America's Shame - Torture in the Name of Freedom (Der Spiegel, Germany)

[michael_1166]

Here's this week's cover story of Germany's biggest and most respected weekly news magazine, "Der Spiegel":





"The new pictures from Abu Ghraib provide the most recent evidence: America's moral bank account is empty -- and it has lost the image wars. The entire Muslim world no longer trusts the world's most powerful nation.

They are photos that make your blood run cold. They take your breath away. They turn your stomach. They are photos that make you wonder what kinds of human beings would do these things to other human beings. They trigger anger, disgust and shame.

One photo shows a prisoner being sandwiched between two stretchers, like some perverse ad for a burger. In another, a disoriented detainee, his body smeared with an unidentified substance, stumbles down a prison corridor. A third image depicts a hooded man waiting helplessly on a stool, with electric cables attached to his body. There are many more -- and they all show prisoners being deliberately humiliated for their captors' amusement, men stripped naked and forced into submission. But it's not just humiliation -- the photos also depict physical pain. In one photo, an American soldier kneels on the back of a naked Iraqi prisoner, a puddle of blood indicating rough treatment. In another, a prisoner bows deeply, servant-like, in front of an American military officer: Uncle Tom's Cabin in the Middle East.

Once again, images from Abu Ghraib will burn themselves into the world's collective memory, the shocking legacy of a superpower gone astray -- icons of America's shame. They will become the images future generations most associate with the war in Iraq, just as the photo of a pro-US Saigon police chief holding his pistol to a Vietcong guerilla's temple, his finger about to pull the trigger, has become a symbol of the Vietnam War."



Complete story here (4 parts, all in English):

Part 1: Torture in the Name of Freedom
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,401899,00.html

Part 2: The Moral Decline of "God's Own Country"
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,401899-2,00.html

Part 3: "The Repertoire of Classic Torture States"
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,401899-3,00.html

Part 4: Anti-Americanism on the Silver Screen
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,401899-4,00.html

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. How did we come to this?

Is torture something that we just have to accept? Is it just a human characteristic? It is sickening.

[bpilgrim]

14. No Bravery (video)

http://nobravery.cf.huffingtonpost.com
(GRAPHIC)

peace

[bryant69]

2. Man those pictures sound like a real downer

Good thing the media isn't showing them - could be depressing.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[reality based]

3. Our only hope is to put the enablers and real perpetrators on trial

[Crazy Dave]

4. The same same we criticize other countries for and the same thing...

Saddam Hussein is on trial for.

[Burried News]

5. Alberto, are you there?

[HereSince1628]

6. Ever wonder how post war Germans felt? I fear we are going to find out

soon.

"Grandpa why didn't you DO something?" "Were you a NeoCon?"

[neweurope]

10. "What did you do when it became the law that Jews weren't allowed

to own property any more?" "Did you know that there was a concentration camp in Auschwitz?"

Guantanamo, that's what they call it nowadays, and not concentration camps, but "detention centers".

-----------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Trevelyan]

7. Mail some of these photos to churches? Esp. the anti-abortion churches or

maybe the more liberal churches. Leave them on benches in malls, outside of stores, in shopping cart -- along with the states including Rhode Island who are attempting to have a groundswell impeachment. If the Repukes have been talking about preparing for Impeachment there must be a strong possibility.

Sign Congressman Conyers citizen cosponsor to his 3 bills on Impeachment Inquiry at:

http://www.johnconyers.com Conyer's Action Items
http://www.conyersblog.us/

Can't figure out how to get URLs from Explorer -- Don't want to use AOL search anymore, know MSN is just as bad but can't update my Firefox and that also will not let me see URLs and I use Google now to search but am thinking of finding a no-name Search Engine.

DU Activist Corps Action: Impeachment/Out Of Iraq Demonstrations Feb-14-06
A coalition of liberal websites is currently organizing a grassroots effort to hold peaceful demonstrations in all 435 Congressional districts. The mission is to persuade each of our Representatives to support:

1. IMPEACHMENT: Support John Conyers' Watergate-style investigation (H.Res. 635) of Bush's Iraq War lies - and also accelerate the process by introducing Articles of Impeachment for Bush and Cheney.

2. GETTING OUT OF IRAQ: Support John Murtha's bill to remove troops from Iraq (H.J. Res 73) and Jim McGovern's bill to end funding for the Iraq War (H.R. 4232).

Democratic Underground is joining with Democrats.com, Progressive Democrats of America, After Downing Street, Gold Star Families for Peace, Hip Hop Caucus, Democracy Rising, and Velvet Revolution, to support this effort.

DU ACTIVIST CORPS TASK: SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THE IMPEACHMENT/OUT OF IRAQ DEMONSTRATIONS TASK:

1. Head over to Democrats.com and learn more about these demonstrations:
http://www.democrats.com/cd
2. Pass this on to everyone you know! DEADLINE: ASAP.

[neweurope]

8. The longer I think about it the more I'm convinced that those

pictures were taken on PURPOSE. They were MEANT to be made and published, MEANT to inflame bad feelings between the Western world and muslim countries. Just like the cartoons. And that's probably why we are allowed to see them NOW when the protests about the cartoons are dying down.


-----------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[michael_1166]

15. Could well be, but

let's not forget that these photos are documents of a crime being perpetrated. This really happened, and probably still happens in Guantanamo etc. Real people were made to suffer, it's not just cartoons scribbled on paper.

[neweurope]

17. These are crimes, true, but not to the Bushistas.They don't suffer for

it. What's it to them if a - misguided - soldier goes to jail? A soldier who's been given the feeling that this was what was expected of him/her? And who would put the USA on trial? The UN? The Hague? The Hague, certainly not, the USA have seen to that, and too many Europan countries are in league with the US...

I am convinced that we are supposed to see those pictures. Just wait. When things calm down a little - then we will get to see the pictures of the abused children that they are withholding now. Because they do not WANT things to calm down. They WANT war. And they want you and me to be in it. Taking "our" side.

---------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Trevelyan]

9. Please signal your disgust by signing a petition or helping in the work of

http://www.WitnessToTorture.com - are being fined a huge sum by the bush regime for marching to the gates of Guantanamo last month to try to stop the brutal force feedings.

http://www.CagePrisoner.com/ Please write to one of the prisoners and/or their families listed in this extensive site on the suffering of America's and the UK's illegal kidnapping, torture and murder victims.

http://www.iwtnews.com/join
http://www.WorldCantWait.com
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/notorture

http://www.tellthetruthabouttorture.org/
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/home.asp
http://ga4.org/campaign/prisonerabuse?
http://www.supportmpscapegoats.com/

[neweurope]

11. Can't get the site WitnessToTorture :(

---------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[neweurope]

19. Finally found "Witness to Torture" - but not the petition.

Maybe I'm particularly dense to-night (and with reason) - can you not provide a direct link to that?

---------

Remember Fallujah
Bush to The Hague!

[Trevelyan]

12. It is also a PsyOps against American citizens along with the released info

on the "detainee" camps being built on mainland USA by Halliburton Brown and Root who was contracted to build Gitmo and they are still working on more facilities there and have just completed another section so Americans will be afraid to protest. One of the attorneys for the 4 British citizens who were released from Gitmo under pressure of UK citizens not Blair, said she thought it was deliberate to thumb their nose at international law since the CIA has been making thousand disappear for decades.

[e-mail]
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Bush:

Like you, I share a "deep disgust" at the pictures of U.S. military personnel subjecting Iraqi detainees to cruel and humiliating treatment at Abu Ghraib prison. But the abuse was not limited to one prison in Iraq. U.S. forces have abused detainees at numerous detention facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, and elsewhere.

I write to ask you to act immediately to end the use of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees by U.S. forces or contractors. Protecting national security does not require human rights violations; indeed, the mistreatment of detainees harms U.S. efforts to end terrorism.

You and I would both be outraged if captured U.S. soldiers were hooded, paraded around naked, forced to hold painful positions for long periods of time, deprived of sleep, deliberately subjected to extreme heat, cold, noise and light, or forcibly submerged in water to the point of almost drowning. Yet such practices continued with little official protest until they were brought to the public’s attention. Surely, detainees in the hands of U.S. forces should be treated no worse than we would want U.S. soldiers to be treated.

I urge you to announce that, from now on, no U.S. soldier or government official will employ coercive interrogation techniques—without exception. You should make clear that the administration prohibits—without exception—the deliberate use of pain, suffering, or humiliation as part of any interrogation process, regardless of the locale, regardless of the legal status of the detainee, regardless of the secrecy or openness of the detention. You should take steps to back up your decision with necessary enforcement mechanisms, ensuring that any one who violates this policy will be held accountable.

I also urge you to publicly support the creation of an independent congressional commission to investigate the extent of abuse of persons in U.S. detention facilities, determine who is responsible, and set out the steps necessary to put an end to those abuses. Such a commission’s report should be public.

Forceful action by you is needed to ensure this stain is lifted from America’s record. Respectfully,
http://hrw.org - Human Right Watch - Torture - Abuse of Detainees - Iraq - Afghanistan

[Trevelyan]

13. If my link doesn't work - I just type Witness To Torture into Search Engi

Engine. They are a wonderful group and have a Solidarity Letter, photos and diaries from their march on Guantanamo Bay and links to other groups, some in America are in jail for protesting the war by pouring their own blood in Federal Buildings and some are in Scotland and protesting the use of their country as stops for the poor or rendition.

[Trevelyan]

16. Some good news on Kos about the Swiss Miss with Cheney might have

been helping with possible war crimes indictiments by Switzerland and that they along with the Netherlands can do this or something similar in the case of crimes against humanity.

emptywheel had an excellent complex DKos diary on what Cheney and Armstrong were possibly hiding and there is a link to another Kos diary with only 6 comments from early January on the Swiss investigation into using their airspace for extraordinary rendition and the newspaper was being sued for publishing state secrets but they said they have a right when a crime of this magnitude is being committed.

Swiss open investigation into CIA flights swissinfo December 16, 2005

The US air base in Ramstein in Germany may have been used for CIA flights (Keystone) The Federal Prosecutor's Office has opened a criminal investigation into alleged overflights in Swiss airspace of CIA planes carrying detainees.

The investigation will seek to establish whether the United States committed illegal acts on Swiss territory. "The investigation is in connection with the alleged CIA overflights," Hansjürg Mark Wiedmer, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office, confirmed.

The investigation was launched earlier this week, but prosecutors are aware of the difficulties they will probably face in obtaining information from Washington, Wiedmer said.The Swiss foreign ministry has twice sought clarification about four alleged CIA flights touching down at Geneva airport and some 30 other flights passing through Swiss airspace.

But Washington has yet to respond to the questions.

A spokesman for the US Embassy in the Swiss capital, Bern, said a response was still pending.According to the Federal Civil Aviation Office, US-registered planes suspected of being used by the CIA, crossed Swiss airspace on at least 73 occasions since 2001.

Kidnapping

One plane registered to the US Department of Defense flew across the country twice on February 17, 2003, on a flight from Ramstein, Germany, to Aviano, Italy, and back again to Ramstein....
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=6325344

...Man of the moment - Marty's mission has turned him into hot property among journalists. "My phone never stops ringing," he told swissinfo, mentioning Al Jazeera, CNN and Swiss television by name. "But I don't like being on screen – I'm a loner."
:kick:
However, he's happy to talk about his probe into the CIA, describing it as an extremely important mission. "If people are detained, transported and tortured without reference to the law, what are the values of our continent worth?" Europe didn't spend hundreds of years ridding itself of such practices, says Marty, only to see them return overnight. :kick:
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=6367478 K&R

[Trevelyan]

18. This topic posted after yours was locked -- Can't understand why

tried to post and then to recommend.

Guantanamo Film Stars Detained in Luton
Michael Winterbottom’s forthcoming docu-drama, ‘The Road to Guantanamo’ tells the story of Asif Iqbal, Ruhel Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul – otherwise known as ‘The Tipton Three’, innocent men illegally detained in Guantanamo Bay. rizIn the TV film, produced in association with Channel Four, 23 year old actor, Riz Ahmed plays Shafiq. The film, which is the first British production to premiere simultaneously on DVD, internet and television,
has just received its World Premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival this weekend, where it received an overwhelming response. The three innocent men who inspired and helped develop the film accompanied acclaimed director Winterbottom and the crew to the Festival

Riz tells the LIP of his unwelcome treatment on arriving back in the UK.

Excellent and scary article. K&R
http://www.thelip.org/?p=129 I think DUers should read this -- to know what is going on and what they can do to you at airports - NO LEGAL ADVICE OR CALLING ANYONE FOR 48 HOURS??? and I think he was released because of his very smart responses to the intimidation and "detaining" -- it would have gone on longer if he had not called the lawyers and made the responses he did.

Left this message at the article site:

Thank you for writing this and letting CITIZENS of the World know about the intimidation of anyone who cares about the illegal Nazi war crimes speaking out.