The world witnessed some of Army Pfc. Lynndie England’s mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib via those infamous photographs, so there was real relief in seeing her convicted Monday on six counts. Similarly, it’s good that two other guards were convicted and six more pleaded guilty. But who believes that no officers or military intelligence higher-ups were involved in this abuse? Where is the accountability?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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Do you think that military officers and gentlemen or gentlewomen would condone such actions? Duh, It is CYA time in the upper echelons.
The torture techniques used in Abu Ghraib prison were developed in the infamous “facility 1391″ in Israel.
This article { in part } appeared in the Guardian: Facility 1391: Israel’s secret prison
It has been removed from maps and airbrushed from aerial photographs. But Facility 1391 certainly exists – you just have to ask the Palestinians and Lebanese who have been imprisoned and tortured there. Chris McGreal reports
Friday November 14, 2003The Guardian
The men under the black hoods all have the same question once the blindfolds and manacles are off: Where am I? A voice filtering through a narrow slit in the steel door told Sameer Jadala he was “in Honolulu”, Raab Bader that he was “in a submarine” and “outside the borders of Israel”, Bashar Jadala that he was “on the moon”. None of them imagined it at the time, because only a handful of the political and security establishment knew such a thing existed, but they were prisoners in Israel’s Guantanamo: Facility 1391.
“I was barefoot in my pyjamas when they arrested me and it was really cold,” says Sameer Jadala, a Palestinian school bus driver. “When I got to that place, they told me to strip and gave me a blue uniform. Then they gave me a black sack. They told me: ‘This is your sack. You need to keep it with you. Any time someone comes to your cell, you must put it on your head. Any time they deliver the food, you must put it on your head. You must never see the soldiers’ faces. You do not want to know what will happen if you take it off.’ Sometimes I thought I would die in that place and no one would ever know.”Facility 1391 has been airbrushed from Israeli aerial photographs and purged from modern maps. Where once a police station was marked there is now a blank space. Sometimes even the road leading to it has been erased. But Israel’s secret prison, inside an army intelligence base close to the main road between Hadera and Afula in northern Israel, is real enough. For 20 years or more it has been housed in a large, imposing, single-storey building designed by a British engineer, Sir Charles Taggart, during the 1930s as one of a series of garrison forts designed to contain growing unrest in Palestine. Today, the thick concrete walls and iron gates are themselves protected by a double fence overseen by watchtowers and patrolled by attack dogs.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1084736,00.html
The Bush White House, the CIA, Rumsfeld and the Pentagon are all aware of where the torture techniques used in Abu Ghraib prison came from and approved their use.
Us taxpayer money was used to buy the equipment.
The lowest soldier is now taking the fall.
As usual, the enlisted ranks are taking it in the shorts – or in England’s case, panties – while Rummy and generals and colonels on down aren’t even touched. Sure gets tiring to see the big shots cover each other’s backsides.
Didn’t the Judge in Lynndie’s first hearing delay her trial because he did not think she understood the ramifications of her plea? Someone as smart as Lynndie could easily think up all kinds of torture techniques — she wouldn’t need anyone higher telling her what to do – no way!
Steven, so you want to sell the idea that she dreamed-up all this torture and acted on her own?
Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound?
If you want to protect the Israelis, you need a better plan.
***USATODAY.com Breaking News***WASHINGTON – A Texas grand jury on Wednesday charged Rep. Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, an indictment that could force him to step down as House majority leader.For more on this story, go to http://www.usatoday.com.
Being an Officer means never having to say your sorry.
Ed,Could you put all your ruminations about zionist plots in a book and get it published? It would be so much easier to ignore it at Borders!
NEWSFLASH!!! Ed,
Some of us resort to sarcasm, satire, cynicism, i.e., HUMOR (sorry I don’t know how to underline that) to make our points!!!
I’m not convinced that Lynddie is smart enough to get out of her pants, which makes me wonder how she got pregnant.
However, I should say that I regret you discovering my mission to protect Israel. (Just joking again, Ed . . .; I can’t help it – I find that I require less hypertension medication when I joke more – you should try it.)
Steven,
Act anyway you like. Around the world I’m loved and hated and everything in-between. Goes with the turf.
Here’s a taste from right here, which is pretty good. Go man, go! It Rocks!
Ed Hitler,How such a degenerate, such as yourself, can even think about spewing out the kind of garbage you do is beyond me. Everything you think, write and speak is diarrhea from your non existant brain.
“They will all hang.” Who’s going to hang us, you? You don’t have the intelligence to tie a knot, let alone even figure out what to use. You are a perfect example of post-birth-abortion. Your mama should have flushed you down the toilet with the condom some drunk used that leaked and sprung you from the depths of hate. You dont belong in the human race; you belong sleeping with the dogs, you punk-assed bitch. You think child-porn because your not man enough to think any other way. All hail Ed, the dog-boy with no brain.
Posted by: J M Walker | September 26, 2005 at 06:40 PM
Now, that’s not as bad as it gets, but here it needs to be “PG”
Steven
Check this out.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=17§ion=21&d=29&m=9&y=2005&mode=dynamic§ionlist=no&pix=interact.jpg&category=Interact
Ed,I am sorry anybody would send anyone something like the email you shared. I think that such reflects more on the person sending such crap, than on the person who receives it. I don’t think anybody deserves to be treated like that.
I did want to tell you about where you and I part company on your Israel position. I am pretty sure I can do that without calling you names, etc.
I honestly don’t know much about Israel and I could not tell you how a Zionist and Israeli differed. I keep up with the treachery in Kansas and frankly that keeps me busy enough.
Though you have not said it directly, it seems to me that your position is that Al Qaeda attacked us due to our support of Israel – bin Laden says as much himself. Your position seems to at least imply that because we supported a corrupt/murderous regime in Israel that we deserved to be attacked on 9/11. Bin Laden and crew murdered nearly 3,000 innocent civilians and there is no valid justification, in any way, for such an action. I disagree with anyone who even implies that such an action could be defensible – it is not.
Ed the truth is we support financially and politically some very unpretty characters throughout the world. The Saudis come to mind right away. I cannot see how our support of these folks justifies the murder of our innocent civilians. I categorically reject such a position. Period.
Another way that you see things differently than I do involves your apparent sense that Israel controls American politics. I see this in exactly the opposite way. I recalled Sharon saying after our 9/11 posturing that Israel had a right to proactively remove terrorist threats. It was almost a line-for-line copy of America’s Bush Doctrine. It reminded me of the little brother (Israel) imitating the big brother’s (America) bad-ass ways. I see our sometimes bad example influencing Israel, rather than them controlling us.
These we would be the main points of our differences. You may think I am deluded and if you are correct in your assessment of Israel and the Arabs – I just may be. I counting on my belief that I am correct. I would elaborate futher, but “Lost” is on and nobody gets that time from me. Sorry.
Thank you and I apologize for being a wise-ass.Steven E.
Steven E.
Thank you. you’ve offered your thoughtful opinion in a rational manner. Althogh I disagree, I sure many readers will support your position on this important issue. Free speech can be a powerful tool in changing minds.
My Best, Ed Friedemann
We need to stop this Israeli driven expansion and stop bringing our soldiers home in coffins or with limbs blown-off. That number of dead and maimed has reached over 22,000 and increases daily.
Bush gave Ariel Sharon an old map of “Greater Israel” which stretches all the way from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates River in Iraq.
Bush is trying to help Sharon with that expansion and that is why we are in Iraq now. The evangelicals are on board because their religious beliefs are being exploited. Other Christian Churches are divesting investments out of Israel because they know what the secular Zionists are up to.
There was no legitimate reason to pull troops out of Afghanistan without first securing that country and diverting them into Iraq. That’s why all those manufactured lies were bandied about. Establishing a permanent presence in Iraq for Israeli expansion is why we are there. None of the other phony reasons given are true. I think that all of you know that.
Establishing a Greater Israel will cost the United States trillion in taxpayer money and monies borrowed against out Treasury. That will bankrupt this nation. Is that something Americans will knowingly want to do? Of course not and that’s why it’s shrouded in secrecy.
Israel has cost the United States 1.7 trillion dollars since 1973.
On Channel 3 in Israel, Bush threatened to use tactical nuclear weapons against Iran and because Iran supplies 60% of the world oil, the price of crude spiked to over $70 dollars a barrel.
Pakistan threatened to come to Irans’ aid and the price of crude oil dropped somewhat. This is a very dangerous game Bush is playing, by allowing Israel to push him into it.
Bush tells the American People one thing and tells the Israelis another.
The time has come to stop this charade and let the truth be known.
This so-called war in Iraq needs to stop now.
Steven: You might find this helpful.
Whose War?
A neoconservative clique seeks to ensnare our country in a series of wars that are not in America’s interest.
by Patrick J. Buchanan
The War Party may have gotten its war. But it has also gotten something it did not bargain for. Its membership lists and associations have been exposed and its motives challenged. In a rare moment in U.S. journalism, Tim Russert put this question directly to Richard Perle: “Can you assure American viewers … that we’re in this situation against Saddam Hussein and his removal for American security interests? And what would be the link in terms of Israel?”
Suddenly, the Israeli connection is on the table, and the War Party is not amused. Finding themselves in an unanticipated firefight, our neoconservative friends are doing what comes naturally, seeking student deferments from political combat by claiming the status of a persecuted minority group. People who claim to be writing the foreign policy of the world superpower, one would think, would be a little more manly in the schoolyard of politics. Not so.
Former Wall Street Journal editor Max Boot kicked off the campaign. When these “Buchananites toss around ‘neoconservative’—and cite names like Wolfowitz and Cohen—it sometimes sounds as if what they really mean is ‘Jewish conservative.’” Yet Boot readily concedes that a passionate attachment to Israel is a “key tenet of neoconservatism.” He also claims that the National Security Strategy of President Bush “sounds as if it could have come straight out from the pages of Commentary magazine, the neocon bible.” (For the uninitiated, Commentary, the bible in which Boot seeks divine guidance, is the monthly of the American Jewish Committee.)
David Brooks of the Weekly Standard wails that attacks based on the Israel tie have put him through personal hell: “Now I get a steady stream of anti-Semitic screeds in my e-mail, my voicemail and in my mailbox. … Anti-Semitism is alive and thriving. It’s just that its epicenter is no longer on the Buchananite Right, but on the peace-movement left.”
Washington Post columnist Robert Kagan endures his own purgatory abroad: “In London … one finds Britain’s finest minds propounding, in sophisticated language and melodious Oxbridge accents, the conspiracy theories of Pat Buchanan concerning the ‘neoconservative’ (read: Jewish) hijacking of American foreign policy.”
Lawrence Kaplan of the New Republic charges that our little magazine “has been transformed into a forum for those who contend that President Bush has become a client of … Ariel Sharon and the ‘neoconservative war party.’”
http://www.amconmag.com/03_24_03/cover.html
Steven: More from by Patrick J. Buchanan
Beating the War Drums
When the Cold War ended, these neoconservatives began casting about for a new crusade to give meaning to their lives. On Sept. 11, their time came. They seized on that horrific atrocity to steer America’s rage into all-out war to destroy their despised enemies, the Arab and Islamic “rogue states” that have resisted U.S. hegemony and loathe Israel.
The War Party’s plan, however, had been in preparation far in advance of 9/11. And when President Bush, after defeating the Taliban, was looking for a new front in the war on terror, they put their precooked meal in front of him. Bush dug into it.
Before introducing the script-writers of America’s future wars, consider the rapid and synchronized reaction of the neocons to what happened after that fateful day.
On Sept. 12, Americans were still in shock when Bill Bennett told CNN that we were in “a struggle between good and evil,” that the Congress must declare war on “militant Islam,” and that “overwhelming force” must be used. Bennett cited Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and China as targets for attack. Not, however, Afghanistan, the sanctuary of Osama’s terrorists. How did Bennett know which nations must be smashed before he had any idea who attacked us?
The Wall Street Journal immediately offered up a specific target list, calling for U.S. air strikes on “terrorist camps in Syria, Sudan, Libya, and Algeria, and perhaps even in parts of Egypt.” Yet, not one of Bennett’s six countries, nor one of these five, had anything to do with 9/11.
On Sept. 15, according to Bob Woodward’s Bush at War, “Paul Wolfowitz put forth military arguments to justify a U.S. attack on Iraq rather than Afghanistan.” Why Iraq? Because, Wolfowitz argued in the War Cabinet, while “attacking Afghanistan would be uncertain … Iraq was a brittle oppressive regime that might break easily. It was doable.”
On Sept. 20, forty neoconservatives sent an open letter to the White House instructing President Bush on how the war on terror must be conducted. Signed by Bennett, Podhoretz, Kirkpatrick, Perle, Kristol, and Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, the letter was an ultimatum. To retain the signers’ support, the president was told, he must target Hezbollah for destruction, retaliate against Syria and Iran if they refuse to sever ties to Hezbollah, and overthrow Saddam. Any failure to attack Iraq, the signers warned Bush, “will constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender in the war on international terrorism.”
Here was a cabal of intellectuals telling the Commander-in-Chief, nine days after an attack on America, that if he did not follow their war plans, he would be charged with surrendering to terror. Yet, Hezbollah had nothing to do with 9/11. What had Hezbollah done? Hezbollah had humiliated Israel by driving its army out of Lebanon.
President Bush had been warned. He was to exploit the attack of 9/11 to launch a series of wars on Arab regimes, none of which had attacked us. All, however, were enemies of Israel. “Bibi” Netanyahu, the former Prime Minister of Israel, like some latter-day Citizen Genet, was ubiquitous on American television, calling for us to crush the “Empire of Terror.” The “Empire,” it turns out, consisted of Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Iraq, and “the Palestinian enclave.”
Talking to active military people, they all told me the same thing:Anyone above the rank of Captain is never accountable for anything.Or at least very rarely.
Gasoline prices are high because Zionist Israel is threatening to nuke Iran.
Iran supplies 60% of the world’s oil. We have to rid ourselves of Zionist Israel or get Bush to shut them down. 3 dollar Jew-gas is wrecking our economy. The rich don’t care but working people { those who are still working } need to have a president who puts Americans and their interests first. Not the greed of Isael.