Winning Hearts and Minds - The Abu Ghraib way

It is the ugliest face of the ‘War on terrorism’. It is the most inhuman angle, captured digitally. The pictures are horrendous. Shocking. The whole world were stunned to see the undeniable photographic evidence of American democracy that is meted out to the hapless prisoners of Iraq. Since it is impossible to ignore the existence of these photos, despite the initial prevarication, the Pentagon and the US administration started to admit and tender apologies. The hawkish Rumsfeld with a sullen face, had but to say this — that the acts of soldiers were: "sadistic, cruel and inhuman"

The truth is: the Pentagon knows the existence of these photos since the end of January. Though it ordered an internal enquiry, it wanted to suppress the truth to come out from the four walls of the military establishment. But some television channels and later some newspapers in the US got the photos. Then, Rumsfeld and his men tried their best to delay the airing of the photos, requesting to delay on the pretext that it would endanger the US troops in Iraq. The CBS, a well known TV Channel, succumbed to it, but later it came out to show them, when it learnt that some one too got them.

It is the rarest of the rare that such clinching and undeniable evidence of atrocities by the security forces, are available for the people. America boasts of its democratic traditions, and gloats in the glory that it is the watchdog of human rights the world over. Yearly the US state department brings out reports exposing the human rights violations of such countries that are not its favour. After these photos came out, the publication of the annual World Human report, which was due to be released in May, was with held for "technical reasons". Before this exposure of these photos, it must have been stated in the report that the track record of the US was excellent.

Since Rumsfeld knows that the truth can not be suppressed any more, he said in the testimony to the houses of Parliament that "there are more disturbing photos". There are around 1600 of such photos which were shown to select members of the Senate and House of representatives. The cruelties were stunningly horrible, many were dumb founded after seeing the pictures of how their high valued civilization was trying to save the world from the enemies of civilizations.

Guardian wrote that the humiliating sexual abuse at the jail was consistent with procedures taught to British and American Special Forces.

In fact the abuse and violations on prisoners by the US army were reported by Washington 16 months ago. The report convincingly wrote with testimonials that the US intelligence agents had been torturing suspects in Begram air base outside Kabul and in Diego Garcia. The international media gave cursory attention, the US Congress ignored it and the US administration brushed it of.

Since the Pentagon already knows that one day the evidence of this abuse will be out, it is well prepared for the damage control. It wasted no time in conceding the atrocities. Later the secret internal report filed by Taguba was also leaked to the press. That was why Rumsfeld admitted that there were more disturbing photos. Bush, Rumsfeld, Blair tendered "deep apologies", excusing themselves and passing the buck on the lower level officials and soldiers. Rumsfeld said it is "..un- American, .. and it is aberration."

More truth has been trickling down to dispute this "aberration theory". Defence officials admitted that 37 Iraqi and Afghan prisoners were killed in US custody. 35 such cases were investigated, all since December 2002. Among them 10 cases include incidents of rape, assault, and causing other injuries. And the rest was still under investigation. No one knows the condition of prisoners of Guantano Bay. Under the cloak of national security the details of the prisoners was also kept secret, not to speak of the conditions of the prisoners. No due process of law is protecting them. No Geneva convention is applied to them.

We are above all laws/ We are the bully no:1 : US

In the wake of global outrage over the abuse by U.S. soldiers of Iraqi detainees, the Bush administration has asked the United Nations Security Council to exempt its troops serving in UN-approved peace-keeping operations from prosecution for war crimes before the new International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague in the Netherlands for another year.

The request, comes less than six weeks before the current exemption - which many international-law experts believe violates the UN Charter - expires.

The proposed exemption comes in the wake of the abuses depicted in the photos, as well as subsequent media accounts, testimony before the U.S. Congress, and the circulation of reports by human rights groups and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), indicate that the U.S. military may be responsible for war crimes under the Geneva Conventions in both Iraq and Afghanistan that theoretically could be prosecuted before the ICC. Amnesty International and many International civil rights organisations, are urging governments to speak out against the extension of UN Security Council Resolution 1487, which was first approved, after the U.S. threatened to veto all UN peacekeeping missions if it did not get its way, in 2002 and subsequently renewed in 2003.

The resolution prohibits the ICC from investigating or prosecuting any current or former official or personnel from any country that has not ratified the Rome Statute (the international treaty that created the ICC) for acts committed by them during their participation in a mission authorized by the UN.

The US State Department coerced many countries to sign bilateral agreements with Washington forbidding them from transferring any U.S. national in their custody to the ICC.

The United States has also cut off military assistance to about three dozen countries that so far have refused to sign such an agreement.

Ninety-four countries, including virtually all of Europe and most of the Caribbean, Latin America, and a substantial number of African states, have ratified the Statute.

U.S. officials argue that the ICC threatens U.S. sovereignty, and given Washington’s military dominance and the unique responsibilities for maintaining international peace that go with it, U.S. peacekeepers are particularly vulnerable to politically-inspired prosecutions by the ICC.

When the U.S. demanded that the Security Council exempt its forces from the ICC’s jurisdiction, 120 signatories of the Rome Statute denounced the move, and 72 member-states, including virtually the entire membership of the European Union, Mexico, and Canada, took the floor to explain their opposition.

Even the most faithful can not digest the US move. The UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan also voiced serious concerns about renewing the resolution. Germany, France, and Syria - abstained on last year’s resolution when it came to a vote.

US does not want to take any chance of being brought to the ICC regarding the outraging atrocities on the Iraqi prisoners.

The sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners, male and female, was not an invention of a "bunch of rougue soldiers conducting evil acts", as described by Major General A. Marks. He is the commander of training ground for army interrogators, who claims that such practices were not taught at all. Contrary to his claims, the sexual humiliation was part of a system used by the special forces. But now it is disseminated to ordinary troops and private interrogators too. The technique is called R2I (Resistant to Interrogation). One former British special forces officer who returned from Iraq said that sexual abuse and humiliation of prisoners was the method taught on both sides of Atlantic to "prolong the shock of capture". The highest values of "civilizations" shown in its truest colours!

Since some of the prisoners were released after the exposure of abuse of them inside prison, much more than the photo evidence is coming out.

These testimonies were part of the internal investigations by the Pentagon, done by Major A. Taguba. These testimonies were taken in January 2004 and the Investigation report kept secret, but was later leaked.

These descriptions go beyond the publicized pictures adding allegations of prisoners ridden like animals, sexually fondled by women soldiers and forced retrieval of food from toilets. Some were forced to denounce Islam and forcibly fed pork and liquor.

Mohammed Juma, A detainee of the notorious Abu Gharaib was stripped naked for six days. One day they brought his father and son. They covered them with hoods and removed it after some hours. When the son saw his father naked, the son was crying", Juma told in the testimony. He also said one Charles Garner, a member of the 372nd Military Police Company, often, threw the detainees meal in to the toilet and said "eat it". There are 16 prisons and four belong exclusively to the anti-occupation insurgency. Estimated prisoners even after the release of 240, after this exposure, are above 7000. Apart from this, there are many undesignated cells, beyond the reach of any, attached to the US Bases.

There was outrage all over the world. The demand that Coalition forces had to be withdrawn has increased. On May 5th , relatives inmates of Abu Gharaib prison, around 10000, gathered to demand their release. The editors and news reporters of the US sponsored paper, Al Sabah quit the paper. There was wide spread condemnation in the Arab world and in Muslim countries.

One Abdul Razzaq, 19, who was once a detainee says: "How can we not hate Americans after the treatment we have received?" Al Sadr, the Shia rebel leader said: "What sort of democracy and freedom you can expect when you take such joy in torturingIraqi prisoners?"

Now there are court marshals of junior officials and ordinary soldiers who also would be let off with minor punishments as seen in the first indictment. But never would they touch the superiors in the army. The transparency of Rumsfeld can be seen while giving testimony that he never revealed when questioned who were in the chain of command when the soldiers were interrogating. In fact, the "tougher" interrogation methods in Iraq were approved by Rumsfeld and Undersecretary of Defence Intelligece, Stephen Combone in 2003. Seymour Hersh wrote exposing this in New Yorker in May this year.

The US military just reprimanded 6 senior commissioned and non commissioned officers in connection with the abuse. Rest is quite well. American democracy is kicking and alive.

There was a strong demand for the resignation of Rumsfeld. He must be tried under the War crimes tribunal for violating the International Convention against Torture and the Geneva Convention.

The Iraqi people will punish the imperialists by throwing them lock, stock and barrel out of Iraq. The day is not far off.