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| Iraq |
| Coalition Troops Are Accused of Torture |
| 2003-05-16 |
| EFL It was only a matter of time... Amnesty International is investigating claims that British and American troops tortured prisoners of war in Iraq with night-long beatings and, in at least one case, electric shocks, the group said Friday. The human rights organization gathered statements from 20 former detainees who said they had been kicked and beaten by soldiers while being interrogated, Amnesty researcher Said Boumedouha told a news conference in London. One Saudi Arabian national claimed he was tortured with electric shocks, Boumedouha said. There I was, just enjoying the great beaches around Basra, when these nasty British soldiers came along... When asked if his use of the word "torture" accurately described the alleged treatment, Boumedouha responded: "If you keep beating somebody for the whole night and somebody is bleeding and you are breaking teeth, it is more than beating. I think that is torture." It'd take a platoon working in relays to keep beating one guy all night. I must have missed those special torture brigades we sent over. The Saudi who said he was given electric shocks told Amnesty he had entered Iraq from Syria to volunteer for the Iraqi Red Cross Society, according to the Boumedouha. There. That explains it all. He was just there out of a sense of Muslim charity. Boumedouha said the group planned to present its findings to British and U.S. authorities. And the Internation Criminal Court as well as the Belgian ones too! "We still have people on the ground in Iraq and we will continue to gain testimonies," Boumedouha said. "Once that is complete we hope to provide a full dossier to present to the British and American authorities as well as publishing ourselves." What a pity you all couldn't have done the same while Saddam was actually in power. Oh wait. That would have meant putting your lives in danger like the men and women who just liberated Iraq. But we can't risk the necks of elite folk like you, no doubt educated in America's and Europe's best universities. Good thing you waited until the blue collar blokes in the military cleared the way. |
| Posted by:11A5S |
| #6 Two quick points: since there is no iraqie red cross (there is a red crescent) he must have joined something else. Second and related, he cannot be a civilian and be a prisoner of war. Maybe he was one of the red cresent members who were shooting machine guns out of ambulances. |
| Posted by: Timmy the Wonder Dog 2003-05-16 16:19:56 |
| #5 While this does need to be investigated, I do smell a rat here. Especially Mr. I-came-to-Iraq-to-help-the-Red-Crescent, that is too pat by a long margin, and seems tailor made for the Anti-American Arab press. I think we may be seeing the beginnings of the US troops getting the "Israeli" treatment. Lots of our enemy's want to de-legitimize the US-Coalition victory and turn Iraq into a Lebanon. I agree with Ralph Peters and others who argue we need more ground troops in place to ensure order and deal with the thugs still running around Iraq. Ditto for Afganistan too I am afraid. We have got to see these nascent democracys thru to their standing on their own two feet else all the dead will have died for naught and we will have a bigger mess internationally on our hands. I wish I knew if the American people have been paying attention and realize the anti-terrorism war is a long haul operation across the globe. As I have said in other comment areas we are experiencing the Chinese curse of living in interesting times. It is looking more and more like Strass & Howes' ("Generations" and "The Fourth Turning") theory of generation driven cycles, or turnings, of history is correct and we are in or entering the "Fourth Turning", the Crisis period. The last one was the Depression and WW II years... |
| Posted by: Rifle308 2003-05-16 16:05:32 |
| #4 Doesn't anyone ever wonder why we only torture poorly educated Jihadists? We captured Cubans in Grenada, no torture. We capture Panamanians, no torture. We captured Serbs in Kosovo, no torture. All of a sudden we capture Islamists and we go crazy with marathon torture sessions? Am I the only one who thinks this is fishy? |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2003-05-16 16:00:20 |
| #3 I don't have a problem with torturing these guys if the point was to get information. Somehow, I doubt there would have been any point to beating a bunch of clueless jihadis on a journey to find Islam (or paradise). I can understand torture if these guys had just killed an American soldier by using the white flag trick. But the resolution to that should have been summary execution, not torture. Even if torture was involved, the loop should have been closed, with a bullet to the head. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2003-05-16 15:05:53 |
| #2 I didn't see anything in here about ignoring the zoo animals, but PETA will probably have that in their after-action report. The story does state that these people were supposedly hooded and blindfolded when this all allegedly took place and Kuwaiti interpeters were present. So: A. How can you tell who's beating on you when you're blindfolded? B. How do you know it wasn't the Kuwaitis? Or are they too small potatoes for Amnesia International? Not as much ink if they're Kuwaitis, instead of Americans or Brits. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-05-16 14:39:25 |
| #1 A Saudia Arabian national, hmmmm? They're like cockroaches, everywhere there's a human garbage pile. |
| Posted by: Chuck 2003-05-16 14:30:50 |