"Jail tactics broke rules: Wolfowitz"
- Reuters 15/5/2004
"Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz has
admitted that US interrogation techniques
approved for use in Iraq could violate the
Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners."
Those torture tactics were approved by Donald
Rumsfeld, who, despite being under congressional
investigation into TexIraq torture, was off making
political speeches to the armed forces, telling troops
what they wanted to hear, trying to ingratiate himself,
releasing hundreds of witnesses from Abu Ghraib and
getting hius story straight with other senior perpetrators
of systemic abuse.
"His revelation undermines assurances by his boss,
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, that the convention
was enforced."
Rumsfeld is a joke, he is on the public record as
declaring that the Geneva Convention does not
apply to Gitmo and Afghanistan, and now his deputy
warmonger has hung him out to dry.
"Mr Rumsfeld's position was further undermined
when the No. 2 military officer at the Pentagon,
General Peter Pace, agreed that the techniques
breached the Geneva Convention."
There really isn't any dispute on that point,
only Bush continues to appeal over the facts
to the emotions of Americans who are all to ready
to delude themselves that the abuses were 'abberations'
when the proof exists that the Geneva Convention breeches
were DELIBERATE US GOVERNMENT POLICY!
Annoyed by the minimal intelligence they were getting
from increasingly hostile Iraqi civilians, they sent
Major General Geoffrey "Freddy Kruger" Miller, former
commander at the Gitmo Gulag, to implement the new
interrogation policy which saw torture4 and abuse skyrocket.
Now the cover-up and low-level scapegoating is in full swing
"The admissions by Mr Wolfowitz and General Pace
came during questioning by senators at a hearing
in Washington into the abuse of detainees at the
Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad that have prompted
outrage around the world.
Democrat senator Jack Reed asked Mr Wolfowitz
whether forcing a prisoner to wear a bag on his
head for 72 hours, keeping him without sleep and
forcing him to stand in a "stress position"
violated the convention.
After trying to avoid the question, saying he
had not seen the rules of interrogation,
Mr Wolfowitz admitted that it "sounds to me
like a violation of the Geneva Convention".
At that point, if not way sooner, Rumsfeldt should
have been indicted for War Crimes.*
"Senator Reed had earlier asked General Pace whether
it would be a good interrogation technique or a
violation of the Geneva Convention if a foreign
nation held a US marine in a cell, naked with a
bag over his head, squatting with his arms
uplifted for 45 minutes. "I would describe
is as a violation, sir," replied General
Pace, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
General Sanchez's "interrogation rules of engagement"
were given to senators this week during congressional
hearings into the abuse scandal."
While his minions and Armed forces commanders
are describing his torture tactics as breaches
of the Geneva Convention, Rumsfeld was telling the
troops who carried them out that he was proud of them! 8^o
"Mr Rumsfeld told the soldiers that he and
the general had come to "look you folks in
the eye and tell you that we think you're terrific".
Mr Rumsfeld told senators last week that abuses
at the jail were an aberration carried out by
"a handful" of soldiers. Human rights lawyers
say the techniques are not legal."
Rumsfeld is trying pass his responsibility to
those who carried out his orders, and simultaneously
assure them that only a few selected scapegoats have
been chosen and the rest are still heroes.
Meanwhile the cost of this debacle, in blood, and in
dollars continues to mount through the roof as the TexIraq
oil shock reverberates through the worlds economies and the
oil industry reaches further into the USSA taxpayers
pocket to fund their fiasco;
"Mr Wolfowitz had gone to the Senate Armed Services
Committee to ask for another $US25 billion ($A36.4 billion)
for the war in Iraq."
If the USSA war machine was a corporation it would be
passed into receivership.
"At the same time, Mr Rumsfeld was in Baghdad on a
seven-hour morale-boosting visit to the troops.
He brushed off calls for his resignation, telling the
troops "I'm a survivor".
Those that carried out his breaches of the Geneva
Convention will pay the price.. it's "American
Values" .. the buck stops down there.
"He said the abuses at the jail had been,
"a body blow for all of us", but promised
that those involved would be brought to justice."
Except Bush and Rumsfeldt, the men responsible for it.
....
"US intelligence experts said the CIA was granted
permission in the wake of the September 11, 2001,
attacks to use harsh interrogation tactics against
top al-Qaeda leaders in the hopes of thwarting
further attacks."
- with Reuters
But in TexIraq, which was not part of Al Qaeda,
these terrorist tactics have been applied to the
ordinary civilians, who, fed up with the invaders
have stopped co-operating altogether.
______________________
* War Criminals
Former Liberal Party of Australia president says Iraq war is criminal
A former Liberal Party president today called for
members of the US-led coalition of the willing to face a
war crimes tribunal.
John Valder, the Liberals' federal president in the mid-1980s,
said there was clear evidence that the war was a criminal act.
"This really was the most criminal act from the outset and now
look where it's got us," Mr Valder told ABC radio.
"I would have thought governments in any country that were
supporting this, be they the United States, Spain, Australia,
Britain or anywhere, should be out on their ear."
Mr Valder said there was scope for a war crimes tribunal.
"They were party to what has turned out to be an open act of
aggression against a third country that was in no way a threat to them,"
Mr
Valder said.
"Their reasons for going in have proven to be absolutely baseless."
- AAP
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