CNN REPORT: EXAM REVEALS IRAQI DETAINEES WERE TORTURED

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former terrorist suspects detained by the United States were tortured, according to medical examinations detailed in a report released Wednesday by a human rights group.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/18/gitmo.detainees/index.html

The Massachusetts-based Physicians for Human Rights reached that conclusion after two-day clinical evaluations of 11 former detainees, who had been held at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan.

The detainees were never charged with crimes.

"We found clear physical and psychological evidence of torture and abuse, often causing lasting suffering," said Dr. Allen Keller, a medical evaluator for the study.

In a 121-page report, the doctors' group said that it uncovered medical evidence of torture, including beatings, electric shock, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation, sodomy and scores of other abuses.

The report is prefaced by retired U.S. Major Gen. Antonio Taguba, who led the Army's investigation into the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in 2003. Watch why a rights group says there's evidence of torture »

"There is no longer any doubt that the current administration committed war crimes," Taguba says. "The only question is whether those who ordered torture will be held to account."

Over the years, reports of abuses at Abu Ghraib and allegations of torture at Guantanamo prompted the Bush administration to deny that the U.S. military tortures detainees.

Since only 11 detainees were examined "the findings of this assessment cannot be generalized to the treatment of all detainees in U.S. custody," the report says.

However, the incidents documented are consistent with findings of other investigations into government treatment, "making it reasonable to conclude that these detainees were not the only ones abused, but are representative of a much larger number of detainees subjected to torture and ill treatment while in U.S. custody."

Four of the men evaluated were arrested in or taken to Afghanistan between late 2001 and early 2003 and later were sent to Guantanamo Bay, where they were held for an average of three years before being released without charge, the report says. The other seven were detained in Iraq in 2003 and released within a year, the report says.

All the subjects told examiners that they were subjected to multiple forms of torture or ill treatment that "often occurred in combination over a long period of time," the report says.

Click on http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/18/gitmo.detainees/index.html to read full account

THE UNTOLD STORY OF IRAQ WAR LOSERS: WIDOWS

IRAQ: Home to Too Many Widows

By Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail*BAQUBA, Jun 18 (IPS)
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42858

Just about everyone in Iraq is a loser as a result of the occupation, but none more than women.

One of the more obvious signs of that is the very large number of widows.

The Asharq al-Awsat Arab media channel estimated in late 2007 there were 2.3 million widows in Iraq. These include widows from the 1980-1988 war with Iran in which half a million men were killed, the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, and from 'natural' causes. The news outlet cited the Iraqiyat (Iraqi women) group as a source for their figure. For a widow, all things are the same, dark. "Being a widow means being dead in Iraq today," a professor from Diyala University, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS. "This is because of the tremendous responsibilities cast upon her."

The widows have become victims of the occupation, but also of social codes. Women are not supposed to commit mistakes, and when they do, their mistakes are rarely forgiven. Women are easily accused of doing 'bad things', regardless of proof. Widowed women have a tough struggle on their hands, beyond the loss they have had to live through. They are not easily allowed to work, or even to carry out normal daily activities. "When a woman breaks these rules, she loses the respect of others, or might be spoken of badly," a local trader told IPS. "This is because much of rural Iraqi society is primitive and undereducated." Like most others, the trader did not want his name used, for fear of retribution. "Islam gives respectable freedom to the woman when she loses her husband," a religious cleric told IPS. "But because of their ignorance, people place severe restrictions on the woman."

Millions of lives have been shattered during the occupation. Two groups, Just Foreign Policy in the U.S. and the Opinion Business Research group in Britain estimate the total number of Iraqis who have died due to the occupation to be at least 1.2 million.

Click on link http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42858 to continue reading story.

THIS IS WHAT WE ARE FIGHTING IN IRAQ: GIRL 8 USED AS SUICIDE BOMBER

The U.S. military in Iraq has confirmed a story about an eight-year old Iraqi girl who was strapped with explosives and blew herself up and killed an Iraqi Army Captain in Mosul last month.

There is no solution to the occupation/war the United States is fighting in Iraq other than to pull ALL U.S. troops out of Iraq ASAP.

Sen. John McCain keeps saying he would pull our troops out of Iraq when the killing of Americans stops.

When will that be? Can McCain guarantee no more U.S. troops are going to be targeted by insurgents?

Of course not.

There are far too many different factions in Iraq and there is no ONE group that speaks for all of Iraq so if one insurgent group were to "surrender" there are ten or twenty more groups who won't surrender and the war will continue as long as U.S. forces are in Iraq.

If the Iraqis are willing to sacrifice an eight-year old girl as a suicide bomber, then any hope of hammering out some kind of "surrender" is totally out of the question.

COMMENTARY BY BILL CORCORAN, EDITOR OF CORKSPHERE


Girl, 8, used as bomber kills Iraqi captain

http://www.iraqinews.com/security/girl-8-used-as-bomber-kills-iraqi-captain.html?Itemid=126#top

Spokesmen for both the US and Iraqi military have confirmed that a girl strapped with explosives was the cause of a blast that killed an Iraqi captain and injured four soldiers south of Baghdad.

Iraqi Army Lt Ahmad Ali said the explosives were detonated yesterday as the girl approached the Iraqi commander in Youssifiyah.

Ali said from the scene that "the bomb was detonated by remote control, killing Capt Wassem Al Maamouri and injuring four soldiers."
He said authorities imposed a curfew and American troops are searching for those responsible.
Maj John Hall said US reports indicated one Iraqi solider was killed and seven wounded.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki ordered a new assault on Al Qaida in the main northern city of Mosul yesterday, the jihadists' last urban bastion in Iraq according to US commanders.
Al Maliki travelled to Mosul with top aides to take command of the US-backed drive against Al Qaida in the province, defence ministry spokesman Maj Gen Abdul Kareem Khalaf said.
"Operation Umm Al Rabiain (Mother of Two Springs) has just started against those threatening the civilian population and attacking Iraqi forces in Mosul," defence ministry spokesman Khalaf told AFP.
"This operation is targeting terrorists and criminals," he said, alluding to Al Qaida, which has been accused of a string of major attacks across Nineveh province of which Mosul is the capital. Earlier this week, security forces announced a "new phase" in their operations in Nineveh, which borders both Syria and Turkey.
Officials said they advanced from the preparatory stage of the campaign to a full-scale offensive on Wednesday in a bid to flush out Al Qaida in Iraq.

TUESDAY: 75 IRAQIS KILLED, 120 WOUNDED

The mainstream media in the United States could barely brings themselves to mention the spate of suicide bombings in Iraq that claimed the lives on 75 Iraqis as well as wounding 120 others.

Tuesday: 75 Iraqis Killed, 120 Wounded
Updated at 11:57 p.m. EDT, June 17, 2008
http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13003

At least 75 Iraqis were killed and 120 more were wounded in a spate of bombings and other attacks. The heaviest toll occurred at a Baghdad bus stop around dinnertime. No Coalition deaths were reported today. Meanwhile, Turkey claimed to have stopped a force of PKK rebels from entering the country via northern Iraq.
In Baghdad, 51 people were killed and over 80 more were wounded when a bomb exploded next to a two-story building containing shops and residential apartments in Hurriya; the blast ignited a fire that killed many of the victims. In Ghadeer, a roadside bomb blasted a police commando patrol, wounding three policemen and one civilian. Gunmen on motorcycles shot dead a policeman in Jamiya. In Mansour, gunmen killed a civil servant and wounded a companion. In Zaafaraniyah, a roadside bomb injured a civilian. Also, three dumped bodies were found.
An arms cache was found in Sadr City.
A suicide bicycle bomber attacked an Awakening Council (Sahwa) checkpoint, killing four of the U.S-backed fighters and wounding two civilians in al-Saba Abkar, which is just north of Baghdad.
A car bomb outside police headquarters in Baquba left one policeman dead and 21 others wounded.
In Mosul, U.S. forces killed four people they claim were al-Qaeda militants, but police and mourners say the four were three brothers and their father; four other family members were arrested. Gunmen stormed a home and shot a woman dead. An off-duty policeman was shot and killed in a separate incident in Bab al-Toub. Also, a local TV anchor was shot dead.
A roadside bomb exploded near Kut in Aziziya killed a police colonel and two bodyguards. Four other policemen were wounded in the blast and as many as six other people were also injured. Six people were abducted in the incident that lured the police to that location.
Police commandos fired upon a group of police recruits in Samarra. One of the recruits was killed and another was wounded.
Gunmen killed the brother of a commissioner near Udhaim.
Three brothers were abducted from a fake checkpoint near Mandali.
Police detained five people and confiscated weapons in Basra.
In Missan province, 38 IEDs were defused ahead of a security crackdown.
An arms cache was seized in Karbala.
A municipal worker was killed during a drive-by shooting in Tuz Khormato.

WE HAVE VIDEO OF DEADLY CAR BOMB THAT KILLED 51 IN BAGHDAD ON TUESDAY

This video shows the after effects of the car bomb that killed 51 Iraqi civilians in a market in Baghdad on Tuesday and plans that are going to be launched against the Mahdi militia.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/multimedia/video.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10517003&content_media_id=5005600