'NYT' Sunday Bombshell: Secret U.S. Torture Site in Iraq

[LiberalHeart]

Just in time for the third anniversary of the Iraq war, The New York Times offers a bombshell account Sunday on a secret U.S. torture facility in that country that remained in business even after the Abu Ghraib abuses became known.

The article by Eric Schmitt and Carolyn Marshall reveals that an elite Special Operations forces unit took one of Saddam Hussein's former torture centers near Baghdad Airport and made it their own. They called it the Black Room.


http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002199231

[Pirate Smile]

1. Here it is:

Task Force 6-26
Before and After Abu Ghraib, a U.S. Unit Abused Detainees

By ERIC SCHMITT and CAROLYN MARSHALL
Published: March 19, 2006
As the Iraqi insurgency intensified in early 2004, an elite Special Operations forces unit converted one of Saddam Hussein's former military bases near Baghdad into a top-secret detention center. There, American soldiers made one of the former Iraqi government's torture chambers into their own interrogation cell. They named it the Black Room.

In the windowless, jet-black garage-size room, some soldiers beat prisoners with rifle butts, yelled and spit in their faces and, in a nearby area, used detainees for target practice in a game of jailer paintball. Their intention was to extract information to help hunt down Iraq's most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to Defense Department personnel who served with the unit or were briefed on its operations.

The Black Room was part of a temporary detention site at Camp Nama, the secret headquarters of a shadowy military unit known as Task Force 6-26. Located at Baghdad International Airport, the camp was the first stop for many insurgents on their way to the Abu Ghraib prison a few miles away.

Placards posted by soldiers at the detention area advised, "NO BLOOD, NO FOUL." The slogan, as one Defense Department official explained, reflected an adage adopted by Task Force 6-26: "If you don't make them bleed, they can't prosecute for it." According to Pentagon specialists who worked with the unit, prisoners at Camp Nama often disappeared into a detention black hole, barred from access to lawyers or relatives, and confined for weeks without charges. "The reality is, there were no rules there," another Pentagon official said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/international/middleeast/19abuse.html?hp&ex=1142744400&en=9efb5b3a1aa3d685&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[LiberalHeart]

3. Thanks ... I looked and couldn't find it.... (EOM)

[stop the bleeding]

5. Jeez Louis did you all read all 5 pages???

A Shroud of Secrecy

Military and legal experts say the full breadth of abuses committed by Task Force 6-26 may never be known because of the secrecy surrounding the unit, and the likelihood that some allegations went unreported.

In the summer of 2004, Camp Nama closed and the unit moved to a new headquarters in Balad, 45 miles north of Baghdad. The unit's operations are now shrouded in even tighter secrecy.

Soon after their rank-and-file clashed in 2004, D.I.A. officials in Washington and military commanders at Fort Bragg agreed to improve how the task force integrated specialists into its ranks. The D.I.A. is now sending small teams of interrogators, debriefers and case officers, called "deployable Humint teams," to work with Special Operations forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Senior military commanders insist that the elite warriors, who will be relied on more than ever in the campaign against terrorism, are now treating detainees more humanely and can police themselves. The C.I.A. has resumed conducting debriefings with the task force, but does not permit harsh questioning, a C.I.A. official said.



Not only is this big but we may never know more than what we know. NYT damn "librul" media....

[ooglymoogly]

76. just trust us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yuh sher

[IndianaGreen]

6. So what is the difference between Saddam torturers and ours?

Other than the uniform, nothing!

[LynnTheDem]

14. Not one damn fucking thing other than WE CLAIM to be better.

No fucking wonder the entire goddamn world hates our fucking guts. No fucking wonder.

[DELUSIONAL]

57. US torture done in the name of CHRIST

you know for a "Christian" god.

So this must therefore be "clean" torture -- done in the name of Christ.

<sarcasm>

[Protagoras]

77. WWJT?

who would Jesus torture?

Can't wait to see that ring.

We used to think there wasn't any acceptable course other than to wear the white hat and be the good guy.

Now it appears we will do anything we can be NOT to be the good guys. What happens to cultures who completely reject any adherence to the moral high ground?

[donkeyotay]

104. I always wondered why the POTUS would make that odd remark about

rape rooms. This RNC Gala speech was given in Sept. of 2003. Abu Ghraib hadn't been released to the public, but was known to the administration.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/10/20031008-9.html

Iraq is a free of a brutal dictator. Iraq is free of the man who caused there to be mass graves. Iraq is free of rape rooms and torture chambers. Iraq is free of a brutal thug. America did the right thing. (Applause.)

. . .

And so we're working in Iraq, working with other nations to make sure that Iraq is free and peaceful. Terrorists don't like that. Freedom is a threat. Freedom contradicts their way of life. A free Iraq in the middle of the Middle East will change the world. This is historic times. This nation will stay the course until Iraq is free and peaceful and prosperous. (Applause.)
end>

It's always good for a refresher from his revisionist history to revisit his words.

[Julius Civitatus]

75. Ours have better gear?

...and more expensive equipment, rednecks let loose on the prisoners, an added element of racism and xenophobia, an added element of Xtian fundamentalism.

In the end, it comes down to the same rape rooms under different management.

[saigon68]

101. Rape rooms for young boys

Anally savaged by beasts (read the Taguba Report where young men were anally raped by interogators)

[Jackpine Radical]

88. Ours are bringing freedom & democracy to the Eye-Rackies.

Even if we have to mutilate them until they accept our gifts.

[TankLV]

89. Other than the fact that OUR sons and daughters are doing it - NOTHING.

I put the blame solely on bush*, the repukes & any dems who support this ILLEGAL and CRIMINAL war!

[UpInArms]

25. May 24, 2004: 'I will always hate you people'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1223358,00.html

The first Mohammed Munim al-Izmerly's family knew of his death was when his battered corpse turned up at Baghdad's morgue. Attached to the zipped-up black US body bag was a laconic note.

The US military claimed in the note that Dr Izmerly, a distinguished chemistry professor arrested after US tanks encircled his villa, had died of "brainstem compression".

Dr Izmerly's sudden death after 10 months in American custody left his family stunned, not least because three weeks earlier they had visited him in the US prison at Baghdad airport. His 23-year-old daughter, Rana, recalled that he had seemed in "good health".

The family commissioned an independent Iraqi autopsy. Its conclusion was unambiguous: Dr Izmerly had died because of a "sudden hit to the back of his head", Faik Amin Baker, the director of Baghdad hospital's forensic department, certified.

The cause of death was blunt trauma. It was uncertain exactly how he died, but someone had hit him from behind, possibly with a bar or a pistol, Dr Baker confirmed yesterday.

...more...

[mirandapriestly]

33. I don't blame her for hating us, I would to.nt

[motocicleta]

67. Hell, I hate us.

I hate me for not going right out and protesting at the white house nonstop until the thugs are gone. I hate myself for knowing the truth but being too much of a coward to be willing to suffer for it. Supposedly the truth means so much to me, but here I sit, typing away instead of doing something.

I used to be an atheist. Now I know I will suffer in the afterlife for my complacency.

[wavesofeuphoria]

59. What are McCain's views on this?

I still am thinking back to his response/reaction to Bush regarding banning torture. How does he feel about his torturers? How long has/did he feel that way? Sure .. go ahead and align yourself with Bush .. knowing he condones and support this ... I'm sure you will sleep just fine at night.

This is all so unreal .. its not just Bush's incompetent and law-breaking that is appalling .. this man is morally depraved.

[maddezmom]

45. absolutely horrifying

but unfortunately not surprising. Haven't heard a peep about this on CNNI today, but instead covering Rummy's editorial.

[0007]

47. A mad man is in charge!

Some of the serious accusations against Task Force 6-26 have been reported over the past 16 months by news organizations including NBC, The Washington Post and The Times. Many details emerged in hundreds of pages of documents released under a Freedom of Information Act request by the American Civil Liberties Union. But taken together for the first time, the declassified documents and interviews with more than a dozen military and civilian Defense Department and other federal personnel provide the most detailed portrait yet of the secret camp and the inner workings of the clandestine unit.

The documents and interviews also reflect a culture clash between the free-wheeling military commandos and the more cautious Pentagon civilians working with them that escalated to a tense confrontation. At one point, one of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's top aides, Stephen A. Cambone, ordered a subordinate to "get to the bottom" of any misconduct.

Most of the people interviewed for this article were midlevel civilian and military Defense Department personnel who worked with Task Force 6-26 and said they witnessed abuses, or who were briefed on its operations over the past three years.

Many were initially reluctant to discuss Task Force 6-26 because its missions are classified. But when pressed repeatedly by reporters who contacted them, they agreed to speak about their experiences and observations out of what they said was anger and disgust over the unit's treatment of detainees and the failure of task force commanders to punish misconduct more aggressively. The critics said the harsh interrogations yielded little information to help capture insurgents or save American lives.

A

[fasttense]

55. This is the same rule the Catholic Jesuits used during the Inquisition.

"NO BLOOD, NO FOUL." The slogan, as one Defense Department official explained, reflected an adage adopted by Task Force 6-26: "If you don't make them bleed, they can't prosecute for it."

Nice to know they are bringing back the tactics of the Inquisition. The Jesuit Priests believed if the victim of torture didn't bleed like Jesus than they didn't really suffer.

[RazzleDazzle]

91. Ah, but is this inside or just outside?

Internal bleeding, or just external bleeding?

[EST]

2. Yeah-I heard a little about that, yesterday.

Surprise, surprise, surprise...

[Drum]

4. Mmmm...happy anniversary, BushCo! nt

[aquart]

7. Aww, we were supposed to be different from Saddam.

Funny, how that works.

[radfringe]

40. "compassionate" conservatism

abuse and torture "values"

[NanceGreggs]

8. Well, I guess we can count on the Religious Right ...

... Evangelicals to come out fightin' on this issue. I'm sure Falwell, Robertson and Graham will all be on the Sunday talk shows first thing tomorrow morning, slamming this administration for this totally anti-Christian behaviour.

Is the :sarcasm: icon really necessary?

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. The bush administration will deny any knowledge of this.

And jr will demand one of this famous "investigations" that will lead to .......nothing.

[ClintonTyree]

49. Oh, it's all quite legal..........

Gonzo has said as much and "we're a country at war"- although war has never been declared by Congress-but Congress is nothing more than a mere impediment to bush's imperial presidency anyway. Nothing to see here citizen, keep moving. It's harder to hit a moving target, hence the Army tying them up and beating them to death.

We've become the monster we'd railed against.

[earthside]

10. Truly Horrifying

Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld have laid this nation so low ... I really wonder if we shall ever recover.

At any rate, it will be a very long time before the people of this country comprehend just how bad it is for us.

This sort of thing may not be obvious in the national psyche right away, but eventually, we're going to have some very difficult cultural and sociolgical problems because of what has been done to us (with the permission of the Bush voters) by Bush and the radical Republicans.

It is a sad enough day because of Bush's order to start the killing in Iraq three years ago. This report just compuonds the sorrow.

[LynnTheDem]

16. And just wait until the American torturers come back home!

Coz guess what! Ya can't just turn it off like a faucet.

ENJOY, America!

[formercia]

41. There will be plenty of civilian jobs waiting for them

Homeland Security has a place for these people. Iraq was just a training ground.

[Joanne98]

66. Good Point.

[MGKrebs]

11. And of course any information derived from torture is reliable.

Thereby explaining the high rate of success of our anti-terrorist/insurgent operations to date.
:silly:

[Theduckno2]

17. I noticed that too.

If one reads Juan Cole's blog you see the reports not only of IEDs and bombings, but of assassinations and kidnappings. No high rate of success there. Torture is both wrong and ineffective.

On a lighter note, I hope Karen Hughes is packing her bags for a trip to the Middle East. She has a great deal of misinformation to spew to give those there the 'correct' view of the U.S.A.

[wtmusic]

12. Add to the list of war crimes

Can hell get any hotter?

[sushi]

96. He looks awful!

Could he be feeling a little guilty? Does he have a conscience?

[LynnTheDem]

13. For fuck's sake...

I dunno what to say any more. I really don't.

[Rainscents]

30. Me too, I am totally lost for words.

[0007]

42. I'm speechless! It's obvious we have lost our road map and

don't have a clue. A needle in a hay stack would be easier to find.

[Kierkegaard]

53. Ditto.

It's getting more difficult each day to convince myself that I haven't fallen asleep and awoken in some parallel universe. Society has been turned upside-down and I'm not sure if it will ever be righted. Bad is good, lies are truth, there is no accountability, no absolute law...we have become what we despise.

[Seabiscuit]

15. Many years from now historians will be asking where Congressmen and

Senators were during the 8 years of hell the Bush administration subjected the world to. The vast majority of them will be known to historians as "cowards", "traitors" "collaborators" and "unpatriotic" and the history books will be chock full of comparisons of the Bush regime, the selfish, cowardly and corrupt politicians and the wilfully ignorant, passive sheeple of our day to the conditions that gave rise to Nazi Germany.

What worries me is what they may say about what happened in Amerika in 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020. Will this once great country ever, ever recover from this blood-soaked stain on its heritage?

[madrchsod]

29. we will never recover

because to many will not take responsibility for their denial

[NJCher]

38. The Enablers

This is what I was thinking, too.

These people whom we supposedly elected are supposed to be stopping these outrages. Instead, what do they do? Cower. Cower in the face of an acknowledged moran whose approval rating with the American public is at 32 per cent and sinking lower each week.

With the exception of a few senators that another poster mentioned, they all bear the responsibility for letting this administration run amuck. There is blood on their hands.

When is it going to end? Every day it's a new outrage.

I am angry and bitter.




Cher

[pdurod1]

18. What a way to grow democracy in the middle east...

This country has changed. Here's another coverup/lie:

"But the United States Central Command has refused repeated requests from The Times over the past several months to provide an unclassified copy of General Formica's findings despite Mr. Rumsfeld's instructions that such a version of all 12 major reports into detainee abuse be made public."

What else is the Times sitting on?

[peacetalksforall]

19. Hypocrisy. Shame. Unfathomable .

Were is the oversight? Can it get worse?

[ninkasi]

20. I feel like I went to sleep in 2000

and woke up in 2001 in another country, in an altogether different universe. I simply cannot get my mind accustomed to the U.S. being a country which attacks other countries without provocation, a nation which uses torture, and warrant-less searches, and holding people indefinitely without charges. If somebody had told me in the summer of 2000 that our country would be doing all of this, I would have doubted their sanity.

I would never have thought that not only would the government be committing all of these illegal and immoral acts, but that even when those acts were brought to the citizen's attention, there would be nothing done, except the tepid scoldings of a few people. The brave ones...the Feingolds, and the Kennedys, and the Boxers, are all criticized for their cries to hold Bush and his administration accountable for America's descent into Hell.

For our country to be betrayed by all branches of government, and almost all members of the press, is something I still have a problem accepting. FDR was president when I was born. I was born in a free and democratic country, and it makes me sad to realize that I might not die in one.

[phusion]

23. well said...ditto

:(

[Seabiscuit]

24. Ditto. You took the words right out of my mouth.

I was born just after FDR died as Truman did his best to preserve FDR's legacy in his own presidency.

I was born in a free and democratic country and will also probably die in one that bears no resemblance to the one I was born in.

[tavalon]

35. I'm horrified too

but it really is time to take off the blinders. Yes, it is much more "in your face" with this administration but we have been doing horrible, covert things for a hell of a lot longer than they've been around and we have been hated almost as much as we are now by many a country. The only thing that has changed is that we are much more brazen. This country has never been what it's been idealized to be and there was always an evil underbelly to our calvinist/puritanism. It's just come out into the sunshine now.

The Bush administration took the mask off but the evil is all of ours to own.

[abester]

44. Hear Hear!

[anitar1]

81. Anyone read Seymour Hirsch's book Chain of Command?

He has already written the history of the "wars" from 2000 t0 2004. Really an eye opener. We do not know 1/4th of the truth.

[CONN]

85. Maybe it's all a bad dream....

the decline of America

[truthisfreedom]

21. completely insane. at this rate, bush will make saddam look like the

normal one...

[Higans]

87. all ready does.

[MrPrax]

22. Mindboggling...

Goes to show just how evil these people are--they even hold irony in contempt and appearances mean nothing, because they don't believe their own rhetoric for a single minute.

Did not a single cockroach in the chain of command bother to voice objection, even on the grounds of military tradition and honor, that they didn't want to use Saddam's sloppy seconds?

[keopeli]

26. The only way to undo this wrong for all to see is remove Bush the Lesser!

Even after Abu Ghraib...

After the public scandal of April 04, before the November selection process, we find they lied again.

Who will make the video of Bush condemning the Abu Ghraib torture?

And, who did they put in jail for Abu Ghraib?

Obviously, they didn't get the right person(s).

And so, the end of US moral supremacy is in fact behind us.

Friends, my fear is gone...

and my anger has taken root.

The only thing that will stop these criminals is a revolt from the people. If it can't happen through Congress, the people will find another way.

[jsamuel]

27. torture is a deal with the devil and you never get your soul's worth

[madrchsod]

28. any information that is given is useless

this bullshit is just revenge and degradation. they do to others what they are afraid will happen to them....

[buddysmellgood]

31. Our country has done some bad shit. We've been sheltered from much of

it. But never has the news of the bad shit rained down so hard that it made me feel like I felt when I read about Nazis as a kid. Where did our country go? Where is the outrage?

[Divine Discontent]

34. right on!

it's like the germans when Hitler was running amok, a lot of us know something is really wrong, but are rage isn't sparked properly (I'm including myself), we need to galvonize and get these son of bitches out of office. Firstly, I will put faith in my country's election process (God help me) in 06 and see what happens, third times the charm... I can't believe that 3 straight cycles they'd stay in power, it's a lie if they do, right now,I just "think" they've stolen the elections even with good evidence to what I feel already being true, a third theft will make me much more active, I've been mad at myself for a couple years now anyhow for not marching with others more and getting active.

V!

[lovuian]

32. This is getting downright obvious!!! Bush is out of control

this is really scary!!!

[Mojambo]

36. Welcome to the 20's, Mr Bush. n/t

[alittlelark]

37. So sad for ya.

re-read the future.

[lakeguy]

39. will there be any outrage this time?

when will the general strike begin that shuts the country down until bushco is run out of office?

when?

[auagroach]

95. General Strike

Second that thought! Only when we hit these criminals in the wallet will they sit up and notice.

[tatertop]

99. And the people will shout: four more years! four more years!

The way Iraqis are demonized by the US media
I have a feeling that support for torture castles
runs higher than you suspect.
Dumbmericans suck!

[democrank]

43. Sickening.

This says so much about those who ordered the torture, those who carry out the orders and the American citizens who either condone it or look the other way.

[newswolf56]

46. Thus the real reason Lynndie England is in prison is to discredit her...

as a witness against the Bush Regime in any future war crimes trial -- a formerly unthinkable reality now ever more obviously undeniable -- as is the truly nauseating probability the open U.S. practice of torture (formerly conducted only through surrogates like Pinochet etc.) is merely preparation for the suppression of dissent here at home once the Republicans openly declare themselves the U.S. equivalent of the Nazi Party and Bush declares himself the U.S. equivalent of der Führer.

(Where is the legendary Rote Kapelle now that we need it?)

[0007]

48. Now look what they're handing out as medals for during good work.

Did Lynndie get to keep the dog leash?

Back at Camp Nama, the task force leaders established a ritual for departing personnel who did a good job, Pentagon officials said. The commanders presented them with two unusual mementos: a detainee hood and a souvenir piece of tile from the medical screening room that once held Mr. Hussein.

[Disturbed]

51. Sen Durbin was 100% Correct.

He should never have apologized for telling the truth.

Comparing the Neo Fascist Bush Regime to Nazis, Stalin's Gulags or Pol Pot Reign of Terror may have been over the top but it was not off the mark in methods.

[TankLV]

90. What kind of a sick fuck would WANT such a "momento", let alone keep it?

These are truly sick people.

I'm sure we all knew the type in high school.

"support our troops" - yeah riiiiiight.

Bring 'em all home NOW before any more are corrupted.

[Dudley_DUright]

50. and here is Bush lying about it again (just like the FISA warrants)

Bush quote (January 2004):

Iraq is more free every day. The lives of the citizens are improving every day. And one thing is for certain; there won't be any more mass graves and torture rooms and rape rooms.

Hat tip to Billmon at the Whiskey Bar

http://billmon.org/archives/002361.html

[salin]

54. That ironic quote came to my mind, as well...

Another story from Dec 05 comes to mind.... that push and strongarming by Cheney to get an exception on the ban on torture by the military to exclude the CIA which was rejected, followed by BUsh's signing statement stating essentially that as CoC he would order (torture or no torture) as he saw fit - regardless of the law.

[bklyncowgirl]

52. Now let me get this straight.

The Arab world will rise up in the streets because the American people--and it was the American people not the American Government--refused to sell our ports to the Royal Family of the United Arab Emirates but revelations of torture and abuse of mostly innocent prisoners will not have any effect on public opinion in the Arab world.

Right.

[Punkingal]

56. Sounds like this unit is where they place the psychos....

"For an elite unit with roughly 1,000 people at any given time, Task Force 6-26 seems to have had a large number of troops punished for detainee abuse. Since 2003, 34 task force members have been disciplined in some form for mistreating prisoners, and at least 11 members have been removed from the unit, according to new figures the Special Operations Command provided in response to questions from The New York Times. Five Army Rangers in the unit were convicted three months ago for kicking and punching three detainees in September 2005."

But sometimes I wonder if some of the suicides of returned soldiers aren't because they witnessed, or participated, in this kind of thing, and when they return they can't live with the memories. What a nightmare.

[riona]

58. a strange way to create a beacon of democracy

[durrrty libby]

60. Is there a site where this article is posted in its entirety

without having to register?

[seafan]

74. Go to this link:

http://groups.google.com/group/OpenDebateForum/msg/62afbbe562126235?&q=Before+and+After+Abu+Ghraib%2C+a+U.S.+Unit+Abused+Detainees

[brainshrub]

61. Those crazy college kids.

They were probably just hazing a few of the freshmen.

[NoGOP]

62. The United Nations needs.........

to get in there and try and get some order restored. This is absolutely disgraceful the way this administration is running other everything and every law known to mankind without any sense of justice.

[cantstandbush]

63. Because Americans aren't in the streets to get rid of this administration

we are no better than the evil we say we abhor. In fact, we have become that evil.

[Massachusetts]

64. U.S. Torture Site in Iraq

wooden slippers up the stairs golden slippers down......Pax americana!

[leftchick]

65. The Nation wrote about TF 6-26 Over a Year Ago!

These are rummy's boys...

http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2005/01/03_nation_prosecuting-us-torture.htm

Prosecuting US Torture
The Nation Magazine Editorial, January 3, 2005 issue

Did anyone in the Bush White House cast an uneasy eye over the new indictment of Gen. Augusto Pinochet? It may seem over the top to mention that old buzzard in the same breath as an elected US President. But consider Task Force 6-26. It sounds like a relic of Pinochet's Operation Condor, whose state-sanctioned acts of murder resulted in the dictator's finally being brought to book after thirty years. In fact, Task Force 6-26 is a secret unit composed mostly of US Navy SEALs operating in Baghdad--its existence unacknowledged by the Pentagon. According to the Washington Post , a fact-finding mission for Army generals warned a year ago that Task Force 6-26 was running an off-the-books prison for detainees and applying more-than-moderate physical pressure--and that same task force is implicated in two prisoner deaths. Despite those warnings, Task Force 6-26, with its bland bureaucratic label, operates in Baghdad to this day.

The infamous photographs of depravity at Abu Ghraib may now actually be impeding public reckoning with the latest evidence of operations like Task Force 6-26. The pornographic violence of Abu Ghraib could be hung on low-level, poorly trained reservists like Lynndie England. The latest reports trickling out of prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo paint another picture: systematic violence by trained interrogators and systematic deceit by their bosses up the chain of command. FBI and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) memos released to the ACLU under the Freedom of Information Act depict Defense Department interrogators--not "rogue" reservists--gagging a Guantánamo prisoner with "duct tape that covered much of his head" for reciting the Koran; squeezing a prisoner's genitalia and bending back his thumbs; punching another's face to a pulp and leaving beaten prisoners moaning in a fetal position on the cell floor. The International Committee of the Red Cross reports physical and psychological coercion "tantamount to torture," with the collusion not just of career leg-breakers but physicians and psychologists. These reports match in sickening detail affidavits from Camp Delta detainees David Hicks of Australia and British national Moazzam Begg.

Critically, in the new reports the chain of evidence ends just a whisper away from Donald Rumsfeld. In June, DIA director Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby complained in a letter to Stephen Cambone, Rumsfeld's under secretary for intelligence, that two of his staffers had witnessed Special Forces in Baghdad beating a prisoner in the face severely enough to require medical attention. When they protested, Jacoby told Cambone, the DIA officers were threatened and their photos of the injuries confiscated. Meanwhile, FBI officials at Guantánamo were firing off alarmed and frustrated memos to Washington describing beatings, the use of dogs and other "aggressive" measures, which they found morally repugnant as well as likely to produce "unreliable results." The agents were overruled by Guantánamo's commanders and cautioned against too-vigorous a dissent by senior FBI officials. (No one in Congress has asked the obvious: If, as Rumsfeld insists, it is against US policy to torture prisoners, where did these skilled military interrogators learn their craft?)

What can be done? That's the pressing question, since US political and judicial institutions seem to be failing spectacularly. The CIA Inspector General's report on the role of intelligence officers at Abu Ghraib has yet to be released. It has been three months since the last--superficial--Congressional hearings on prison abuse. And although ranking Senate Judiciary Committee Democrat Patrick Leahy promises to ask tough questions about Abu Ghraib when Alberto Gonzales comes up for confirmation as Attorney General, that's no substitute for a proper investigation, for which Congressional Republicans show no inclination. Neither house has passed legislation to correct the Administration's contorted interpretation of US war-crimes statutes and the Geneva Conventions. Even the Supreme Court seems to have little leverage: For months the White House has dragged its feet about scheduling Geneva Convention prisoner-of-war status reviews demanded by the Justices, finally establishing guilty-until-proven-innocent hearings so unfair that a federal judge has now issued an injunction against them.

[Solly Mack]

68. Thank you! I was about to say - this isn't "new" news

BIAP and the abuse and torture used at the "prison" there has been reported on already, as was Task Force 6-26.

BIAP


Abuse reported by detainees at Abu Ghraib, Camp Bucca and Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) detention facility, and initial intake facilities
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4066835.stm

Also, google camp cropper - another "detention facility" around BIAP

ACLU document/torture/foia on Camp Nama

http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/030705/

[pacco]

79. Thanks for the article

this brutality is standard practice. These are masochists.

[Harper_is_Bush]

69. I'm worried that Canada will get caught in this mess

we need to hear our leadership tell the troops mistreatment is not tolerated.

[sellitman]

70. 'We have met the enemy and and he is us" n/t

[DesertRat]

71. kick

:kick:

[glitch]

72. Do they think their cutsie James Bond cover names will save them from

the world's disgust? How "elite" can you be if you torture, anyway?

When they snap out of their cult they will be ashamed. That is, the ones who aren't sociopaths, if any.

[seafan]

73. We, if we are to survive as a nation, must act.

The new account reveals the extent to which the unit members mistreated prisoners months before and after the photographs of abuse from Abu Ghraib were made public in April 2004, and it helps belie the original Pentagon assertions that abuse was confined to a small number of rogue reservists at Abu Ghraib.

snip

Virtually all of those who agreed to speak are career government employees, many with previous military service, and they were granted anonymity to encourage them to speak candidly without fear of retribution from the Pentagon. Many of their complaints are supported by declassified military documents and e-mail messages from F.B.I. agents who worked regularly with the task force in Iraq.

snip

Just beyond the screening rooms, where Saddam Hussein was given a medical exam after his capture, detainees were kept in as many as 85 cells spread over two buildings. Some detainees were kept in what was known as Motel 6, a group of crudely built plywood shacks that reeked of urine and excrement. The shacks were cramped, forcing many prisoners to squat or crouch. Other detainees were housed inside a separate building in 6-by-8-foot cubicles in a cellblock called Hotel California.

snip

Some former task force members said the Nama in the camp's name stood for a coarse phrase that soldiers used to describe the compound. One Defense Department specialist recalled seeing pink blotches on detainees' clothing as well as red welts on their bodies, marks he learned later were inflicted by soldiers who used detainees as targets and called themselves the High Five Paintball Club.

snip
Defense Department personnel briefed on the unit's operations said the harsh treatment extended beyond Camp Nama to small field outposts in Baghdad, Falluja, Balad, Ramadi and Kirkuk. These stations were often nestled within the alleys of a city in nondescript buildings with suburban-size yards where helicopters could land to drop off or pick up detainees.

snip

In January 2004, the task force captured the son of one of Mr. Hussein's bodyguards in Tikrit. The man told Army investigators that he was forced to strip and that he was punched in the spine until he fainted, put in front of an air-conditioner while cold water was poured on him and kicked in the stomach until he vomited. Army investigators were forced to close their inquiry in June 2005 after they said task force members used battlefield pseudonyms that made it impossible to identify and locate the soldiers involved. The unit also asserted that 70 percent of its computer files had been lost.

snip

Back at Camp Nama, the task force leaders established a ritual for departing personnel who did a good job, Pentagon officials said. The commanders presented them with two unusual mementos: a detainee hood and a souvenir piece of tile from the medical screening room that once held Mr. Hussein.

snip

Military and legal experts say the full breadth of abuses committed by Task Force 6-26 may never be known because of the secrecy surrounding the unit, and the likelihood that some allegations went unreported.
In the summer of 2004, Camp Nama closed and the unit moved to a new headquarters in Balad, 45 miles north of Baghdad. The unit's operations are now shrouded in even tighter secrecy.

snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/international/middleeast/19abuse.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1142744400&en=9efb5b3a1aa3d685&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin

[SOS]

78. Question...

From the article:

"Some former task force members said the Nama in the camp's name stood for a coarse phrase that soldiers used to describe the compound."

Anyone know what this is?

[LiberalHeart]

80. I have a question, too....

I just played back my tape of This Week, expecting to see discussion of the NYT story. Nothing. Did any Sunday talk shows touch on it?

[file83]

82. Are we sure Saddam Hussein isn't the President of the USA?

[NastyRiffraff]

83. Ask the victims of the Nazis about "No Blood No Foul"

Although millions were killed, many more were kept in camps as slave labor. They were beaten, mocked, worked to death and starved to death. When the Americans, British, and Soviets liberated the camps, they found little or no actual blood on the survivors...."only" living skeletons.

We're not at the point of gassing and burning yet, but by God, and I never thought I'd say this, nothing would surprise me. I weep for my country and for the Iraqis.

[babsbunny]

84. What else Does The New York Times Know About?

Come on! Let's hear everything this administration has done!

[Higans]

86. Why didn't they call it "The Ministry of Love."

[galatea]

92. bombshell?

Bush torturing innocent Iraqis?

why would it be news???? :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[robertpaulsen]

93. WTF??!!! Cambone asked BOYKIN to look into this??!!!

Talk about having the Fox investigate the henhouse:

Yet the former commander and 13-year veteran of the Army's top-secret Delta Force is also an outspoken evangelical Christian who appeared in dress uniform and polished jump boots before a religious group in Oregon in June to declare that radical Islamists hated the United States "because we're a Christian nation, because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christian ... and the enemy is a guy named Satan."

Discussing the battle against a Muslim warlord in Somalia, Boykin told another audience, "I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol."

"We in the army of God, in the house of God, kingdom of God have been raised for such a time as this," Boykin said last year.

On at least one occasion, in Sandy, Ore., in June, Boykin said of President Bush: "He's in the White House because God put him there."

much more...

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1016-01.htm

[HuffleClaw]

94. but its NOT torture!

its 'coercive interrogation techniques' approved by... ...ok, so they won't tell us WHO approved it, but its been approved! yeah, thats the story.

[Trevelyan]

97. My God, There really is no end to the depths of evil of these monsters.

Just when you think that you've reached the bottom of the hole, there are new depths. I think they have drilled all the way down to hell and have released all the devils and demons. Evil is real, not a joke and we have to find some way to stop these Nazis. I am heartsick all the time from this continuing evil. How can we stop it? Where is the War Crimes Court?

[saigon68]

103. kick

[donkeyotay]

98. Remember Col. Ted Westhusing?

http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=9312§ionID=1
ZNet | Activism

A Journey That Ended in Anguish
Col. Ted Westhusing, a military ethicist who volunteered to go to Iraq, was upset by what he saw. His apparent suicide raises questions.

by T. Christian Miller; Los Angeles Times; December 13, 2005


WASHINGTON -- One hot, dusty day in June, Col. Ted Westhusing was found dead in a trailer at a military base near the Baghdad airport, a single gunshot wound to the head.

. . .

Westhusing, 44, was no ordinary officer. He was one of the Army's leading scholars of military ethics, a full professor at West Point who volunteered to serve in Iraq to be able to better teach his students. He had a doctorate in philosophy; his dissertation was an extended meditation on the meaning of honor.

So it was only natural that Westhusing acted when he learned of possible corruption by U.S. contractors in Iraq. A few weeks before he died, Westhusing received an anonymous complaint that a private security company he oversaw had cheated the U.S. government and committed human rights violations. Westhusing confronted the contractor and reported the concerns to superiors, who launched an investigation.

. . .

In January, Westhusing began work on what the Pentagon considered the most important mission in Iraq: training Iraqi forces to take over security duties from U.S. troops.

Westhusing's task was to oversee a private security company, Virginia-based USIS, which had contracts worth $79 million to train a corps of Iraqi police to conduct special operations.

[bobbieinok]

100. aren't AbuG prisoners to be moved to prison near airport.??...US says

AbuG 'to be closed' and prisoners moved????

[Terran1212]

102. Just remember: FREEDOM IS ON THE MARCH