Straws For The Camel’s Back
July 12, 2008, Matthew Good Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba’s (Ret.) new report regarding human rights abuses in Iraq and elsewhere, initiated and published by Physicians For Human Rights, has lent credible gravity to the argument that officials within the administration are guilty of war crimes…
“The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison accused the Bush administration Wednesday of committing “war crimes” and called for those responsible to be held to account.
The remarks by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who’s now retired, came in a new report that found that U.S. personnel tortured and abused detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using beatings, electrical shocks, sexual humiliation and other cruel practices.
“After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes,” Taguba wrote. “The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”
Taguba, whose 2004 investigation documented chilling abuses at Abu Ghraib, is thought to be the most senior official to have accused the administration of war crimes. “The commander in chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture,” he wrote.
A White House spokeswoman, Kate Starr, had no comment.”
Most of us are not so daft as to realize that we live in a world in which those truly responsible will never be brought to justice, but that does not make Taguba’s report any less important. But, ultimately, if the Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations can be outraged at the possibility that the President of Sudan could be charged with war crimes, then, really, who’s not entitled to hold the view that justice is nothing more than a word tossed about when convenient?
Also of import are new documents released last week that show that the United States willfully concealed from the International Red Cross the location of various detainees and the harsh techniques used to interrogate them…
“We may need to curb the harsher operations while ICRC is around. It is better not to expose them to any controversial techniques,” Lt. Col. Diane Beaver, a military lawyer who’s since retired, said during an October 2002 meeting at the Guantanamo Bay prison to discuss employing interrogation techniques that some have equated with torture. Her comments were recorded in minutes of the meeting that were made public Tuesday. At that same meeting, Beaver also appeared to confirm that U.S. officials at another detention facility — Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan — were using sleep deprivation to “break” detainees well before then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld approved that technique. “True, but officially it is not happening,” she is quoted as having said.
A third person at the meeting, Jonathan Fredman, the chief counsel for the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, disclosed that detainees were moved routinely to avoid the scrutiny of the ICRC, which keeps tabs on prisoners in conflicts around the world.
“In the past when the ICRC has made a big deal about certain detainees, the DOD (Defense Department) has ‘moved’ them away from the attention of the ICRC,” Fredman said, according to the minutes.
The document, along with two dozen others, shows that top administration officials pushed relentlessly for tougher interrogation methods in the belief that terrorism suspects were resisting interrogation.”
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Hello Mr. Good,
Since I cannot find any email address to contact you by, I thought I’d post a comment on one of your entries. I’m sorry that my statement has nothing to do with your current post (which I just read and found very informative and interesting).
I saw you at Bluesfest a few nights ago, and I absolutely loved the concert. Weapon was so unbelievably fantastic, and I was extremely happy to hear I’m a Window (one of my favourites from Hospital Music) live.
I was very concerned, however, with the state that you seem to be in at the moment. I don’t know you, I’ve never met you, nor do I know the specific details of your day-to-day life (except for your recent craving for fajitas). However, as someone who suffers from severe depression and an eating disorder, I feel I may be able to relate you a little more than the average person.
I could tell by the look on your face that something is wrong right now. I hope that you have the strength to get through whatever it is you’re going through. I admire you for completing your tour, performing night after night when you’re probably not feeling your best. Please take a much-deserved break from your busy life to refocus and regain your mental strength. I can’t even imagine how stressful it is to tour.
My thoughts and prayers are with you. Till next time, Mr. Good.
I’m finding it difficult to gather all my thoughts and feelings about this topic right now and put them into words that would do them justice. Sometimes it’s all a little overwhelming but impossible to ignore. I understand why you have trouble sleeping Matt.
Sigh. I seem to do a lot of that here. Justice would be nice. Even just a little.
Electrocuted, beaten, hung from a pole for seven days…forced to drink litres of water while one’s privates are tied to prevent one from urinating…
And this carried out by CIVILIANS!!?? Uncivilians more like… It is not just the military at fault here – contractors – many of them in sensitive roles such as intelligence gathering, are actively partaking in acts of humiliation and torture. Adam Brookes (BBC) says the question of whose laws they should obey – and who should hold them accountable when they do things wrong – remains one of the most vexed questions of the war…
In the end, when unfettered capitalism has finally reached it’s grand conclusion, we’ll all be working for either Halliburton or Walmart. There will be no other employers.
It’s all a diversion to what is really taking place in our society.
I think the explanation for a lot of the US government’s actions is fairly straightforward. The culture accepts violence completely; but it abhors, or is at least afraid of, sex. You can show someone getting shot in the head on prime time television, but nudity and sex are strictly forbidden. Clinton is impeached for a brief affair, which has nothing to do with policy; the Bush administration arguably commits atrocities and nothing happens: not even the Democrats say anything.
Sex is seen as worse than violence; people argue more for the right to bear arms than many other rights and responsibilities. Violence is seen as an acceptable means to an end, part of the culture. Until this changes, I don’t think there will be much of a shift in US foreign policy.
The comments are a little sparse here, and there’s likely another post, on another topic on the way in a few short hours.
Let me refer you here (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/opinion/13rich.html?hp) in the meantime.
It’s an absolutely damning (and chilling) New York Times article on the Bush Administration, torture, the real possibility of war crimes charges against Bush White House staffers and the possibility of a future terror attack on the United States.
What is there to say? What can be said when those in power take a “we don’t give a fuck” attitude and streamroll their way through the world leaving a wake of devastation? The people entrusted as the voice of the people plug their ears and cut out their hearts? When the lies and coverups are exposed but they still don’t care? They just rewrite the rules as they go - they wing it. When torture of human beings is part of the game plan, you know you’re dealing with barbarians.
On a much lesser note, it’s happening everywhere - this “I’m in charge so do what I say, not what I do” mandate. Suck it up, princess. I see it in the schools, with some teachers who hate kids. In the police force, where bullies with guns, sticks and tazers keep people in line using the very tactics they’re there to prevent. In city councils, where the rich are heard and the little guy’s swallowed up and left on the street. Hell, even in strata councils - where neighbours call the shots and it’s all about what works for them. When some people have power they’re giddy with it - they use it every which way they can and usually it’s not in anyone’s interest but their own. I don’t like to give up on the world, but I have. So I’m of no use, me and my white towel. Nice guys finish last, remember?
It starts small and it’s everywhere. It’s unchecked and people use manipulation and string pulling to get off the hook. Accountability is a thing of the past - it’s non existant in society today. People don’t stand up and accept the consequences when they’ve been caught doing wrong in a position of power - they look for the loopholes. It’s not even shameful to them - it’s a moment where they scramble to find an out. And there are too many.
This thing called power blinds those who hold it - they veer off course and discard any shred of decency and integrity that they may’ve had along the way. Lies are no longer something thrown out in a last ditch bid of desperation - they’re written into the daily planners. How do you combat zombies with no conscience?
I’m sorry to have taken away from the topic here by throwing this other stuff in - what’s happening in the Bush administration stands alone. Although it probably doesn’t belong here - I somehow feel it does. Because the abuse of power is rampant in society and what is happening in the US is the peak of that. The unthinkable is happening and we’re all at the show watching.
I know, not much of a contribution here. I mostly just read these posts and learn because, quite frankly, I don’t know what to say. I’m not well enough equipped to add anything but my own opinion. But I do thank you for taking the time to read, learn and pass along the information as you do. We are listening and that’s a start.
All of these problems with the world right now are coming to their inevitable climax right now. We are seeing the united states slip into a recession that I’m sure will be worse than any in America’s history… This war has taken it’s toll, and I’m sure in fifty years you will either be rich or poor, there will be absolutely no in between… Imagine another French revolution, but in America on a much larger, more complicated, scale… Scary thought.
One major problem if somebody like Bush were to ever get into any legal toruble with this. The fact that a Republican has a shot at winning the presidency this year. Most likely anything major would come after the election(as both parties have agenda based reasons not to do so, although the democrats have reasons to push the issue).
If McCain becomes president, the presidential pardon would be over used in situations like this.