad things. I have talked to a bunch of people who had been tortured who, when they talked to me, would tell me things they had not told their torturers, and I would ask, 'Why didn't you tell that to the guys who were torturing you?' They said that their torturers got so involved that they didn't even bother to ask questions." Ultimately, he said -- echoing Gerber's comments -- "torture becomes an end unto itself."

Psychology of US torturers at Bagram

2005-11-18T20:34:00.000+11:00

After describing US guards at Bagram beating a detainee to death, former detainee Moazzam Begg will provide insight into the psychological mechanisms that allow US military personnel to torture people. The exposition will be strongly reminiscent of the findings of the famous Stanford prison experiment (where othering and institutional support precipitated perverse and sadistic behaviour by ordinary men playing `guards' against their `prisoners'). After describing the murder, Begg says,

I spoke to one of the soldiers who used to get along quite well with me and he told me exactly what he'd done, why he'd done it and how he'd done it. This soldier I'd met in Kandahar and he was one of the few who used to speak to me quite regularly and I was so amazed that he was so candid about telling me how he'd done this and why he'd done this and why he felt it was completely justified and almost vindicated himself by the fact that he's telling me.
And one of the guards there of that unit told me when I used to have discussions with them, that when we see you people we can't look at you as human beings. Our psyche does not allow us to do that - because if we did we wouldn't treat you this way. It's easy for us to dehumanise you. First of all most of you guys don't speak the same language. Secondly, you look different. Thirdly, you're dressed different. Fourthly, you're in cages and we're out here with the guns.

Hamra bombing retaliation against Interior Ministry torture

2005-11-18T07:49:00.000+11:00

Today two suicide car-bombs will detonate next to the Hamra Hotel, killing 17. Western press will quote U.S. Brig. Gen. Karl Horst telling reporters "I think the target was the Hamra Hotel" where Western news organisations are held, and Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal saying that the target was not the Interior Ministry next-door. However non-Western press will note that there are conflicting reports about the intended target, and will remind readers about torture committed at the Interior Ministry as possible motive.

In January, Abu Musab al-Zarqawis organization, Al Qaeda in Iraq, will claim responsibility for the attack in a video. According to those who have watched video in Arabic

Why attack the compound? The video claims it was in retaliation for the torture of Sunnis at the hands of the Shiite-led Ministry of Interior as well as for the deaths of Iraqi officers by Americans interrogators. They also saw the compound as a den of foreign intelligence, the Badr Brigade and housing for Kurdish pesh merga and Western security companies.

Further reading, opinions and commentary:

Christian Science Monitor, 18 November 2005, 'Suicide-bomber team targets Westeners' hotel in Baghdad'
Back to Iraq, 07 February 2006, 'Aftermath of the Hamra Bombing
An independent look at Iraq, 19 November 2005, 'Hamra Hotel bombing photos'. The initial reactions of a journalist who was on the scene. See also his audio diary.
Iraq National Police Day attack. Another attack against the Iraqi govt forces in retaliation for torture.

173 prisoners found tortured by Iraqi Interior Ministry

2005-11-16T09:16:00.000+11:00

Today further evidence will be reported through various international media sources of systemic abuse and torture of detainees by the new Iraqi government's Interior Ministry and affiliated militias.

It is reported that 173 (some reports have 170 to 200) prisoners, all or mostly Sunnis, were found in the basement of a building in Baghdad's neighborhood of Jadriyah in an Interior Ministry building. There are suspicions that the building may also have been used as a base for a militia called the Badr Brigade, and that such militias may have infiltrated Iraq's security services.

The detainees were found during a raid by U.S. Army and Iraqi troops, who were looking for a missing 15-year-old boy at the time.

The detainees were starved and showed signs of torture. Iraq's Deputy Interior Minister Hussein Kamal is quoted as saying

This is the worst and cannot be denied. I saw signs of physical abuse by brutal beating, one or two detainees were paralysed and some had their skin peeled off various parts of their bodies.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari promised to get to the bottom of the issue, and a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry stressed that the abuse at the facility was counter to the wishes of the Jafari government. The U.S. Embassy and multinational forces then promptly congratulated Jafari for his commitment to investigate the abuse (ref).

Update: In several days time, Interior Minister Bayn Jabr will be quoted as saying that "those who are supporting terrorism are making the exaggerations" about the torture, and that only seven detainees showed signs of abuse.

This report adds to the already substantial evidence of torture by the new Iraqi government's Interior Ministry, which has been occurring since at least July 2004, sometimes in the presence of, and with the apparent approval of, U.S. military forces.

Three quarters Americans suspect govt uses torture, one third support it

2005-11-13T20:46:00.000+11:00

Between 11 and 13 November, CNN/USA Today/Gallup will conduct a poll of about 500 American adults nationwide. Below are answers to questions pertaining to torture.

"Just your best guess: Do you think U.S. troops or government officials have or have not tortured prisoners in Iraq or other countries?" Form A (N=491, MoE ± 5)

Have	Have not	Unsure
%	%	%
74	20	6

"Would you be willing or not willing to have the U.S. government torture suspected terrorists if they may know details about future terrorist attacks against the U.S.?" Form B (N=515, MoE ± 5)

Willing	Not willing	Unsure
%	%	%
38	56	6

Nearly two thirds of Americans say torture can be justified

2005-11-10T18:08:00.000+11:00

The results of a Newsweek Poll conducted between 10 and 11 November 2005 are shown in the table below. Please note the wording of the questions, which is discussed in the comments section (thanks to Tedeger for pointing this out).

"Do you think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can often be justified, can sometimes be justified, can rarely be justified, or can never be justified?"
	Often	Sometimes	Rarely	Never
	justified	justified	justified	justified	Unsure
	%	%	%	%	%
Republicans	25	34	14	24	3
Democrats	11	25	20	40	4
Independents	17	25	21	31	6
All adults	17	27	18	33	5

*"Would you support the use of torture by U.S. military or intelligence personnel if it might lead to the prevention of a major terrorist attack, or not?"*
Would support	Would not support	Unsure
%	%	%
58	35	7

*"What if the use of torture by the United States makes it more likely that Americans will be tortured by our enemies? Would you support the use of torture under these circumstances, or not?"*
Would support	Would not support	Unsure
%	%	%
36	57	7

*"Do you think the recent allegations about the use of torture by the United States have hurt this country's image around the world a lot, somewhat, not too much, or not at all?"*
A lot	Somewhat	Not too much	Not at all	Unsure
%	%	%	%	%
39	34	13	10	4

file under: Public support

Photos from Haj Ali

2005-11-02T08:25:00.000+11:00

Amazing the things you can stumble on through flickr. The following picture is "aliveinbaghdad's" photostream.

According to an account on the Alive in Baghdad blog, the photographs were obtained through Haj Ali. Haj Ali is better known as the hooded guy from Abu Ghraib. He's since gone on to found The Association of the Victims of American Occupation Prisons.

As regular readers of my blog know, the "new" Iraqi government has been habitually abducting, torturing, and killing detainees on a regular basis. Haj Ali presents these photographs as evidence of these abuses, which are being committed by govt run militias and police forces like the Interior Ministry's Wolf Brigade.

The full set can be accessed here. Other photographs can be found here.

Dossari suicide attempts

2005-10-14T22:57:00.000+10:00

Today, Guantanamo prisoner Jumah Abdel Latif Al Dossari will write a suicide letter addressed to Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, his co-counsel with the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Khaled, his interpreter. He will then attempt to take his life by slashing and hanging himself.

The letter he wrote will be released on 15 March 2006. The letter will reference the torture that he suffers, and describe the denial of his human dignity.

I hope you will always remember that you met and sat with a "human being" called "Jumah" who suffered too much and was abused in his belief, self, in his dignity and also in his humanity. He was imprisoned, tortured and deprived from his homeland, his family and his young daughter who is in the most need for him for four years... with no reason or crime committed. Remember that there are hundreds of detainees in Guantanamo Cuba they are in the same situation of suffering and misfortune. They were captured, tortured and detained with no offense or reason. Their lives might end like mine...

Ironically enough, in his letter, he will appeal to the fair-mindedness of the American people

There was no other alternative to make our voice heard by the world from the depths of the detention centers except this way in order for the world to re-examine its standing and for the fair people of America to look again at the situation and try to have a moment of truth with themselves ...

He will also appeal to the alleged fair-mindedness of the rest of the world's citizens

Take some of my blood... take pieces of my death shrouds... take some of my remains... take pictures of my dead body when I am placed in my grave, lonely... send it to the world.. to the judges... to people with live conscious... to people with principles and values, the "fair-minded"...

His plea will largely be ignored.

On 09 April, 2006, an article in the Washington Post (reprint) will report that he has again tried to take his life. For weeks lawyers will be denied information about his condition, including whether or not he has survived his latest attempt. From the article:

"I'd like to know if he's alive," Colangelo-Bryan [Dossari's attorney] said. "I think it underscores the fact that the government does not believe that it has to play by any rules at all."

This entry concerns a current event, and will be update

"Mitch" on Glen Beck's radio show

2005-10-06T18:24:00.000+10:00

Today Glen Beck will field a call from a listener named "Mitch". "Mitch" will claim to be a former intelligence officer. During his call, he will claim to have personally tortured foreign detainees by burning their retinas with high-powered Halogen lamps and bursting their eardrums using high-pressure water and air.

In response to "Mitch's" confession, Beck will respond "I've got to tell you I appreciate your service". Beck will then ask the caller if he has problems sleeping at night. When "Mitch" responds "No", Beck will respond "Good for you. I have to tell you when all's said and done I'm glad people like you are on our side."

A reproduction of the transcript can be found here.

US senate approves prohibition of prisoner abuse

2005-10-06T17:35:00.000+10:00

Today, despite rumours since July to the contrary, Bush's administration will not veto an amendment that would prohibit the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" against anyone in U.S. government custody. Instead senators will vote 90-9 to approve the amendment. The proposal also requires all service members to follow procedures in the Army Field Manual when they detain and interrogate terrorism suspects.

The nine senators who will vote against the amendment are:

Senator Jon Stevens Corzine (D-NJ) will not be present for the vote.

Fallujah protests arrest of woman alleged to be Zarqawi's daughter

2005-09-30T17:40:00.000+10:00

Today the residents of Fallujah will protest the arrest of a local woman by US forces. Residents state that US soldiers arrested her because she was suspected of being Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi's daughter. However, a sign carried during the protest will emphasise her gender rather than the reason for her arrest, which is suggestive of another motivating factor behind the residents' protest: "Fallujah residents ask US forces to release the female detainee immediately".

US soldiers trade photographs of Iraqi dead for pornography, no charges

2005-09-21T17:48:00.000+10:00

Today it will be reported that US soldiers in Iraq have been taking photographs of dead and mutilated Iraqis bodies and body-parts and posting them on a pornography site in exchange for free access to that site. The photographs sometimes include the soldiers, with their faces clearly identifiable, themselves laughing at and mocking the dead. The gruesome photographs are often accompanied by the soldiers' own comments, which are often joyous in tone, racist, and generally disrespectful of the fact that the image portrayed was once a living, thinking human being. Examples include "DIE HAJI DIE" and "What every Iraqi should look like".

Chris Wilson, owner of the site, is quoted as saying

It's an unedited look at the war from their point of view. ... There's always going to be a slant from the news media. ... And this is a photo that comes straight from their camera to the site. To me, it's just a more real look at what's going on.

In seven day's time Army investigators will conclude that they have too little evidence to pursue criminal charges. The site owner will state to journalists that the Pentagon never contacted him about the photographs.

On 8 October 2005, the site owner will be arrested on obscenity charges. Ironically, the charges will be directed at the sexual content of the site, not any of the pictures of dead Iraqis.

International human rights removed from Iraqi constitution

2005-09-19T17:28:00.000+10:00

Today, amid allegations that the US had an inappropriate level of influence in the drafting of the Iraqi Constitution, it will be reported that Article 44 of the draft Iraqi Constitution was removed from the final draft. The original Article 44 emphasised Iraqis' right to enjoy guarantees and safeguards enshrined in international human rights treaties ratified by Iraq. Article 44 had read as follows (translation from this site):

All individuals have the right to enjoy the rights stated in international human rights agreements and treaties endorsed by Iraq that don't run contrary to the principles and rules of this constitution.

The new version now reads (translation from this site):

Restricting or limiting any of the freedoms and liberties stated in this Constitution may only happen by, or according to, law and as long as this restriction or limitation does not undermine the essence of the right or freedom.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International will express concern at the move, stating

While the proposed new Constitution of Iraq encompasses many positive human rights provisions, removing this provision is a serious step backwards ... These treaty obligations to respect fundamental human rights were not respected under Saddam Hussein but the inclusion of Article 44 in the new Constitution represented a real opportunity for Iraq to open a new chapter in human rights protection. It is one that must not be lost.

UN raises concerns over killings, torture by Iraqi govt

2005-09-09T18:28:00.000+10:00

Today it will be reported that a bi-monthly human rights report by the UN raised concerns about violence by government forces. They will allege that the Interior Ministry, police stations, and pro-government militias have:

conducted mass arrests and held people in detention for long periods without charge
tortured people in police stations and premises owned by the Interior Ministry
had sectarian death squads within the police forces commit extrajudicial executions

On the 19 September, Kofi Anan will be reported as naming Baghdad, Al Basra, Al Musel, Kirkuk and the Kurdish regions in the north of Iraq as areas in which torture at police stations and institutions affiliated with the Interior Ministry is widely reported.

London bomber says invasion, torture motivated him

2005-09-01T17:34:00.000+10:00

Today AlJazeera will air a clip from al-Qaida in which one of the London bombers, Muhammad Sadiq Khan, explains his reasons for attack as being the invasion of Iraq, and abuses in the war. He is quoted as naming torture specifically, saying

Your democratically elected governments continue to perpetuate atrocities against my people all over the world.
Your support for them makes you directly responsible ... until we feel security, you will be our targets. Until you stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people, we will not stop.

Video of 20 men tortured by Iraqi Interior Ministry

2005-08-15T17:37:00.000+10:00

Today it will be reported that Awf Rahoumi, deputy governor of Diyala province Iraq, has shown a video in which 20 men display wounds given to them during detainment by Iraqi Interior Ministry forces. In the videos, the men show their wounds and allege that they were:

beaten with cables (similar to other reports of torture by the new Iraqi government here and here, and in this case here where US marines oversaw the abuse)
hung by cuffed hands behind their back (also known as a Palestinian Hanging, which has previously been reportedly used by the Interior Ministry here and here, and was used by US forces at Abu Ghraib, best known for leading to the death of Manadel al-Jamadi, whose corpse Sabrina Harman posed with grinning and giving the thumbs up)
given electric shocks, including on their genitals (compare references above, plus Mustafa Mohammed Ali's similar experience with the Ministry of Interior)

An Interior Ministry spokesperson questioned about the videos will be quoted as saying that there has been no evidence of abuse in Iraqi prisons, despite the fact that there has been evidence of abuse in Iraqi prisons (links above and HRW report).

Guantanamo trials rigged, three prosecutors resign on ethical grounds

2005-08-01T22:45:00.000+10:00

Today the ABC will report on two leaked emails claiming that the trial of detainees at Guantanamo Bay are rigged.

The first email is from prosecutor Major Robert Preston to his supervisor. The article quotes the following paragraphs from his email

I consider the insistence on pressing ahead with cases that would be marginal even if properly prepared to be a severe threat to the reputation of the military justice system and even a fraud on the American people.
Surely they don't expect that this fairly half-arsed effort is all that we have been able to put together after all this time.
After all, writing a motion saying that the process will be full and fair when you don't really believe it is kind of hard, particularly when you want to call yourself an officer and lawyer.

The second email is from prosecutor Captain John Carr

When I volunteered to assist with this process and was assigned to this office, I expected there would at least be a minimal effort to establish a fair process and diligently prepare cases against significant accused ...
Instead, I find a half-hearted and disorganised effort by a skeleton group of relatively inexperienced attorneys to prosecute fairly low-level accused in a process that appears to be rigged.
You have repeatedly said to the office that the military panel will be handpicked and will not acquit these detainees and that we only needed to worry about building a record for the review panel.

Brig Gen Hemingway, a legal advisor to the military commissions, denies all the charges made in the emails, and puts them down to "miscommunication, misunderstanding and personality conflicts" (quoted from article).

Maj Preston's email stated that he could not continue to work in a process he considered, ethically and professionally intolerable. He was transferred out of the Office of Military Commissions less than one month later.

Capt Carr also resigned soon after, stating

I echo Major Preston's belief that I cannot morally, ethically or professionally continue to be part of this process.

It is reported that a third prosecutor, US Air Force Captain Carrie Wolfe, also resigned because of concerns that the commissions were rigged.

Iraqis protest torture by new govt, poor reporting

2005-07-30T12:32:00.000+10:00

Today, protests by over 1000 Sunnis against torture and sectarian policies will be briefly mentioned in a Reuters story about a suicide bombing. According to the paragraph, "simulating torture, they [the protestors] dressed up as soldiers and used drills (see use of drills for knee-capping here), wooden clubs and electric wires to act out what they said were the techniques used by government forces against them."

Interestingly, the Reuters report states that "the government has denied similar accusations", despite the fact that the government admitted them 26 days ago at an internationally reported press conference.

Iraqi police using torture

2005-07-27T17:51:00.000+10:00

Today, on the heels of a Guardian story about the new Iraqi government's use of torture, the BBC will run a story on a similar topic. The article covers much of the same material as the Guardian article, and notes the potential for the torture to deepen the sectarian divide and civil war. The article quotes Salman al-Faraji, a human right activist, who opines that the torture is widespread and systemic

Most cases are quite similar, the same methods are used," he said. "They torture them, breaking hands and legs. They use electric drills to pierce their bodies and then the killing is carried out at close range."

Australian Federal Police question academic over library books

2005-07-26T22:44:00.000+10:00

Today the ABC will report that the AFP questioned PhD researcher 'Abraham' from Monash University. In a move reminiscent of recent US actions, it is alleged that the AFP targeted 'Abraham' because of his Muslim name, and the nature of the books that he was borrowing from the library, which formed part of his research into the role of martyrdom in Islam. 'Abraham', a mainstream Muslim, is quoted as saying

Quite ironic is my study's involved in obviously preventing these actions [terrorism] from occurring.

According to the article, in light of these events Abraham's lecturer Dr David Wright-Neville has since warned his students about the threat posed by the authorities as they undertake their academic work. He stated

It's happened to one and I think that all students, if they're going to be studying this subject, need to be made aware that based on the experience of last week that they might also be targeted by the authorities.

Sunni official alleges firing because of opposition to torture

2005-07-24T11:56:00.000+10:00

Today, Adnan al-Dulaimi will be dismissed from his post as head of the Sunni Endowment, the government agency in charge of the upkeep of Sunni mosques and shrines. According to the Guardian, Al-Dulaimi will tell The Associated Press that he was fired for speaking against the new Iraqi government's torture practices against Sunnis. He said

"I think that the reason behind my dismissal is that they want to silence a voice that is speaking against unjustified practices against Sunnis such as arrests, torture in the prisons, and also for my calls to release innocent detainees and to save Iraq from sectarianism, insecurity and divisions."

Bush Administration opposes ban on "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of detainees

2005-07-24T11:52:00.000+10:00

This week, it will be reported internationally that the Bush administration has threatened to veto a Senate bill for $442 billion in next year's defense programs if it tries to regulate the Pentagon's treatment of detainees or sets up a commission to investigate operations at US operated military prisons.

The move came after at least 10 Republican Senators called for legislation that would block the US military from engaging in "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of detainees, including using interrogation methods not authorized by a new Army field manual, nor by the Geneva Conventions.

Defense defies order to release additional Abu Ghraib material

2005-07-22T16:50:00.000+10:00

After a Freedom of Information request by NGOs, today was meant to be the day that additional photographs and video of Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse were released. The government had already been given nearly a month's extension, to allow them time to obscure the identity of soldiers and victims in the photographs and video.

At the last moment, the government will file a motion to oppose the release of the photos and videos. They will request a 7(F) exemption from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act to withhold law enforcement-related information in order to protect the physical safety of individuals. The government's motives behind these actions will be met with suspicion.

According to a press release from one of the ACLU, the government will file the full reasons for defying the request in a memorandum and three declarations, which will be under seal with the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York.

Under the government’s proposal, the documents explaining the government’s reasons for withholding the images of abuse will not be available to the public except in redacted form, and the photographs and videos may never be made public.

Poll: Terror suspect rights important

2005-07-07T22:28:00.000+10:00

Beginning today, The Pew Research Center will conduct a survey about the importance of various Supreme Court Decisions. Those surveyed were asked to rank court decisions as "very important", "fairly important", "not too important", or "not at all important". 62% of those surveyed will rank court decisions on terror suspect rights as "very important".

*Importance of Supreme Court Decisions*
	Very	Less	Don't
	important	important	know
	%	%	%
Abortion	63	36	1
Terror suspect rights	62	37	1
Religious displays	55	44	1
Lawsuit award limits	49	49	2
Affirmative action	43	54	3

A breakdown of percentage who viewed suspect rights as "very important" by demographic is below

*Rated terror suspect rights as "very important"*
	Very important (%)
Total	62

Non-White	70
White	59

Conserv Repub	62
Mod/Lib Repub	58
Independent	62
Mod/Cons Dem	67
Liberal Dem	58

White Protestant Evangelical	69
White Protestant Mainline	52
White Catholic	57
Secular	62

Iraq's govt admits security forces use torture

2005-07-04T11:59:00.000+10:00

In response to a story in Britain's The Observer (see entry on previous day) detailing allegations of death squads and torture chambers, Iraqi Government spokesperson Laith Kubba will admit that the incidents occur, but deny that the government is responsible for them.

"These things happen. We know that," Laith Kubba told a news briefing ... "It does not happen because the Government approves it or adopts it as policy," he added, saying ministers were worried.

Instead, Kubba will blame a culture of violence in Iraqi society, stretching back to the Hussein regime decades ago, when it enjoyed US support.

"At the end of the day, I'm sorry to say that we are living in a society where the culture now accepts these violations. I'm sorry to say the culture of violence has spread." ... Government spokesman Mr Kubba said the new authorities were training police and troops to respect human rights. "But theory is one thing and practice is another," he said, adding that decades of violence had brutalised Iraqi society.

Mr Kubba did not go into whether or not he included the allegation that US Marines were present during torture incidents as one of the ways in which Iraqi society had been brutalised.

New Iraqi govt using torture

2005-07-03T12:24:00.000+10:00

Today, The Guardian's Observer will run a story giving details of horrific torture allegedly used by the new Iraqi government's forces. Tomorrow, the Iraqi government will respond to the allegations by admitting that the incidents occur, but denying that they are caused by any government policy.

The story refers first to the HRW report The New Iraq? Torture and ill-treatment of detainees in Iraqi custody (blog entry reference), in which it was reported that 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. Several of the detainees claim that US Marines were present and observed their torture.

The Observer adds more serious allegations to those of HRW, giving an overview of widespread torture tactics, and detailing some individual cases. It links them to the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior, and the police commando units that operate from there. The abuses credited to them are summarised below.

The Observer includes the following general tactics:

extra-judicial executions
a 'ghost' network of detention facilities
tortured and executed victims dumped in shallow graves

The Observer includes the following case studies, and notes that it includes "methods resurrected from the time of Saddam". I have provided a link for tactics reminiscent of those more recently employed by the Coalition of the Willing:

Hassan an-Ni'ami. His capture by the Ministry of Interior's paramilitary police commandos "Rapid Intrusion" was reported on television. His corpse was found with the following:
- police-issue cuffs still attached to his wrist, with evidence that he was hung from them (c.f. Palestinian Hanging, Abu Ghraib , Shahid incident)
- burn marks on his chest, near his right nipple (c.f. Marine burns al-Mumudiyah, Asamiya Palace ).
- a series of horizontal welts wrapping around his torso, breaking the skin on his chest, consistent with beating with cable (c.f. incidents credited to the US military: Arar's beating, Lakoul's beating, and Mowhoush's beating. Also those credited to the Iraqi forces: Mahdi's beating, Shahid's beating, Ali's beating)
- a broken nose
- small wounds consistent with cigarette burns
- a broken arm
- one higher vertebrae pushed inwards
- a cluster of neat circular wounds on both sides of his left knee, suggesting that he had been knee-capped with an electric drill
- several bullets into his chest and head
Corpses of farmers found in shallow graves showed the following evidences:
- bullet to the head suggesting execution
- face blackened by strangulation
- bruises to the forehead
- evidence of punch in the eye
- fractured ankle
- burn marks
- puncture wounds consistent with the use of a spiked "knuckle-duster"
Tahar Mohammed Suleiman al-Mashhadani seized by Ministry of the Interior paramilitary police Rapid Intrusion (part of the "Wolf Brigade"). He was found by his family 20 days later, his corpse tortured almost beyond recognition.
'Zaid', who spoke to the reporters, alleges he was taken by the Ministry of the Interior, and there saw men who had been tortured.
'Abu Ali' claims that he was:
- beaten on the feet
- hung by his arms
- threatened with anal penetration by a bottle

Rumours of secret detainees including on U.S. warships

2005-06-28T22:34:00.000+10:00

Today the AFP will report on a UN investigations into rumours that the United States is secretly detaining prisoners in various locations around the world, and notably aboard ships. On 8 July 2005, an article in the Vermont Guardian will claim that one of these ships called "Camp Justice" is located in Diego Garcia, an atoll in the Indian Ocean.

Italy arrests CIA agents for extraordinary renditions

2005-06-24T22:35:00.000+10:00

Today it will be reported that the arrest of 13 CIA agents was ordered by an Italian judge in response to the kidnapping of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, known as Abu Omar, on a Milan street on 17 February 2003. Nasr was renditioned to Egypt where it is alleged that he was tortured.

Quotes from the article follow

Nasr was seized by two people as he was walking from his home toward a mosque and bundled into a white van. He was taken to Aviano, a joint U.S.-Italian base north of Venice, and flown to a U.S. air base in Ramstein, Germany, before being taken to Cairo.
... A year later, in April-May 2004, Nasr phoned his wife and another unidentified Egyptian citizen and told them he had been subjected to violent treatment by interrogators in Egypt, the statement said.
Italian newspapers have reported that Nasr, 42, said in the wiretapped calls that he was tortured with electric shocks.
... Nasr was tortured after refusing to work in Italy as an informer. According to the testimony, he was hanged upside down and subjected to extreme temperatures and loud noise that damaged his hearing ...

The article implies that the Italian authorities were already tracking Nasr when the U.S. kidnapped him. In addition to orders for the arrests of the CIA agents, Judge Chiara Nobile also issued a separate arrest warrant for Nasr on terrorism charges.

Poll: Americans approve of GTMO detainee treatment

2005-06-22T18:34:00.000+10:00

Today, the results from a Rasmussen Poll on American public opinion concerning GTMO will be released. When asked about their opinion of the treatment of detainees at GTMO, 34% agreed with the statement that the treatment was "about right", and 36% agreed with the statement that the treatment was "better than they deserve".

Pass this on to your friends

2005-06-22T09:55:00.000+10:00

I rarely make "announcements", so I hope that you will take this seriously.For those of you who have friends (particularly male friends) of Middle Eastern descent who live in America, you may want to warn them about this: FBI trawls libraries for terrorist readers.

according to a report, the FBI and other US law enforcement agencies involved in counter-terrorism have made more than 200 requests for information about borrowers from libraries since September 11.
A list of people who had borrowed a book about Osama bin Laden was among the information to have been demanded since the introduction of the patriot act, the legislation that has enhanced the government's powers to investigate alleged terrorist activity after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

You can direct them to this blog if they don't take you seriously. I know that by doing this I'm doing exactly what the torturers want me to, but if you had read the things I have, you'd be spreading fear too.

By the way, this isn't about surrender, it's about staying safe. There's nothing to stop us from being creative here. You could offer to get their forbidden reading material for them. If you aren't a member of a high torture-risk ethnicity and religion, you may like to put a bit of noise into the library data. As far as I know, there's no way they can track cash purchases of books. We can do what people have always done in these circumstances -- lie low, and take every possible opportunity to subvert the system, and enjoy doing so.

A Time exclusive

2005-06-20T21:31:00.000+10:00

Today, Time Magazine will run an "exclusive" called Inside the Interrogation of Detainee 063. It will be sold with the tag-line "The First Documented View of how GITMO really works", and will describe in banal detail the very mild (in a relative sense, c.f. this or this or this or this) interrogation of the "20th hijacker". A reprint is here.

Limbaugh "Club Gitmo", insurgency-sympathising website notices

2005-06-20T18:25:00.000+10:00

This month, Rush Limbaugh's Club Gitmo "satire" and merchandise (pictured below) will stir controversy. Today, a website sympathetic to the Iraqi insurgency, Urkuknet, will publish an article on it. Meanwhile the merchandise will be popular with Limbaugh fans, with many sending in photographs of themselves wearing the shirts and hats.

Limbaugh listeners send in photographs of themselves wearing "Club Gitmo" merchandise.

Incident: American contractor abused by Marines in Iraq

2005-06-16T11:47:00.000+10:00

According to a report released today by AP (archived at Corpwatch), on the 28 May, ex US Marine and military contractor Peter Ginter got a 72 hour taste of detainee treatment at the hands of US Marines.

The Marines detained contractors after they allegedly fired from trucks and SUVs on Iraqi civilian cars and U.S. forces in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad. They were released June 1, and no charges have been filed.

During his detention, Ginter alleges that the following occurred:

A guard slammed him into the ground
He was kicked in the right ankle
His rosary beads and wooden cross (on a necklace) were taken from him
His testicles were squeezed to the point at which "I started getting really sick"
His head was bounced on the ground
We was threatened with a dog

Detainment of Arabs and Turkmen by Kurdish political parties

2005-06-15T22:32:00.000+10:00

Today the Washington Post will report upon a confidential State Department cable addressed to the White House, Pentagon and U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The cable will describe how a spate of "extra-judicial detentions" were part of a "concerted and widespread initiative" by Kurdish political parties "to exercise authority in Kirkuk in an increasingly provocative manner."

The abductions and detentions are being carried out by Asayesh, the Kurdish intelligence agency, the Kurdish-led Emergency Services Unit, a 500-member anti-terrorism squad within the Kirkuk police force.

The campaign surged after the Jan. 30 elections consolidated the two main Kurdish parties' control over the Kirkuk provincial government. The two parties are the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

The U.S. military said it had logged 180 cases; Arab and Turkmen politicians put the number at more than 600 and said many families feared retribution for coming forward.

According to former detainee Abu Abdullah Jabbouri, detainees were mistreated and beaten. He describes how some were forced to wear a 130-pound metal jacket and were beaten when they collapsed, he recalled. Jabbouri said that upon his release he met a fellow prisoner who displayed scars from wounds sustained when he was whipped with a wire cable, sometimes heated over a fire.

The cable notes that the abductions have "greatly exacerbated tensions along purely ethnic lines" and endangered U.S. credibility. "Turkmen in Kirkuk tell us they perceive a U.S. tolerance for the practice while Arabs in Kirkuk believe Coalition Forces are directly responsible."

The Washington Post report quotes several U.S. officials denying complicity in the campaign. It quotes 116th Brigade Combat Team commander Brig. Gen. Alan Gayhart as saying "I can tell you that the coalition forces absolutely do not condone it."

It also quotes Maj. Darren Blagburn, intelligence officer for the 116th Brigade Combat Team in Kirkuk, stating that he was "pretty sure" the practice had ended, thanks to their intervention. "We put a stop to it," Blagburn said.

The U.S. military acknowledged picking up detainees in joint raids with the Kurdish-led police and handing them over.

The State Department cable notes that "Coalition PR efforts to counter the story have been ineffective."

Senator Durbin 'gulag' furore

2005-06-14T22:12:00.000+10:00

Today, in the context of discussion of the closure of GTMO, Senator Dick Durbin will criticise the treatment that detainees at GTMO. A full text of his speech may be found here or here. The controversial part of his speech is reproduced below.

When you read some of the graphic descriptions of what has occurred here -- I almost hesitate to put them in the record, and yet they have to be added to this debate. Let me read to you what one FBI agent saw. And I quote from his report:
On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they 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 [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room 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 hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor.
If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
Mr DURBIN. Mr. President. I ask unanimous consent for 3 additional minutes
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr DURBIN. It is not too late. I hope we will learn from history. I hope we will change course. The President could declare the United States will not, under any circumstances, subject any detainee to torture, or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment ...

Republicans and the Bush Administration, interpreting his statement as an equivocation between GTMO and Nazis, etc., will strongly condemn his speech.

To compare treatment by guards at Guantanamo Bay to "concentration camps and Pol Pot's regime is simply reprehensible," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "I just think those remarks are reprehensible and they are a real disservice to our men and women in uniform. Our men and women in uniform go out of their way to treat detainees humanely, and they go out of their way to uphold the values and the laws we hold so dear to our country.
"When you talk about the gulags and the concentration camps and Pol Pot's regime, millions of people, innocent people were killed by those regimes," he said.

On 17 June 2005, Durbin will release a statement addressing the charge that he had disrespected US soldiers

I have learned from my statement that historical parallels can be misused and misunderstood. I sincerely regret if what I said caused anyone to misunderstand my true feelings: our soldiers around the world and their families at home deserve our respect, admiration and total support.

On 21 June Dick Durbin will make a further statement of regret addressing his mention of past repressive regimes

Mr. President, I have come to understand that was a very poor choice of words. I tried to make this very clear last Friday that I understood to those analogies to the Nazis, Soviets and others were poorly chosen. I issued a release which I thought made my intentions and my inner-most feeling as clear as I possibly could.

Death chamber planned for Guantanamo Bay

2005-06-10T21:09:00.000+10:00

Today the BBC will report on plans described General Miller, camp commander, to build a permanent prison and execution chamber for convicted detainees.

This comes 10 days after the Associated Press obtained thousands of pages of tribunal transcripts through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. In these transcripts, many detainees claim abuse and torture, and claim that they fabricated stories to make the abuses stop. "At that point, with all my suffering", one detainee said, "if he had asked me if I was Osama bin Laden, I would have said yes." Other allegations include having been sold to US forces for thousands of dollar rewards.

10,000 Iraqi prisoners

2005-06-09T22:31:00.000+10:00

Today it will be reported that there are approximately 10,000 prisoners in Iraq held without due process in apparent violation of international law. Of those, 6000 will be reported as being held by Coalition forces. This information will come from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, quoting the Iraqi Justice Ministry.

Poll: GTMO isolated incidents

2005-06-08T22:18:00.000+10:00

Beginning today, The Pew Research Center will conduct a survey about public perceptions of the Iraq occupation and GTMO.

In response to reports of prisoner mistreatment at Guantanamo Bay, 54% of Americans will say that they are isolated incidents, compared with 34%, who will say that they represent a wider pattern of abuse. A breakdown is below.

*Reports of prisoner mistreatment in Guantanamo*
	Isolated	Wider	Neither
	incidents	pattern	DK
	%	%	%
Total	54	34	12

Men	56	34	10
Women	52	34	14

18-29	43	46	11
30-49	55	36	09
50-64	59	28	13
65+	56	25	19

Black	35	52	13
White	57	31	12
Hispanic	44	45	11

Republican	76	14	10
Democrat	43	45	12
Independent	45	44	11

Kharzai talks with Bush on troops, torture deaths

2005-05-24T17:57:00.000+10:00

Today the President of Afghanistan, Hamid Kharzai, will hold talks with the President of the United States, George W. Bush. Items discussed will include allegations that US troops tortured two Afghan prisoners to death. Before the meeting, Kharzai will indicate that he will be requesting more control over US forces operating within his country, and Afghan prisoners held at GTMO handed over to Afghan authorities. It will be reported that the US president rebuffed these concerns.

Incident: Ministry of Interior tortures Ali with electricity, collective punishment

2005-05-22T11:49:00.000+10:00

According to his story archived at Occupation Watch, Mustafa Mohammed Ali claims that today he was arrested by paramilitary police from the Iraqi Interior Ministry's Wolf Brigade. The Wolf Brigade and Ministry for the Interior will feature heavily in future allegations of torture and mistreatment. His arrest was one of thousands during Operation Lightning.

Four days into his detention, Ali claims that Wolf Brigade commandos attached attached electrical wires to his ear and his genitals, and generated a current with a hand-cranked military telephone. In their attempt to extract a confession, his interrogators told him his picture had been found on the camera phone of a man involved in the assassination of Iraqi politician Aqila al-Hashemi in September 2003.

Ali will state that he believes the arrests were sectarian, reflecting the reported sentiment among Sunnis that these sweeps are a form of collective punishment. Ali reports that a general addressed the detainees before their release, and told them that they should think of their detention "as a punishment for those who sympathise with the terrorists".

Why use torture?

2005-05-12T08:12:00.000+10:00

Today, Naomi Klein provides an explanation for why we torture people despite the poor quality of information it produces.

No one claims that torture is an effective interrogation tool--least of all the people who practice it. Torture "doesn't work. There are better ways to deal with captives," CIA director Porter Goss told the Senate Intelligence Committee on February 16. And a recently declassified memo written by an FBI official in Guantánamo states that extreme coercion produced "nothing more than what FBI got using simple investigative techniques." The Army's own interrogation field manual states that force "can induce the source to say whatever he thinks the interrogator wants to hear."
...
This is torture's true purpose: to terrorize--not only the people in Guantánamo's cages and Syria's isolation cells but also, and more important, the broader community that hears about these abuses. Torture is a machine designed to break the will to resist--the individual prisoner's will and the collective will.
This is not a controversial claim. In 2001 the US NGO Physicians for Human Rights published a manual on treating torture survivors that noted: "perpetrators often attempt to justify their acts of torture and ill treatment by the need to gather information. Such conceptualizations obscure the purpose of torture....The aim of torture is to dehumanize the victim, break his/her will, and at the same time, set horrific examples for those who come in contact with the victim. In this way, torture can break or damage the will and coherence of entire communities."

Rioting in Afghanistan after Quran desecration in GTMO

2005-05-11T08:08:00.000+10:00

Today, rioting will begin in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. It will be triggered off by claims that pages from the Quran were flushed down toilets in Guantanamo Bay. Rioters will burn an effigies of Bush, American flags, and chant anti-US slogans. The governor's house, the Pakistan consulate, and several foreign aid agency's buildings will be set on fire. Early reports will state that 50 people will be injured and 3 dead. Witnesses report police firing into the crowd. The crowd estimated between several hundred and several thousand protesters will swell as protests spread to four provinces. By 14 May, 100 people will be injured and 16 dead.

Amidst the mayhem, Karzai will reassure the US that "It is not anti-US sentiment. It is a protest. It is a manifestation of democracy."

Two-thirds Americans ignorant of rendition

2005-05-04T20:40:00.000+10:00

Between 16 April and 4 May, Retropoll will conduct a national telephone survey of 205 persons. Selected results pertaining to torture from the poll can be found below. Note that the poll included a knowledge-check section. According to Retro Poll's mission statement,

Retro Poll designs and performs opinion polls that look at the relationship between public knowledge and public opinion. In so doing so, Retro Poll reveals how the government and corporate media distort information in order to manipulate, confuse and disorganize the public's will.

8. The torture of people held in captivity is a war crime under U.S. law and international treaties which the U.S. has signed?

true (67.3%), false (10.7%), don't know (22.0%)

9. The International Committee of the Red Cross (in confidential reports to the United States Government) charged that the American military has intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion tantamount to torture on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

true (47.3%), false (13.7%), don't know (39.0%)

10. Torture of prisoners within prisons in the U.S. is a) absent b) rare c) not uncommon d) don't know.

absent (4.4%), rare (35.1%), not uncommon (34,6%), don't know (25.9%)

13.A top secret process called rendition has been used by the CIA to fly suspects to Egypt, Morocco, Syria, or Jordan, each of which is known to use torture in their interrogations.

true (32.7%), false (5.9%), don't know (61.5%)

17. U.S. soldiers and private contractors have tortured prisoners in prisons in Iraq, Cuba and Afghanistan. Do you believe that these are the acts of a few bad apples?

yes (57.6%), no (31.2%), don't know (11.2%)

20. Do you approve or disapprove of the appointments of John Negroponte as National Intelligence Chief and Albert Gonzales as Attorney General in view of their support for the use of torture?

approve (17.1%), disapprove (52.7%), don't know (30.2%)

US captain stands by and watches Iraqi commandos beat a detainee

2005-05-01T17:50:00.000+10:00

Today a report by Peter Maass will be published in the New York Times. In it, the reporter will describe raids performed by joint teams of US G.I.s and Iraqi commandos. These Interior Ministry counter-insurgency commandos have been gaining increasing notoriety amongst the Iraqi civilian population for abusing, torturing, and killing detainees (ref 1, ref 2, ref 3), sometimes with the passive support of US forces. The reporter's description of an incident that occurred during the raid follows

The officer in charge of the raid -- a Major Falah -- now made it clear that he believed the detainee [they had picked up earlier in the night] had led them on a wild-goose chase. The detainee was sitting at the side of a commando truck; I was 10 feet away, beside Bennett and four G.I.'s. One of Falah's captains began beating the detainee. Instead of a quick hit or slap, we now saw and heard a sustained series of blows. We heard the sound of the captain's fists and boots on the detainee's body, and we heard the detainee's pained grunts as he received his punishment without resistance. It was a dockyard mugging. [Captain] Bennett turned his back to face away from the violence, joining his soldiers in staring uncomfortably at the ground in silence. The blows continued for a minute or so.
Bennett had seen the likes of this before, and he had worked out his own guidelines for dealing with such situations. "If I think they're going to shoot somebody or cut his finger off or do any sort of permanent damage, I will immediately stop them," he explained. "As Americans, we will not let that happen. In terms of kicking a guy, they do that all the time, punches and stuff like that." It was a tactical decision, Bennett explained: "You only get so many interventions, and I've got to save my butting in for when there is a danger it could go over the line." But even when he doesn't say anything, he explained, "they can tell we're not enjoying it. We're just kind of like, 'O.K., here we go again.'"

US President reiterates commitment not to torture or outsource torture

2005-04-28T08:05:00.000+10:00

At a press conference today, the following exchange will occur between a reporter and US President George W Bush. I have provided links within the text for further reading, particularly for those who find the US president's words convincing.

REPORTER: Mr. President, under the law, how would you justify the practice of renditioning, where U.S. agents who brought terror suspects abroad, taking them to a third country for interrogation? And would you stand for it if foreign agents did that to an American here?
THE PRESIDENT: That's a hypothetical, Mark. We operate within the law and we send people to countries where they say they're not going to torture the people.
But let me say something: the United States government has an obligation to protect the American people. It's in our country's interests to find those who would do harm to us and get them out of harm's way. And we will do so within the law, and we will do so in honoring our commitment not to torture people. And we expect the countries where we send somebody to, not to torture, as well. But you bet, when we find somebody who might do harm to the American people, we will detain them and ask others from their country of origin to detain them. It makes sense. The American people expect us to do that. We -- we still at war.
One of my -- I've said this before to you, I'm going to say it again, one of my concerns after September the 11th is the farther away we got from September the 11th, the more relaxed we would all become and assume that there wasn't an enemy out there ready to hit us. And I just can't let the American people -- I'm not going to let them down by assuming that the enemy is not going to hit us again. We're going to do everything we can to protect us. And we've got guidelines. We've got law. But you bet, Mark, we're going to find people before they harm us.

Karpinski gets reprimand

2005-04-23T14:21:00.000+10:00

Today, Brigadier General Janis Karpinski is reprimanded for dereliction of duty in the Abu Ghraib scandal, and relieved of her command. In contrast, three other senior officers were cleared of wrong-doing. Also, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who perjured himself during a Senate Investigation into the Abu Ghraib scandal, is cleared of any wrong-doing.

18 released from GTMO told to stay quiet about abuse in front of reporters

2005-04-19T17:44:00.000+10:00

Today, seventeen Afghans and one Turk will be freed from GTMO. During a handing over ceremony at the Afghan Supreme Court, they will be urged by Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari not to describe the abuses they suffered. Apparently fearing reprisals from the Republican Administration for any torture reports from the released prisoners, he will say to them

Don't tell these people [the reporters gathered] the stories of your time in prison because the government is trying to secure the release of others, and it may harm the [chances of winning the] release of your friends

Nevertheless, Abdul Rahman had this to say about his 3 years in GTMO

There was a lot of bad treatment against us, but this is not the time to tell you. ... Everybody in the world knows what kind of jail it is. I can't talk about it now.

Guantanamo: Honor bound to defend freedom

2005-04-15T14:26:00.000+10:00

Today, a play called Guantanamo: Honor bound to defend freedom will be showing at the Brava Theater Center, California. According to the TicketWeb blurb, the play "is drawn from interviews of prisoners and their families, U.S. and British ofiicials, and others touched by this post 9-11 human rights disaster".

Report, HRW: Torture of detainees renditioned Egypt

2005-04-15T08:15:00.000+10:00

Today, HRW will release a report entitled Black Hole: The Fate of Islamists Rendered to Egypt. The report will examine renditions to Egypt (the practise of sending detainees to be interrogated in another country, particularly one where they will abused or tortured). It is estimated that 152 individuals have returned from rendition to Egypt since 11 September 2001. In the few cases where information is available, detainees have been severely mistreated and tortured. The report uses 5 of these as case studies. The report updates the cases of Agiza and al-Zery.

HRW Report: Still at Risk

2005-04-14T14:26:00.000+10:00

Human Rights Watch released a report entitled Still at Risk: Diplomatic Assurances No Safeguard Against Torture, in which it condemns the practice of forced renditions of terror suspects to countries known for systemic torture and human rights abuses.

The report states that Egypt, Syria, Uzbekistan, and Yemen are known to have received detainees, and that such renditions have also been effected or proposed to countries such as Algeria, Morocco, Russia, Tunisia, and Turkey, where members of particular groups -- Islamists, Chechens, Kurds -- are routinely singled out for the worst forms of abuse.

Countries transfering their detainees to these countries rely upon "diplomatic assurances" that the receiving country will not torture or mistreat the detainees. This is either naivety, or simply a way for sending countries to divert criticism, and avoid culpability for a practice that is patently illegal. Numerous and credible reports of the torture of renditioned detainees make naivety the less parsimonious of the two explanations.

The countries engaging in this practice are named as follows: The United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Georgia.

HRW director Kenneth Roth is quoted as saying "Governments that are using diplomatic assurances know full well that they don't protect against torture, but in the age of terror, they're convenient. Only pressure from the public in Europe and North America can stop this negative trend."

Passaro case: subpoenas

2005-04-13T14:36:00.000+10:00

On 18 June 2003 Abdul Wali turned himself in to US forces in Afghanistan. After three days in their custody, he died.

Despite U.S. officials' insistence that Wali was not mistreated, and subsequent stories that Wali died of a heart attack, CIA operative David Passaro was later charged with mistreating Wali. Today, court documents relating to the trial of Passaro will be released.

Since the start of the trial, it appears that Passaro's initial tactic of trying to use military statements that Wali was not mistreated to prove that Wali was not mistreated has fallen through.

Passaro now intends to use a "public authority" defense, arguing that he acted under the authority of the President and the Director of the CIA, and that he had the authority to treat Wali in the way that he allegedly did. To demonstrate this, Passaro is attempting to subpoena U.S. officials, who have since proved untouchable in prisoner-abuse related court-cases. They include:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales,
then-Directer of the CIA George Tenet,
David Addington (counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney),
U.S. Appeals Court Judge Jay S. Bybee (who authored a memo redefining torture), and
Prof. John Yoo (who helped craft a way to avoid the Geneva Conventions where Taliban and Al Qaida are concerned).

Defense lawyers also sought recordings or documents of satellite phone calls related to Wali's surrender, questioning and death. They also want the court to order the CIA and Justice Department to release documents "that address the capture, detention, and/or interrogation of members of the Taliban, al Qaeda, or other terrorist organizations or combatants operating in Afghanistan."

In early 2006 a federal judge will permit him to present evidence at the trial that he was following orders when he interrogated Wali, however he will stop short of authorizing Passaro to argue a broader "public authority defense" until jurors hear evidence supporting his claim.

EOHR first annual report

2005-04-10T14:28:00.000+10:00

The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights released its first annual report, which is regarded as tougher than expected for a council set up and financed by the government

The report observed that torture by Egyption police was commonplace, and that members of Islamist groups have been detained without charge, and detained after they complete their sentences. The report recommends the end of Emergency Law, which has been in place since 1981, and "[provides] the State a kind of immunity towards violating human rights and marginalizing the constitution and law, in addition to suspending the Egyptian Government's international commitments as ratified in international covenants and declarations concerning human rights".

The Egyptian Government's justification for extending the state of emergency is mainly based on the necessity to fight terrorism. EOHR has confirmed that no armed actions have been monitored since the Luxor Massacre in 1997. Furthermore, the use of the events of 11 September to give an impression that terrorist attacks might extend to Egypt is not politically or legally justified. By selecting justifications for continuing the state of emergency and in the absence of the necessary supervision of its implementation, we are left with its negative effects on the status and future of democracy and human rights in Egypt.

Deaths of ghost detainees

2005-04-04T14:29:00.000+10:00

Today, Reuters will report that at least four references to deaths of "ghost" detainees that do not correspond to the Manadel al-Jamadi case have been recorded in Army investigations. (If anyone can point me to the original ACLU press-release for this, I would be grateful).

Abu Ghraib prison attacked

2005-04-02T14:18:00.000+10:00

Today, approximately 50 insurgents will attack Abu Ghraib prison in a well-planned attack.

Al Qaeda's offshoot in Iraq later is reported to have posted a statement on an Islamist website claiming responsibility. "Three martyrs were ... [killed] while infiltrating the infidels' fortresses and seven other martyrdom seekers went to heaven after they blew up the enemy," the statement said. "Your brothers in the Al Qaeda Organisation [for Holy War] in Iraq launched a well-planned attack on Abu Ghraib prison, where Muslim women and men are held," the groups said in a separate statement.

Incident: Women taken hostage by coalition forces

2005-03-28T14:28:00.000+10:00

According to a report in the Guardian, some time within this week, Salima al-Batawi (60 yrs) and her daughter Aliya (26 yrs) will be taken from their home in Baghdad. Her three sons will return home to find their mother and sister missing, and the following note hand-written in Arabic and attached to their gate:

Be a man Muhammad Mukhlif and give yourself up and then we will release your sisters. Otherwise they will spend a long time in detention.
(signed: Bandit 6)

Rather than surrendering, the wise sons alerted the media, and after 6 days, their mother and sister were released without charge.

Salima al-Batawi said Americans threatened to hold her until her sons surrendered but treated her and her daughter with respect. "They carried out a professional investigation. We found beds with clean sheets and copies of the Koran and bottles of water in a big room".

Amnesty International Report, Kenya

2005-03-24T16:00:00.000+11:00

Today, Amnesty International will release a report entitled Kenya The impact of "anti-terrorism" operations on human rights. In it, Amnesty International will express their concern that Kenya has been torturing its citizens as part of this anti-terrorism operations, largely resulting from the bombing of the Mombasa Hotel in 2002. The report's main findings were:

The use of torture and other ill-treatment during detention including physical abuse;
Detention of suspects without charge in undisclosed locations and without access to a lawyer or relatives;
The holding of suspects in degrading and unsanitary conditions without access to medical care when needed;
Harassment of family members and the arbitrary detention of relatives to put pressure on suspects to hand themselves in;
The failure of police to show warrants when arresting individuals or conducting searches of property.

An individual case, that of Mohammed Surur, is described in the 30 May 2003 entry.

Pentagon censors embarrassing information: that torture ineffectual

2005-03-23T21:07:00.000+11:00

Today it will be reported that the censorship of documents released to NGOs under the Freedom of Information Act was not done purely to protect sensitive information. Government censors had removed phrases that indicated that the the authors had doubts about the value of the information obtained from detainees under duress. From the report:

... a US Senator has pressured the Justice Department into disclosing some of the previously hidden information in one of the memos, revealing more information about the FBI's stance on the military interrogation techniques employed at the base.
Among the newly released snippets of text is one in which the author says he discussed the "effectiveness (or lack thereof) of the DoD [interrogation] techniques." The words "(or lack thereof) of the DoD techniques" had previously been blanked out by government censors.
In another newly unredacted portion of the document, the author describes how FBI agents believed the results obtained from some of the military-run interrogations were "suspect at best."

Happy Iran Sovereignty day, and hands off Iran

2005-03-19T19:01:00.000+11:00

Today is the anniversary of the nationalization of Iran's oil industry. The political movement associated with this was subsequently crushed by the 1953 U.S backed coup d'etat, but it remains a potent symbol of struggle, and a reminder of the true motives of the empire. Some Iranian bloggers have got together the idea of putting a message in blogs about today, to speak against movements towards invasion of Iran. That's why the title of this blog now includes "Hands off Iran". I will be away on business today so I have decided to put my message against the war up early to participate as best I can.

The message I want to give is contained in this blog and sister-blog The People's Oil. "The People's Oil" is a documentation of the only thing that ever motivated the Administration. All talk of freedom and democracy is a capitulation to the good people of America, who would never accept an imperialist war for oil and power alone, and retain with their idealism the naivety to believe their leaders' speech.

Do not believe the lies about good intentions for the Middle East. The interests of brown people will only ever be considered where their interests and the interests of the Administration coincide. This rarely happens, and only when the People protest so hard that they make refusing their demands worse for the Administration than pursuing their original self-interested plan.

"Rummy's Diaries" is a retrospective archive of information about human rights abuse in the War on Terror. This horror is what "war" means. This is the depths of depravity which the Administration is willing to go to when given the American people's tacit support. The fact that the majority of Americans voted for this is proof that this Administration is not sufficiently curtailed by a moral and knowledgeable people to be entrusted with warfare. Don't let them do it to Iran as well. If self-interest is your only interest, I plead with you that there are enough terrorists in the world without creating fresh ones in Iranian detention facilities.

UPDATE: For those in the US who refuse to be passive participators, Sima has an awesome list of activities and protests planned for today. So stand up, get the blood off your hands, and get out there.

Media: 108 deaths in custody

2005-03-18T00:55:00.000+11:00

various media outlets report that an estimated 108 people have died in U.S. custody in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and roughly a quarter of the cases have been investigated as possible U.S. abuse, according to government data provided to The Associated Press. Human-rights groups say there are others.

Of the prisoner deaths:

At least 26 have been investigated as criminal homicides involving possible abuse.
At least 29 are attributed to suspected natural causes or accident.
Twenty-two died during an insurgent mortar attack on April 6, 2004, on Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
At least 21 are attributed to "justifiable homicide," when U.S. troops used deadly force against rioting, escaping or threatening prisoners, and investigations found the troops acted appropriately.

Pentagon clears itself of responsibility for abuse

2005-03-11T00:08:00.000+11:00

Today, an inquiry headed by Vice Admiral Albert T Church will find (exec summary) that neither government policy nor faulty leadership lead to prisoner abuses Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. Carl Levin, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, dismissed the document as a whitewash. I will provide highlights of the unclassified Executive Summary below. I will leave quotations as is, however links will be provided within them in appropriate places so that readers may do their own research into the content of the report.

With regards to GTMO, the summary states that the harshest technique permitted in Guantanamo Bay was "mild, non-injurious physical contact such as grabbing, poking in the chest with a finger, and light pushing". It makes no references to allegations to the contrary, nor to internal memos generated prior which explicitly contradict this statement. Thus the summary concludes that "[in] GTMO, we found that from the beginning of the interrogation operations to the present, interrogation policies were effectively disseminated and interrogators closely adhered to the policies, with minor exceptions".

With regards to Afghanistan, the summary provides a time-line of events to explain some of the incidents that have come to light.

January 24, 2003: A "memorandum tacitly confirmed that "migration" of interrogation techniques [used in Afghanistan] had occurred separately" to the official development of interrogation procedures. It revealed that techniques approved for GTMO only were being used. The sender received no word from CENTCOM or the Joint Staff in response to the memo "and interpreted this silence to mean that the techniques then in use ... were unobjectionable to higher headquarters and therefore could be considered approved policy.
27 February 2003: In light of two detainee deaths at Bagram, a "Commander modified or eliminated" tactics "as a precaution, out of general concern for detainee treatment".
March 2004: new interrogation guidance was created, which "was not drafted as carefully as it could have or should have been". The summary claims that the techniques were based upon an unsigned draft memo from Donald Rumsfeld to CENTCOM, which "identical to the Secretary's April 16, 2003 interrogation policy for GTMO", however they "found no evidence that the Secretary was ever aware of this draft memorandum, which was never approved".

With regards to Iraq and Afghanistan, the summary states that although, there was "poor unit-level compliance with approved policy memoranda",

we found that they did not lead to the employment of illegal or abusive interrogation techniques. According to our investigation, interrogators clearly understood that abusive practices and techniques - such as physical assault, sexual humiliation, terrorizing detainees with unmuzzled dogs, or threats of torture or death - were at all times prohibited ... Thus, with limited exceptions [see below] ... interrogators did not employ such techniques, nor did they direct MPs to do so.

DoD investigators had substantiated 71 cases of detainee abuse, including six deaths, 20 were were considered related to interrogation, defined as during questioning or in the presence of military-intelligence interrogators, including six deaths. They included:

Two female interrogators touched and spoke to detainees at GTMO in a sexually suggestive manner
Numerous villagers in Afghanistan being kicked and punched (see 18 March 2004)
Two deaths at Bagram
Sixteen interrogation-related abuses in Iraq

For all of the above cases, the conclude that "there is no link between any authorized interrogation techniques and the actual abuses described", because "none of the approved policies ... would have permitted the abuse that occurred".

We found, without exception, that the DoD officials and senior military commanders responsible for the formulation of interrogation policy evidenced the intent to treat detainees humanely, which is fundamentally inconsistent with the notion that such officials or commanders ever accepted that detainee abuse would be permissible. Even in the absence of a precise definition of "humane" treatment, it is clear that none of the pictured abuses at Abu Ghraib bear any resemblance to approved policies at any level , in any theater.

They note that

our conclusion is consistent with the findings of the Independent Panel, which ... determined that "[n]o approved procedures called for or allowed the kinds of abuse that in fact occurred. There is no evidence of a policy of abuse promulgated by senior officials or military authorities".
... Nevertheless, with the clarity of hindsight we consider it a missed opportunity that no specific guidance on interrogation techniques was provided to the commanders responsible for Afghanistan and Iraq, as it was ... for Guantanamo Bay.

So why did the abuse occur? According to the summary, the abuses were due to:

passions running high after battle
senior officials failed to respond to early warning signs in time. The report from the ICRC is used as an example.
discipline breakdown in some units

Rape investigation

2005-03-08T14:23:00.000+11:00

Today is International Women's Day. Today, The Guardian will report on the investigation into an alleged rape of an iraqi woman by soldiers. In more irony, this investigation was prompted by an article in soft-core porn magazine, Playboy. The article alleged that the 3rd Infantry Brigade had engaged in various war crimes, from rape to hogtieing and beating up an Iraqi detainee (sorry, I can't find the original).

In an internal invesigation obtained by the ACLU, it is revealed the the soldiers did indeed talk to the playboy reporter (e.g. page 8382), however they uniformly claim that the incidents reported did not occur.

The admission of SPC [censored] to having sex with Iraqi women is as follows (page 8404)

In reference to having sex with Iraqi women. I had sex with an Iraqi prostitute for ten dollars. I was pulling gaurd at a mall. I came off gaurd went into the mall had sex with the woman and then went back onto the roof to pull gaurd.

In questioning, SPC [censored] responds as follows(page 8405 onward). Note that the the following pages have a convenient vertical strip of white through them, giving the appearance that the printer malfunctioned.

Q: Where did you have sex with the Iraqi women?
A: At the shopping center.
Q: How did they get into the shopping center?
A: I don't know.
Q: How did you know about the women?
A: I don't know which one of the two told me, I think it was
[censored].
Q: What did he tell you?
A: He told me there were some prostitutes downstairs, $10.00.
Q: Did [censored] tell you he had sex with the women?
A: Yes.
Q: What did he tell you?
A: He just said he, I can't remember. I am sure he told me but I can't remember what he said. He told me he had sex, but I don't remember what his exact words were.
Q: Did [censored] tell you he had sex with the women?
A: No, he said he didn't, because he was married, but it came out later that he did.
...
Q: How many women [illegible]
A: Two.
Q: How many did you have sex with?
A: One.
Q: How many did [censored] have sex with?
A: I don't know.
Q: How many did [censored] have sex with?
A: No idea.
Q: Did you force [illegible] in any way?
A: No.
Q: How do you [illegible] consenting to the sexual activity?
A: She took my pants off.
Q: Did she take her clothes off?
A: Yes.
Q: Did she cry or yell [illegible] incident?
A: No.
Q: Did she seem [illegible]?
A: No.
Q: Who did [illegible] (money?) to?
A: Her.
...
Q: Do you know [illegible] [censored] raped the woman?
A: No. I don't [illegible]

The testimony of other soldiers is included. For example, investigators summary (page 8387) includes the following

SPC [censored] stated he did hear about soldiers having sex while at the mall. He heard the soldiers that had sex were SPC [censored], PFC [censored], SPC [censored], and PFC [censored] [censored] deceased, formerly assigned to B Co., 1/15th Inf Bn, Fort Benning, GA). He stated he heard they took turns and paid $10.00, but the women were not raped. SPC [censored] had no further information pertaining to this investigation ...
... SGT [censored] stated he was present at the mall when SPC [censored], PFC [censored] and SPC [censored] had sex with prostitutes. SGT [censored] stated he saw the women in the mall and they did not appear to be forced or distressed ...

One soldier even presents an argument for why he did not believe any in his company had raped women (page 8370)

In fact, the sex would have been so cheap to buy, to get sex forcibly would have been to much of a hassel.

Several soldiers claim that sex-workers were plentiful, and that they were often accosted by them. However, on page 8353, one soldier states that SGT [censored] was having some difficulty finding prostitutes

Q: Do you know anything about SGT [censored] and prostitutes?
A: I know he was trying to find some.
Q: How do you know that?
A: He told me.
Q: What did he say?
A: He had said for the past few days he had been trying to get prostitutes down there, but none had shown up.
Q: How was he trying to get prostitutes?
A: I don't know.

Most soldiers quoted only mention the two women. However, some refer to several other Iraqi people present at the time. One soldier states that the prostitutes arrived with their family, and another that they had children with them.

The soldier describes a family as follows (page 8416-8417):

I was guarding the rooftop when someone informed myself and [censored] that there were two women and their families downstairs. We went to check on the situation and I saw two Iraqi men, one older woman about 45 to 50 years of age, and two younger ladies that were dressed in American style jogging outfits. PFC [censored] told me he had sex with one of them and SPC [censored] had also told me they had sex with the two young ladies and paid them $10 (US dollars).

The soldier later states that the girls did not appear distressed or forced to be there, and that he did not see the payment.

Another soldier claims that small children were present (page 8435)

There were 2 prostitutes that showed up at the shopping mall. An older lady and a man with small children were also present.

Some discrepency is noted regarding the sum paid to the prostitutes. Page 8451 has one of the soldiers claiming to have paid $5.00.

The polygraph of SGT [censored] was not included in the documentation.

The women involved were not found and questioned.

10,000 Iraqis in detention

2005-03-06T22:16:00.000+11:00

AFP quotes joint chief of staff General Babakir Zebari as saying "We have 10,000 of them [Iraqis] in detention."

***

Also today, Michael Scheuer, a former CIA analyst who helped set up the rendition program during the Clinton administration, will be quoted as saying

"They don't have the same legal system we have. But we know that going into it. It's finding someone else to do your dirty work."

ACLU sues Rumsfeld

2005-03-01T22:16:00.000+11:00

A lawsuit is filed in federal court in Illinois on behalf of eight men who claim to have been subject to torture and abuse at the hands of U.S. forces under Secretary Rumsfeld's command. The ACLU and Human Rights first charge that Secretary Rumsfeld knew that torture and abuse were taking place and did nothing to stop it.

Media: AP reports Abu Ghraib prisoner died from Palestinian Hanging

2005-02-17T22:15:00.000+11:00

Associated Press reports that Manadel al-Jamadi, the corpse of whom Army Spc. Sabrina Harman posed grinning and giving the thumbs up in the Abu Ghraib photos, died during a Palestinian Hanging. The Palestinian Hanging is a torture technique, so named due to its use by Israeli military on Palestinian prisoners, which involves cuffing a prisoners hands behind their back and then suspending the body's weight from the cuffed hands.

When summoned to reposition al-Jamadi, one Army guard described seeing al-Jamadi's with his arms stretched behind him in a way he had never before seen. The guard told investigators he was surprised al-Jamadi's arms "didn't pop out of their sockets." As the guards released the shackles and lowered al-Jamadi, blood gushed from his mouth "as if a faucet had been turned on," according to the interview summary. A pathologist later ruled that al-Jamadi had several broken ribs, and died from pressure to the chest and difficulty breathing.

Media: Mamdouh Habib interviewed by Australia's 60 Minutes

2005-02-13T22:14:00.000+11:00

Mambdouh Habib is an Australian citizen who was detained by the US in Guantanamo Bay, with alleged periods of detention in Pakistan and Egypt. He is interviewed by Tara Brown on 60 Minutes for an undisclosed sum, and to have been tortured and abused by his captors.

HRW: Torture and ill-treatment of Iraqi detainees

2005-01-18T22:14:00.000+11:00

A report entitled The New Iraq? Torture and ill-treatment of detainees in Iraqi custody is released by Human Rights Watch. Subsequently left-leaning media take up the story.

It is reported that 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. "The majority of detainees . . . stated that torture and ill-treatment during the initial period was commonplace" in jails run by the Interior Ministry, the report says. The abuses included "routine beatings . . . using cables, [rubber] hose-pipes and metal rods . . . kicking, slapping and punching, prolonged suspension from the wrists," as well as electric shocks to the genitals and long periods spent blindfolded and handcuffed.

Several of the detainees claim that US Marines were present and observed their torture. The report relates "the only known case in which U.S. forces intervened to stop detainee abuse." It said scouts from an Oregon Army National Guard unit saw Iraqi guards at an Interior Ministry compound abusing detainees on June 29. A soldier took pictures through his rifle scope of detainees who were blindfolded and bound.

According to an account related in the report by Capt. Jarrell Southal of the National Guard, his soldiers entered the compound and found bound prisoners "writhing in pain" and complaining of lack of water. They gave water to the men, moved them out of the sun and then disarmed the Iraqi police. But when the Oregon soldiers radioed up their chain of command for instructions, they were ordered to "return the prisoners to the Iraqi authorities and leave the detention yard."

Incident: Adrey tortured in Kuwait by Australians

2004-12-01T21:12:00.000+11:00

This month, Tallaal Adrey will be imprisoned on terrorism charges. In three month's time, according to media reports, he will make his first court appearance, and there he will claim that he was tortured. Specifically, he will claim that

his fingernails were torn out
his confessions were forced (source link)
he was beaten on the legs and hands
he was denied sleep
he was held in him solitary confinement for two months (source link).

He will also claim that his torturers had Australian accents.

Gonzales nominated for United States Attorney General

2004-11-10T22:13:00.000+11:00

Today, Alberto Gonzales was nominated by President Bush to replace United States Attorney General John Ashcroft for Bush's second term. During the speech, Bush will give a glowing description of the nominee

His sharp intellect and sound judgement have helped shape our policies in the war on terror ... He has an unwavering principle of respect for the law.

In an interview with The New Yorker, John C. Yoo, the author of the memo from 09 January 2002 which argues that members of al Qaeda and members of the Taliban are not entitled to protection under the Geneva Conventions, relates this to public opinion on torture. He states that President Bush's victory in the 2004 election, along with the relatively mild challenge to Gonzales mounted by the Democrats in Congress, was "proof that the debate is over." He said, "The issue is dying out. The public has had its referendum."