Denver officials expect to spend more than $18 million on police equipment for the Democratic National Convention — but the purchases apparently won't include high-tech weapons that use sonic waves to incapacitate protesters or goo guns to immobilize them.
That information, provided by the city to the American Civil Liberties Union as part of an agreement to delay a public records lawsuit, marks one of the most detailed looks yet at the super-secret efforts to provide security for the convention, scheduled Aug. 25 to 28.
The ACLU sued Denver in May under the state's public records law after city officials refused to provide documents showing how they were spending millions of dollars on police equipment.
"This budget overview reaffirms to the public our goal to provide the most effective and comprehensive security possible while maintaining an event that is inclusive and enjoyable for all," Mayor John Hickenlooper said in a statement issued by his office.
Denver police officials have been extremely circumspect in answering questions about either their security plans for the convention or their equipment purchases.
This afternoon, for example, Deputy Chief of Operations Michael Battista spoke in only general terms about equipment purchases when he was asked about them by City Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz.
"I'm purchasing equipment that's going to protect my officers," Battista said.
Later, the city disclosed more details about its purchases, which currently are projected to come in at $18.2 million.
They will not include non-lethal weapons that use "slime" or "goo" to immobilize protesters or that use microwaves or sonic waves to induce pain or other discomfort. Some convention watchers had alleged that the city might purchase a weapon that would cause people to defecate.
You have Democratic Superdelegates assigned to represent the your State’s Democratic Voters best interests at the DNC Convention August 25, 2008. In order to demonstrate a fair Primary Election, the DNC must put Hillary Clinton’s name on the ballot for nomination.
Who do you want to see run as the Democratic Presidential Candidate? The popular vote during the Democratic Primary was so close people are still arguing who had more votes. We know who Clinton was when we voted. But Obama? Would you vote for Clinton or Obama after seeing him in action these last few months? Would you like to see McCain, Clinton or Obama as the President of the United States?
Even with manipulation of the popular vote in the Democratic Party Primary, Obama does not have enough delegates to secure the nomination. He is the self-anointed chosen one as the presumptive nominee. There are approximately 800 Superdelegates who will cast their final votes at the Democratic Convention August 25th. They will be making the final decision.
2. Expanding Access to Electricity: In 2002, Baghdad had access to electricity 24 hours a day; the rest of Iraq was limited to 3-6 hours. Currently, all 18 governorates receive nearly 14 hours of electricity daily, an incredible improvement for a country emerging from decades of conflict and little investment.
USAID efforts have added 1,400 megawatts (MW) of generating capacity to the national electrical grid, expanding access to 4.2 million Iraqis throughout most of Iraq.
3. Providing Potable Water: Many parts of Iraq had no access to or provision of clean potable water. Indeed many of Iraq's waterways were contaminated with refuse and sewage. Over 4 million Iraqis who had no clean drinking water in 2002 now have safe, potable water piped to their homes following USAID efforts to refurbish water treatment plants in 15 cities.
USAID is also providing plant-level operations and maintenance (O&M) training at major water and wastewater plants nationwide to ensure that these plants remain functioning.
4. Restoring Sewage Systems: Before 2003, Iraq's cities suffered from inadequate sewage systems; backed up sewage created pools in neighborhoods or emptied directly into nearby rivers. Today, USAID's rehabilitated sewage treatment plants throughout Iraq process a total of 339.7 million gallons daily.
These plants alone provide 7.2 million urban Iraqis - over a quarter of the national population - access to functioning, waterborne sewage, greatly improving sanitation and contributing to a decrease in waterborne disease.
5. Improving Local Governance and Community Development: Iraqi democracy must prove itself through service delivery and community-based solutions to local problems. With USAID assistance, representative provincial and municipal governments are more capable of delivering essential services to their constituents.
Countrywide, more than 670 community action groups focused on civic education, women's advocacy, and anti-corruption have been supported by USAID.
Working through local NGOs, USAID has implemented 4,672 quick impact projects throughout Iraq, providing short-term employment and restoration of basic services.
6. Connecting Iraq to the Global Economy: The private sector is the engine for sustainable job creation and economic growth. To help guide policy reform, USAID's Investor Roadmap analyzes constraints to investment. Iraq's Investment Promotion Agency was recently established with USAID assistance, and will serve as a resource to international investors.
USAID worked with the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to develop a Competitiveness Study, helping integrate efforts to create a robust private sector that fosters job creation.
USAID programs assist Iraq's MoF, Central Organization for Statistics and Information Technology (COSIT), and Iraq's Central Bank in meeting their International Monetary Fund (IMF) requirements. This $19 million technical assistance effort is expected to return to Iraq $480 million in the IMF Standby Agreement by December 2005 as well as debt forgiveness of $27 billion from the Paris Club by March 2006.
Working with the MoF, USAID introduced the new dinar currency to promote national unity and a sound functioning monetary policy. Currently, 4.62 trillon new Iraqi dinars are in circulation in Iraq.
7. Expanding Political Inclusion and Expression: USAID assistance has helped prepare Iraq for two national elections, numerous provincial and municipal elections, and the Constitutional Referendum of October 15. In preparation for the January 2005 election, USAID helped the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) establish a voter registration system, and worked with the UN on improving balloting procedures.
USAID-supported NGOs distributed election materials, helped televise debates, and led over 22,000 town meetings to educate Iraqi voters.
USAID and a local NGO trained over 8,000 election monitors.
Current efforts are preparing 15,000 elections monitors for the December 15, 2005 elections.
8. Supporting the New Iraqi Constitution: The January 2005 Interim Government election put into place a National Assembly to frame a constitution emphasizing democracy and the rule of law. USAID partners provided constitutional specialists to the Drafting Committee while input from over 111,000 national surveys kept the Committee in touch with national sentiment.
The Iraqi Women's National Coalition, supported by USAID, developed a 10-point statement adopted in the constitution.
A USAID-supported NGO televised debates and distributed information. Nearly 9,500 monitors, trained by USAID partners, helped ensure a successful constitutional referendum.
9. Transforming Primary Education: USAID assistance has helped Iraq move away from rote learning methodology in decrepit, unsanitary classrooms to interactive learning in rehabilitated buildings. Since 2003, USAID has rehabilitated nearly 3,000 schools.
Over 20 million new textbooks have been supplied by USAID (8.6 million) and UNESCO (12 million).
By 2006, more than 133,000 primary school teachers - a third of Iraq's educators in all - will have received training and technical assistance.
Already, the most recent primary school enrollment numbers show a 19 percent increase from pre-war levels.
10. Restoring Excellence in Higher Education: The USAID Higher Education and Development (HEAD) Program brings together five American and 10 Iraqi universities to help reestablish academic excellence in Iraq's higher education system.
Since January 2004, more than 1,500 Iraqi faculty and students have participated in workshops, trainings, conferences, and courses in Iraq, the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.
University facilities -libraries, computer and science laboratories, lecture halls, and buildings - have been rehabilitated at colleges throughout the country.
A mini-grant program supports new, innovative research throughout the country. In addition, books and electronic resources have been provided to university libraries.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has provided economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for more than 40 years. For more information on USAID's Iraq program, please visit www.usaid.gov/iraq.
Notice how the resident Democrutch has resorted back to his basic racist beliefs in his smear campaign against McCain, calling him "racist" etc and making racist statements that are full of white, liberal ignorance.
The small mind of a racist Democrook who's party uses minorities to further their socialist needs.
Right here on Hawaii (no surprise there).
Claiming to be from the 'correct side' but really from the 'nut side'.
It seems Todd didn't do too well at his alma mater (Texas Christian University). It occurred to him that it might be a good idea to get a retroactive increase in his grades so he went to a computer geek website named attrition.org for some assistance. In his own words:
OK here it is: I need an adjustment to my college GPA.
Is this an absurd request?
He was assured that it was not, and the fun began.
The entire email exchange between Todd and his tormentors is reproduced here . They played him like a fiddle, warning him every step of the way that what he was asking was criminal and that they could all end up in jail. (Had the hackers actually had any intention of doing what he wanted).
Now, you're probably thinking, yes, that's pretty stupid, putting yourself in the power of a complete stranger. But that's not the half of it. Here's is part of the email exchange (non squirrel/pigeon stuff redacted, to improve the flow):
Shriber: What would you or anyone else need from me to see if you could it?
Hacker: For starters, college name, full name, and whatever number they track you by. Student ID or SS# or whatever else.
And, are there pigeons on campus?
Shriber: I can supply all that. Forgive what I assume is dumb question, but what are pigeons? I know you're not talking about the bird.
Hacker: Actually I am.
Shriber: Wow, I feel dumb now. I honestly cannot rember if there were pigeons on campus or not. A lot of crazy squirrels, but I can't remember pigeons. Just for my own edification, why do you need to know that? I'll find out for you.
Hacker: Hey, squirrels work fine. First, let's be clear. You are soliciting me to break the law and hack into a computer across state lines. That is a federal offense and multiple felonies. Obviously I can't trust anyone and everyone that mails such a request, you might be an FBI agent, right?
So, I need three things to make this happen:
1. A picture of a squirrel or pigeon on your campus. One close-up, one with background that shows buildings, a sign, or something to indicate you are standing on the campus.
Shriber: OK. The pictures might take me a little while as I've been out of school for a few years and I don't live in that state anymore.
Hacker: What state do you live in, and what college is it? The picture can still work wherever you are. Main thing is to prove to a degree who you are, that you can do something unique and quickly, etc.
Shriber: I don't live near the college anymore, I'm 1,000 miles away. Is there some other sign of trust I can extend to you or should I wait a few weeks and travel to my school and get these pictures?
Hacker: A picture of a squirrel or pigeon near where you live is fine. One close up, one from the distance enough so there are buildings or anything to help identify the location of where the pic was taken from.
And yes, he did go out and take a picture of a squirrel and sent it to the hacker. And the above is only the start of the correspondence about squirrel pictures. It goes on and on. By the way, the hacker apparently had no idea who Todd was. You almost feel sorry for the guy. Here's the last email they sent him:
todd... no more.. omfg we are SO busted.. fuck fuck fuck FUCK FUCK everything was PERFECT until their night noc ran a reverse udp traceroute back to one of the hosts we had set up after that, straight DOWNHILL. i've already been called twice by my isp asking about unusual activity, some other shit about access attempts to a federally monitored system they have everything in logs including the rot-26 stuff that finally got me access all goes back to your login sorry i really fucked up BAD
theyre prob gonna end up calling you since they have your info just duck and run if you can, i'm going deep underground if they ask about me or attrition we don't know each other you know youre just as guilty and liable so when they come knocking dont say anything without a lawyer and when you ask them to put the gun down say it nice because that shit isnt fun
man dont even visit attrition.org again theyre trying to check web logs one last email should be ok but we're so fucked sorry
Poor Todd. That must have cost him a heap of sleepless nights.
The Obama campaign complains that the senator has no such plan. Indeed, he's said his plan "does not" cover illegals: "We've got limited resources. And it is important for us that, when we've got millions of US citizens that aren't yet covered, it's important for us to make sure that they are provided coverage."
Yet the Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that the 47 million figure includes illegal immigrants. Indeed, The Wall Street Journal criticized Obama's use of that figure, noting that his plan would fall short of it because it allegedly excludes illegal immigrants.
Obama can't have it both ways. He can't say he will cover 47 million Americans - as he has again and again in speeches and even in a national TV ad as recently as last month - and then turn around and deny that he'll cover the illegal immigrants who are included in that count.
The fact remains that the single most prominent aspect of Obama's domestic-policy proposals is his pledge to cover 47 million uninsured people who live in the United States. The fact that the fine print of one of his speeches may indicate that he's not being truthful and doesn't plan to cover the illegal immigrants among them is far from compelling.
He then said, 'these are the people I will be talking to for the next 8-10 years'...duh! When did a term go from 4 years to 8-10? Where the hell did he get 10?!!
Out of the '57 states' that he has toured, would you not assume this man knew (not only how many states we have) but how long a Presidential term was?
Have you ever noticed how much he sounds like Bush? "Um,,uh,,I can..,uhhhh,..ummm"...and then he says something totally ignorant,..all the while basking in his own ego, assuming he said 'something' good! LOLOLOLOLOL
If the media and American people can't see through this egotistical, cocky, self centered attitude of this Senators,..I pity you all.
Saeed Shah, for McClatchy Newspapers, reports: "Pakistan's intelligence agencies and police have disappeared hundreds of Pakistanis, including children as young as 9, as part of the U.S.-led war on terrorism, Amnesty International charged Wednesday. The missing Pakistanis frequently were tortured and have been moved among secret detention centers regularly so that they become impossible to trace, the human rights group said."
Movies & TV - The Young Turks: Cenk Uygur, Ben Mankiewicz, and Jill Pike talk about the racist ads John McCain authorized. Watch live from 6-9AM ET on www.theyoungturks.com. Listen from 6-9AM ET on Air America Radio.
Well said, Camille – but there is more to it than that. The wariness and over-intensity mask a seething guilt that threatens to erupt, at any moment, like a stream of hot lava boiling up to the surface. The clenched jaw, and tightened facial muscles, the eyes that look far away into some unimaginable distance: there is something not quite right here, both in the rigid planes of his face – and in the details of his story.
THE DARK SIDE
In interviews, he looks away at crucial moments, as if distracted by some random memory – perhaps the memory of his time spent in a Vietnamese prison, where he reportedly endured the most excruciating tortures. In deference to his obvious pain at the memories, and in their eagerness to accept at face value what McCain's publicists are dishing out, reporters have not really delved too deeply into the details of his experience after being shot down over Hanoi. If they had, they would have long ago come to suspect that the shining war hero is holding something back, a shameful secret that reveals and perhaps explains the dark side of John McCain.
COLLABORATION
McCain was shot down on October 26, 1967, over Truc Bach Lake, near Hanoi. As I pointed out in my last column about McCain, he claimed in a US News and World Report article [May 14, 1973] that he languished in a cell for several days, his injuries untreated. Confronted with a North Vietnamese officer who was "a psychotic torturer, one of the worst fiends we had to deal with," as McCain put it, he decided to cooperate. According to his own account, McCain said: "OK, I will give you military information if you will take me to the hospital." While there are some conflicting stories about how long he was actually in that cell, he gave his first interview on October 31, with French television reporter Francois Chalais for Beirut's L'Orient, who wrote:
INTERVIEW WITH A PRISONER OF WAR
Like everything else the U.S. did in the Vietnam War, “Rolling Thunder” came wrapped in lies. “Rolling Thunder” was supposedly a retaliation for unprovoked attacks on a U.S. destroyer by Vietnamese patrol boats. But, in fact, this 1964 “Gulf of Tonkin incident” was a U.S. fabrication.
President Johnson made up a fake Vietnamese attack–and then used it to justify the bombing of northern Vietnam which started in February 1965, and then the land invasion of southern Vietnam in March 1965.
As far as the public knew, “Rolling Thunder” only lasted eight weeks–but this too was a lie. The bombing campaign secretly lasted for four years, pounding targets throughout the North. After “Rolling Thunder,” the U.S. bombing continued and escalated.flight_suit.jpg
It was the most intense air war in world history. Seven million tons of bombs were dropped on Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos– three times as many as had been dropped in all of World War 2. Huge parts of Indochina were “carpet bombed”–killing Vietnamese civilians and liberation fighters, ruining valuable farmland and leaving the countryside pockmarked with 21 million bomb craters.
The U.S. planes dropped anti-personnel bombs (containing thousands of flesh-shredding darts), white phosphorus incendiary bombs, huge “daisy cutter” bombs that turned jungle into flattened football fields, and jellied gasoline bombs called napalm. The notorious chemical Agent Orange was sprayed over tens of millions of acres–poisoning crops, forests and human beings in the strongholds of the Vietnamese National Liberation Front. In Washington, strategists of the air war came up with a slogan, “Bomb them back to the stone age.”
This is the air assault that pilots like McCain carried out. They formed an elite gung-ho caste inside the U.S. military. They were highly privileged, isolated from many hardships of war, and drawn from the upper classes of U.S. society. McCain himself was the son and grandson of four-star Navy admirals. His father was the top commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific during the last years of the Vietnam War.
In his memoirs, McCain describes how he and his fellow pilots hated any restrictions on their brutal work–how they thought the bombing should be unrestrained and totally ruthless. He describes how he and his fellow pilots greeted each escalation of the air war with wild celebrations.
In October 1967, John McCain was shot down during a bombing raid over the capital city of Hanoi. He had carried out 23 bombing missions. McCain was captured, his wounds were treated, and he was held in a Vietnamese prison with other captured pilots. Five years later, as the defeated U.S. withdrew from Vietnam, these prisoners were released.
Mass murder, then captivity–for that the Pentagon gave John McCain two Silver Stars, two Legions of Merit, two Flying Crosses, three Bronze Stars and three Purple Hearts. Com. John McCain was a trained killer for U.S. imperialism. He carried out his orders without question. There is no discussion in his memoirs of the people he killed, or the destruction he carried out halfway around the world. He is totally unapologetic–shamelessly and repeatedly calling the Vietnamese “gooks” in media interviews over the past several months.
Is that documentation enough for you? Imagine The NEXT DAY, a hijacker who'd flunked out on certification after certification on a single engine Cessna, does a Top Gun Maneuver any tree-top flyer would love to call their own, and smacks into that particular side (one-in-five odds) where the auditor's office for that missing 2.3 Trillion was. Almost everyone in that section died. Rumsfeld made sure he was on the other side of the building. Copies of the evidence exist, but no investigation is ever called for and cattle like the author of the previous post never ask or wonder. Then there's the theft of $12 Billion in cash from Iraq. These guardians of the taxpayer dollar never investigate, and no GOP Congressman or Senator from the Party of Fiscal Responsibility ever asks. What a fucking joke. 2.15 Trillion dollars stolen from us, and nothing, zip nada.
Thanks for ignoring the city and county trash pick-up. I have never seen so many over-flowing trash cans in my life.
Thanks for keeping the bus fares so high but making it easy for any whiner to get a handicapped pass. I've seen guys that look like tri-atheletes and sumo wrestlers with passes.
Thanks for moving lots of buses to Waipahu to pay the Filipinos back for voting for you.
And true to form, the Democrats continue to intimidate people (unions), and fire up the hate furnace.
Now unions along with their lousy actors and narrators, are pounding the HATE WINDWARD RESIDENTS drum. Why because of a rail system plan for the leeward side. What they fail to mention is that windward residents opposed the H-3. Many of them knew little thought would go into the aesthetics of the concrete monster up against some of the most beautiful mountains in the state. And true to form it was shoved up their noses without addressing concerns of the visual impact it would have. AND in the meantime our roads were neglected, and little was done to improve traffice flow. Many believed the traffic solution and road neglect was part of the plan to make us all anxious to take anything they would give us. I guess it worked, huh ? It is quite obvious this highway was NOT designed in the best possible way it could've been. It is a concrete monster staring at you reminding you about how stupid and self serving your government is. And we can all only wonder how connected the people were who profited from it the most.
This is an important step in the ongoing fight for marriage equality. You can help too >>
When Massachusetts allowed same-sex couples to marry in 2004, then-Governor Mitt Romney started enforcing a 1913 law that prohibited couples from obtaining marriage licenses if they couldn't legally marry in their home state. This 1913 law was originally aimed at curbing interracial marriages.
Because the Massachusetts Senate just repealed this law, same-sex couples from any state will be able to legally marry in Massachusetts. California's same-sex marriage law also allows out-of-state same-sex couples to marry.
Like the fight to allow interracial marriage, the fight to allow same-sex marriage is a civil rights issue. Every couple - regardless of sexual orientation or race - deserves the benefits that marriage brings, including equal rights to health care and the primary caregiver status.
Voice your support of same-sex marriage to the presidential candidates >>
Thank you for supporting the civil rights of all Americans.
"Egg freezing has long been the holy grail of the fertility world. Although sperm and embryos (fertilized eggs) have been successfully frozen for the purposes of extended fertility preservation for decades, the freezing of unfertilized eggs (oocytes) has only recently been successful...." Logon to www.extendfertility.com/why to find out more.
Also would like to thank Hui for being so patient, although probably some partial inspector, for understanding my character and nature of protests. She needs to keep her number and I had asked her to do so. Call her at 82-13904095259. Bidding started a long time ago ladies and gentlemen.
Charles, on the other hand, is probably some what of a jack ass. He's a hired hand. He setup a phony marriage, as a broker, to secure payment and who knows what. An investigation was setup; this guy's good. He's into chinese pornography and got interested in my ex-girlfriend. It wouldn't suprise me if he knew her mom.... Call Charles at (82) at 13818772996.
I used to live close to a Goodwill Store in Mesa, AZ. Long ago, which isn't a big suprise because I forgot about my ex-girlfriend for so long, finally realizing how I'm being treated, tossed around by agencies, and probably shredded for my future army pension! Should I just blame porn or the Chinese? Was it the Salvation Army, based on my eye witness testimony?
Rose is probably blowing quite a few guys right about now.... Essentially disclosing a trade secret that had been the subject to confidentiality prior to Bush's breech overseas with Shenyang!
Ryan Robles wants to be fully aware of these possibilities before engaging both the military, President Bush, Rose Jordan, Deep Throat, and Church of Scientology (Cruise).
To my understanding Rose is pro-life. Her mother is an evil player (keys).
I won't bust a nut passed midnight from now on and you folks had better check in first! The Chineses pornographer isn't on my A-list, knew where my ex-girlfriend lived, definately wanted me out of the picture with the phont marriage. Check back on Craig's List.
Christine Mendoza is open to negotiations. She's a Texas broker, believe it or not.
To book a flight with the travel agency, located near the Chinese Embassy in L.A., go to the following address:
BETA TRAVEL
9420 TELSTAR AVE STE 204
EL MONTE, CA 91731
For National Security reasons, this post will not be placed on my.barackobama.com and the Shenyang Incident was setup by Dick Cheney for Deep Throat. Get a life folks!
Once John McCain had taken advantage of the system by gaining ballot access and securing a campaign saving loan, he won the New Hampshire primary and became the apparent nominee of the Republican Party. He then sent a letter saying that he was opting out of the primary process and claiming that the FEC is now impotent to stop him.
If John McCain is forced to stay in the matching system he will only be allowed to spend $56 million dollars before the Republican convention in September. As of the end of January John McCain had already spent $49 million dollars meaning that today he's either close to the cap or over the amount of money he can spend during the primary.
McCain is a War Criminal who bombed purely civilian targets in Vietnam and is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Vietnamese women and children. He belongs in Prison for the rest of his life.
During the month of October, 1997, some 30 years after the shootdown of John McCain, some 24 years after McCain returned to the United States, a 60 Minutes interview with Mike Wallace aired on CBS. John McCain, being herald as the potential GOPs nominee for President in the year 2,000, stated that he was a war criminal because he had bombed, "innocent women and children."
Even if you overlook the Keating 5 scandal, his links to organize crime in Arizona, his philandering on his first wife, and even if you overlook his stance on lifting the US imposed trade embargo against Vietnam against the wishes of the majority of the POW/MIA families; and even if you overlook his stance on normalization in direct conflict with the POW/MIA Families; and even if you overlook the way he gutted a bill in the Senate that would protect future potential American Prisoners of War; you cannot overlook the fact that John McCain is so influenced by his time spent in captivity that he still considers himself an "air pirate" which is how the North Vietnamese referred to captured American pilots.
"I am a war criminal; I bombed innocent women and children."
McCain should be arrested, sent to the Hague's World Court for processing as a confessed War Criminal. He is a disgrace to America, isn't he?
This sounds like a dream, doesn't it? Well, it's not. We have a unique opportunity right now to send Karl Rove to jail, but only if we take immediate action.
It's pretty clear who's to blame: Congress. In fact, House and Senate Democrats have obstructed any progress in America's fight to regain some semblance of energy independence.
"Now is the time for Congress to move and get something done," President Bush said all the way back in August 2003. He's still waiting, and so are we.
Bush's original energy plan, derided by the Democrats and so-called progressives as a wet-kiss to Big Oil, was in fact a visionary plan. At the time, Reid joked that GOP now stood for "Gas, Oil and Plutonium." Funny, we don't hear anyone laughing now.
Such puerile shenanigans, as we've said before, endanger our security and weaken our standard of living.
Posted on Wed, Jun. 18, 2008
General who probed Abu Ghraib says Bush officials committed war crimes
Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: June 18, 2008 08:34:09 PM
WASHINGTON — The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison accused the Bush administration Wednesday of committing "war crimes" and called for those responsible to be held to account.
The remarks by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who's now retired, came in a new report that found that U.S. personnel tortured and abused detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using beatings, electrical shocks, sexual humiliation and other cruel practices.
"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes," Taguba wrote. "The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."
Taguba, whose 2004 investigation documented chilling abuses at Abu Ghraib, is thought to be the most senior official to have accused the administration of war crimes. "The commander in chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture," he wrote.
A White House spokeswoman, Kate Starr, had no comment.
Taguba didn't respond to a request for further comment relayed via a spokesman.
The group Physicians for Human Rights, which compiled the new report, described it as the most in-depth medical and psychological examination of former detainees to date.
Doctors and mental health experts examined 11 detainees held for long periods in the prison system that President Bush established after the 9-11 terrorist attacks. All of them eventually were released without charges.
The doctors and experts determined that the men had been subject to cruelties that ranged from isolation, sleep deprivation and hooding to electric shocks, beating and, in one case, being forced to drink urine.
Bush has said repeatedly that the United States doesn't condone torture.
"All credible allegations of abuse are thoroughly investigated and, if substantiated, those responsible are held accountable," said Navy Cmdr. J.D. Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman. The Defense Department responds to concerns raised by the International Committee for the Red Cross, he said, which has access to detainees under military control.
"It adds little to the public discourse to draw sweeping conclusions based upon dubious allegations regarding remote medical assessments of former detainees, now far removed from detention," Gordon said.
The physicians' group said that its experts, who had experience studying torture's effects, spent two days with each former captive and conducted intensive exams and interviews. They administered tests to detect exaggeration. In two of the 11 cases, the group was able to review medical records.
The report, "Broken Laws, Broken Lives," concurs with a five-part McClatchy investigation of Guantanamo published this week. Among its findings were that abuses occurred — primarily at prisons in Afghanistan where detainees were held en route to Guantanamo — and that many of the prisoners were wrongly detained.
Also this week, a probe by the Senate Armed Services Committee revealed how senior Pentagon officials pushed for harsher interrogation methods over the objections of top military lawyers. Those methods later surfaced in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld didn't specifically approve of the worst abuses, but neither he nor the White House enforced strict limits on how detainees would be treated.
There was no "bright line of abuse which could not be transgressed," former Navy general counsel Alberto Mora told the Senate committee.
Leonard Rubenstein, the president of Physicians for Human Rights, said there was a direct connection between the Pentagon decisions and the abuses his group uncovered. "The result was a horrific stew of pain, degradation and ... suffering," he said.
Detainee abuse has been documented previously, in photos from Abu Ghraib, accounts by former detainees and their lawyers and a confidential report by the International Committee for the Red Cross that was leaked to the U.S. news media.
Of the 11 men evaluated in the Physicians for Human Rights report, four were detained in Afghanistan between late 2001 and early 2003, and later sent to Guantanamo. The remaining seven were detained in Iraq in 2003.
One of the Iraqis, identified by the pseudonym Laith, was arrested with his family at his Baghdad home in the early morning of Oct. 19, 2003. He was taken to a location where he was beaten, stripped to his underwear and threatened with execution, the report says.
"Laith" told the examiners he was then taken to a second site, where he was photographed in humiliating positions and given electric shocks to his genitals.
Finally, he was taken to Abu Ghraib, where he spent the first 35 to 40 days in isolation in a small cage, enduring being suspended in the cage and other "stress positions."
* Story | General who probed Abu Ghraib says Bush officials committed war crimes
* Story | 'If the detainee dies you're doing it wrong'
* PDF | Origins of aggressive interrogation techniques
By Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military hid the locations of suspected terrorist detainees and concealed harsh treatment to avoid the scrutiny of the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to documents that a Senate committee released Tuesday.
"We may need to curb the harsher operations while ICRC is around. It is better not to expose them to any controversial techniques," Lt. Col. Diane Beaver, a military lawyer who's since retired, said during an October 2002 meeting at the Guantanamo Bay prison to discuss employing interrogation techniques that some have equated with torture. Her comments were recorded in minutes of the meeting that were made public Tuesday. At that same meeting, Beaver also appeared to confirm that U.S. officials at another detention facility — Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan — were using sleep deprivation to "break" detainees well before then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld approved that technique. "True, but officially it is not happening," she is quoted as having said.
Hundreds of military veterans of the Bush administration’s so-called war on terror attended the Winter Soldier 2008 hearings held here March 13-16 at the National Labor College, an AFL-CIO affiliate just outside Washington. The four-day event was organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW).
Most of the veterans had taken part in the occupations of Iraq and/or Afghanistan—many doing multiple deployments of up to 15 months each. Some are still on active duty.
They described the systematic beating, jailing, torture, humiliation and killing of civilians by U.S. forces. And they explained that it was not just the work of a few deranged individuals but was part of standard military operations, especially as the opposition of the people to the occupation of their country became more obvious.
Many were wracked with traumatic memories and remorse for having participated in such acts.
The hearings were conducted in eyewitness panel formats with topics such as Rules of Engagement; Corporate Pillaging and Military Contractors; Divide To Conquer: Gender and Sexuality in the Military; and Racism and War: The Dehumanization of the Enemy.
Besides the panelists, the everyday brutality of the occupation was documented by more than 100 other veterans, who submitted detailed statements about their experiences.
Speaking on the first day of the hearings in the Rules of Engagement panel, Iraq veteran Adam Kokesh, who had been in Fallujah, Iraq, for a year beginning in February 2004, said his commanders “changed the RoE more often than we changed our underwear.” These RoE are the rules that determine when a soldier can use deadly fire. “At one point, we imposed a curfew on the city and were told to fire at anything that moved in the dark. I don’t think soldiers should be put in the position to choose between their morals and their instinct for survival.”
Steve Casey, who spent a year in Iraq beginning in mid-2003, not long after the U.S. invasion that was supposed to “liberate” the Iraqi people, said: “I watched soldiers firing into the radiators and windows of oncoming vehicles. Those who didn’t turn around were unfortunately neutralized one way or another—well over 20 times I personally witnessed this.”
Jason Hurd was on duty in central Baghdad for a year, beginning in November 2004. He told how, after his unit took stray rounds from a nearby firefight: “We fired indiscriminately at this building. Things like that happened every day in Iraq. We reacted out of fear for our lives, and we reacted with total destruction.”
Hurd told how the calloused attitude toward Iraqi civilians worsened as the occupation dragged on. “Over time, as the absurdity of war set in, individuals from my unit indiscriminately opened fire at vehicles driving down the wrong side of the road. People in my unit would later brag about it. I remember thinking how appalled I was that we were laughing at this, but that was the reality.”
Jason Wayne Lemieux, a Marine, served three tours in Iraq. He told how the rules of engagement were changed each time to encourage even more slaughter of civilians. By his second tour, if a person “was carrying a shovel, or standing on a rooftop talking on a cell phone, or being out after curfew, they were to be killed. I can’t tell you how many people died because of this. By my third tour, we were told to just shoot people, and the officers would take care of us.”
One Marine veteran, machine gunner John Michael Turner, pulled the medals off his shirt and threw them to the floor as he testified about shooting down people he knew were innocent. “I want to say I’m sorry for the hate and destruction that I and others have inflicted on innocent people,” he concluded. “It is not okay, and this is happening, and until people hear what is going on, this is going to continue. I am no longer the monster that I once was.”
The event was streamed live over the Internet but was boycotted by almost the entire U.S. corporate media. It was well organized, with logistical and support staff provided by Veterans for Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Mental health and legal professionals were available at all times.
While most of the panelists were IVAW members, expert witnesses also testified. Iraqi civilians, including refugees, described their experiences with the occupation through detailed interviews that had been video recorded in Iraq, Jordan and Syria. IVAW Advisory Board member Dr. Dahlia Wasfi raised the occupation of Palestine
IVAW is a growing organization with over 800 members. The leadership is diverse: the chair of its Board of Directors was born in Nicaragua and the co-chair is African-American. The treasurer and executive director are women. The group is LGBT-friendly.
Most members come from the enlisted ranks and are under 30 years old. They are from both urban and rural areas. Many were on track to be career noncommissioned officers—the foundation of any military organization. Their membership in IVAW is a major defeat for the U.S. imperialist war machine.
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