New UN Report Shows the US Combo of Torture and Impunity Thrives in Iraqi Prisons

[Echo In Light]

New UN Report Shows the US Combo of Torture and Impunity Thrives in Iraqi Prisons
by Jeremy Scahill

Part of the deadly serious problem with the Obama administration's position on (not) holding accountable CIA torturers, their lawyers and the Bush administration officials who authorized and ordered all of these crimes is this: It sends a message to other governments that if Washington does it, we can too. Especially governments completely created by the US government.

No governments on the planet are more controlled by the US right now than the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A new UN human rights report examining Iraq shows that torture of prisoners by Iraqi authorities is widespread and accountability is nonexistent. "The lack of accountability of the perpetrators of such human rights abuses reinforces the culture of impunity," the UN bluntly states. The 30-page report by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, which examined conditions in Iraq from July to December 2008, was just released Wednesday.

At times, the report reads as though it could have been written about the US torture program at Guantanamo and other US-run prisons and the total lack of accountability. In Iraq, the UN cites "the use of torture as an interrogation method" and "prolonged periods of detention without charge or access to legal counsel and the use of torture or physical abuse against detainees to extract confessions."

UN investigators said it was of "particular concern" that a senior Iraqi police official complained that the Iraqi government's pending ratification of the Convention against Torture would "not be helpful," stating, "How are we going to get confessions? We have to force the criminals to confess and how are we going to do that now?" It sounds like that Iraqi police official has been listening to Dick Cheney.

The UN says "there are no documented cases to this day where an official of the Minister of Defence has been held accountable for human rights abuses."

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/01-12

[Echo In Light]

1. The UN Report link:

http://uniraq.org/newsroom/getarticle.asp?ArticleID=1016

[MADem]

2. That "combo" existed there well before the US arrived. It's a cultural thing.

It ain't nice, but it's not our invention, either. And it's been "done" well before Bush ever arrived on the scene.

The quote from the Iraqi police official proves my point. That's Business as Usual over that way.

[G_j]

3. but Saddam tortured people

isn't that what made him a bad man?