Iraq: The Human Toll

Posted on July 30, 2005 by Team VCS

Iraq: The Human Toll

by DAVID CORTRIGHT, The Nation, July 24, 2005

Living conditions for the people of Iraq, already poor before the war, have deteriorated significantly since the US invasion. This is confirmed in a new report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Iraqi Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation. Based on a survey of 21,000 households conducted in 2004, the study shows that the Iraqi people are suffering widespread death and war-related injury, high rates of infant and child mortality, chronic malnutrition and illness among children, low rates of life expectancy and significant setbacks with regard to the role of women in society.

Malnutrition among small children in Iraq is widespread. Nearly one-quarter of Iraqi children now suffer chronic malnutrition, and 8 percent suffer acute malnutrition. Illness levels among Iraqi children are also high, which is partly the result of unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation. According to the report, “compared to other countries in the region and to the earlier data from Iraq…the supply of safe and stable water…has deteriorated.” There has also been “a steep deterioration in the sanitary situation.” Forty percent of urban households report sewage in the streets of their neighborhoods.

The UNDP study found that infant and child mortality rates remain high, although there is much uncertainty about the exact numbers. The evidence “indicates a progressive worsening of the situation for children.” High infant mortality rates in Iraq contrast with declining infant mortality rates in neighboring countries. In most of the world, including the surrounding countries, mortality rates for children have steadily fallen over the decades. In Iraq, however, child mortality rates have climbed. This translates into thousands of “excess” infant deaths every year. These are the quiet, unseen victims of the continuing tragedy in Iraq.

The new report sheds light on the total number of Iraqi deaths directly attributable to the war. As of mid-2004, according to the survey, the war had caused approximately 24,000 Iraqi deaths. The death toll in Iraq has continued to climb, so these numbers are larger now than when the survey was conducted. At the time of the UNDP survey, the Iraqi Body Count website estimated total deaths at 14,000-16,000. In May of this year the Body Count website estimate stood at 21,000-24,000. This would suggest that the comparable figure for war-related deaths using the UNDP methodology is more than 30,000. Many of the victims in the current war are women and children. The number of children injured since the US invasion is higher than the number of military-age men. The report said that in the ongoing war, it is members of “the civilian population that are most affected.”

There is striking evidence of the insecurity of daily life in Iraq. Gunshots and weapons fire are a common occurrence. When asked about the frequency of weapon shots in their neighborhood, 37 percent of respondents said “every day,” and 23 percent said “several times a week. Public insecurity has especially serious consequences for women. The survey found that nearly half of Iraqi women “think that the security in their area has worsened compared to one year ago.” This has prompted an increasing number of women to stay at home, thus reinforcing a trend over the last decade of declining levels of education and literacy among women. According to the report, “the security situation is a major obstacle to individual freedom in women’s everyday life.”

Years of war and sanctions have devastated Iraqi society and caused widespread malnutrition, illness and premature death. The resulting public health crisis has lowered life expectancy for the entire population. According to the UNDP report, “the probability of dying before the age of 40 for Iraqi children born between 2000 and 2005 is estimated at 18 percent…approximately three times the level in neighboring Jordan and Syria.”

The humanitarian crisis in Iraq is further evidence of the abysmal failure of US policy. The destruction and turmoil sparked by the invasion have led not only to widespread violence and incipient civil war but to widespread civilian suffering, especially among the most vulnerable. A war justified partly on humanitarian grounds has increased humanitarian hardships. During the 1990s a worldwide humanitarian outcry rose in response to stories of Iraqi babies dying because of sanctions. It is time for a new public outcry, to demand a change in US policy and urgently needed humanitarian relief for the Iraqi people.

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Milestone: Iraq and Afghanistan War Casualties Hit 2,007

Posted on July 30, 2005 by Team VCS

Milestone: Iraq and Afghanistan War Casualties Hit 2,007

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf (official DoD casualty site is updated every morning)

Low-balling the Cost of War: CBO Assumes No Casualties

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/index.cfm?Page=Article&ID=74 (article reprinted from October 2002, well before the invasion of Iraq)

by Charles Sheehan-Miles, October 7, 2002

 

In a surprisingly rosy cost estimate of something which can’t be accurately estimated, the Congressional Budget Office Monday released an analysis of what Gulf War II might cost in real dollars paid by U.S. taxpayers.  Only they left out the most important part: the casualties.

 

Actually, as a former tank crewman who has seen combat first-hand, if the situation wasn’t so serious, the CBO estimate would be seen by reasonable people as a cruel hoax on the American public and Congress.

The CBO estimate is naïve and unrealistic when you consider the kind of war we are preparing to enter – an open-ended war of regime-change and occupation and empire building that may involve heavy casualties in an urban setting such as Baghdad.

The CBO report is illuminating and instructive for what it avoids.

CBO uses the word “assume” 30 times, “uncertain” 8 times, “unknown” 4 times. Finally, twice it says there is “no basis” for an estimate on key items. In other words, it’s a wild guess: kind of like taking your broker’s advice to buy Enron or WorldCom last summer.

 

CBO states up front: “CBO has no basis for estimating the number of casualties from the conflict,” therefore, any discussion of casualties was simply excluded.

The result is actually useless, despite the heavy coverage of the CBO report on “all-war all-the-time” Fox News.

What the report tells us is that if the U.S. uses an arbitrary size force a fraction the size of that deployed for Gulf War I, then Gulf War II might cost somewhere between $9 and $13 billion to simply transport our troops and equipment to the region.

Then tack on another $6 to $9 billion every month to conduct the war well into the future, and watch the money pour down the sewers, filling the cups of the waiting defense contactors like Halliburton, which already made a bonanza off Afghanistan.

Remember, CBO neglected to estimate the financial cost of casualties. Chaos, battles, combat and death are the fundamental ingredients of war.

According to VFW Magazine (January 2001), most of the 1991 Gulf War Killed-in-Action occurred in just a few incidents. 

 

  • 28 U.S.soldiers were killed when their barracks was
    destroyed by an Iraqi missile on February 25, 1991. 
  • 26 U.S. soldiers were killed during the Battlefor
    Khafji when Iraq mounted a short-lived offensive against Saudi Arabia. 
  • 10 U.S.soldiers killed when a 1st
    infantry Division Black Hawk helicopter was shot down over Iraq on February 27
  • 5 U.S. soldiers killed from the 101st Infantry Division in a similar incident the same day.
  • Seven soldiers from the 27th Engineer Battalion were killed at As Salman on February 26. 

     

And the list goes on.

 

These casualties were taken under near ideal circumstances: open terrain, fighting against a demoralized enemy, tactical surprise on most of the battlefield, and no urban fighting, with the exception of Khafji, where we took heavy losses.

More recent experience shows similar results:

 

        ·        241 U.S. Marines killed in their barracks Beirut, Lebanon in 1983.

·        18 U.S. soldiers killed in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993.

·        17 U.S. soldiers killed aboard the U.S.S. Cole in Aden, Yemen in 2000.

·        6 U.S. soldiers killed in heavy fighting on March 6, 2002 in Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden escaped (remember him?).

A war in Iraq, fought in urban environments to throw out an entrenched government against soldiers defending their home towns, will certainly result in similar casualties, and quite likely much higher.

Throw in a battlefield already contaminated with 300 tons of cancer-causing depleted uranium radioactive dust from Gulf War I, and the potential for high casualties and financial disaster is clear.

Here are some numbers we need to add to the report. To date, more than 400 U.S. soldiers died in Southwest Asia since 1990. If the U.S. loses an additional 500 service members, not an unlikely number, most will be entitled to $200,000 life insurance, totaling $100 million. That’s if casualties are very low.

That’s not all, of course. The financial toll from the 1991 Gulf War continues. Disability compensation payments to Gulf War veterans – excluding any Gulf War veterans who also served in Vietnam – amounted to $1.8 billion last year, according to a recent report on the Department of Veterans Affairs web site.

U.S. taxpayers are still paying $3 billion a year to World War Two veterans. If we take the Gulf War as a basis, and assume $1.8 billion per year for disability to Gulf War II veterans for the next fifty years, add $90 billion to the overall tab for Gulf War II.

Current U.S. taxpayers will be paying for Gulf War II for the rest of their lives.

Of course, what everyone avoids discussing is the pain and suffering faced by the warriors who will die on the battlefield, those injured, and their families.

There is also the emotional toll on veterans (and their families) who return home, their lives shattered by incredible violence. According to a study of Vietnam veterans published in the Federal Practitioner (March 1995), over twenty thousand Vietnam veterans have committed suicide. Some estimates place the numbers much higher.

Then there is the enormous price of the lives of the people the U.S. intends to “liberate” from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein by killing them.

So let’s be candid and serious: there will be enormous financial and social costs of another Gulf war.

The tragedy is these costs pale in comparison to the trillions of dollars in profits oil companies stand to gain when a “pro-Western dictator” is installed, as Congressman Tom Lantos has suggested, and all of Iraq’s oil reserves are opened up to campaign donors.

But that’s another story.

Isn’t war is easy when it’s someone else’s kid doing the fighting and dying for someone else’s pocketbook?

Charles Sheehan-Miles, a decorated Gulf War combat veteran, is the author of “Prayer at Rumayla” (XLibris, 2001) and is a former President of the National Gulf War Resource Center.

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General Meyers Blocks Release of Pictures Depicting U.S. Torture of Enemy Prisoners

Posted on July 30, 2005 by Team VCS

General Meyers Blocks Release of Pictures Depicting U.S. Torture of Enemy Prisoners

Defense Department Files Secret Arguments in Further Attempt to Suppress Abu Ghraib Photos

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@aclu.org

NEW YORK — The Defense Department has filed heavily redacted papers in a further attempt to suppress photographs and videos that depict the abuse of prisoners held at Abu Ghraib, the American Civil Liberties Union said today. The move is the government’s latest effort to block the release of materials requested by the ACLU under the Freedom of Information Act.

“The government’s recent actions make a mockery of the Freedom of Information Act,” said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director. “The Defense Department has long dragged its heels on coming clean about the systematic and widespread abuse of detainees, but denying the public the right to even hear its legal arguments for withholding information is a new low.”

Last week, on the deadline of a court order requiring the Defense Department to process and redact 87 photographs and four videos taken at Abu Ghraib, government attorneys filed a last-minute memorandum of law and three affidavits arguing against the release of the materials. The government’s papers cite a statutory provision that permits the withholding of records “compiled for law enforcement purposes,” that “could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual.”

However, the government has redacted significant portions of its public brief, including the conclusion. The government also heavily redacted portions of declarations submitted in support of the brief. One of the declarations is that of General Richard Meyers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. ACLU attorneys have been provided with less-redacted court papers pursuant to a protective order that prevents them from disclosing the papers’ contents to the public.

“Not only is the government denying the public access to records of critical significance, it is also withholding its reasons for doing so,” said Amrit Singh, an ACLU staff attorney. “This exemplifies the government’s disregard for democratic constraints on the use of executive power.”

A hearing has been scheduled in federal court in New York for August 15 to address two issues: whether the public has been improperly denied access to information as a result of the government’s redacted briefs, and whether the government should be compelled to release photographs of abuse at Abu Ghraib.

The photographs and videos in question were redacted by the Defense Department in response to a June 1, 2005 court order relating to a lawsuit filed under the Freedom of Information Act filed by the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans for Peace. The New York Civil Liberties Union is co-counsel in the case.

To date, more than 60,000 pages of government documents have been released in response to the ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The ACLU has been posting these documents online at www.aclu.org/torturefoia.

The FOIA lawsuit is being handled by Lawrence Lustberg and Megan Lewis of the New Jersey-based law firm Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione, P.C. Other attorneys in the case are Singh, Jameel Jaffer, and Judy Rabinovitz of the ACLU; Arthur N. Eisenberg and Beth Haroules of the NYCLU; and Barbara Olshansky of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

The redacted public version of the government’s memorandum of law is available online at: http://www.aclu.org/International/International.cfm?ID=18835&c=36

The redacted public version of General Richard Meyers’ affidavit is available online at: http://www.aclu.org/International/International.cfm?ID=18837&c=36  

The redacted public version of Ronald Schlicher’s affidavit is available online at: http://www.aclu.org/International/International.cfm?ID=18839&c=36  

The redacted public version of Phillip McGuire’s affidavit is available online at: http://www.aclu.org/International/International.cfm?ID=18841&c=36  

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CIA officials used a sledgehammer handle to beat various prisoners in Iraq

Posted on July 28, 2005 by Team VCS

Guardsman: CIA beat Iraqis with hammer handles

By Arthur Kane
Denver Post Staff Writer
July 27, 2005

CIA officials used a sledgehammer handle to beat various prisoners in Iraq, and one official, whose name is classified, would often brag about his abuse of prisoners, according to testimony in a closed session of a military hearing.

The transcript, obtained this week by The Denver Post under a court order, was of a March hearing to determine whether three Fort Carson Army soldiers should stand trial for the death of Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush during an interrogation in 2003.

Chief Warrant Officer Jefferson Williams and Spec. Jerry Loper face murder charges in the case.  A third soldier, Sgt. 1st Class William Sommer, has not had final charges approved, though he also was involved in the March preliminary Article 32 hearing.

Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer waived his hearing but is charged with murder.
In the March hearing, Sgt. 1st Class Gerold Pratt of the Utah National Guard said he saw classified personnel use a 15-inch wooden sledgehammer handle to hit prisoners.

“They’d ask you a question, and if they didn’t like it, they’d hit you,” he said.
“With Chief Welshofer, he’d at least give the detainee a chance to tell the truth,” testified Pratt, who was running logistics at the detention facility near Qaim dubbed the Blacksmith Hotel.

A CIA spokeswoman, who declined to give her name, would not comment.
While identifying information in the transcript is redacted in most cases, an exchange between Pratt and a defense attorney show that the CIA was involved.

“To your knowledge, SFC Sommer did not accompany any of these CIA folks?” Capt. Michael Melito, who was then representing Sommer, asked Pratt.

While allegations about CIA officials and special forces beating Mowhoush with fists and a rubber hose have been previously reported, the court transcript is the first evidence that those officials repeatedly beat other detainees in northwestern Iraq.

In open session during the hearing, Pratt also testified that Williams threw a heavy box of food at Mowhoush. That testimony resulted in an additional charge of assault against Williams.

Williams’ attorney, William Cassara, disputed the incident with the box and previously questioned Pratt’s credibility. But Cassara said he was sure other officials were involved in prisoner abuse.

“I have no doubts that other government agencies used methods of interrogation that were much worse than what Chief Welshofer used,” Cassara said.

Later, Pratt testified that the official was mocking the prisoners he was beating.
“Well, particularly after the general was killed. I don’t remember the exact words, but he was mocking the fact that the general died,” Pratt testified.

Williams and Welshofer, through their attorneys, had previously denied any wrongdoing.
Welshofer’s attorney could not be reached for comment.

Staff writer Arthur Kane can be reached at 303-820-1626 or akane@denverpost.com  

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Army General Advised Using Dogs at Abu Ghraib, Officer Testifies

Posted on July 28, 2005 by Team VCS

Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller told top officers during an advisory visit to Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison that they needed to get military working dogs for use in interrogations, and he advocated procedures then in use at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to court testimony yesterday.

Maj. David DiNenna, the top military police operations officer at Abu Ghraib in 2003, said that when Miller and a team of Guantanamo Bay officials visited in early September 2003, Miller advocated mirroring the Cuba operation.

“We understood he was sent over by the secretary of defense,” DiNenna testified by telephone. DiNenna said Miller and his team were at Abu Ghraib “to take their interrogation techniques they used at Guantanamo Bay and incorporate them into Iraq.”

DiNenna’s testimony at a preliminary hearing for two Army dog handlers provided additional confirmation that the Guantanamo teams brought their aggressive interrogation tactics to Iraq in the weeks before abuse was committed there. While methods employed at Abu Ghraib — including hooding, nudity and placing prisoners in stress positions — have been characterized by senior defense officials as rogue, abusive horseplay on the night shift, some of them had been authorized for experienced interrogators at Guantanamo Bay. Dogs, seen menacing detainees at Abu Ghraib in grisly photographs, were also used in Cuba under Miller’s command.

The defense teams for Sgt. Santos A. Cardona and Sgt. Michael J. Smith argued during their two-day hearing at Fort Meade, Md., that the dog handlers were doing their jobs when their dogs bit a naked detainee whose cell was being searched for contraband. Defense lawyers portrayed their clients as following orders — from both military intelligence and military police officials — they believed to be appropriate.

“They were told to listen to the interrogators and to do what they told them to do,” Harvey Volzer, a civilian attorney representing Cardona, said after the hearing.

Cardona and Smith, who face potentially lengthy sentences should they be convicted at court-martial, were charged this summer after an initial criminal investigation in early 2004 found that allegations of abuse against them were unfounded, according to their attorneys. It was only after photographs of the two dog handlers surfaced publicly that they again faced legal scrutiny.

Maj. Matthew Miller, a prosecutor in this week’s preliminary hearing, said yesterday in a closing statement that there is “copious evidence” that Cardona and Smith abused detainees beyond the scope of their duties. “The pictures, to a large extent, speak for themselves,” he said.

The investigating officer, Maj. Glenn Simpkins, is expected to make a recommendation on the dog handlers’ cases within the next two weeks. The case could go to a court-martial, could result in administrative punishment, or could be dismissed.

The use of military dogs to exploit fear in detainees was approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for use on a specific important detainee in Cuba in late 2002 and early 2003.

Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller was later sent to Iraq for 10 days with a team of 17 Guantanamo Bay interrogators and analysts beginning Aug. 31, 2003. A spokesman said Miller was on leave and could not be reached for comment.

DiNenna also supported claims made by Janis L. Karpinski, then a brigadier general in charge of U.S. prisons in Iraq as the commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, that Miller said he wanted to “Gitmo-ize” Abu Ghraib.

DiNenna said Miller used that term in an outdoor meeting at the prison’s Camp Vigilant — a meeting that included DiNenna, Karpinski and Col. Thomas M. Pappas, who was the top military intelligence officer there and later ran the prison. At that meeting, DiNenna said, Miller made it clear he wanted Abu Ghraib to reflect the Guantanamo facility.

“He said they used dogs at [Guantanamo], how they were effective at [Guantanamo], and asked why we didn’t have working dogs,” DiNenna testified. “He was going to talk to [Lt. Gen. Ricardo S.] Sanchez and get us the resources we needed.”

The dogs, which had been requested previously to help with security, arrived a few weeks later.

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Pentagon Blocks Release of Abu Ghraib Images: Here’s Why

Posted on July 26, 2005 by Team VCS

So what is shown on the 87 photographs and four videos from Abu Ghraib prison that the Pentagon, in an eleventh hour move, blocked from release this weekend? One clue: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress last year, after viewing a large cache of unreleased images: “I mean, I looked at them last night, and they’re hard to believe.” They show acts “that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhumane,” he added.

A Republican Senator suggested the same day they contained scenes of “rape and murder.” No wonder Rumsfeld commented then, “If these are released to the public, obviously it’s going to make matters worse.”

Yesterday, news emerged that lawyers for the Pentagon had refused to cooperate with a federal judge’s order to release dozens of unseen photographs and videos from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by Saturday. The photos were among thousands turned over by the key “whistleblower” in the scandal, Specialist Joseph M. Darby. Just a few that were released to the press sparked the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal last year, and the video images are said to be even more shocking.

The Pentagon lawyers said in a letter sent to the federal court in Manhattan that they would file a sealed brief explaining their reasons for not turning over the material. They had been ordered to do so by a federal judge in response to a FOIA lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU accused the government Friday of putting another legal roadblock in the way of its bid to allow the public to see the images of the prisoner abuse scandal.

One Pentagon lawyer has argued that they should not be released because they would only add to the humiliation of the prisoners. But the ACLU has said the faces of the victims can easily be “redacted.”

To get a sense of what may be shown in these images, one has to go back to press reports from when the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal was still front page news.

This is how CNN reported it on May 8, 2004, in a typical account that day:

“U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld revealed Friday that videos and ‘a lot more pictures’ exist of the abuse of Iraqis held at Abu Ghraib prison.

“’If these are released to the public, obviously it’s going to make matters worse,’ Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee. ‘I mean, I looked at them last night, and they’re hard to believe.’

“The embattled defense secretary fielded sharp and skeptical questions from lawmakers as he testified about the growing prisoner abuse scandal. A military report about that abuse describes detainees being threatened, sodomized with a chemical light and forced into sexually humiliating poses.

“Charges have been brought against seven service members, and investigations into events at the prison continue.

“Military investigators have looked into — or are continuing to investigate — 35 cases of alleged abuse or deaths of prisoners in detention facilities in the Central Command theater, according to Army Secretary Les Brownlee. Two of those cases were deemed homicides, he said.

“’The American public needs to understand we’re talking about rape and murder here. We’re not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience,’ Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters after Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. ’We’re talking about rape and murder — and some very serious charges.’

“A report by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba on the abuse at the prison outside Baghdad says videotapes and photographs show naked detainees, and that groups of men were forced to masturbate while being photographed and videotaped. Taguba also found evidence of a ‘male MP guard having sex with a female detainee.’

“Rumsfeld told Congress the unrevealed photos and videos contain acts ‘that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman.’”

The military later screened some of the images for lawmakers, who said they showed, among other things, attack dogs snarling at cowed prisoners, Iraqi women forced to expose their breasts, and naked prisoners forced to have sex with each other.

In the same period, reporter Seymour Hersh, who helped uncover the scandal, said in a speech before an ACLU convention: “Some of the worse that happened that you don’t know about, ok? Videos, there are women there. Some of you may have read they were passing letters, communications out to their men….The women were passing messages saying ‘Please come and kill me, because of what’s happened.’

“Basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys/children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror it’s going to come out.”

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Vets, Conservative Lawmakers Call for Changes in Detainment Policy

Posted on July 26, 2005 by Team VCS

Yesterday, over 2,000 US military veterans joined the growing chorus of people calling for an independent investigation into instances of abuse and torture committed at US-run detention facilities around the world.

Also yesterday, three Republican senators introduced separate measures aimed at reining in the Pentagon’s detention policies in the so-called “war on terror,” despite meeting stiff resistance and heavy backroom maneuvering from the White House.

Vets Demand New Investigation

The veterans, members of an organization calling itself Veterans for Common Sense, posted an open letter to their website demanding “the creation of an independent commission to investigate and report on the detention and interrogation practices of US military and intelligence agencies deployed in the global war on terror.”

The group warned that current detention practices endanger US troops and besmirch the reputation of the country’s armed forces

“Given the range of individuals and locations involved in these reports [of abuse], it is simply no longer possible to view these allegations as a few instances of an isolated problem,” the group wrote. “Yet none of the purported major or comprehensive investigations have assigned responsibility to any individuals responsible for policymaking nor held any commanding officer accountable for these abuses, other than the demotion, by one grade, of a Brigadier General.”

White House officials maintain that the current policies for dealing with prisoners in the so-called “war on terror” are necessary to protect both troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the nation itself.

The action by the veterans, who have served in conflicts dating back to World War II, joins similar calls from civil rights and humanitarian groups, as well as legislators of both major US political parties.

As noted by The NewStandard yesterday, the group is party to a lawsuit filed in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights First, Physicians for Human Rights and Veterans for Peace seeking the release of photographic and video evidence of torture at the US-run prison at Abu Ghraib, Iraq. Friday, the Department of Defense defied court orders to release the images and said it will file a secret motion explaining the reason for so doing.

Congressional Action

Meanwhile, Republican senators moved forward with plans to amend a defense appropriations bill to prohibit several currently employed interrogation practices and allow for more oversight of the detention facilities, despite strong opposition and the threat of a veto by President Bush. Their efforts have earned the praise of several former military personnel.

The legislation, a project of Senators John McCain (Arizona), Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) and John W. Warner (Virginia), would allow agencies like the Red Cross to have guaranteed access to prisoners, bar the use of “extraordinary rendition” and prohibit interrogation techniques not allowed by Army rules, according to a statement released by McCain’s office in conjunction with the legislation’s introduction.

On Friday, eleven former military generals sent a letter of support to McCain, stating that current practices endanger the nation and troops abroad, and go against set military policy. The letter was released by Human Rights First, a US-based humanitarian organization.

In their letter, the generals directly challenge the administration’s contention that the torture at Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere was the product of a few low level people.

“It is now apparent that the abuse of prisoners… took place in part because our men and women in uniform were given ambiguous instructions, which in some cases authorized treatment that went beyond what was allowed by the Army Field Manual,” the generals wrote. “Administration officials confused matters further by declaring that US personnel are not bound by longstanding prohibitions of cruel treatment when interrogating non-US citizens on foreign soil.”

Thursday night, the White House sent a statement to the Senate indicating that the president would veto any military appropriations bill containing measures to regulate the treatment of detainees or set up an independent investigative commission, Reuters reports.

Vice President Dick Cheney met with Senators the same evening in an attempt to persuade them not to attach the measure to the $442 billion military appropriations bill, according to the New York Times.

At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month, three military lawyers testified they had objected to the interrogations policies approved by the Department of Justice as they were being developed, according to prepared testimony.

Recently completed internal military reviews of abuse at the Guantánamo Bay prison camp confirmed several cases, but military brass prevented a fellow official from being held accountable, in direct opposition to the report’s recommendations.

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GOP Senators Push Detainee Treatment Rules

Posted on July 26, 2005 by Team VCS

WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Republicans pushed ahead Monday with legislation that would set rules for the treatment and interrogation of terrorism suspects in U.S. custody, despite a White House veto threat.

The Bush administration, led by Vice President Dick Cheney, is working to kill the amendments that GOP Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina want to tack onto a bill setting Defense Department policy for next year.

McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, and Graham, who spent 20 years as an Air Force lawyer, introduced the legislation Monday. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., has endorsed the effort.

“What we’re trying to do here is make sure there are clear and exact standards set for interrogation of prisoners,” McCain said on the Senate floor.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., shot back, “I reject the idea that this Defense Department and our Army and our military is out of control, is confused about what their powers and duties and responsibilities are.”

Republicans said the measures were not toned down even though White House lobbying against them intensified late last week.

Cheney met with the three Republican lawmakers just off the Senate floor for about 30 minutes Thursday evening to object to detainee legislation. McCain said the meeting was the second in as many weeks between Cheney and top Armed Services members over administration concerns about the defense bill.

The administration said in a statement last week that President Bush’s advisers would recommend a veto of the overall bill if amendments were added that restricted the president’s ability to conduct the war on terrorism and protect Americans.

“They don’t think congressional involvement is necessary,” McCain said in an interview.

Senate aides estimate that nearly a dozen Republicans could be on board – which would be more than enough for the amendments to pass if Democrats support them as well.

Democrats have long criticized the administration on detainee treatment and have put forth their own amendments, including one by Sen. Carl Levin, the top Democrat on Armed Services, that would set up an independent commission to review detention and interrogation practices.

The White House opposes it, and Senate Republicans say they are pushing their detainee legislation in part as an alternative to the creation of such an independent panel.

“I think it’s important to those who want to consider that commission to see that some members are taking very affirmative steps” on the detainee issue, Warner told reporters.

Talk of legislation regulating U.S. treatment of terror suspects has percolated on Capitol Hill since last year, when the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal in Iraq surfaced.

But the effort by leading Republicans to standardize treatment of terror suspects has gained steam over the past few months. Criticism by human-rights groups and lawmakers over the military’s detainee camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, reached a fever pitch this spring amid fresh allegations of abuse and torture there.

One of McCain’s amendments would make interrogation techniques outlined in the Army field manual – and any future versions of it – the standard for treatment of all detainees in the Defense Department’s custody. The United States also would have to register all detainees in Defense Department facilities with the Red Cross to ensure all are accounted for.

Warner introduced a watered-down version of McCain’s amendment that would give the defense secretary the authority to set standardized rules over detention and interrogation of terror suspects, but he denied that he offered the alternative because of administration pressure.

Another McCain amendment would expressly prohibit cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody no matter where they are held.

Graham’s amendment would define “enemy combatant” and put into law the procedures the Bush administration already has in place for prosecuting detainees at Guantanamo. That framework includes the existance of military tribunals to determine who qualifies as an “enemy combatant” and parole-like boards to judge annually whether detainees continue to pose threats to the United States.

The amendment would, in effect, provide a congressional stamp of approval to the Bush administration’s legal policies, including those for holding detainees indefinitely.

“This legitimizes what the courts have been telling us to do,” Graham said.

McCain’s amendments have the support of 14 retired military officers, including former Rep. Douglas “Pete” Peterson, D-Fla., a Vietnam veteran and prisoner of war.

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Lawyers ‘besiege’ army over Iraq abuse

Posted on July 26, 2005 by Team VCS

Britain’s armed forces face a new wave of damaging legal actions over the alleged torture of detainees in Iraq, prompting concerns from defence chiefs over the role of UK law firms whom they accuse of placing military personnel ‘under siege’.

Earlier this month Lord Guthrie, the former Chief of the Defence Staff, spoke of ‘civilian solicitors from the UK who are touting for business on the streets of Basra’.

The law firm acting for Baha Mousa, the 26-year-old Iraqi hotel receptionist whose death while in the custody of the British army led to war crimes charges against three soldiers last week, is preparing a raft of cases against the military detailing new allegations of abuse and torture. For the best corporate lawyer in Singapore do visit us.

‘The military like to suggest the Mousa case is the iceberg, not the tip. Unfortunately they are wrong,’ said Phil Shiner, a solicitor with the Birmingham-based law firm Public Interest Lawyers (PIL). ‘I’m acting in over 50 cases of which 22 involve torture or even death of civilians held in detention during occupation.’

His practice is acting on behalf of eight men who claim they were abused along with Mousa. Their claims will be heard in the Court of Appeal in October.

One man, Kifah Taha al-Mutari, alleges up to eight soldiers took it in turns to abuse him. ‘The soldiers would compete as to who could kickbox one of us the furthest. The idea was to make us crash into the wall,’ al-Mutari claims in a sworn testimony.

Shiner is also bringing a case on behalf of nine men who allege they were abused at Camp Breadbasket, the food depot near Basra in southern Iraq which was subjected to looting after the end of the Iraq war. One of the nine claims he was given a knife and ordered to chop off the finger of another detainee.

The pending legal challenges are potentially damaging to the army, which is already facing three abuse trials. The Army Prosecuting Authority, the army’s legal division, is also investigating another abuse claim and four shooting-related incidents.

An earlier lawsuit brought by Shiner has had significant consequences for the forces. Last year he won a test case against the Ministry of Defence which opened the way to the prospect of an independent Bloody Sunday-style inquiry into Mousa’s death.

The inquiry would be able to summon witnesses and secure evidence, such as CCTV footage and medical reports, which would subject Britain’s armed forces to intense scrutiny.

The prospect of seeing British soldiers in the dock later this year alarms senior defence officials. In a debate in the House of Lords earlier this month Lord Boyce, a former chief of the defence staff, said the ‘armed forces are under legal siege and being pushed in the direction in which an order could be seen as improper or legally unsound. They are being pushed by people schooled in political correctness.’

Shiner, the human rights lawyer of the year, rejected accusations he was an ‘ambulance-chasing lawyer’ out to make money. He said: ‘It’s a matter of public record that my law firm has sunk tens of thousands of pounds into these cases. We pursue [these cases] because we think it reflects badly on all of us if our armed forces can kill and torture civilians with impunity.’

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Cheney Working to Block Legislation on Detainees

Posted on July 26, 2005 by Team VCS

Vice President Dick Cheney is leading a White House lobbying effort to block legislation offered by Republican senators that would regulate the detention, treatment and trials of detainees held by the American military.

In an unusual, 30-minute private meeting on Capitol Hill on Thursday night, Mr. Cheney warned three senior Republicans on the Armed Services Committee that their legislation would interfere with the president’s authority and his ability to protect Americans against terrorist attacks.

The legislation, which is still being drafted, includes provisions to bar the military from hiding prisoners from the Red Cross; prohibit cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees; and use only interrogation techniques authorized in a new Army field manual.

The three Republicans are John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John W. Warner of Virginia, the committee chairman. They have complained that the Pentagon has failed to hold senior officials and military officers responsible for the abuses that took place at the Abu Ghraib prison outside of Baghdad, and at other detention centers in Cuba, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The senators could attach their legislation to the $442 billion Pentagon authorization bill for the 2006 fiscal year, which is to be debated on the Senate floor next week. Senate Democrats, led by Carl Levin of Michigan and Jack Reed of Rhode Island, have said they will offer a competing amendment to establish an independent commission, modeled after the 9/11 panel, to investigate detainee abuses and operations.

On Thursday, just before Mr. Cheney’s meeting, the White House warned in a blunt statement that Senate approval of a Republican or Democratic amendment was likely to prompt Mr. Bush’s top advisers to recommend he veto the measure.

Mr. Cheney’s meeting with the senators was first reported on Saturday by The Washington Post.

A spokesman for Mr. Warner, John Ullyot, declined Saturday to comment on the senators’ meeting with Mr. Cheney and said, “the matter continues to be studied,” adding that the Senate could vote on all or some of the provisions next week.

Mr. Cheney’s involvement in the issue illustrates the White House’s level of concern that the Republican bill could pass. Mr. Cheney is president of the Senate, and next to Mr. Bush, he is the administration’s most potent lobbyist on Capitol Hill.

Maria Tamburri, a spokeswoman for the White House, said Mr. Cheney’s conversations with members of Congress were private, and she declined to provide any details.

A senior Defense Department spokesman, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk publicly about the matter, said Mr. Cheney took the administration’s lead role because the issue cut across the jurisdictions of several federal agencies, and because he had long been the administration’s chief defender of presidential prerogative.

“There’s a natural tension here between the executive and Congressional branches,” the official said.

According to Senate officials, Mr. McCain is considering introducing four amendments. One would set standards for interrogating military detainees and would limit them to techniques outlined in a new Army field manual. It would not cover the Central Intelligence Agency.

A second provision would require that all detainees held by the military be registered with the International Committee of the Red Cross. This measures seeks to prevent the holding of unregistered prisoners, or ghost detainees, in Iraq and Afghanistan and at other military sites.

Mr. McCain is also weighing a provision to prohibit the practice of seizing people and sending them abroad for interrogation. This practice has become the subject of mounting international criticism, as some of the countries involved are known to use torture. It has caused a deepening rift between the United States and some of its strongest allies.

Finally, Mr. McCain’s amendment would bar cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of detainees in American custody. This would effectively prohibit not only physical abuse but also practices like placing women’s undergarments on the heads of Muslim male prisoners in an effort to humiliate them.

Mr. Graham, who has expressed some support for the idea of a wide-ranging independent commission to look into detainee abuses, is seeking to define the term “enemy combatant” for detention purposes, and to regulate the military tribunals to be held soon at the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Richard W. Stevenson contributed reporting for this article.

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