2004.05.11 - PEGC Update ======================== 1) ICRC REPORT ON IRAQ MSNBC -- REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS (ICRC) ON THE TREATMENT BY THE COALITION FORCES OF PRISONERS OF WAR AND OTHER PROTECTED PERSONS BY THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS IN IRAQ DURING ARREST, DETENTION, INTERNMENT AND INTERROGATION FEBRUARY 2004 http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Sections/News/International%20News/Mideast%20and%20N.%20Africa/Iraq%20conflict/Red%20Cross%20report.pdf Andrea Mitchell Reports: http://msnbc.msn.com/ID/4946698/ The Guardian (UK) -- May 11, 2004 TROOPS BROKE THE LAW, ADMITS HOON · Forces breached directive on hooding · Red Cross report kept from ministers Nicholas Watt and Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1213975,00.html Washington Post -- May 10, 2004 RED CROSS REPORT DESCRIBES SYSTEMIC ABUSE IN IRAQ By Peter Slevin, Washington Post Staff Writer http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14011-2004May10.html 2) TORTURE SCANDAL Washington Post -- THE ROAD TO ABU GHRAIB May 9, 2004 A PRISON ON THE BRINK Usual Military Checks and Balances Went Missing By Scott Higham, Josh White and Christian Davenport, Washington Post Staff Writers First of three articles http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11413-2004May8.html May 10, 2004 AS INSURGENCY GREW, SO DID PRISON ABUSE Needing Intelligence, U.S. Pressed Detainees By Scott Wilson and Sewell Chan, Washington Post Foreign Service Second of three articles http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13065-2004May9.html May 11, 2004; Page A01 SECRET WORLD OF U.S. INTERROGATION Long History of Tactics in Overseas Prisons Is Coming to Light By Dana Priest and Joe Stephens, Washington Post Staff Writers Last of three articles http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15981-2004May10.html Los Angeles Times -- May 11, 2004 PRISON SCANDAL COULD SWAY HIGH COURT By David G. Savage, Times Staff Writer http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/whitehouse/la-na-legal11may11,1,1040801.story?coll=la-news-politics-white_house 3) Op-Ed Toronto Star -- May 11, 2004 IRAQI ABUSE FOLLOWS HISTORIC PATTERN By Thomas Walkom http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1084227009939&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795 Washington Post -- May 10, 2004 PRISONER DEGRADATION ABROAD -- AND AT HOME By James Q. Whitman http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13266-2004May9.html CounterPunch -- May 10, 2004 THE WAR OF MISGUIDED MEN THE SHAME OF ABU GHRAIB By Col. Dan Smith http://www.counterpunch.org/smith05102004.html 4) PEGC GUEST EDITORIAL May 10, 2004 A MORAL SCHISM By James Johnson A recent NY Times editorial (The Military Archipelago, May 7, 2004) stated: "So far as we know, the psycho-sexual humiliations that military jailers inflicted on Iraqi detainees last year at Abu Ghraib have no parallels in American-run prisons elsewhere." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/07/opinion/07FRI2.html When I read the above quotation in the New York times on 7th May my blood ran cold. It said two things to me. Either the writer is a liar, or simply does not know. My experience told me that the latter explanation was most probably the correct one. I am an Australian who has observed and investigated the American judicial and penal systems for the past eight years. I know the United States very well, having lived there from the late 1970's through the 80's. I first visited there with my parents when I was twelve years old, and apart from my eleven years residency in Southern California I have continued to travel there on a regular basis. I became interested in the American criminal justice system when a friend's 15 year old son was sentenced to ten years in an adult prison for the possession and distribution of a small amount of marijuana at his high school. It cost my friend $150,000 and took eighteen months to have his son released, following a successful appeal. By that time the boy had been abused and raped countless times and was severely mentally disturbed. Since then I have developed regular contacts with many long-term prisoners, ex prison guards, and a number of help groups throughout the United states. I have made several prison visits including one of the so-called 'Super-Max' prisons which I can only describe as a high-tech torture chamber, devised solely for the purpose of destroying human beings. My filing cabinet is bulging with reports describing a wide variety of torture methods including those photographed at Abu Ghraib Prison. Sleep deprivation is a specialty, particularly in women's prisons, and is one of the most dangerous. Prolonged application of sleep deprivation techniques can produce insanity and death. I have written several instructive papers to help prisoners combat this torture, and I am pleased to say several have done very well. Already it has become apparent that several of the soldiers who are so prominently featured in the photographs spread across the newspapers of the world, are prison guards in their civilian life. One who claimed he was given no guidelines, or any instructions, and had no idea of what he should do when told to "soften up the prisoners," is a guard of seven years experience in a high security 'maxi' prison in Indiana. His contemptible claims of ignorance are nothing more than ridiculous, apart from being a down right lie. I should point out that various American military, intelligence, and law enforcement organizations use the American prison system as a test bed for the development of a wide range of behavioral control techniques, and methods of torture. There is also a college of interrogation and torture called 'The School of the Americas'(Fort Benning) for the more promising local and foreign students to learn their trade. Over the years the prison system has been used for all manner of experiments such as testing the effects of radiation on humans to determining how quickly syphilis develops. I have no doubts similar experiments are being conducted to this day. It is done in a prison environment because it can be kept totally secret, and the majority of the public either does not know or does not care. I could go into great detail about the wide variety of torture methods used in American prisons, both psychological and physical, however that is not my purpose in writing this editorial. I simply want to draw public attention to the fact that the barbaric methods that have surfaced in Iraq are home grown, and are not just the aberrations of a few misguided young soldiers letting their hair down in a strange foreign land. Finally, I think it is worth mentioning that America is the largest producer and exporter of torture instruments in the world, with more than forty factories actively involved in their manufacture. Most companies involved in this black trade will even provide their export customers with instructors to train their indigenous tormentors in the most effective use of their finely made equipment. However, that comes at an extra charge. [ James Johnson is a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering with a masters in psychology who lives in Melbourne, Australia. He is a retired Lt. Col. of the Australian Army Reserves and a Vietnam War veteran. James was a leading member of the group responsible for the abolition of the death penalty in Australia after the wrongful execution of Ronald Ryan in 1968; and was also a confidential ambassador-at-large for two Australian governments in the negotiations that led to the recognition of The Peoples Republic of China by Australia and the United States. ] Regards, Charly * * * Charles Gittings Oakland, California cbgittings@sbcglobal. net +1-510-923-1688 PROJECT TO ENFORCE THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS (PEGC) http://PEGC.no-ip.info PEGC Update http://PEGC.no-ip.info/PEGC_Update.html