Cockburn
/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
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Today's
Stories
May
13, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
Law 'n Order in La Paz: All Quiet
on the Southern Front?
May
12, 2004
Blanton
/ Kornbluh
Prisoner Abuse: Cheney Warned in
1992
Virginia
Tilley
So, Who's to Blame?
Bruce
Jackson
James Inhofe, the Dumbest Senator
of Them All
Thomas
P. Healy
No Enemies: Making Peace with Bert Sacks
Linda
S. Heard
Racism and Ignorance: a Lethal Cocktail in Iraq
Norman
Solomon
Spinning Torturegate
Lisa
Viscidi
The People's Voice: Community Radio in Guatemala
Jack
Heyman
View from the Bay Bridge: Longshoremen Plan Mass Workers March
on DC
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Rummy's Reprieve
CounterPunch
Wire
Teamsters Corruption Scandal: Hoffa Exec. Assistant Alleged to
Have Quashed Investigation into Mob Influence
Christopher
Brauchli
Detention Camp, USA
William
S. Lind
Bush's Waterloo?
May 11, 2004
Mark
Engler
On the "Necessity" of Torture
Ray
McGovern
More Troops? A March of Folly
Kurt
Nimmo
Dirty Nukes and Jefferson's Grand Experiment
Mickey
Z.
Less Than Hero
Christopher
Reed
Torture on the Homefront: America's Long History of Prison Abuse
Dennis
Hans
When John Negroponte was Mullah Omar
Bruce
Jackson
Pete Seeger at 85
Mike
Whitney
Killing al Sadr
Simon
Helweg-Larsen
Shrinking the Guatemalan Military
William
A. Cook
The Unconscious Country: Righteous Indignation,
Nakedly Displayed
May
10, 2004
Robert
Fisk
From Hollywood to Abu Ghraib: Racism
and Torture as Entertainment
Wayne
Madsen
The Israeli Torture Template: Rape,
Feces and Urine-Soaked Cloth Sacks
Col.
Dan Smith
The Shame of Abu Ghraib
Joe
Bageant
John Ashcroft, Keep Your Mouth Off My Wife!
Ron
Jacobs
Rummy's Prisongate Blues: Don't Leave Mad; Just Leave
Ben
Tripp
Getting in Touch with Your Inner Savage
Ray
Hanania
Why They Hate Us: Racism, Bigotry and Abuse
Reza
Fiyouzat
"Mishandled" Invasions
Diane
Christian
Images & Abstractions &
Genitals
Website
of the Day
Crushing Iraqi Skulls with Tanks for Sport?
May
8 / 9, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Torture: as American as Apple Pie
Adam
Jones
America's Srebrenica: What About the Hundreds of POWs Suffocated
and Shot at Kunduz?
Douglas
Valentine
Who Let the Dogs Out?: Torture, the CIA and the Press
Kurt
Nimmo
Rush Limbaugh and the Babes of Abu Ghraib
Brian
Cloughley
Humpty Dumpty is Falling
Lucia
Dailey
Forbidden Games
Joanne
Mariner
* * * *: Redacting Moussaoui
Mickey
Z.
Please Forgive U.S.? (There Are No Innocent Bystanders)
John
Chuckman
The Thing with No Brain
Doug
Giebel
Someone Knew: There Were No WMDs
Norm
Dixon
How the Bush Gang Exploited 9/11
Sam
Bahour
A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah
Susan
Davis
Disorderly Conduct as Fine Art
Dave
Marsh
In a Pig's Eye: Alan Lomax, Dead But Still Stealing
Laura
Flanders
Life with Dick and Lynne
Dave
Zirin
Fans Push Spiderman Off Base
Carolyn
Baker
Why I Won't Vote in 2004
Prince
"Ain't No Sense in Voting"
Dr.
Susan Block
Onan for Two: Liberating Masturbation
Poets'
Basement
Smith, Sleeth, Ford, Albert and Saska
May
7, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
10 Prisons; 9,000 Prisoners: US Detention
Facilities in Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
UnAmerican? I Wish It Were So
Robert
Fisk
An Illegal and Immoral War
Ahmad
Faruqui
The 50th Anniversary of Dien Bien
Phu
Alexander
Zaitchik
From Terrell Unit in Texas to Abu Ghraib: Doesn't It Ring a (Prison)
Bell?
Mike
Whitney
The Price of Victory
Norman
Solomon
This War, Racism and Media Denial
M.
Shahid Alam
A Comic Apology
May
6, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
They Did It for Jessica: Smeared with
Shit; Kicked to Death
Kathy
Kelly
May Day in Pekin Prison: Prison Labor
for the War Machine
Werther
The Sunk Cost Fallacy: War as Vegas
Casino Game
Lawrence
Ferlinghetti
Totalitarian Democracy
Robert
Fisk
"Smoke Him": Video Shows Wounded
Men Being Shot by US Helicopter
John
Janney
Torturing the Way to Freedom?
Christopher
Ketcham
Outlaw Heterosexual Marriage Now!
Alan
Farago
Dead Oceans: So Long, Thanks for the Fish
Sam
Hamod
Bush on Arab TV: Worthless and Demeaning
James
Brooks
Sullen Spring
William
S. Lind
On the Brink of Defeat in Iraq
May
5, 2004
Maj.
Gen. Antonio M. Taguba
Complete US Army Report on Abuse of
Iraqi Prisoners
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Kerry: a Lost Cause for Progressives?
Will
Youmans
Deal with the Devil: a Palestinian
Zionist and the End of the World
Patrick
B. Barr
Terrorists R Us: the Powerful are Exempt from the Label
Lawrence
Magnuson
Nightline's All-American Morgue
Greg
Moses
Pocketbook of Denuded Ideals
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Tormenting Prisoners, Torturing
Truth
Lee
Ballinger
Cinco de Mayo and Unity
Gilbert
Achcar
Bush's Cakewalk into the Iraq Quaqmire
Website
of the Day
Operation Phoenix & Iraq
May
4, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
A Timeline of Torture and Abuse Allegations
and Responses
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Privatized Torture
David
Peterson
CBS, Self-Censorship & Iraq
Barry
Lando
CACI's Private Torture Chambers
Patrick
Cockburn
Torture: Iraqis Disgusted, But Not Surprised
Dr.
Susan Block
Indecent Insurgents: Watch What You Say
Fidel
Castro
A Mindless, Unnecessary War
Mike
Whitney
Empire of Torture
Sonali
Kolhatkar
How to Stop the War: Demonstrate Against
John Kerry
Josh
Frank
The Lost Sierra Club
Stan
Goff
The Role: Another Open Letter to US Troops in Iraq
Agustin
Velloso
Spare Us Your Disgusting Ethics
Stew
Albert
American Know-How
Website
of the Day
Scenes from a Cover-Up
May
3, 2004
Virginia
Tilley
Let the Wall of Silence Fall
May
1 / 2, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
An Army in Disgrace, a Policy
in Tatters, the Real Prospect of Defeat
Robert
Fisk
"Good Guys" Who Can Do No
Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
Watching Niagara: Stupid Leaders,
Useless Spies, Angry World
Heather
Williams
Gringo, We're Going Home: Latin
American Troops Flee Iraq
Diane
Rejman
An Army Vet on Torture in Iraq:
Abu Ghraib as My Lai?
Diane
Christian
Blood Spilling: Osama, Bush and
Sharon Speak the Same Language
Patrick
Cockburn
Seems Like Old Times in Fallujah
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Torturous Logic: Shocked,
Shocked, Shocked
Chris
Floyd
Suicide Bomber: Neocons, Nihilists
and Annihilation
April
29 / 30, 2004
Dave
Zirin
A Pawn in Their Game: the Unlonesome
Death of Pat Tillman
Kathy
Kelly
The Warden's Tour
Greg
Weiher
Fallujah and the Warsaw Ghetto: the
Banality of Evil
Michael
S. Ladah
Terrorism and Assassination: the
Ultimate Depception
Patrick
Cockburn
The Fallujah Mutinies
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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May
13, 2004
Torture and
Degradation in Iraq
Revenge American
Style?
By COLM O'LAITHIAN
Amongst the mass of comment and analysis
that has flowed from the media around the world since the publication
of "those pictures" was a small perhaps un-regarded,
late-night piece on Radio 5, one of the of the British Broadcasting
Corporation's domestic radio channels in the United Kingdom.
It was about Mother's Day in the United States in the weekend
that has just gone. A Marine "mortar-man" talked about
his joy at being home in New York for this Mother's Day having
spent the last one in Iraq on duty for the Coalition. His tearful
mother was equally, naturally overjoyed that her son was home
safe. Every parent would empathize with her and with him till
he began to explain his motivation for joining the Marines in
the immediate aftermath of the destruction of the World Trade
Centre and for being in Iraq. It seems he had lost friends or
relatives in that catastrophe. He joined up he said to defend
the United States against terrorism. What came next was the most
revealing not to say chilling as he quietly stated how in Iraq
he "had sure got his revenge".
What was this man taking revenge
for and against whom and how? Was it by torturing prisoners?
As we see the iconic photographs that will forever characterize
this disastrous war is that the mentality that has taken hold
of the United States and its troops? If it is then it emanates
directly from Bush and the deliberate conjunction in the American
mind of Iraq and Al Qaeda when of course no such conjunction
existed or at least under Saddam Hussein. If it exists now it
is because of the actions of the Coalition. Are we in fact seeing
the American collective revenge against the Arab world and does
Ms. England and do her fellow torturers represent the stark,
pictorial reality that finally confronts America with the perversion
of its own supposed values?
It is no surprise to anyone
from Ireland, Kenya, Cyprus or Aden or indeed anywhere the British
have militarily occupied during their Imperial period that the
British Army uses torture, murder and coercion as a deliberate
tool against those whom it considers to be insurgents. Neither
will those who have any memory of the Vietnam War or recent American
support for atrocious regimes throughout the world, including
Saddam Hussein himself, be surprised that American forces have
and probably still are torturing Iraqis and Afghanis. America
has condoned the use of torture and murder throughout the world
when perpetrated by regimes which do its bidding. Those Europeans
(the majority) who opposed the war knew from the start that there
was no benign intention in the invasion and occupation of Iraq
no matter how it was dressed up by Bush, Blair and Rumsfeld.
Those who supported it are rapidly learning the hard truth about
the United States.
The torture and degradation
of Iraqis and Afghanis does not represent an aberration from
the American norm by a few mindless and sadistic soldiers; it
represents, in European and certainly Arab eyes at least, the
very essence of modern America, ignorant, arrogant, violent and
utterly disregarding of the culture and humanity of those it
sees as its potential enemies or even its friends. In the American
collective mind the whole of that part of the world that stretches
from the Mediterranean to the Afghan frontier with Pakistan appears
as one indistinguishable implacable enemy with one indistinguishable
Islamic culture at once responsible for the attack on New York,
Saddam Hussein and countless other evils. That view has been
fostered by Bush and his right wing coeterie and reflects the
deep penetration into the US administration of the anti-Arab
sentiment of right wing Israeli politics inherently hostile to
any genuine settlement with Palestine and profoundly racist in
its view of Arabs generally.
That pervasive attitude is
starkly revealed by the failure of any programme of reconstruction
in Iraq if indeed any such ever existed beyond the back of an
envelope and the abject failure to establish order let alone
the rule of law. What has been created in Iraq is not an orderly
progress towards the re-establishment of basic requirements for
life but a cowboy-like frontier lawless zone in which "goodies"
(Americans) fight "Baddies" (Iraqis) and various freebooting
American companies and individuals loot the wealth of the country.
There is no concept of the rule of law; Rumsfeld and Bush made
it clear at the outset that the rule of law was not a concern.
America must get its enemies "dead or alive" (Saddam
and now Al-Sadr). Concern for human rights and international
law were for "Old Europe" and bleeding-heart liberals
in the United States. Moreover it was unpatriotic to question
the rightness of the cause and its progression. Native Americans
will recognize this process as will the Vietnamese and many others
who have suffered under American imperialist ventures and its
insouciant racism.
It is abundantly clear and
becoming more so by the hour that both the United States and
British Governments were aware of torture and degrading treatment
being practised in coalition prisons for many months. Rumsfeld,
Bush and Blair are now falling back on the pathetic excuse of
not reading the reports (Teguba or the International Committee
of the Red Cross) though in fact torture and abuse has been repeatedly
reported by journalists from around the world in the British
media at least. And why were Iraqis being tortured and murdered?
What were they being forced to reveal? If it were to force details
of resistance to the coalition then it appears to have been an
abject failure as resistance has increased in direct proportion
to the level of brutality of Coalition forces. If it were to
force prisoners to reveal details of weapons of mass destruction
or assist in their location the coalition partners knew from
the outset that they did not exist. It is becoming the inevitable
conclusion that the torture and degradation of prisoners was
driven by the same brutal atavistic instincts that drove Saddam
and his savage regime; a desire to assert power and to be seen
to be doing so. The hand wringing and wind-baggery that is emanating
from Washington and London is no more than that and persuades
not even former supporters of the war. Bush, Blair and Rumsfeld
are being forced to apologize not because they have any real
regret or because they are surprised but because what has been
revealed has removed any last shred of credibility that the invasion
and occupation forces possessed. Were they in control of the
situation on the ground there would be little concern or comment
as there has not been for over a year. The fact that the Coalition
is sinking in a quagmire of its own making is what is driving
the contrition. Helping hands are going to be needed to get the
coalition out in due course and none will be extended while the
allegations of torture hang like sulphurous smoke in the political
air. For Bush the real test is the looming election not the rights
of Iraqis.
Is the torture also revenge
for 9/11. It is fairly clear that our original hero Marine thought
that his action in Iraq was exactly that. How many others in
the US forces believe that at some deep level? The assault on
Fallujah and Najaf made it abundantly clear that US forces had
no intention of treating the Iraqi civilian population with any
of the consideration they might have expected from being liberated.
With the deeply imbued racist and anti-Islamic attitude of the
US and its forces it is easy to see how prisoners can be regarded
as less than human and how easily orders to soften them up for
a pointless interrogation can be followed. The addition of a
personal sadistic and sexual element to the degradation makes
it utterly clear what the torturers thought of their prisoners
and of Arabs generally. And where did they develop that view
of Arabs and Iraqis whom they were telling the rest of the world
they were liberating from degradation and torture?
The impact on European and
world public opinion is catastrophic for the US and for the regeneration
of Iraq. Bush had characteristically failed to understand how
the mass of Europeans saw the war at the outset. His naïve
and simplistic not to say offensively stupid analysis of "those
that are not with us are against us" and his division of
Europe into "Old" and "New" inflamed all
shades of political thought. His cavalier disregard for the rule
of law has generated a fear of the US and its intentions in the
modern world, now enhanced by the latest revelations. That his
own administration is crumbling around him is little consolation
as most others in the world fear that the torture of Iraqis as
a deliberate policy would be popular with the denizens of Fort
Ashby or Forth Worth. We outside of the US listen with open mouthed
astonishment to the justifications of torture by the people of
Ms. England's home town and those of the other perpetrators.
The Nuremberg defence is no longer available and how is it a
justification that these people were following orders? The question
that hangs in the air is how did this society produce the people
and circumstances in which such orders could be given and carried
out? It is exactly the same question that Germany had to face
after 1945 but from this perspective the US seems poorly equipped
educationally or morally to face it.
The trials that will follow
of those seen in the photographs humiliating and torturing prisoners
will no doubt be trumpeted around the world. To some extent the
relatives of those soldiers are right when they allege that they
will be scapegoats but utterly wrong when they fail to accept
the moral responsibility for what is being done in the name of
the US by their children and neighbours. And will they vote Bush
back into power? The rest of the world fears that they almost
certainly will.
Colm O'Liathain is am a human rights lawyer in the
UK though of Irish origin and nationality. He can be reached
at: colmlyons@hotmail.com
Weekend
Edition Features for May 8 / 9, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Torture: as American as Apple Pie
Adam
Jones
America's Srebrenica: What About the Hundreds of POWs Suffocated
and Shot at Kunduz?
Douglas
Valentine
Who Let the Dogs Out?: Torture, the CIA and the Press
Kurt
Nimmo
Rush Limbaugh and the Babes of Abu Ghraib
Brian
Cloughley
Humpty Dumpty is Falling
Lucia
Dailey
Forbidden Games
Joanne
Mariner
* * * *: Redacting Moussaoui
Mickey
Z.
Please Forgive U.S.? (There Are No Innocent Bystanders)
John
Chuckman
The Thing with No Brain
Doug
Giebel
Someone Knew: There Were No WMDs
Norm
Dixon
How the Bush Gang Exploited 9/11
Sam
Bahour
A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah
Susan
Davis
Disorderly Conduct as Fine Art
Dave
Marsh
In a Pig's Eye: Alan Lomax, Dead But Still Stealing
Laura
Flanders
Life with Dick and Lynne
Dave
Zirin
Fans Push Spiderman Off Base
Carolyn
Baker
Why I Won't Vote in 2004
Prince
"Ain't No Sense in Voting"
Dr.
Susan Block
Onan for Two: Liberating Masturbation
Poets'
Basement
Smith, Sleeth, Ford, Albert and Saska
|