Amnesty International calls for an independent investigation of the abuses of Iraqi prisoners of war by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison:

"There must be a fully independent, impartial and public investigation into all allegations of torture. Nothing less will suffice. If Iraq is to have a sustainable and peaceful future, human rights must be a central component of the way forward. The message must be sent loud and clear that those who abuse human rights will be held accountable."Our extensive research in Iraq suggests that this is not an isolated incident. It is not enough for the USA to react only once images have hit the television screens".

Amnesty International has received frequent reports of torture or other ill-treatment by Coalition Forces during the past year. Detainees have reported being routinely subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment during arrest and detention. Many have told Amnesty International that they were tortured and ill-treated by US and UK troops during interrogation. Methods often reported include prolonged sleep deprivation; beatings; prolonged restraint in painful positions, sometimes combined with exposure to loud music; prolonged hooding; and exposure to bright lights. Virtually none of the allegations of torture or ill-treatment has been adequately investigated by the authorities.

Human Rights Watch calls for a probe of the military higher-ups and contractors:

The promised U.S. investigation into the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners should not stop with the lower-level soldiers who were immediately involved, Human Rights Watch said today. The United States should also investigate the superiors of these soldiers to see whether they ordered or knowingly tolerated these abuses.

An Iraq prison diary by Joe Ryan, one of the U.S. interrogators has found its way onto the web. [links via Orcinus and Billmon]

A released Iraqi prisoner says in an interview he was tortured at Abu Ghraid prison first by Saddam and then by the Americans and his treatment by Americans was worse:

Dhia al-Shweiri spent several stints in Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib prison, twice under Saddam Hussein's rule and once under American. He prefers Saddam's torture to the humiliation of being stripped naked by his American guards, he said Sunday in an interview with The Associated Press.

....Al-Shweiri said he was not surprised to see TV images of smiling U.S. soldiers posing by naked, hooded inmates who, in one photograph, were piled in a human pyramid. Al-Shweiri, who was arrested by the Americans in October, said he was asked to take off his clothes only once and for about 15 minutes. "I thought they wanted me to change into the red prison uniform, so I took off my clothes, down to my underwear. Then he asked me to take off my underwear. I started arguing with him but in the end he made me take off my underwear," said al-Shweiri, who was too embarrassed to go into too much detail.

He said he and six other prisoners - all hooded - had to face the wall and bend over a little as they put their hands on the wall. "They made us stand in a way that I am ashamed to describe. They came to look at us as we stood there. They knew this would humiliate us," he said, adding that he was not sodomized.
"They were trying to humiliate us, break our pride. We are men. It's OK if they beat me. Beatings don't hurt us, it's just a blow. But no one would want their manhood to be shattered," he said. "They wanted us to feel as though we were women, the way women feel and this is the worst insult, to feel like a woman," al-Shweiri said.

al-Shweiri has a plan for retaliation:

Now the 30-year-old, who used to work in a fabric shop, is a die-hard fighter in the al-Mahdi Army, the fanatic militia of a Shiite Muslim cleric who has vowed to take on the Americans.

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11 U.S. troops were killed today. Another 10 were wounded. Are we losing the war? Yes, says Patrick Cockburn, writing in Sunday's Independent.

A year on from 'Mission Accomplished', an Army in Disgrace, a Policy in Tatters and the Real Prospect of Defeat. Against the odds, America has earned the hatred of ordinary Iraqis. In Baghdad Patrick Cockburn sees the battle for hearts and minds comprehensively lost.

The tide is going out for the US in Iraq. They were not able to use their military strength against Fallujah and Najaf. They have very little political support outside Kurdistan. They can no longer win. It may be one of the most extraordinary defeats in history.

Reuters reports the Arab world believes the liberators are worse than the dictators. Check out the pictures.

Noah at Defense Tech writes of hints of Iraqi prisoner abuse in December. Billmon does the same with details you won't want to miss.

We have been reporting on alleged Iraqi prisoner abuse for a year. Starting with Noah's timeframe of December, working backwards: In December, 2003, we wrote about it here--and in November, we wrote about it here and here. In October, we wrote about an Iraqi prisoner being left to die at the hands of his countrymen.

In August, 2003, we wrote about a military hearing investigating abuse of Iraqi prisoners. We pointed out a Guardian article of concern to us here.

In July, 2003, we wrote about four U.S. soldiers who were charged with abusing POW's in May at a prison camp in Southeastern Iraq. In June, 2003, we reported the U.S. was investigating whether U.S. troops were responsible for the mystery death of an Iraqi POW.

In May, 2003, we wrote about suspected abuse of Iraqi pows by british soldiers. A soldier had left a roll of film for developing.

The film depicted a bound and gagged Iraqi inside a net that was suspended from a forklift, according to The Sun, which first reported the story this morning. The Sun also reported that the roll included pictures of soldiers performing sex acts near Iraqi prisoners.

So there have been hints, reports, investigation and hearings into abuse of Iraqi POW's all along. We can't help but question the sincerity of those in the military and Bush Administration who profess to be so shocked about it now.

Excellent news. Thomas Hamill, the American Halliburton employee taken hostage and shown on Arab tv a few weeks ago, escaped his captors and ran to the safety of a military convoy yesterday. He is reported to be physically well, with a gunshot wound to the arm that probably occurred during his capture.

John Nichol, an RAF navigator in Gulf War I, was shot down over Iraq and paraded on tv. Here is his reaction to the photos of Iraqi prisoners allegedly abused at Abu Ghraib prison. He begins:

They are the images I thought I would never have to see again, sickening pictures of Iraqi prisoners, naked, tortured and humiliated. Surely liberation from Saddam Hussein's brutal, evil regime had seen an end to all of that? Yet here they are, photographs of American soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib's dungeon and of British servicemen brutalising captives in Basra.

They have sent shock waves around the world and shivers down my spine. During the Gulf war in 1991, I was shot down over Iraq, taken prisoner, tortured, humiliated and paraded on TV in pictures that provided an enduring image of that war. Now, perhaps, these horrific new pictures from Iraq will be the lasting image of so-called liberation.

Update: Amnesty International has reports of torture as well.

Don't miss this new New Yorker article by Seymour Hersh on the sadistic torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraid prison:

A fifty-three-page report, obtained by The New Yorker, written by Major General Antonio M. Taguba and not meant for public release, was completed in late February. Its conclusions about the institutional failures of the Army prison system were devastating. Specifically, Taguba found that between October and December of 2003 there were numerous instances of “sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses” at Abu Ghraib. This systematic and illegal abuse of detainees, Taguba reported, was perpetrated by soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company, and also by members of the American intelligence community. (The 372nd was attached to the 320th M.P. Battalion, which reported to Karpinski’s brigade headquarters.) Taguba’s report listed some of the wrongdoing:

Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.

The report says there are photos and videos to back up the claims:

Following up on TChris's earlier post on Sinclair Broadcast Group's decision not to air Nightline tonight, we also urge you to read American Progress Report:

Tonight, ABC's "Nightline" will pay tribute to U.S. troops killed in Iraq by airing a 40 minute special – the names of the fallen will be read by anchor Ted Koppel as their photographs appear on screen. But Sinclair Broadcast Group – the country's largest owner of TV stations – will not allow its ABC affiliates to air the show. In a statement, Sinclair claims the special "appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq." While Sinclair claims it is pre-empting Nightline because it is an attempt to "influence public opinion," the record shows that Sinclair media has repeatedly leveraged its control over the airwaves to manipulate public opinion in favor of President Bush's right-wing agenda.

SINCLAIR REQUIRES JOURNALISTS TO READ PRO-BUSH STATEMENTS: In September 2001, Sinclair Broadcasting required its affiliates to air messages "conveying full support" for the Bush administration. At a Baltimore affiliate, WBFF "officials required news and sports anchors, even a weather forecaster, to read the messages, "which included statements such as "[the station] wants you to know that we stand 100% behind our President." Several WBFF staffers objected on the grounds that reading the statements would "erode their reputations as objective journalists" because it made them appear to be "endorsing specific government actions."

by TChris

Did Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick violate military rules by abusing Iraqi prisoners of war, or is he a scapegoat who merely followed orders? Frederick's journal entries indicate that he complained to the acting battalion commander about conditions at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, including confinement of prisoners in damp and unventillated three-by-three foot cells. He says the commander responded: "I don't care if he has to sleep standing up."

The claim that "I was following orders" doesn't justify humiliating and degrading prisoners, or inflicting the kind of abuse reported here. Nor can the abuse of prisoners be written off as harmless "pranks" as some family members of the accused soldiers have suggested. But responsibility doesn't rest solely with soldiers like Frederick if his superiors knew what was happening and did nothing to prevent it, or if they required him to be abusive. Frederick's civilian lawyer, Gary Myers, said Frederick didn't intend to humiliate any prisoners until higher-ranking officers told him what to do.

Frederick's journal entries may be self-serving -- he didn't start the journal until military investigators questioned him in January -- but, if true, the entries support his claim that his requests for guidance were met with indifference.

He wrote that he questioned the inmates' treatment and asked for standard operating procedures when his unit relieved the 72nd Military Police Company at the prison last fall. His requests were ignored until Jan. 19, five days after his first visit from investigators, when he found the Geneva Convention rules for handling prisoners of war on the Internet, Frederick wrote.

by TChris

Your tax dollars at work:

Sen. Evan Bayh said Wednesday the Army needs to buy more Indiana-made Humvees to better protect soldiers in Iraq.

A cynic might say that Sen. Bayh is more interested in helping his home state's economy than in protecting troops -- hence the desire to buy "Indiana-made" vehicles rather than other forms of armored transportation.

There are better ways to protect our soldiers. One option is to accede to the desires of the Iraqi citizenry, 60 percent of whom "want the US and its allies to leave immediately, even if it means the security situation will deteriorate." Another option is to stop killing innocent Iraqi civilians, which can only result in ill-will and increased violence against U.S. soldiers.

US troops ... are seen by most Iraqis as "uncaring, dangerous and lacking in respect for the country's people, religion and traditions."

"One specific Iraqi complaint against US troops is the widespread perception – whether correct or incorrect – that they have been indiscriminate in their use of force when civilians are nearby," said Gallup's director of international polling, Richard Burkholder.

by TChris

A car bombing on Thursday in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, took the lives of eight U.S. soldiers and wounded four others. Other attacks in eastern Baghdad and in Ba'qubah, north of Baghdad, claimed the lives of two more U.S. soldiers.

The folks running ReDefeatBush.com just put up a Firesign Theatre/SNL-style Flash parody of tomorrow’s Bush/Cheney hearings here.

In anticipation of Bush and Cheney's 9/11 Testimony, and given the lack of recordings or even transcripts, ReDefeatBush.com has produced the version we'd like to hear. Take a look at ReDefeatBush.com's first installment of ReDefeatBush Theater. Premiering Thursday April 29th between 7:00A and 8:00A on WJFK-FM in Washington during the Howard Stern Show, along with a couple of more traditional radio commercials. Our television ads start Friday on WJLA, the ABC affiliate in Washington.

Hat-tip to BB who writes in:

The parody’s pretty funny -- the Bush voice is dead-on -- but the topic of Cheney’s potential involvement in an oil deal gone wrong (the launch-point of the parody) sure isn’t. RDB does link from the SWF to a pretty good backgrounder. More grist for the how-crazy-were-they mill …