The more you know, the worse bu$h gets...
http://counterpunch.org/sharon06102005.html
Torturers and Liars
Masters of Deception
By SHARON SMITH
Bush administration officials have always been a thoroughly unpleasant
bunch, accustomed to silencing critics by hurling insults at those who
dare to question their steady stream of lies.
Recently, however, besieged by evidence detailing U.S. war crimes at
detention centers at Guantánamo Bay from sources as disparate as
Newsweek and Amnesty International, Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld are
showing signs of fraying at the edges, inadvertently exposing their
own pattern of deliberate deception.
Such was the case when Amnesty International issued its May 26 report
detailing prisoner mistreatment at Guantánamo. Visibly irked that
Amnesty called the U.S. detention center "the gulag of our time," Bush
called the Amnesty report "absurd," Rumsfeld denounced it as
"reprehensible," and Cheney claimed he "was offended" by it.
But the indignant trio merely drew attention to the administration's
earlier use of Amnesty reports on Saddam Hussein's human rights abuses
to justify its invasion of Iraq. On March 27, 2003, Rumsfeld argued,
"Anyone who has read Amnesty International or any of the human rights
organizations [knows] about how the regime of Saddam Hussein treats
his people."
Adding to the public relations farce over Amnesty's Guantánamo report,
at a June 2 press conference, Bush dismissed claims of torture as
concocted by ex-detainees "who hate America." "The United States is a
country that promotes freedom around the world," he insisted.
Bush's claim came as appalling news began to emerge from Falluja, a
city of 250,000 people destroyed by U.S. bombs in November 2004 that
remains occupied by U.S. Marines.
"There are plenty of women in Falluja who have testified they were
raped by American soldiers," one resident told journalist Dahr Jamail.
Mohammed Abdulla, executive director of the Study Center for Human
Rights and Democracy, said, "There are daily war crimes being
committed in Falluja, even now."
Only half of Falluja's residents have returned since last year's
siege. Most found their homes destroyed. They live in tents, without
electricity or access to clean water, and curfews don't allow
civilians on the streets after 9 p.m.
Americans refer jokingly to Falluja as Iraq's "gated community"--since
its residents are trapped inside or outside by U.S. checkpoints. All
Falluja citizens must carry security passes containing their name,
fingerprints and an iris scan that can be cross checked with Iraqi
detainees.
On May 29, the U.S. sponsored a new bloodbath reminiscent of Falluja,
code named Operation Lightning, in which U.S. and Iraqi forces sealed
off the entire population of Baghdad. Some 40,000 Iraqi troops, backed
by 10,000 U.S. soldiers, set up 675 checkpoints and have been
conducting house-by-house searches--detaining more than 700 Iraqis
from Baghdad and 250 from suburbs south of the city.
Hundreds of Baghdad residents demonstrated last Friday, carrying signs
that demanded, "Go Home American Troops." "Even animals deserve more
respect," one woman told the United Nations' Integrated Regional
Information Networks after troops raided her home.
Earlier in May, Operation New Market preceded Operation Lightning in
Haditha. A local doctor told Jamail, "The Americans are detaining so
many people there, any man between the ages of 16 and 25 years is
being immediately detained without question."
This was preceded by Operation Matador in Al Qa'im, a week-long siege
in which the U.S. clamed to have killed 125 followers of al-Qaeda
"mastermind" Abu Musab al-Zarqawi--although local civilians and
doctors disputed the presence of any foreign fighters. As one resident
explained to Inter Press Service, "The fighters are just local people
who refuse to be treated like dogs. Nobody wants the Americans here."
The U.S. military is now working hand-in-glove with paramilitary
forces from the so-called "Wolf Brigade"--an armed militia of 20,000
formed in October 2004 by former members of Saddam Hussein's secret
police and Republican Guard. Appropriately, James Steele, the U.S.
commander working with the Wolf Brigade, is a Special Forces leader
who trained right-wing death squads in El Salvador during the 1980s.
In its brief existence, the Wolf Brigade has become notorious for
using beatings, kidnapping and murder to extract confessions--even
hosting its own (U.S.-approved) television show "Terrorists in the
Grip of Justice," displaying bruised and battered Iraqis confessing to
various acts of "terrorism."
Since last August, the number of Iraqis in U.S. custody has more than
doubled, from 5,495 to over 10,000. Most are eventually released due
to lack of evidence.
This figure could be a gross underestimation. An Iraqi doctor told
Jamail that an Iraqi human rights group estimates 60,000 Iraqis are in
detention facilities throughout Iraq. He continued, "Of course, this
only pushes people more towards the resistance, because people are
eventually left desperate enough to begin fighting the Americans.
People can only take so much."
The U.S. may claim that it promotes "freedom" around the world, but
its victims, if allowed, could testify to the humiliation of an entire
population.
Sharon Smith's new book is Women and Socialism. She can be reached at:
[email hidden]
--
http://www.commondreams.org/
http://www.truthout.org/
http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/
http://thirdworldtraveler.com/
http://counterpunch.org/
http://responsiblewealth.org/
"Brutal and sadistic? By what girly-man standards? Compared
to how Saddam treated his prisoners, a bit of humiliation was
a walk in the park. AFAIK, No one died or even lost any blood."
-Albert Nurick, a usenet kook and blatant liar, on the rape,
torture and murder at bu$h's Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0512-10.htm
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that
matter." -- Martin Luther King Jr.
"God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them. And then
he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did."
-- George W. Bush
"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the
will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the
Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."
-- Adolf [censored]
"The tsunami was a wonderful opportunity to show not just the
US government, but the heart of the American people, and I think
it has paid great dividends for us." Condoleezza Rice
"One of the things we don't want to do is destroy the
infrastructure in Iraq because in a few days we're going
to own that country," - Tom Brokaw
Cost of probing Bill Clinton's sex life: $65 million.
Cost of probing the Columbia shuttle disaster: $50 million.
Funds assigned to independent Sept. 11 panel: $3 million.
"After all, it is the leaders of the country who determine
the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the
people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist
dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the
bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to
do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the
peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country
to danger. It works the same in any country."
-- Hermann Goering, President of the Reichstag, Nazi Party, and
Luftwaffe Commander in Chief
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President,
or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is
not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable
to the American public."
-- Theodore Roosevelt (1918)
"You know, when bu$h said that he's against nation building,
I didn't realize that he meant only the United States"
-- Al Franken
Don't let bu$h do to the United States what his very close
friend and top campaign contributor, Ken Lay, did to Enron...