Lynndie England NOT U.S. Policy
Ezra Klein applies the headline "Doing Her Job" to this infamous photo of Lyndie England. [caption id="attachment_28772" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Lynndie England with dog at Abu Ghraib"][/caption] It was not a few bad apples. It was not the chaos of war. It was official U.S. government policy. The release of the Senate Armed Services Committee's Report on Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 15, 2008 15:40
General Taguba: Bush Administration ‘Guilty of War Crimes’
Physicians for Human Rights has just published a report detailing the medical evidence of detainee torture at the hands of U.S. Personnel in Iraq, Afghanist, and Guantanamo Bay. Maj. General Antonio Taguba (Ret.) authored the preface to the report, in which he accuses the Administration of having committed war crimes:The profiles of these eleven former detainees, none of whom ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 25, 2008 14:06
Iraq Kurds Invade Turkey, Kill 17 (Updated)
The likelihood of Turkey sending troops into Iraqi Kurdistan has ratcheted up several notches, with a major assault by PKK rebels into Turkey from Iraqi territory. An audacious cross-border ambush by Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq killed at least 17 Turkish soldiers Sunday, ratcheting up pressure on the Turkish government to launch a military offensive into Iraq. [...] The raid on ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 22, 2007 07:12
Sanchez Lambasts Handling of War (Updated)
The general who presided over the Abu Ghraib scandal gave a speech yesterday railing against the incompetent administration of the Iraq War. David Cloud summarizes for the NYT: In one of his first major public speeches since leaving the Army in late 2006, retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez blamed the administration for a “catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic war plan” ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 13, 2007 07:33
Bush Supports Human Rights, Press Sees Hypocrisy
McClatchy Newspapers is running a story with the headline "Bush astounds activists, supports human rights." Here's the lede: President Bush implored the United Nations on Tuesday to recommit itself to restoring human decency by liberating oppressed people and ending famine and disease. Speaking before the United Nations General Assembly, the president called for renewed efforts to enforce the U.N.'s Universal Declaration ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 26, 2007 09:44
War Zone Contractors Now Subject to UCMJ
Peter Singer, who write his Kennedy School dissertation on mercenaries and has since cornered the market on that niche, has an interesting piece at Defense Tech noting that Congress has closed the loophole that made war zone contractors all but unaccountable for criminal acts. Over the last few years, tales of private military contractors run amuck in Iraq -- from the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 4, 2007 12:24
Bush Considers Weakening War Crimes Act
The Bush administration is considering li The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments. Officials say the amendments would alter a U.S. law passed in the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 9, 2006 09:07
Three 101st Airborne Soldiers Charged in Detainee Deaths
CNN BREAKING: Three members of the 101st Airborne Division are charged in connection with deaths of three detainees in Iraq, U.S. military says. Reuters: The U.S. military said on Monday three U.S. soldiers had been charged in the deaths of three male prisoners on May 9. It said the soldiers faced charges including "murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, communicating a threat, and ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 19, 2006 15:03
Dog Handler Found Guilty of Abu Ghraib Abuse
A Fort Meade, Maryland jury found dog handler Santos A. Cardona guilt of misconduct for his role in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. A military jury convicted an Army dog handler Thursday of abusing a prisoner at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Sgt. Santos A. Cardona was portrayed by prosecutors as part of a sadistic conspiracy and by defense lawyers as ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 1, 2006 17:03
Rogers Staffer Reprimanded in Abu Ghraib Scandal
Mark Benjamin and Michael Scherer report in Salon.com that a staffer for Representative Mike Rogers has been reprimanded for his role in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in his capacity as an Army Reserve captain. Army Reserve Capt. Christopher Brinson, who supervised some of the military police prosecuted for abuse at Abu Ghraib. A senior staffer to a Republican congressman ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 10, 2006 11:33
U.S. to Close Abu Ghraib
BREAKING NEWS: U.S. military to close Abu Ghraib prison and transfer prisoners to other jails in Iraq, CNN confirms. No details yet but this is long overdue. While there were some practical reasons not to shut down a working prison at a time when housing prisoners was necessary, the symbolic value of Abu Ghraib to our enemies has been far, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 9, 2006 12:56
Prisoner Abuse Photos from Iraq the Media Refuse to Show
Rusty Shackleford posts a large number of photos of prisoners being abused and even murdered in Iraq that, unlike the Abu Ghraib photos, have not seen the light of day in the mainstream press.Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 16, 2006 21:14
U.N. Calls for End to Guantánamo Detentions
The United Nations has issued a call for the United States to either try or release the prisoners at Guantánamo. A United Nations report today called on the United States to immediately close the detention center for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and to either release its inmates or bring them to trial. The report, by a ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 16, 2006 10:02
Yet More Abu Ghraib photos
Salon has published a new gallery of photos of prisoners being abused at Abu Ghraib. These go along with the batch published by the British and Australian media yesterday. The AP offers this description: New images of naked prisoners, some bloodied and lying on the floor, threatened to revive public anger over abuse by U.S. guards at Abu Ghraib prison at ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 16, 2006 06:51
Senate Compromise on Detainee Rights, Torture
Senators Lindsey Graham and Carl Leven have reached across the aisle to forge a compromise bill that would give limited judicial rights to those accused of terrorism, including a reiteration of existing policy against torture. Senators Agree on Detainee Rights (WaPo, A1) A bipartisan group of senators reached a compromise yesterday that would dramatically alter U.S. policy for treating captured terrorist suspects ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 15, 2005 11:30
