*Gen Taguba's Abu Ghraib Report & US Franchised Torture Revisited*.
*Part I **
http://tarafits.blogspot.com/2010/10/wikileaks-confirm-western-culture-of.html
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*'It would be a good idea.' Mahatma Gandhi, when asked about his views on
western culture.*
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*
*Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights
of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and
peace in the world : *Preamble, Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
*"As** usual, the Arabs knew. They knew all about the mass torture, the
promiscuous shooting of civilians, the outrageous use of air power against
family homes, the vicious American and British mercenaries, the cemeteries
of the innocent dead. All of Iraq knew. Because they were the victims -"*Robert
Fisk on Wikileaks in 'Independent '
Hosting by WikiLeaks on its website some 391,832 US military messages
documenting actions and reports on Iraq over the period 2004-2009,can be
divided in five heads:
Reliance on private contractors aka mercenaries ; the so-called "surge" of
30,000 additional US troops; the deaths of Iraqi civilians - killed mostly
by other Iraqis, but also by the US; a litany of prisoner abuse by Iraqis -
which US officials ignored - even more lurid than the infamous photographs
of torture from Abu Ghraib prison in 2004; and the so called "aggressive"
intervention of Iran's military providing "weapons, training and sanctuary"
to Shia combatants.
Robert Fisk highlights the main points as follows
*Prisoners abused, raped and murdered; *Hundreds of incidents of abuse and
torture of prisoners by Iraqi security services, up to and including rape
and murder. Since these are itemised in US reports, American authorities now
face accusations of failing to investigate them. UN leaders and campaigners
are calling for an official investigation.
*Civilian death toll cover-up; *Coalition leaders have always said "we don't
do death tolls", but the documents reveal many deaths were logged. Respected
British group Iraq Body Count says that, after preliminary examination of a
sample of the documents, there are an estimated 15,000 extra civilian
deaths, raising their total to 122,000.
*The shooting of men trying to surrender; *In February 2007, an Apache
helicopter killed two Iraqis, suspected of firing mortars, as they tried to
surrender. A military lawyer is quoted as saying: "They cannot surrender to
aircraft and are still valid targets."
*Private security firm abuses; *Britain's Bureau of Investigative Journalism
says it found documents detailing new cases of alleged wrongful killings of
civilians involving Blackwater, since renamed Xe Services. Despite this, Xe
retains extensive US contracts in Afghanistan.
*Al-Qa'ida's use of children and "mentally handicapped" for bombing ;*A
teenage boy with Down's syndrome who killed six and injured 34 in a suicide
attack in Diyala was said to be an example of an ongoing al-Qa'ida strategy
to recruit those with learning difficulties. A doctor is alleged to have
sold a list of female patients with learning difficulties to insurgents.
*Hundreds of civilians killed at check points; *Out of the 832 deaths
recorded at checkpoints in Iraq between 2004 and 2009, analysis by the
Bureau of Investigative Journalism suggests 681 were civilians. Fifty
families were shot at and 30 children killed. Only 120 insurgents were
killed in checkpoint incidents.
*Iranian influence; *Reports detail US concerns that Iranian agents had
trained, armed and directed militants in Iraq. In one document, the US
military warns a militia commander believed to be behind the deaths of US
troops and kidnapping of Iraqi officials was trained by Iran's Islamic
Revolutionary Guard.
But the WikiLeaks give little information on the mistreatment of prisoners
in US-run detention facilities, or in CIA franchised torture centers in east
Europe and elsewhere, worse than Abu Gharib and Guantanamo ,while chilling
details of abuse of Iraqis by Iraq's own army and police.
[ On abuse of Iraqis by US, (Gen Taguba's report) and US franchised torture
see below] .
*Reaction to the Leaks *
The Wihileaks have unleashed bickering among Iraqi politicians. For example,
a senior member of the Iraqiya bloc led by former Iraqi prime minister Iyad
Allawi called for an investigation into possible connections between torture
operations in Iraqi prisons and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
*US Defense Department* ; Geoff Morrell, the US Defense Department press
secretary, strongly condemned both WikiLeaks and the release of the Iraq
documents.
"We deplore WikiLeaks for inducing individuals to break the law, leak
classified documents and then cavalierly share that secret information with
the world, including our enemies," he said.
*Iran's Press TV* declared, "Whistleblower website WikiLeaks has released
documents suggesting that the Pentagon instructed US-led forces to
'secretly' torture detainees in Iraq."
*Robert Fisk in London's 'Independent'*
The western leadership and subservient corporate media pretend not to know.
They countered every claim, every allegation against the Americans or
British with some general – that " ghastly US military spokesman Mark
Kimmitt and the awful chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Peter Pace, come to mind
– to ring-fence us with lies. Find a man who'd been tortured and you'd be
told it was terrorist propaganda; discover a house full of children killed
by an American air strike and that, too, would be terrorist propaganda, or
"collateral damage", or a simple phrase: We have nothing on that."
Those who went around torturing the Iraqis were undisciplined gunmen aka
mercenaries, many recruited from criminal elements , so that they could be
shown as outside the US armed forces and also military discipline under
international law. Veritable outlaws ,a gang of criminals , well paid , with
license to torture and kill ;they murdered their way around the cities of
Iraq ,apart from protecting diplomats and generals. Though written in bleak
militarese ,this material can be used by lawyers in courts ,continued Fisk.
But it always happens like this. In Kuwait, after the 1991 liberation , US
troops heard Palestinians being tortured by Kuwaitis in police stations with
a Kuwaiti royal family member involved. US forces did nothing. They just
complained to the royal family. Soldiers are always being told not to
intervene. But then the Israeli army was told in September 1982 that
Israel's Phalangist allies had just murdered some women and children? "We
know, it's not to our liking, and don't interfere," said battalion commander
about the criminal enterprise of Sabra and Chatila refugee camp massacres.
Throughout history compared to the invaders and the rulers from the East,
the Western culture and rule has been based on Cartesian material outlook on
life .The Nazi crematoriums was an acme of western economic optimization of
using even human resources ( Jewish and other bodies )to the last bone and
the drop of blood.
What else to expect from the people of USA whose history is a narrative of
landmarks like the Massacre at Wounded Knee, who have morphed from savagery
to high-tech savagery and gave to the last generation, Mai Lai massacre, and
during brutal occupation of Iraq , Guantanamo, Abu Gharib, Falluja.
Nevertheless, instead of looking at themselves, they pontificate to the rest
of the humanity, with their uncivilized discourse.
*Americans at home *
In America, African Americans have been deprived of the most basic rights
and opportunities. This was especially true in the southern states, which
were once a byword for poverty and backwardness among people of all races.
For a long time US refused to act at a national level to stop lynching,
often arguing that it was a local problem thus everyone suffered the
consequences of shutting off a huge segment of the population from equality
and justice.
Lynching were barred quite late in last century .But in New Orleans and the
region, white America's putrid underbelly one can see the reality. How
American Africans were treated and are still being treated .Those who
visited the region at the time of September , 2005 Katrina disaster say that
there has been no change in the pitiable conditions of the Blacks and poor
in USA for the last two centuries.
*London**'s Observer on Katrina;*
London's Observer noted "Perhaps nothing else so encapsulates the endless
paradoxes of being black in America. Never have blacks had so much legal
freedom, yet there are record numbers in jail.
Traditional black neighborhoods have collapsed into drug-ridden crime
strongholds, even as the black middle class is the biggest in history.
"It is now 40 years since the Voting Rights Act that secured the black vote.
[In Florida 2000!] It is 10 years since hundreds of thousands of blacks came
to Washington in the Million Man March to demand a way out of poverty. It is
a single month since Hurricane Katrina exposed the racial fault lines that
fracture the big cities.
"Almost four decades after King was killed, there are still two Americas.
One is largely white and wealthy, one largely black and poor. They live
cheek by jowl in the same country yet in separate worlds. The shocking thing
about the TV pictures from New Orleans was not black poverty; it was the
reaction of whites. 'Most whites were shocked about the amount of poverty in
New Orleans, but black media have talked about poverty for the past 20
years,' said David Canton, professor of history at Connecticut College.
"Bare statistics tell the story. Black life expectancy is six years shorter
than that of whites. Black unemployment is twice as high. Blacks are twice
as likely as whites to die from disease, accident or murder at every stage
of their lives. About 24 per cent of black families live below the poverty
line, compared with 8 per cent of the white population."
Following the Katrina hurricane, when the truth could not be hidden, US
corporate news networks soon started a cover up, with boring repeat visits
of the President and statements. However, it has fooled no one except the
usual suspects, info-challenged US population.
Below is an article on abuse by US troops and interrogators in report by US
Gen Antonio Taguba
*The author had met with and heard the testimony of the victims of Abu
Gharaib and Guantmano at the hearings of the Kuala Lumpur Tribunal on War
Trials in October , 2009 .**
*
*
*
*Gajendra Singh 26 Octobeer, 2010,Delhi*
* ***
*Gen Taguba Unveils Abu Ghraib, US Gulag *27 June, 2007**
* **"The abused are only Iraqis,"** a US Gen to Gen Taguba* by K Gajendra
Singh <http:///>
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m34046&hd=&size=1&l=e
* *
*"From the moment a soldier enlists, we inculcate loyalty, duty, honor,
integrity, and selfless* service. And yet when we get to the senior-officer
level we forget those values."US Gen Antonio Taguba.
A senior US General in Iraq to Gen Taguba --*" the abused detainees were
'only Iraqis.'" *
*"US Soldier Sodomised Female Iraqi Detainee".* Former British Ambassador
Craig Murray's blog headline.
*"--we violated the laws of land warfare in Abu Ghraib. We violated the
tenets of the Geneva Convention. We violated our own principles and we
violated the core of our military values. I believe, even today, that those
civilian and military leaders responsible should be held accountable."* Gen
Taguba.
*"It must always be remembered that whatever is happening in Iraq is the
responsibility of US which led the illegal invasion of Iraq and continues
forced occupation against the will of its people, acquiesced in by an
impotent and dying United Nations under Sec Gen –What is his name !"*-Author
Seymour Hersh , the well known US investigative journalist has done it again
–methodically chipping away at United State administration's blatant lies
and spins to further unveil the torture and abuse of Iraqis at US created
'Gulag' at Abu Ghraib and US Administrations effort to muzzle an honest US
voice .
*In an interview with Hersh in New Yorker , Major General Antonio Taguba who
led the first military investigation in 2004 into human rights abuses at Abu
Ghraib prison in Iraq has bluntly questioned the integrity of former US
Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, suggesting he misled the US Congress
by downplaying his own prior knowledge of what had happened. Gen Taguba also
claimed in the interview that President George Bush also "had to be aware"
of the atrocities despite saying at the time of the scandal that he had been
out of the loop until he saw images in the US media.
*
As usual the White House denied it and –"the President said over three years
ago that he first saw the pictures of the abuse on the television," added
Scott Stanzel, a spokesman.
There has been little reaction in US main line media ie corporate controlled
' be the first ' purveyors of spins and lies. Or among honourable members of
the US Congress who had sanctioned the illegal invasion of Iraq opening up
the gates of hell on hapless Iraqis. As if the well documented US ugliness
belongs to some one else . Even the US electorate's demand last November to
bring back US troops home from Iraq has been totally ignored. Some
government of the people this!
Such things were to be expected after an invasion launched to grab Iraqi oil
. The men should be impeached and tried for misleading the world and the
American people .The naked ugly truth is being slowly but relentlessly being
exposed .Libby's conviction , illegal doings of Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales. and a Vice President who even claims immunity from the law of the
land . Verily USA has created a lawless jungle abroad and at home too.
The New Yorker interview has only amplified what was partially known .Gen
Taguba, who investigated Abu Ghraib, confirms details of the abuse not
previously known thus publicly giving them official authority . *It also
confirms that the torture was sanctioned from the top.
*
Not part of the interview , but General Janis Karpinski has testified that
she saw a memorandum on "Interrogation techniques" pinned to the wall by
military intelligence at Abu Ghraib, signed by Defence Secretary Rumsfeld
himself. Karpinski was at the top of the line of command of the guards - the
military police - but not the interrogators. Doubtless more of the details
of the war crimes at Abu Ghraib, and of extraordinary rendition and
Guantanamo, will continue to emerge in the next few months as the war party
in Washington becomes totally discredited.
*Sexual aggression is not really about sex or gender, but about power: the
powerful humiliating the powerless.*
The General's 53-page report, first written in February 2004 , had found
Iraqi detainees in a cellblock of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside
Baghdad subjected to "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" at the
hands of their U.S. jailers. The abuses included sodomizing of prisoners,
pouring cold water and chemicals on naked bodies, threatening detainees with
rape and dog attacks, hitting them with chairs and broomsticks and locking
them in isolation without food, water or a toilet for three days. The report
also found a virtual collapse of the command structure in Abu Ghraib with
Army reservists being urged by military intelligence and CIA employees to
"set physical and mental conditions for favorable interrogation of
witnesses."
Chairman of the Joint Cheifs of Staff Gen Richard Myers had then denied the
contents to the media but gave conflicting answers . And when pressed, he
acknowledged that he had not even read the report.
Gen Taguba noted that Rumsfeld not only denied advance knowledge, but even
denied afterwards having seen Taguba's report or knowing what had happened.
Rumsfeld testified before Congress that he had no idea of the extent of the
abuse.
"He's trying to acquit himself and a lot of people who are lying to protect
themselves," the magazine quoted Taguba as saying, referring to Rumsfeld's
May 7, 2004 testimony in the Congress.
Taguba affirmed , "There was no doubt in my mind that this stuff"—the
explicit images—"was gravitating upward. It was standard operating procedure
to assume that this had to go higher. The President had to be aware of
this." He said that Rumsfeld, his senior aides, and the high-ranking
generals and admirals who stood with him as he misrepresented in the
Congress what he( Rumsfeld) knew about Abu Ghraib had failed the nation.
The photographs that became public at the time of enquiry and created
worldwide reprehension, revulsion and condemnation - showed US jailers
humiliating inmates who were naked, hooded, on leashes or piled into a human
pyramid.
Gen Taguba said that other material not yet public or mentioned in trials
included a video showing "a male American soldier in uniform sodomising a
female detainee". The first wave of images also included images of sexual
humiliation between a father and his son.
Gen Taguba also added he was ordered to limit his inquiry into the conduct
of military police at the jail even as he became convinced they had a green
light from higher up. "Somebody was giving them guidance but I was legally
prevented from further investigation into higher authority. I was limited to
a box." He declares ,"Even today ... those civilian and military leaders
responsible should be held accountable."
Gen Taguba was victimized for doing his duty as he was subsequently forced
to retire early. His conclusion was that he was being punished for honest
investigation. "They always shoot the messenger," Gen Taguba told Seymour
Hersh. "To be accused of being overzealous and disloyal - that cuts deep
into me. I was being ostracised for doing what I was asked to do." And he
did that as an honest and upright officer and as a decent human being .
The politicians in the Congress could not care less. A Quinnipiac University
poll this month found Congress with an approval rating of just 23 percent.
"People voted for change. But they don't think they got it," said Peter
Brown, an assistant director of the poll. A Gallup poll last month had put
Congress's approval rating at 29 percent. The number had fallen to 21
percent last December, just when Republicans were sent packing by the
electorate.
*Some extracts from the New Yorker interview ;*
*"Here . . . comes . . . that famous General Taguba—of the Taguba report!"
Rumsfeld declared, in a mocking voice. The meeting was attended by Paul
Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld's deputy; Stephen Cambone, the Under-Secretary of
Defense for Intelligence; General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff ( J.C.S.); and General Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of
staff, along with Craddock and other officials. Taguba, describing the
moment nearly three years later, said, sadly, "I thought they wanted to
know. I assumed they wanted to know. I was ignorant of the setting."
In the meeting, the officials professed ignorance about Abu Ghraib. "Could
you tell us what happened?" Wolfowitz asked. Someone else asked, "Is it
abuse or torture?" At that point, Taguba recalled, "I described a naked
detainee lying on the wet floor, handcuffed, with an interrogator shoving
things up his rectum, and said, 'That's not abuse. That's torture.' There
was quiet." Rumsfeld was particularly concerned about how the classified
report had become public. "General," he asked, "who do you think leaked the
report?" Taguba responded that perhaps a senior military leader who knew
about the investigation had done so. "It was just my speculation," he
recalled. "Rumsfeld didn't say anything."
Rumsfeld also complained about not being given the information he needed.
"Here I am," Taguba recalled Rumsfeld saying, "just a Secretary of Defense,
and we have not seen a copy of your report. I have not seen the photographs,
and I have to testify to Congress tomorrow and talk about this." As Rumsfeld
spoke, Taguba said, "He's looking at me. It was a statement."
At best, Taguba said, "Rumsfeld was in denial." Taguba had submitted more
than a dozen copies of his report through several channels at the Pentagon
and to the Central Command headquarters, in Tampa, Florida, which ran the
war in Iraq. By the time he walked into Rumsfeld's conference room, he had
spent weeks briefing senior military leaders on the report, but he received
no indication that any of them, with the exception of General Schoomaker,
had actually read it. (Schoomaker later sent Taguba a note praising his
honesty and leadership.) When Taguba urged one lieutenant general to look at
the photographs, he rebuffed him, saying, "I don't want to get involved by
looking, because what do you do with that information, once you know what
they show?"--
On January 20th, the chief of staff at Central Command sent another e-mail
to Admiral Keating, copied to General Craddock and Lieutenant General
Ricardo Sanchez, the Army commander in Iraq. The chief of staff wrote, "Sir:
update on alleged detainee abuse per our discussion. DID IT REALLY HAPPEN?
Yes, currently have 4 confessions implicating perhaps 10 soldiers. DO PHOTOS
EXIST? Yes. A CD with approx 100 photos and a video—CID has these in their
possession."
In subsequent testimony, General Myers, the J.C.S. chairman, acknowledged,
without mentioning the e-mails, that in January information about the
photographs had been given "to me and the Secretary up through the chain of
command. . . . And the general nature of the photos, about nudity, some mock
sexual acts and other abuse, was described."
Nevertheless, Rumsfeld, in his appearances before the Senate and the House
Armed Services Committees on May 7th, claimed to have had no idea of the
extensive abuse. "It breaks our hearts that in fact someone didn't say,
'Wait, look, this is terrible. We need to do something,' " Rumsfeld told the
congressmen. "I wish we had known more, sooner, and been able to tell you
more sooner, but we didn't."
Rumsfeld told the legislators that, when stories about the Taguba report
appeared, "it was not yet in the Pentagon, to my knowledge." As for the
photographs, Rumsfeld told the senators, "I say no one in the Pentagon had
seen them"; at the House hearing, he said, "I didn't see them until last
night at 7:30,"wen asked specifically when he had been made aware of the
photographs.
**US Army – A veritable Mafia**
Taguba got a different message, however, from other officers, among them
General John Abizaid, then the head of Central Command. A few weeks after
his report became public, Taguba, who was still in Kuwait, was in the back
seat of a Mercedes sedan with Abizaid. Abizaid's driver and his interpreter,
who also served as a bodyguard, were in front. Abizaid turned to Taguba and
issued a quiet warning: "You and your report will be investigated."
"I wasn't angry about what he said but disappointed that he would say that
to me," Taguba said. "I'd been in the Army thirty-two years by then, and it
was the first time that I thought I was in the Mafia."
A former high-level Defense Department official said that, when the Abu
Ghraib scandal broke, Senator John Warner, then the chairman of the Armed
Services Committee, was warned "to back off" on the investigation, because
"it would spill over to more important things." A spokesman for Warner
acknowledged that there had been pressure on the Senator, but said that
Warner had stood up to it—insisting on putting Rumsfeld under oath for his
May 7th testimony, for example, to the Secretary's great displeasure.---
In January of 2006, Taguba received a telephone call from General Richard
Cody, the Army's Vice-Chief of Staff. "This is your Vice," he told Taguba.
"I need you to retire by January of 2007." No pleasantries were exchanged,
although the two generals had known each other for years, and, Taguba said,
"He offered no reason." (A spokesperson for Cody said, "Conversations
regarding general officer management are considered private personnel
discussions. General Cody has great respect for Major General Taguba as an
officer, leader, and American patriot.")
Richard Armitage, a former Navy counter-insurgency officer who served as
Deputy Secretary of State in the first Bush term, recalled meeting Taguba,
then a lieutenant colonel, in South Korea in the early nineteen-nineties. "I
was told to keep an eye on this young guy—'He's going to be a general,' "
Armitage said. "Taguba was discreet and low key—not a sprinter but a
marathoner."
General Taguba is a slight man with a friendly demeanor and an unfailingly
polite correctness. "I came from a poor family and had to work hard," he
said. "It was always shine the shoes on Saturday morning for church, and
wash the car on Saturday for church. And Saturday also for mowing the lawn
and doing yard jobs for church." *
*
**The Perfidious Brits are equally guilty in Iraq ;**
*
The Brits too are very much in the business of torture ..The reserve stiff
upper lip keeps the ugliness under covers but too much has happened and the
world has seen enough .
Robert Fisk of 'The Independent who "had seen British military brutality in
Northern Ireland had hopes that things might have improved but the heart
wrenching case of Baha Mousa , who died of abuse and torture , proved that
the dark, sinister ways employed by the British in the Irish conflict have
continued . He concluded that something had gone terribly wrong in the
British Army in southern Iraq.
*British Playing football with human beings *
Fisk went to see *Kifah Taha, who was beaten so badly by British troops in
the presence of Baha Mousa with terrible wounds in the groin. Baha Mousa,
son of a policeman Daoud Mousa in Basra , British area of occupation died
from the brutal injuries he received in British custody, was a young, decent
man who worked as a receptionist in a Basra hotel. Daoud Mousa and others
will carry the grief of their son's killings or rapes of their daughters
with them for ever.*
Fisk was told how "the soldiers would call their Iraqi prisoners by the
names of football stars - Beckham was one name they used - before kicking
them around the detention headquarters in Basra. There were stories of Iraqi
prisoners being forced to kneel on sharp stones, of being kicked and punched
in the groin, the kidneys, the back, shoulders, forced to sit with their
heads down lavatory holes."
There's an old rule of thumb applied to armies in the field said Fisk. "If
you find out about one abuse, you can bet there were a hundred others that
will never be revealed. New stories of "forced disappearances",
hostage-taking and torture in British custody are emerging from Basra. US
troops are still being questioned about unlawful killings and torture in
Iraq. If one girl is raped and murdered and her family slaughtered by a US
unit south of Baghdad - all of which is true - how many others have died in
circumstances we shall never discover?", added Fisk.
But there would be blow back too. Accounts would be settled.
*American detainees in Iran*
For Americans, it would be a surprise to see the word "detainee" suddenly
appear in a different country, in a different context , this time to a group
of Americans. After all, "detainee" is the word the Bush administration
coined to deal with suspected terrorist captives who, they argued, should be
subjected to extra-legal treatment as part of the Global War on Terrorism.
As feared the terminology is, being turned against American citizens under
detention in Iran now.
The Iranian government currently holds in custody Haleh Esfandiari, Kian
Tajbakhsh, Parnaz Azima, and Ali Shakeri, Iranian-American scholars and
activists accused of being spies and/or employees of the U.S. government
intent on fomenting dissent and disruption within Iran. (A fifth American,
Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent engaged in business of an unknown nature
in Iran, disappeared on March 8th.) The four are reportedly behind bars at
Tehran's notorious Evin prison, meant for political prisoners including
human rights activists. The Americans had abducted 6 Iranian diplomats in
Kurdistan from the Irbil Consulate arousing much anger and dismay in the
Kurdish regional government.
Any way who carries out US overt and covert policies of regime change inside
Iran , for which the Congress regularly apportions many tens of millions of
US dollars .
*Sexual sadism of Western culture –In peace and war *
At the time of hearings in May 2004 ,Katharine Viner wrote in 'The Guardian'
about 'The sexual sadism of our culture, in peace and in war" She had
received some horrific photographs from Iraq, depicting " the sexual abuse
of women by US servicemen. On some, chadors were hitched up over the women's
heads. On others, the women were naked while they were raped by groups of
men. ----- They make you sick to your stomach. And they look strangely
familiar - like the XXX films in hotel rooms, like those "live rape!" emails
sent to internet users, like porn.
"--We know that such images exist, because a US government report confirmed
it. And we know that Iraqi women are being raped throughout the country,
because both Amal Kadham Swadi, the Iraqi lawyer, and the US's own internal
inquiry say that abuse is systemic and widespread. We also know this because
all wars feature the abuse of women as a byproduct, or as a weapon. The
ancient Greeks considered rape socially acceptable; the Crusaders raped
their way to Constantinople; the English invaders raped Scottish women on
Culloden Moor. The first world war, the second world war, Bosnia,
Bangladesh, Vietnam - where the gang rape and murder of a peasant woman by
US soldiers was photographed in stages by one if its participants.
"The poses, the large numbers of men to one woman, the violence - they have
all the hallmarks of contemporary porn. Indeed, there is suspicion that the
photos are part of a gruesome new trend There's a difference, of course,
between the making of pornography for money and the photographing of
pornographic poses as war trophies: the consent of the woman involved? But
to the consumer of these images, there's no way of knowing if there's been
consent or not. They look the same."
In February,2004 US soldiers were accused of raping more than 112 colleagues
in Iraq and Afghanistan --- seem to have to prove that they are one of the
guys by sexually humiliating the only people less important than they are:
Iraqi prisoners, of whatever sex. It's a chilling lesson, that women can be
sexual sadists just as well as men. Just give them the right conditions -
and someone weaker to kick. It's proof that sexual aggression is not really
about sex or gender, but about power: the powerful humiliating the
powerless.?
==appear on pornographic websites. They will be used for sexual
gratification.-- Of course we are horrified by these images. But we should
be horrified too by their familiarity, and how much they tell us about our
own societies."
Pornography is worth tens of billions dollars business in USA .Is this the
civilization the rest of the world in envious of as US leaders constantly
proclaim ie superiority of their civilization .
*Conclusions ;*
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche , 19th cent German philosopher , inspired by
Plato's Utopia aka Republic , in turn inspired the evil genius and
20th Century
political philosopher Leo Strauss , at whose feet sat the still influential
Neo-Cons and Zeo-cons , had stated that Christian love and piety was an
outcome of fear. The fear of the strongly built neighbour or the fear of a
criminal from a police man .
Nietzsche believed that it was not possible that a man could genuinely feel
universal love, perhaps because of his self-created halo of a 'noble' man .
That was perhaps meant for two combatants or knights matching their valour
on level ground, not like F-16 bombers against kids armed with slingshots or
rudimentary guns .
*Many in the West are not even ashamed describing the US "victory" over Iraq
in 2003 an example of military valour when US defence expenditure was S$ 450
billion vs Iraq's 2.5 billion after US-UK implemented sanctions had decayed
Iraqi defences .The sanctions also killed half a million children of
malnutrition according to UN reports. .
*Kemal Ataturk , the great strategician ,would have laughed his head off at
this spurious claim. Even Montgomery who believed that 4 to one superiority
was enough when attacking .Only ignoble deeds by ignoble men shine in the US
led West .The so called western 'noble' is now likely to be a poor American
from rural areas, a high tech brute ensconced in his armour afraid to come
out of his humvee against motivated bombers with just their body to
sacrifice against all odds . Would Nietzsche have called the bombers
'noble'!
The noble martial combat was over after the second siege of Vienna in late
16th century , when high tech killing started taking over from Janissaries
valour. The final result now is the complete take over of the US by
consumerist Military Industry complex , which gobbles up as much in 'defence
' expenditure as the rest of the world put together ,of which the generals
and soldiers are consumers paid for by the people of America and now of the
world with an iniquitous economic order where in US just prints greenbacks .
US power has morphed into world financed-techno-barbarian brute.
In his book on what Bertrand Russell calls history of Western
Philosophy ( *West
has generally produced linear thought , its real philosophers are ridiculed
*) he quotes from Shakespeare's King Lear , on the verge of madness
*"I will do such things –
What they are yet I know not – but they shall be
The terror of the earth. *
( Exactly what the top US leadership has achieved in Iraq and threatens
doing more of the same. )
This is Nietzsche's philosophy in nutshell. Donald Rumsfeld's unknown
unknowns or Bush's all options including tactical weapons when there is no
danger of an Iranian nuke in near future .No wonder a worried and wizened El
Bardai in Vienna called for a control on 'crazies 'in USA.
Russell says there are two sorts of saints, saints by nature and saints by
fear. The first have spontaneous love of mankind. Because to do so gives him
happiness and the second , a frightened man afraid of fear. ( Western
leaders like Henry Kissinger , Dick Cheney ,Tony Blair would fit the bill )
It is existential fear of Jesus Christ's saying turned devilshly on its head
.Do not do unto others what you would not like done unto you . The fear what
Iran would do after 5 years or ten years .What Iraqis would do . Would
Assassins emerge from the Middle East and Asia or Muslim citizens in Europe
and Black Muslims in USA . What north Korea with nukes and missiles
threatened to do to stop a menacing US. Humans and the world has now been
reduced by USA to lawless jungle.
Leo Strauss was an admirer of the British Empire and Winston Churchill as an
example of the will-driven statesman. Recent Churchill admirers are ; the
extinguished poodle Tony Blair and lame duck George Bush . After being part
of killing of over 666,000 Iraqis Blair said history will judge him. He has
been judged and the Brits would pay the price .If the Brits could not remove
Blair early enough ,then why blame poor Iraqis for not removing late
President Saddam Hussein of Iraq , and why .Whom , now faced with acute
security deficit and instability Iraqis miss , even Shias. And perhaps in
their hearts the Americans too. Certainly before March 2003 USA was a hyper
power , a phrase rarely used now for a degenerated ogre .
The use of deception and manipulation in current US policies flow directly
from the doctrines of the Leo Strauss (1899-1973). His disciples including
Paul Wolfowitz and other Neo-conservatives who have driven much of the
political agenda of the Bush administration. Wolfowitz, acknowledged that
the evidence used to justify the war was "murky" and added that weapons of
mass destruction weren't the crucial issue anyway. Grabbing Iraqi oil for
nothing was !He had told US Congress that Iraq's development would be
financed by Iraq oil revenues ( which US is trying to gift to US
multinationals ). Paul also tried to finance his love nest from the World
Bank funds and refused to resign when caught with his hand in the till or
where ever it should not have been.
Another Neo-Con Douglas Feith recently told one Wolf Blitzer last year if he
had no car accident did not mean that he should not take out car insurance
this year .So "operation Iraqi freedom" was an insurance policy ! Some
Straussian reasoning . On mere suspicions one could attack another country
.Suppose some one is reading a book on fundamentals of nuclear Physics.
Attack his country according to Straussian or Feith logic . Even Taimur lung
, in those lawless days ,attacked only if sure of a threat building up, not
on suspicions alone .Wolf the Blitzer was so easily convinced . These are
West's top journalists!
Did the US system reach its zenith of power and now lie exposed an abyss of
cheating, chicanery , corruption ,hypocrisy and total lawlessness .
The current direction of US led Western civilization , if you can call it
so, is hurtling along retrograde evolution of human animal ; away from the
divine and spiritual moorings and identity as all religions discovered
intuitively over millennia to a world of heedless and headless consumerism
like an unerring laser to wards self destruction, Nuclear bombs and cold
nights or climate atastrophes and apocalypse. *Bucharest (Romania) 28
June, 2007.*
--
Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear
of punishment and hope of reward after death." --
Albert Einstein !!!
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