The Secret File of Abu Ghraib (New re: rape/sodomy)

[Whoa_Nelly]

New classified documents implicate U.S. forces in rape and sodomy of Iraqi prisoners

It has been months since the now-infamous photographs from Abu Ghraib revealed that American soldiers tortured Iraqi prisoners -- yet the Bush administration has failed to get to the bottom of the abuses."There are some serious unanswered questions," says Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican on the Armed Services Committee. The Pentagon is stalling on several investigations, and congressional inquiries have ground to a halt. The foot-dragging is astonishing, given that Congress has access to classified documents detailing the abuses outlined by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba in his report on Abu Ghraib. Rolling Stone obtained those files in June and offers this report on their contents. -The Editors

The new classified military documents offer a chilling picture of what happened at Abu Ghraib -- including detailed reports that U.S. troops and translators sodomized and raped Iraqi prisoners. The secret files -- 106 "annexes" that the Defense Department withheld from the Taguba report last spring -- include nearly 6,000 pages of internal Army memos and e-mails, reports on prison riots and escapes, and sworn statements by soldiers, officers, private contractors and detainees. The files depict a prison in complete chaos. Prisoners were fed bug-infested food and forced to live in squalid conditions; detainees and U.S. soldiers alike were killed and wounded in nightly mortar attacks; and loyalists of Saddam Hussein served as guards in the facility, apparently smuggling weapons to prisoners inside.

The files make clear that responsibility for what Taguba called "sadistic, blatant and wanton" abuses extends to several high-ranking officers still serving in command positions. Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who is now in charge of all military prisons in Iraq, was dispatched to Abu Ghraib by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last August. In a report marked secret, Miller recommended that military police at the prison be "actively engaged in setting the conditions for successful exploitation of the internees." After his plan was adopted, guards began depriving prisoners of sleep and food, subjecting them to painful "stress positions" and terrorizing them with dogs. A former Army intelligence officer tells Rolling Stone that the intent of Miller's report was clear to everyone involved: "It means treat the detainees like shit until they will sell their mother for a blanket, some food without bugs in it and some sleep." In the files, prisoner after prisoner at Abu Ghraib describes acts of torture that Taguba found "credible based on the clarity of their statements and supporting evidence provided by other witnesses." The abuses took place at the Hard Site, a two-story cinder-block unit at the sprawling prison that housed Iraqi criminals and insurgents, not members of Al Qaeda or other terrorist organizations. In one sworn statement, Kasim Mehaddi Hilas, detainee number 151108, said he witnessed a translator referred to only as Abu Hamid raping a teenage boy. "I saw Abu Hamid, who was wearing the military uniform, putting his dick in the little kid's ass," Hilas testified. "The kid was hurting very bad." A female soldier took pictures of the rape, Hilas said.

Much more...
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=2363

[jeff30997]

1. I think i'm going to be sick.

[Disturbed]

2. Hmmm...

Maybe Senator Collins is not running for re-election? Talking about truth could get her in deep trouble with the Neo Facists.

[DaveSZ]

4. Just a question:

What kind of website is this?

:)

[burrowowl]

5. Bellaciao

Translates as goodbye war. Looks like a European peace group and you have it in at least 3 languages. I bookmarked it.

[Emillereid]

7. The story was originally published in Rolling Stone.

[bluestateguy]

3. If pictures are not released, nothing will change

Pictures must be released, or this story will be buried, or nobody will believe it.

[Xenus Sister]

6. I agree that the pictures have to released

Anyone who has the pictures would be taking a terrible risk because of child pornography laws, but they have to get out somehow. Even if the pertinent area is blurred out, it should be enough. It has to be done.

[Whoa_Nelly]

8. I have to wonder if our senators and congress people

have seen the photos, seen the videos of the children. There was a day not too long ago that the photos were up for all our representatives to view.

Where is the outrage? Or have we placed ourselves in a position of silence by electing officials who are too afraid to make waves because it would sabotage their careers?

[REVOLT823]

10. You know they saw them, I think they know the shitstorm this

is going to create once it comes out and they are all too worried about their political futures to bring it up. Sy Hersh supposedly has all the pics and movies, they were given to him by a soldier, and I guarantee you he is not done with this yet

[KoKo]

9. Everything is QT from both Democrats and Repuglicans....seems they

both hope it goes away in case the "voters" suddenly remember the votes on "invading Iraq." No politician wants to touch this...hot potato..

Says alot about both parties...when one thinks about it..doesn't it?

:-(

[shraby]

12. Maybe the Pentagon

and Rumsfeld didn't let the congresscritters see the worst ones.

[Voltaire99]

11. Still waiting for Hersh's story

It's been weeks since the ACLU speech.

Are he and Remnick holding it back until closer to the election?

[Whoa_Nelly]

13. It would be tantamount to a criminal act

to keep this under wraps to skew the elction. It needs to be front and center now, or all moves toward building a case and having it in court will take until after the election...if the neocons are unable to take the WH this time around.