[article]US army probes deaths in custody

Memnoch

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3684381.stm

The US military says there have been investigations into 25 deaths in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In two cases the dead men were found to have been murdered by Americans, according to a US army official.

The other murder was committed by a private contractor who worked for the CIA, the official said.

As the US tried to contain the damage caused as the pictures of abuse were shown in the press in the Arab world, US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice appeared on the Al-Jazeera channel to appeal for trust.

But in Iraq, the US-appointed human rights minister, Abdul-Basat al-Turki, resigned on Tuesday in protest at the abuses.

so now that the cat is well and truly out of the bag, its time for a) damage control and b) blame shifting

basically they will try to pass this off as being the work of "some sadists". But as the scale of the admitted abuse increases its harder and harder to believe that.

Looks like they've given up the "isolated incident" line finally... thank god for that...
can't be isolated if it was both in iraq and afghanasthan :P

Now they are trying to look like they are doing everything in their power to end this "abuse". But I for one believe that this is something that they have allowed and condoned atleast subtely if not directly. I also believe that this kind of "abuse" will go on unless there is independent investigations and monitering by agencies independent of the coalition. Only now they will make sure no more "evidence" of this kind gets out.

I think the scale of events "admitted" alone is enough to warrant a full scale independent investigation at this stage.

they admit to 25 deaths in custody, how many of those men were tortured? More importantly how many were tortured but did not die...

even if we take 4 tortured/abused prisoners to 1 death thats still 100 instances at least...

edit: Also am I the ONLY person that seems to think its a TAD hypocritical that they talk about this being "un-american", not something they "condone" not something they find "acceptable", yet they have been known to export prisoners to foreign regimes to be tortured in order to circumvent human rights law??

Memnoch

another interstesting article deals with the report itself...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3684825.stm

Gen Taguba's report says detainees were forced to commit sexual acts, were threatened with torture, rape or attack by dogs, and were hidden from Red Cross visits, "in violation of international law".

"This systemic and illegal abuse of detainees was intentionally perpetrated by several members of the military police guard force (372nd Military Police Company, 320th Military Police Battalion, 800th MP Brigade), in Tier 1-A of the Abu Ghraib Prison."

please note the word Systemic

According to reports, Gen Taguba identified two military intelligence officers - a colonel and lieutenant colonel - and two civilian contractors as key figures in the abuses.

so who is responsible for what happened? Or was it pure chance that 6 sadists happened to be thrown together in an unlikely turn of events that lead to this?

We all know that the military ppl are being "tried", but what of the civilian contractors?

I'd love to hear their "defence"... how many bets they say they were acting under the pentagon's instructions?