New Wikileaks video: US turns a blind eye to torture

Courtesy Glenn Greenwald:

 

America is not only financially bankrupt... but morally too.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/torture-killing-children-shot-ndash-and-how-the-us-tried-to-keep-it-all-quiet-2115112.html#disqus_thread

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Torture, killing, children shot – and how the US tried to keep it all quiet

The largest leak in history reveals the true extent of the bloodshed unleashed by the decision to go to war in Iraq – and adds at least 15,000 to its death toll

Reports by Emily Dugan, Nina Lakhani, David Randall, Victoria Richards and Rachel Shields

Sunday, 24 October 2010

So now we begin to know the full extent of what Tony Blair called the blood price.

A detainee tortured with live electrical wires here, children shot by US troops at a checkpoint there, insurgents using children to carry out suicide bombings somewhere else; on and on, through 391,832 documents. At the Pentagon, these messages were the day-to-day commonplaces of staff inboxes; for Iraqis, they detail, in the emotionless jargon of the US military, nothing less than the hacking open of a nation's veins.

Today, seven and a half years on from the order to invade, the largest leak in history has shown, far more than has been hitherto known, just what was unleashed by that declaration of war. The Iraqi security services tortured hundreds, and the US military watched, noted and emailed, but rarely intervened. A US helicopter gunship crew were ordered to shoot insurgents trying to surrender. A doctor sold al-Qa'ida a list of female patients with learning difficulties so they could be duped into being suicide bombers. A private US company, which made millions of dollars from the outsourcing of security duties, killed civilians. And the Americans, who have always claimed never to count civilian deaths, were in fact secretly logging them. At a conservative estimate, the new documents add at least 15,000 to the war's death toll.

It was yesterday morning when WikiLeaks, the crowd-funded website which achieved worldwide fame for releasing Afghanistan material earlier this year, uploaded nearly 400,000 US military documents. Covering the 2004-09 period, they consist of messages passed from low-level or medium-level operational troops to their superiors and ultimate bosses in the Pentagon. They are marked "Secret", by no means the highest of security classifications.

The Pentagon's response was to say that the leak put the lives of US troops and their military partners in jeopardy, and other official sources dismissed the documents as revealing little that was new. An answer to this came from Iraq Body Count, the British organisation that has monitored civilian deaths since 2003: "These Iraq logs ... contain information on civilian and other casualties that has been kept from public view by the US government for more than six years.... The data on casualties is information about the public (mainly the Iraqi public) that was unjustifiably withheld from both the Iraqi and world public by the US military, apparently with the intent to do so indefinitely."

The Iraq War Logs are US documents, and so detail only a few incidents involving British troops. Two, dated 23 June 2008, record a pair of Shia men who say they were punched and kicked by unidentified British troops. Both men had injuries that were consistent with their stories. There is no record of any formal investigation. Another log, dated 2 September 2008, records that a civilian interrogator working with the Americans claimed British soldiers had dragged him through his house and repeatedly dunked his head into a bowl of water and threatened him with a pistol. The log says his story was undermined by inconsistencies and an absence of injuries.

Here are the main areas where there is fresh, and significant, information:

Civilian death tolls

The Pentagon and the Iraqi health ministry consistently refused to publish a death toll of civilians, even denying such a record existed. "We don't do body counts," said US General Tommy Franks, who directed the Iraq invasion. The Iraq War Logs reveal just how hollow his words were.

Since the beginning of the war, The Independent on Sunday has asserted that the true death toll of civilians in the war was far higher than military officials were suggesting. As early as 2004 the IoS reported that the Pentagon was in fact collecting classified casualty figures and that academics believed the death toll might be as much as 100,000 – or more.

The logs detail 109,032 deaths, some 66,081 of which are civilians. Iraq Body Count said yesterday that an analysis of a sample of 860 of the Iraq War Logs led it to estimate the information in all the logs would add 15,000 extra civilian deaths to its previous total of 107,000. To these should be added military deaths, and IBC's revised total deaths in Iraq would now be around 150,000, 80 per cent of them civilians.

However, some care needs to be taken in using this data. The information in the logs is by no means a comprehensive tally of all deaths.

The death toll of civilians is in stark contrast to President Bush's words in 2003, when he said that new technology meant troops could go out of their way to protect Iraqi civilians. "With new tactics and precision weapons, we can achieve military objectives without directing violence against civilians," he said.

Torture

The leaked documents provide a ground's-eye view of abuses as reported by US military personnel to their superiors, and appear to corroborate much of the past reporting on such incidents. Beatings, burnings and lashings surface in hundreds of the documents, giving the impression that the use of cables, metal rods, wooden poles and live electrical wires to torture detainees was far from rare. Although some abuse cases were investigated by the Americans, most in the archive seem to have been ignored.

Early on, space for detainees was limited, and Iraqis would pack them into makeshift jails. In November 2005, American soldiers found 173 detainees with cigarette burns, sores and broken bones crammed into a police internment centre near Baghdad. The log states: "Many detainees are coughing.... Approx 95 were being held in one room and were sitting cross-legged with blindfolds, all facing the same direction. According to one of the detainees questioned on-site, 12 detainees have died of disease in recent weeks."

In August 2006, a US sergeant in Ramadi heard whipping noises in a military police station and walked in on an Iraqi lieutenant using an electrical cable to slash the bottom of a detainee's feet. He later found the same Iraqi officer whipping a detainee's back. The American provided sworn statements and photographs of "circular whip marks [and] bleeding on back." No investigation was initiated.

But some of the worst examples came later in the war. In one case last December, 12 Iraqi soldiers, including an intelligence officer, were caught on video in Tal Afar shooting to death a prisoner whose hands were tied. In another, US forces found a detainee with two black eyes, a bruised neck and "scabbing on his left ankle". The detainee said he was electrocuted by Iraqi soldiers in Mosul in order to obtain a confession. Iraqi officials stated he was injured after attempting to escape.

Amnesty International condemned the revelations in the documents and questioned whether US authorities had broken international law by handing detainees to Iraqi forces known to be committing abuses "on a truly shocking scale". The UN special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, said there was a duty on the US administration to investigate whether its officials were involved in or complicit in torture.

Al-Qa'ida's use of special needs patients as suicide bombers

A doctor allegedly "sold lists" of patients with special needs to al-Qa'ida so they could be strapped with remote-control explosives and detonated in busy markets in Baghdad. According to the Iraq War Logs, in October 2008 a GP was arrested by US forces on suspicion of passing on the names of 11 female patients to insurgents.

A file stated that the women were "likely used in the 01 February 2008 dual suicide attack on local markets", referring to two women with Down's syndrome who were fooled into wearing explosive vests and blown up in co-ordinated attacks on pet bazaars in central Baghdad. The explosions, which Iraqi officials said were detonated by mobile phone, killed at least 73 people and wounded more than 160.

It wasn't an isolated incident – on 4 April 2008, a "mentally r****ded" teenage boy blew himself up at a funeral in Diyala Province, north-east of Baghdad, killing six and injuring 34. He had, the log suggested, the "facial features of a person with Down's syndrome" and was part of an "ongoing strategy" to recruit individuals with learning difficulties. And, on 28 February 2008, a mentally ill teenage boy was shot and injured by a US patrol while attempting to flee his kidnappers who were intending to use him as a suicide bomber.

An analysis by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism revealed that, on average, 30 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were detonated every day between 2004 and 2009 – with vulnerable children handpicked as pawns for slaughter. A US soldier wrote in March 2007: "A 12- to 14-year-old boy wearing a back pack and on a bicycle rode into the intersection. The patrol passed through the intersection and the boy detonated his explosives targeting the passing vehicles." A year later, in February 2008, the log stated: "S2 [military intelligence] assessment: recent reports indicated... AQI [al-Qa'ida in Iraq] is recruiting young local nationals and also using mentally handicapped persons to target CF [Coalition Forces] within the dragoon OE [operational environment]."

Private contractors

The documents reveal details of the largely unaccountable, and sometimes gung-ho, actions of private security firms. According to a New York Times analysis, the leaked documents "sketch, in vivid detail, a critical change in the way America wages war: the early days of the Iraq war... ushered in the era of the private contractor, wearing no uniform but fighting and dying in battle, gathering and disseminating intelligence and killing presumed insurgents."

Among companies named in the Iraq war logs is a US firm called, of all things, Custer Battles. During the six years covered by the reports, at least 175 private security contractors were killed. Most of the dead were Iraqi drivers, guards and other staff.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism found 14 civilians were shot, of whom 10 were killed by the American security company formerly known as Blackwater. It is alleged that in one-third of the cases, Blackwater guards fired on civilians while guarding US officials. The company has earned more than $1.5bn (£950m) since the 2003 invasion. On 14 May 2005 the logs allege that Blackwater shot a civilian car, reportedly killing the driver and injuring his wife and child. The guards drove on and left the injured woman and child. A year later, on 2 May 2006, Blackwater guards opened fire on an ambulance attending the scene of an IED, killing the civilian ambulance driver.

Blackwater changed its name to Xe Services in 2009 after an incident in 2007 in Nisour Square, Baghdad, in which its security guards were involved in a shooting that killed 14 civilians. After the Nisour massacre the Iraqi government demanded that Blackwater leave the country. Xe Services is still one of the US government's largest security contractors.

Shooting of surrendering men

A US Apache helicopter was ordered to kill two Iraqi insurgents who tried to surrender. The pilots of the helicopter were advised by a military lawyer that the men could not surrender to an aircraft, and thus were still targets.

The gunship launched a Hellfire missile at the truck, but the men fled the vehicle and ran into a nearby shack. The crew received further instructions to kill the men, and succeeded by firing 300 rounds a minute from the Apache's 30mm cannon.

Up to 30 children killed by US soldiers at checkpoints

As many as 30 children died at the hands of US forces at military checkpoints, the Iraq war logs have revealed. Violent "escalation of force" (EOF) incidents as vehicles were slowed down and searched "often" resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians, according to the classified documents.

One entry described how a six-year-old Iraqi was hit as troops fired several rounds with light machine guns. It read: "While crossing the street, patrol had an EOF where patrol fired 3 rounds of M249. One round ricocheted off the concrete hitting a 6yr old LN [local national] 250m down the road. Medical Facility reported that the 6yr old LN died of wounds upon arrival."

Another detailed an incident in June 2005, where US soldiers fired warning shots at the grill of a car from 150m away. When the car finally stopped, seven were dead – including two children – and two were injured, because their parents had told them to lie on the floor of the car for safety. The logs detail the deaths of "significant" numbers of Iraqi civilians, including an unborn child, at checkpoints between 2004 and 2009. Of 834 people killed, 80 per cent were civilians – bringing the total dead to 681.

A photographer embedded with the First Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division in January 2005, in Tal Afar, north-west Iraq, witnessed the deaths of Camille and Hussein Hassan, who were travelling with their six children. Rakan Hassan, 11, was shot in the spine and paralysed – and his family was offered just $7,500 (£4,782) in compensation by the US Army for the loss of the two parents at $2,500 (£1,594) each, and an extra $2,500 (£1,594) for damaging the car (pictured). And on 29 September 2004, a car approaching a checkpoint was fired on by US soldiers and swerved off the road into a canal 1.5km north of Saqlawiyah, near Ramadi. It sank, drowning six people – two women, three children aged between five and eight, and a baby.

Analysis of the logs by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Channel 4's Dispatches showed that, over the six-year period, four times as many civilians were killed in EOF incidents than those listed as insurgents.

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I wonder... how many people still have true respect for America and its ideals....

 

So quiet in this thread.

The irony.

 

Thats because nobody is surprised and its business as usual, but don't worry, I'll do my part by either putting a checkmark next to a R or D next election and pretend everything will fix itself after that.

 

While we can all speculate about these things, you don't think it's significant that the people who handle your healthcare, pension, who enacted the ability to tap your phones freely, etc.. lied to your face and there is real documented evidence of the lies?

It's not significant how relatively little coverage this has gotten?

A few years ago, if someone had made the 'outrageous' claim on this forum that the US is lying and death tolls are higher and that more civilians have been killed than insurgents, don't you think that would have resulted in a massivle flame-war? Imagine ToyCen had said it, do you know how much ridiculing and mockery he would receive for making such a claim?

Do you know how much more outraged people would be if these documents showed or strongly indicated that the 9/11 WTC bombing was partially staged? Even though the death toll is about 30x lower?

I'm not saying these numbers are super-shocking. I'm saying these documents clearly show an intent to deceive the public. I also expected that this would generate at least 10-15x more outrage around the world. It's disheartening for Iraqis. For people who look to US politics and hope to emulate that - they are distraught.

This all occurred to me because this guy comes up to me, and he's a fairly religious Muslim. He wears the Muslim 'garb' as Mr Sanchez so eloquently put it. He basically discussed with me that the difference between US democracy and UAE kingdom is blurring. Tapping telephone llines, blocking things in the supreme court, internal bickering, half the population unhappy, government overspending and irresponsible, torture, human rights abuses, etc and he went on and on. This was especially discouraging to me because I make it a point to discuss politics with everyone just to generate interest where and when I can, so that maybe some of them will gather momentum and change things.

My number one argument, when discussing with Muslims specifically, is that the US constitution, bill of rights, etc and overall political process is the most Islamic one in the world. In theory it's true, and it serves as inspiration for those with whom I discuss it. It's great.

But things like this absolutely demonize people who are on the fence regarding secularism. The mosques are all giving renewed condolences to Iraqis, they are saying they 'dream' of the day Iraq is free from death, etc.

I think the effect of this is severely underrated. Everyone here knows what's going on because we actually meet and see victims, we meet and see people who fled, we meet and see US forces based in the region. But to know that the lying took place with such impunity, is terrible. To know that Americans are more fascinated by the Tea Partiers is even worse. Almost a decade of war, which was launched on a false premise that there were WMD's, murdering more civilians than insurgents, and actually IMO creating more terrorism. Very very very very sad.

 

With all the information coming to surface, I'm starting to wonder if that might happen.

Good, perhaps he will consider his actions and achieve his goal of disseminating this information with a little more responsibility, though like what's happened in the war, much of the damage may be done.

What do you want people to say? Smugly trying to elicit a response after posting an article named "the shaming of America" is somewhat poorly timed if not tactless or even insulting.

I could pick parts of the article you post and point out the ambiguous or disingenuous parts, or discuss and argue the parts of it that point blame at inaction rather than actions, or gloss over the "nothing new here" argument, but in light of all that is the horror or war and a war torn country and in revelation of our less than honorable parts in it, it just seems misplaced. There are not excuses for many of the things coming to light, beyond human shortcomings and that isn't good enough in my book to base a defense of any kind.

I wish it were more surprising on one hand, and thank God on the other it is not. I wish that Wikileaks cared as much about protecting those who could stand to be harmed by their completely open posting of information like this as they do about exposing atrocities... it seems they don't care about the danger they create when exposing such things with no care or concern for anyone involved, American Soldiers, Iraqi or Afghani people, whoever. Perhaps I don't know enough about Wikileaks, why is it they seem intent on "exposing America," or do they do this to everyone? Again, "nothing new here, war is terrible" is no platform to stand on in the face of all this.

And therefore it seemed best to not let such words elicit a response that disrespects all this. That denies any of it. That argues semantics or embellishments. Not against this. I would, were it not such a somber reality, argue that if held to a similar light, it would be hard to find a country engaged in war that would not expose atrocities of both action and apathy. But not now. What others do or do not do should not excuse us from honor.

I could go into my feelings on whether there should have been a war in Iraq. How I felt about the last administration, or how I feel about the current one and the decisions and posturing by both. But it wouldn't help. Not you, not me, or anyone else.

What we can do is realize what has happened, hope impartiality prevails as we (or someone else) evaluate the facts of it, determine what is still happening, and decide what we are going to do about the future. Or we can hang our heads low and let the world continue to kick us as they scratch their way upwards. I'm picking enlightened progress. Others may just pick. Just read the comments on those articles to get a sense of how many seem to be excited about America's downfall or at least another chink in the armor... rather than lamenting any actual atrocity.

 

I'm not asking you to agree or make an executive decision. Not asking you to blame the other party. Not asking for any of these things. Just to show some solidarity with the victims.

I'm asking you to give a damn. If there are inconsistencies in the article, I want to know. It's not like I wrote it. I just thought there were interesting tidbits in there.

I will tell you that I have no sympathy towards anyone involved in the actions. I don't think it's appropriate to discuss the rights of people who allow other people to get electrocuted, for example. Obviously, not everyone was a part of the problem, and some even tried to alert higher command. I don't care where they are from though.

Anyways.

 

a lot of generality and assumption in here... and a bit of righteousness for some reason. Of course people who look to US politics are distraught... we all are ... and of course it is all significant. Underrated? I don't know, I think the dialog is just beginning on this, so perhaps it's too soon to judge, though to be fair, none of these things are things that have not been brought up/asked/accused before.... this is just specific. Details. Dare I say facts? We are still reeling in the new light, your accusation of apathy and misplaced priorities is perhaps premature at least, and disingenuous at worst.

I've seen you reference the tolls and comparing them to 9/11 a couple of times now. i don't really see how it's a contest, and bringing that up isn't really helping anything. Detaching it when people use it as reasoning for war then using it when trying to compare atrocities isn't constructive in my opinion.

As for all our shortcomings and the state of our government / nation... well, perhaps that's why people are all concerned about TeaParties etc. I mean, that is part of the political landscape right now, and who we elect here is as much a concern as it's ever been in my lifetime.

You think, what, we're all happy about the war and don't care about the victims of it? Aren't concerned enough about what's coming to light? I guess I don't like your (lack of) criteria for deciding this doesn't bother us enough.

Again, what makes you think we don't? As for the article, you're a smart guy... I think we can see what in that article constitutes generality and fact. There are interesting tidbits, as well as some scathing that looks to be stirring the pot more than enlightening.

I agree.






Lastly, I'm sure you've said it, and I'm not looking to paint you into a corner or make judgements for it, but where are you from again?

 

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree here. There are certainly a lot of people against the war on Iraq, but IMO not enough people against it for reasons other than money or hatred of republicans.

I'm using 9/11 as a comparison to gauge the level of outrage.

I'm from Dubai, and originally Arab/Iranian/Turkish. Do you mind me asking why you're asking?

 

I agree, apparently the lives of Americans are much more important than the lives of the Iraqi. But we already knew that.

 

ive been talking about it for 4 or 5 years now and there was no flame war - it was more the sound of crickets chirping. ive also been talking about the bush administrations role in torture and the fact that u.s. soldiers and private contractors committed acts of rape and murder for years. ive talked about the need for key members of the bush administration to be held accountable for their crimes. people generally ignore such topics though.

the thing w/ these new leaks is that it focuses on things iraqis were doing to other iraqis - but we have known for years now that we were doing the same and much, much worse. when our own military and the red cross put out reports about 4 years ago talking about u.s. interrogators murdering, raping and sodomizing detainees w/ broomsticks dipped in battery acid and sexual torture of children, well...none of this new info is really quite as shocking. we know our military ignored abuses that their own were committing so why wouldnt they ignore abuses by iraqi military.

 

there's nothing to debate. what do you want random "i'm outraged" posts. look we all know what point you're trying to make, but you're barking up the wrong tree.

 

I think the Iraq dialog has plateaued unless some cute blond journalist or servicewoman gets kidnapped. Maybe then, the extra coverage will force more chatter and focus on the region.

That wikileak of civilians being gunned down arcade style didn't receive much facebook buzz either....

We want cluster**** out of sight. Out of mind.

 

To follow up on Crazy Dave's posts (which are not crazy at all) and other posters. We have been debating the issues you talk about for years so this isn't something that has suddenly blindsided us and we are being quiet because we have no sympathy.

I can't speak for everyone but I am sure the majority of posters here do feel very bad for the Iraqis and even many of the posters who initially supported the war have over the years changed their mind when they realized how poorly planned and how much of a disaster it was becoming.

 

I guess we will. I'm starting to think you don't have quite the grip on how our entire country feels about all this that you think you might, while we're disagreeing. I suspect that's true of everyone when trying to gauge perception and feelings of a nation you aren't part of, to a large extent. Especially in the face of such a quagmire of issues.

Gauging outrage... I think it's misplaced and not useful in comparison or progressive.

Do I mind? Not at all, only because reading your posts often makes me wonder, and this time I just thought I'd just ask. I'm from Texas, Arkansas originally, once upon a time via Scottish descent.

 

I guess there could be a difference between what I read and what is the real sentiment. Who knows.

Obviously, gauging outrage will never be a perfect exercise, but in one way or another we all have our ways of doing this. Some kind of comparison point will always exist, though some are better than others.

 

I know the issues have been discussed ad-nauseum, I was specifically referring to the "smoking gun" factor of finding these documents.

I'm sure there are new and exciting things going on in politics everyday, and maybe on some level I'm a bit distraught because I think this would be very different if these documents were released showing that the Iraqi government watched while rogue American soldiers murdered and tortured American troops. As in, American deaths are more important than Iraqi deaths. I'm not saying it's necessarily true, but I wish it were more clear to me from everything I read that it is in fact true.

Anyways, I hope you're right.

 

Meghan McCain makes her case for the Dumbass-Of-The-Month award.

Oh, and although it's now old news it's interesting to note that the CIA got off scott free for destroying evidence of torture but wikileaks is on the hotseat for exposing it.

 

Many of us have called for the prosecution of former administration officials as war criminals long before these revelations.

Not out of some misguided political vendetta, but based upon the very things these wikileaks now confirm.