[Vision2020] This Is The New Gulag
Tbertruss@aol.com
Tbertruss@aol.com
Fri, 14 May 2004 04:07:56 EDT
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Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1210588,00.html
=20
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,250496,00.html
This is the new gulag=20
Bush has created a global network of extra-legal and secret US prisons with=20
thousands of inmates=20
Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday May 6, 2004
The Guardian=20
It was "unacceptable" and "un-American", but was it torture? "My impression=20
is that what has been charged thus far is abuse, which I believe technically=
is=20
different from torture," said Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defence on=20
Tuesday. "I don't know if it is correct to say what you just said, that tort=
ure=20
has taken place, or that there's been a conviction for torture. And therefor=
e=20
I'm not going to address the torture word."=20
He confessed he had still not read the March 9 report by Major General=20
Antonio Taguba on "abuse" at the Abu Ghraib prison. Some highlights: " ... p=
ouring=20
cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a=20
chair; threatening male detainees with rape ... sodomising a detainee with a=
=20
chemical light and perhaps a broom stick ... "=20
The same day that Rumsfeld added his contribution to the history of Orwellia=
n=20
statements by high officials, the Senate armed services committee was briefe=
d=20
behind closed doors for the first time not only about Abu Ghraib, but about=20
military and CIA prisons in Afghanistan. It learned of the deaths of 25=20
prisoners and two murders in Iraq; that private contractors were at the cent=
re of=20
these lethal incidents; and that no one had been charged. The senators were=20=
given=20
no details about the private contractors. They might as well have been fitte=
d=20
with hoods.=20
Many of them, Democratic and Republican, were infuriated that there was no=20
accountability and no punishment and demanded a special investigation, but t=
he=20
Republican leadership quashed it. The senators want Rumsfeld to testify in a=
=20
public hearing, but he is resisting and the Republican leaders are blocking=20=
it.=20
The Bush administration was well aware of the Taguba report, but more=20
concerned about its exposure than its contents. General Richard Myers, the c=
hairman=20
of the joint chiefs of staff, was dispatched on a mission to CBS news to tel=
l=20
it to suppress its story and the horrifying pictures. For two weeks, CBS's 6=
0=20
Minutes II show complied, until it became known that the New Yorker magazine=
=20
would publish excerpts of the report. Myers was then sent on to the Sunday=20
morning news programmes to explain, but under questioning acknowledged that=20=
he had=20
still not read the report he had tried to censor from the public for weeks.=20
President Bush, Condoleezza Rice and other officials, unable to contain the=20
controversy any longer, engaged in profuse apologies and scheduled appearanc=
es=20
on Arab television. There were still no firings. One of their chief talking=20
points was that the "abuse" was an aberration. But Abu Ghraib was a predicta=
ble=20
consequence of the Bush administration imperatives and policies.=20
Bush has created what is in effect a gulag. It stretches from prisons in=20
Afghanistan to Iraq, from Guant=E1namo to secret CIA prisons around the worl=
d. There=20
are perhaps 10,000 people being held in Iraq, 1,000 in Afghanistan and almos=
t=20
700 in Guant=E1namo, but no one knows the exact numbers. The law as it appli=
es=20
to them is whatever the executive deems necessary. There has been nothing li=
ke=20
this system since the fall of the Soviet Union. The US military embraced the=
=20
Geneva conventions after the second world war, because applying them to=20
prisoners of war protects American soldiers. But the Bush administration, in=
an=20
internal fight, trumped its argument by designating those at Guant=E1namo "e=
nemy=20
combatants". Rumsfeld extended this system - "a legal black hole", according=
to=20
Human Rights Watch - to Afghanistan and then Iraq, openly rejecting the=
=20
conventions.=20
Private contractors, according to the Toguba report, gave orders to US=20
soldiers to torture prisoners. Their presence in Iraq is a result of the Bus=
h=20
military strategy of invading with a relatively light force. The gap has bee=
n filled=20
by private contractors, who are not subject to Iraqi law or the US military=20
code of justice. Now, there are an estimated 20,000 of them on the ground in=
=20
Iraq, a larger force than the British army.=20
It is not surprising that recent events in Iraq centre on these contractors:=
=20
the four killed in Falluja, and Abu Ghraib's interrogators. Under the Bush=20
legal doctrine, we create a system beyond law to defend the rule of law agai=
nst=20
terrorism; we defend democracy by inhibiting democracy. Law is there to=20
constrain "evildoers". Who doubts our love of freedom?=20
But the arrogance of virtuous certainty masks the egotism of power. It is th=
e=20
opposite of American pragmatism, which always under stands that knowledge is=
=20
contingent, tentative and imperfect. This is a conflict in the American mind=
=20
between two claims on democracy, one with a sense of paradox, limits and=20
debate, the other purporting to be omniscient, even messianic, requiring no=20=
checks=20
because of its purity, and contemptuous of accountability.=20
"This is the only one where they took pictures," Tom Malinowski, Washington=20
advocate of Human Rights Watch, and a former staff member of the National=20
Security Council, told me. "This was not considered a debatable topic until=20=
people=20
had to stare at the pictures." =B7=20
Sidney Blumenthal is former senior adviser to President Clinton and=20
Washington bureau chief of Salon.com=20
Sidney_Blumenthal@yahoo.com=20
----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
--
-----------------------------------------------
=20
Secret world of detention centres Away from public eye, prisoners have no=20
rights and face torture=20
WASHINGTON - The Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where a unit of United States=20
soldiers abused prisoners, is just the largest and suddenly most notorious i=
n a=20
worldwide constellation of detention centres run by the US military and Cent=
ral=20
Intelligence Agency.
=20
Detainees in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison are just part of the more than 9,000=20
people held all over the world by the US. -- AP =20
These centres are operated in the name of counter-terrorism or=20
counter-insurgency operations since the Sept 11, 2001 attacks.
Many of them are secret. All are off-limits to public scrutiny.
In Afghanistan, the CIA's secret US interrogation centre in Kabul is known a=
s=20
'The Pit', named for its despairing conditions.=20
In Iraq, the most important prisoners are kept in a huge hangar near the=20
runway at Baghdad International Airport, say US government officials and=20
counter-terrorism experts.
In Qatar, American forces have been ferrying some Iraqi prisoners to a remot=
e=20
jail on the gigantic US air base in the desert.
These prisons and jails are sometimes as small as shipping containers and as=
=20
large as the sprawling Guantanamo Bay complex in Cuba.
They are part of an elaborate CIA and military infrastructure whose purpose=20
is to hold suspected terrorists or insurgents for interrogation and=20
safe-keeping while avoiding US or international court systems, where proceed=
ings and=20
evidence against the accused would be aired in public.=20
Some are even held by foreign governments at the informal request of the US.
'The number of people who have been detained in the Arab world for the sake=20
of America is much more than in Guantanamo Bay. Really, thousands,' said Mr=20
Najeeb Nuaimi, a former justice minister of Qatar who is representing the=20
families of dozens of prisoners.
The largely hidden array includes three systems that only rarely overlap.
First, there is the Pentagon-run network of prisons, jails and holding=20
facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo and elsewhere.
Second, there are small and secret CIA-run facilities where top Al-Qaeda and=
=20
other figures are kept.
And third are the interrogation rooms of foreign intelligence services - som=
e=20
with documented records of torture - to which the US government delivers or=20
'renders' mid- or low-level terrorism suspects for questioning.
More than 9,000 people are held by US authorities overseas with the vast=20
majority under military control, according to Pentagon figures and intellige=
nce=20
experts.
The detainees have no conventional legal rights - no access to a lawyer, no=20
chance for an impartial hearing and at least in the case of prisoners held i=
n=20
cellblock 1A at Abu Ghraib, no apparent guarantee of humane treatment accord=
ed=20
prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions or civilians in US jails.
Although some of those held by the military in Iraq, Afghanistan and=20
Guantanamo have had visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross,=20=
some of=20
the CIA's detainees have disappeared, according to interviews with former an=
d=20
current national security officials and based on the Army's report of abuses=
at=20
Abu Ghraib.
The CIA's 'ghost detainees', as they were called by members of the 800th MP=20
Brigade, were routinely held by the soldier-guards at Abu Ghraib 'without=20
accounting for them, knowing their identities or even the reason for their=20
detention', the report says. -- Washington Post=20
=20
=20
=A0 =20
=20
V2020 post by Ted Moffett =20
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<HTML><FONT FACE=3Darial,helvetica><HTML><FONT SIZE=3D2 PTSIZE=3D10 FAMILY=
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<A HREF=3D"http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1210588,00.html">http=
://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1210588,00.html</A><BR>
<BR>
<A HREF=3D"http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,250496,00.htm=
l">http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,250496,00.html</A><BR=
>
</FONT><FONT COLOR=3D"#000000" BACK=3D"#ffffff" style=3D"BACKGROUND-COLOR:=20=
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><B><BR>
This is the new gulag</FONT><FONT COLOR=3D"#000000" BACK=3D"#ffffff" style=
=3D"BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3D3 PTSIZE=3D12 FAMILY=3D"SANSSERIF" FAC=
E=3D"Arial" LANG=3D"0"></B> <BR>
<BR>
Bush has created a global network of extra-legal and secret US prisons with=20=
thousands of inmates <BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR=3D"#000000" BACK=3D"#ffffff" style=3D"BACKGROUND-COLOR:=20=
#ffffff" SIZE=3D2 PTSIZE=3D10 FAMILY=3D"SANSSERIF" FACE=3D"Arial" LANG=3D"0"=
><B>Sidney Blumenthal<BR>
Thursday May 6, 2004<BR>
<A HREF=3D"http://www.guardian.co.uk/">The Guardian</A></B></B> <BR>
<BR>
It was "unacceptable" and "un-American", but was it torture? "My impression=20=
is that what has been charged thus far is abuse, which I believe technically=
is different from torture," said Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defence=20=
on Tuesday. "I don't know if it is correct to say what you just said, that t=
orture has taken place, or that there's been a conviction for torture. And t=
herefore I'm not going to address the torture word." <BR>
<BR>
He confessed he had still not read the March 9 report by Major General Anton=
io Taguba on "abuse" at the Abu Ghraib prison. Some highlights: " ... pourin=
g cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a=
chair; threatening male detainees with rape ... sodomising a detainee with=20=
a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick ... " <BR>
<BR>
The same day that Rumsfeld added his contribution to the history of Orwellia=
n statements by high officials, the Senate armed services committee was brie=
fed behind closed doors for the first time not only about Abu Ghraib, but ab=
out military and CIA prisons in Afghanistan. It learned of the deaths of 25=20=
prisoners and two murders in Iraq; that private contractors were at the cent=
re of these lethal incidents; and that no one had been charged. The senators=
were given no details about the private contractors. They might as well hav=
e been fitted with hoods. <BR>
<BR>
Many of them, Democratic and Republican, were infuriated that there was no a=
ccountability and no punishment and demanded a special investigation, but th=
e Republican leadership quashed it. The senators want Rumsfeld to testify in=
a public hearing, but he is resisting and the Republican leaders are blocki=
ng it. <BR>
<BR>
The Bush administration was well aware of the Taguba report, but more concer=
ned about its exposure than its contents. General Richard Myers, the chairma=
n of the joint chiefs of staff, was dispatched on a mission to CBS news to t=
ell it to suppress its story and the horrifying pictures. For two weeks, CBS=
's 60 Minutes II show complied, until it became known that the New Yorker ma=
gazine would publish excerpts of the report. Myers was then sent on to the S=
unday morning news programmes to explain, but under questioning acknowledged=
that he had still not read the report he had tried to censor from the publi=
c for weeks. <BR>
<BR>
President Bush, Condoleezza Rice and other officials, unable to contain the=20=
controversy any longer, engaged in profuse apologies and scheduled appearanc=
es on Arab television. There were still no firings. One of their chief talki=
ng points was that the "abuse" was an aberration. But Abu Ghraib was a predi=
ctable consequence of the Bush administration imperatives and policies. <BR>
<BR>
Bush has created what is in effect a gulag. It stretches from prisons in Afg=
hanistan to Iraq, from Guant=E1namo to secret CIA prisons around the world.=20=
There are perhaps 10,000 people being held in Iraq, 1,000 in Afghanistan and=
almost 700 in Guant=E1namo, but no one knows the exact numbers. The law as=20=
it applies to them is whatever the executive deems necessary. There has been=
nothing like this system since the fall of the Soviet Union. The US militar=
y embraced the Geneva conventions after the second world war, because applyi=
ng them to prisoners of war protects American soldiers. But the Bush adminis=
tration, in an internal fight, trumped its argument by designating those at=20=
Guant=E1namo "enemy combatants". Rumsfeld extended this system - "a legal bl=
ack hole", according to Human Rights Watch - t=
o Afghanistan and then Iraq, openly rejecting the conventions. </FONT><FONT=20=
COLOR=3D"#000000" BACK=3D"#ffffff" style=3D"BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=
=3D6 PTSIZE=3D20 FAMILY=3D"SANSSERIF" FACE=3D"Arial" LANG=3D"0"><BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR=3D"#000000" BACK=3D"#ffffff" style=3D"BACKGROUND-COLOR:=20=
#ffffff" SIZE=3D2 PTSIZE=3D10 FAMILY=3D"SANSSERIF" FACE=3D"Arial" LANG=3D"0"=
><B><BR>
</B>Private contractors, according to the Toguba report, gave orders to US s=
oldiers to torture prisoners. Their presence in Iraq is a result of the Bush=
military strategy of invading with a relatively light force. The gap has be=
en filled by private contractors, who are not subject to Iraqi law or the US=
military code of justice. Now, there are an estimated 20,000 of them on the=
ground in Iraq, a larger force than the British army. <BR>
<BR>
It is not surprising that recent events in Iraq centre on these contractors:=
the four killed in Falluja, and Abu Ghraib's interrogators. Under the Bush=20=
legal doctrine, we create a system beyond law to defend the rule of law agai=
nst terrorism; we defend democracy by inhibiting democracy. Law is there to=20=
constrain "evildoers". Who doubts our love of freedom? <BR>
<BR>
But the arrogance of virtuous certainty masks the egotism of power. It is th=
e opposite of American pragmatism, which always under stands that knowledge=20=
is contingent, tentative and imperfect. This is a conflict in the American m=
ind between two claims on democracy, one with a sense of paradox, limits and=
debate, the other purporting to be omniscient, even messianic, requiring no=
checks because of its purity, and contemptuous of accountability. <BR>
<BR>
"This is the only one where they took pictures," Tom Malinowski, Washington=20=
advocate of Human Rights Watch, and a former staff member of the National Se=
curity Council, told me. "This was not considered a debatable topic until pe=
ople had to stare at the pictures." <B>=B7</B> <BR>
<BR>
Sidney Blumenthal is former senior adviser to President Clinton and Washingt=
on bureau chief of <A HREF=3D"http://www.salon.com/">Salon.com</A> <BR>
<BR>
<A HREF=3D"mailto:Sidney_Blumenthal@yahoo.com">Sidney_Blumenthal@yahoo.com</=
A> <BR>
<BR>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
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</FONT><FONT COLOR=3D"#000000" BACK=3D"#ffffff" style=3D"BACKGROUND-COLOR:=20=
#ffffff" SIZE=3D3 PTSIZE=3D12 FAMILY=3D"SANSSERIF" FACE=3D"Arial" LANG=3D"0"=
> <BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR=3D"#000000" BACK=3D"#ffffff" style=3D"BACKGROUND-COLOR:=20=
#ffffff" SIZE=3D2 PTSIZE=3D10 FAMILY=3D"SANSSERIF" FACE=3D"Arial" LANG=3D"0"=
>Secret world of detention centres Away from public eye, prisoners have no r=
ights and face torture <BR>
<BR>
WASHINGTON - The Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where a unit of United States so=
ldiers abused prisoners, is just the largest and suddenly most notorious in=20=
a worldwide constellation of detention centres run by the US military and Ce=
ntral Intelligence Agency.<BR>
<BR>
<IMG SRC=3D"http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/mnt/media/image/launched/2004-=
05-12/prime11.jpg" WIDTH=3D"220" HEIGHT=3D"121" BORDER=3D"0" DATASIZE=3D"639=
1"><BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR=3D"#666666" BACK=3D"#ffffff" style=3D"BACKGROUND-COLOR:=20=
#ffffff" SIZE=3D1 PTSIZE=3D8 FAMILY=3D"SANSSERIF" FACE=3D"Verdana" LANG=3D"0=
"><B>Detainees in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison are just part of the more than 9,=
000 people held all over the world by the US. -- AP </FONT><FONT COLOR=3D"#=
000000" BACK=3D"#ffffff" style=3D"BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3D3 PTSIZE=
=3D12 FAMILY=3D"SANSSERIF" FACE=3D"Arial" LANG=3D"0"></B> <BR>
<BR>
These centres are operated in the name of counter-terrorism or counter-insur=
gency operations since the Sept 11, 2001 attacks.<BR>
<BR>
Many of them are secret. All are off-limits to public scrutiny.<BR>
<BR>
In Afghanistan, the CIA's secret US interrogation centre in Kabul is known a=
s 'The Pit', named for its despairing conditions. <BR>
<BR>
In Iraq, the most important prisoners are kept in a huge hangar near the run=
way at Baghdad International Airport, say US government officials and counte=
r-terrorism experts.<BR>
<BR>
In Qatar, American forces have been ferrying some Iraqi prisoners to a remot=
e jail on the gigantic US air base in the desert.<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR=3D"#000000" BACK=3D"#ffffff" style=3D"BACKGROUND-COLOR:=20=
#ffffff" SIZE=3D1 PTSIZE=3D8 FAMILY=3D"SANSSERIF" FACE=3D"Verdana" LANG=3D"0=
">These prisons and jails are sometimes as small as shipping containers and=20=
as large as the sprawling Guantanamo Bay complex in Cuba.<BR>
<BR>
They are part of an elaborate CIA and military infrastructure whose purpose=20=
is to hold suspected terrorists or insurgents for interrogation and safe-kee=
ping while avoiding US or international court systems, where proceedings and=
evidence against the accused would be aired in public. <BR>
<BR>
Some are even held by foreign governments at the informal request of the US.=
<BR>
<BR>
'The number of people who have been detained in the Arab world for the sake=20=
of America is much more than in Guantanamo Bay. Really, thousands,' said Mr=20=
Najeeb Nuaimi, a former justice minister of Qatar who is representing the fa=
milies of dozens of prisoners.<BR>
<BR>
The largely hidden array includes three systems that only rarely overlap.<BR=
>
<BR>
First, there is the Pentagon-run network of prisons, jails and holding facil=
ities in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo and elsewhere.<BR>
<BR>
Second, there are small and secret CIA-run facilities where top Al-Qaeda and=
other figures are kept.<BR>
<BR>
And third are the interrogation rooms of foreign intelligence services - som=
e with documented records of torture - to which the US government delivers o=
r 'renders' mid- or low-level terrorism suspects for questioning.<BR>
<BR>
More than 9,000 people are held by US authorities overseas with the vast maj=
ority under military control, according to Pentagon figures and intelligence=
experts.<BR>
<BR>
The detainees have no conventional legal rights - no access to a lawyer, no=20=
chance for an impartial hearing and at least in the case of prisoners held i=
n cellblock 1A at Abu Ghraib, no apparent guarantee of humane treatment acco=
rded prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions or civilians in US jails.=
<BR>
<BR>
Although some of those held by the military in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantan=
amo have had visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross, some of=
the CIA's detainees have disappeared, according to interviews with former a=
nd current national security officials and based on the Army's report of abu=
ses at Abu Ghraib.<BR>
<BR>
The CIA's 'ghost detainees', as they were called by members of the 800th MP=20=
Brigade, were routinely held by the soldier-guards at Abu Ghraib 'without ac=
counting for them, knowing their identities or even the reason for their det=
ention', the report says. -- Washington Post <BR>
<BR>
<IMG SRC=3D"http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/mnt/static/image/ax/clear.=
gif" WIDTH=3D"10" HEIGHT=3D"1" BORDER=3D"0" DATASIZE=3D"49"> <BR>
<IMG SRC=3D"http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/mnt/static/image/ax/clear.gif"=
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=A0 <BR>
<IMG SRC=3D"http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/mnt/static/image/ax/clear.gif"=
WIDTH=3D"10" HEIGHT=3D"1" BORDER=3D"0" DATASIZE=3D"49"> <BR>
V2020 post by Ted Moffett<IMG SRC=3D"http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/mnt/s=
tatic/image/ax/clear.gif" WIDTH=3D"10" HEIGHT=3D"1" BORDER=3D"0" DATASIZE=
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