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The Bogus Torture Coverup
A senior military officer familiar with the photos told me that they would likely provoke a storm of outrage if released. The well-informed source confirmed, just as reported in the Telegraph, that many of the photographs are sexually explicit, including those mentioned above. The photographs differ from those already officially released. Some show U.S. personnel engaged in sexual acts with prisoners and each other. In one, a female prisoner appears to have been forced to expose her breasts to be photographed. In another, a prisoner is suspended naked upside down from the top bunk of a bed in a stress position.
The Telegraph article quoted retired Major General Antonio Taguba, who directed the official inquiry in 2004 into the abuses at Abu Ghraib. Taguba told the Telegraph that the “pictures show torture, abuse, rape, and every indecency.” The Telegraph reported: “At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee. Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire, and a phosphorescent tube. Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.”
In response to the Telegraph account, Bryan G. Whitman, a deputy assistant secretary of Defense, attacked the newspaper. “That news organization has completely mischaracterized the images," he said. “None of the photos in question depict the images that are described in that article.” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, later in the day, widened the assault to a general one against British journalism. “If I wanted to read a writeup today of how Manchester United fared last night in the Champions League Cup, I might open up a British newspaper,” Gibbs said. “If I was looking for something that bordered on truthful news, I'm not entirely sure it'd be in the first pack of clips I'd pick up.”
The photographs differ from those already officially released. Some show U.S. personnel engaged in sexual acts with prisoners and each other. In one, a female prisoner appears to have been forced to expose her breasts to be photographed.
In one withheld photograph, not previously described, Specialist Charles A. Graner, Jr., an Abu Ghraib guard, is shown suturing the face of a prisoner, a reliable source tells The Daily Beast. The suturing appeared to serve no ostensible medical purpose than perhaps Graner’s attempts to humiliate or terrorize the prisoner, the source suggested. Graner was court-martialed and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment in 2005 for charges that included prisoner abuse. A number of the withheld photographs, according to reliable sources, show Graner engaged in sexual acts with Specialist Lynndie A. England, another soldier assigned to duty at Abu Ghraib. She appears in some of the most notorious photographs disclosed so far, including one in which she walked a detainee on a leash—enacting a regimen later revealed as an authorized technique known as “walking the dog.”
Other suppressed photographs show a female prisoner assuming sexually suggestive poses in a chair, while a prison guard appears behind her in some frames. In another series, prisoners are shown hooded in a transport with open copies of pornographic magazines in their laps.
Still other withheld photographs have been circulating among U.S. soldiers who served in Iraq. One soldier showed them to me, including a photograph in which a male in a U.S. military uniform receives oral sex from a female prisoner.
The Obama administration’s decision to challenge the Telegraph account presents a dilemma because many of the photographs have already been leaked, and they match the very images that Taguba described and which Pentagon spokesman Whitman denied. The already leaked photographs can be seen at the Web sites of Salon.com, the Sydney Morning Herald of Australia, the Australian Broacasting Corp. Dateline program, and the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
The suppressed photographs and videos are the subject of a Freedom of Information Act litigation brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU prevailed against government claims of secrecy both in the federal district court and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. (Full disclosure: I supplied a legal expert’s opinion on the Geneva Conventions, which was cited by both courts in reaching their conclusions.) Yesterday, the Justice Department filed papers asking the court to reconsider its decision directing that the photographs be made public. In its papers, the Justice Department suggested it would seek to have the matter reviewed in the Supreme Court if its motion were to be denied.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Amateur Hour at the White House
Leslie H. Gelb, a former New York Times columnist and senior government official, is author of Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy (HarperCollins 2009), a book that shows how to think about and use power in the 21st century. He is president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Going Rogue: The Index
Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.
Sonia Scores a KO
Scott Horton is a law professor and writer on legal and national security affairs for Harper's Magazine and The American Lawyer, among other publications.
Torture Prosecution Turnaround?
Scott Horton is a law professor and writer on legal and national security affairs for Harper's Magazine and The American Lawyer, among other publications.
Where Iran's Regime Learned Its Tricks
Scott Horton is a law professor and writer on legal and national security affairs for Harper's Magazine and The American Lawyer, among other publications.
Sickening...sad and sickening...this information must be confirmed one way or the other. This perverse dribbling of information is as degrading and damaging as it would be to release the photos and deal with it.
The people behind the abuse are fascists.
Can we not call them fascists? I assume you mean to liken them to the Nazi's in WWII - in which case you should use the word "Nazis". Fascism is a political ideology where you put the state above your individuality, where the state has the most importance. Italy was the first Fascist state in WWII, and while they were on the losing side, they weren't as bad as the Nazis. While I agree that the torturers are disgusting and horrible, I wouldn't call them Fascists.
[sorry... history nut.]
You mean Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld. Releasing the photos will have the effect of discrediting Cheney and his vile daughter at a time when they are promoting "enhanced interrogation". Won't do much in the battle for the hearts and minds of Muslims, though.
Abu Ghraib abuse photos 'show rape'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5395830/Abu-G hraib-abuse-photos-show-rape.html
Hersh: Children sodomized at Abu Ghraib, on tape
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2004/07/15/hersh/index.html?sourc e=refresh
Sy Hersh : Children Sodomized at Abu Ghraib as Mothers Watched
http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/sy-hersh-children-sodomized-at-ab u.html
Scahill reports US tortures detainees with germ warfare and gasoline enemas. Semper Fi?
http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/5297
from AsianAfricanAMERICAN comment
already released. WARNING: VERY VERY graphic pictures, you have been warned.
http://www.aztlan.net/iraqi_women_raped.htm
The iraqi_women_raped pic might be a fake.
Fake Rape Photos Re-Emerge Again To Discredit Real Torture Scandal
29 May 2009 ... Paul Joseph Watson | Staged images proven to be lifted from amateur porn websites five years ago poison the well and distract from ...
www.infowars.com/fake-rape-photos-re-emerge-again-to-discredit-real-tort ure-scandal/
[Calling Americans "barbaric wild beasts" who are "born in brothels," likely Arab propagandists have sent a group of "rape" photographs - including some WND uncovered as fake images taken from a pornographic website - to an Australian TV program.
Staff of the program, called "Media Watch," contacted WND yesterday to get help identifying the photos, which the senders claim depict U.S. servicemen raping Iraqi women. WorldNetDaily was able to confirm that all eight "rape" photos were taken from the same pornographic site previously identified, "Sex In War." The site contains thousands of photographs in addition to video. ] excerpted from http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38566
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Terrorists can't be raped and sodomized enough for me, as long as my life goes on blissfully.
Keep telling yourself that when you go to church every Sunday. Christian forgiveness, indeed.
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Re: lovelylife's comments about fascism. You are correct in your definition, though incomplete. You omitted mention of the fascist alignment with a corporatist segmentation of society.
Yes, I totally agree. The 95 percent or more of American soldiers whose only stain is they are defending us from pitiless terrorists should be subjected to revenge for the acts committed by a foul handful who have already been punished. Publishing the photos will serve that purpose. And I think we should spit on the soldiers and call them baby killers when they come home. It was good enough for the Vietnam vets; why not this lot? The moral preening of the left can turn even a cast iron stomach.
What did Iraqis did to us Banjo1 to be raped/abuse/tortured?
You're sick.
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This stuff is all over the Internet, to the point it's difficult to tell which photos are real and which are fabrications. (I have Photoshop; you can make anything look like anything.) Al Qaida's going to use it no matter what; Obama's got to come clean and say, "It happened. It won't happen, again." (BTW, Sastro3 [below] says that "the abusers have...been arrested." Not so sure about that. Would like to hear more on who's been held accountable.)
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At this point I don't think more damage could be done. The idea that these photos exist are enough to fuel more outrage and put our troops in danger. Imagining what these photos look like is just as bad the reality and is providing enough ammunition for more hatred as it is... maybe we should just release them and get it over with. Publish them, acknowledge that it was horrific and deal with it.
Come on Daily Beast
We're grown-ups.
Stop the censorship already.
Banjo1 never said the Iraqis deserved to be raped, abused, or tortured. He said that those carrying out those acts are a small minority of U.S. troops who have already been punished. Even if he's wrong about all of the guilty ones being punished, he is right about the majority being innocent. And as such we should not be giving the Islamofascists propaganda that they will use to justify killing more American troops or civilians. (Not that we can stop
them from fabricating photos).
Just so you know, I stopped supporting the Iraq war when I found out the WMDs were a myth. I would like to see the U.S. leave as soon as it's possible to do so without making the situation worse. But in the mean time I don't want to make the job harder for our protectors who had nothing to do with the politics of the war. Also, even if we did pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan, the threat of Islamic fanatic terrorism would not go away. I don't support the PATRIOT Act, or other overzealous "security" measures but that doesn't mean that we should help the terrorists.
Yes.. Do tell us, Banjo1, what sexual molestation has to do with obtaining vital information that can help us?
Nothing. POW! The straw man lies all in a heap. Gimme another to knock down! I'm fit as a fiddle and feelin' strong.
Rut-roh.
Banjo's started up
The meth lab in the
Shed again.
Ritarita,
Now
that
is
funny!
More likely
Banjo's makin' moonshine
still he shouldn't drink
and type.
lol @ banjo
What percentage of the Iraqi people do you reckon were "pitiless terrorists"? Give us a number......50% 30%? Share your wisdom with us banjo......
Oh yea, NONE of the Iraqis were connected the 9/11 attacks, that's right. You have no argument for the treatment these people received, yet you continue to defend what the US did and is still doing to Iraq.
You need to be reminded over and over and over that WE invaded THEIR country based on false information spread by the Bush administration. Even if it was thought to be true at the time, for God's sake, we should have stopped when we found out. Stopped when it was shown that Iraq had NO connection to 9/11. Stopped when the allegations first came out that we were abusing these people in prison.
And now, when responsible journalists are reporting about what is involved in the remaining pictures, you continue to defend them and say that somehow we and our soldiers will be harmed by these images. In your defense however, you do pull out the Viet Nam Vets card, even though it's 35 years old. Is this your idea of how America works?
They hate banjo's freedom
I think I understand your point: War is bad. Bush Lied People Died. US Go Home. Hey, hey, LBJ . . . etc.
The problem with this kind of soft-headed 60s poster-on-the-wall sloganeering is it is not worthy of a second glance let alone an argument.
If you pay attention to what Banjo1 was saying, it was not that the acts were justified, but that nothing is gained and much is lost by releasing the photographs. It is clear what is lost by showing the pictures: stoking worldwide outrage against the US. What do you think is gained?
OK.....
GM2009
If you equate freedom with stupidity, then yes, I hate it.
banjo
I'm a lifelong Republican. Your casual dismissal of an argument you can't win is indicative of your rationale and your IQ. For someone who recalls the 60s and uses the terminology, you must be past 50 years old, but you argue and debate like a 6 year old. I know, I have one. He makes more sense than you.
pulmanomancer
I've been paying attention to, for a while, the shit that banjo has been spewing. He attempts to justify everything that we did in the misguided foreign policy of the previous eight years as righteous and correct. Do you really think that the truth about our actions will outrage anyone MORE than our past behavior already has?
If you paid attention to what I've been saying, then you'd know that what is gained is respect; both from within and abroad. The rest of the world now has access to knowledge as to everything that happens. Continuing to lie, to hide, and to spin is just stupid. The pictures are already out, and what our government denies happened has already been proven to indeed be true.
Also to be gained is trust. Trust in our leaders and our way of life. The way of life that says we are different and better than those that do these things to other people that are under their control. Trust that when we make mistakes, we man up and say, "We made a mistake. We were wrong. We will work to better ourselves and try not to make these mistakes again."
Also to be gained is bravery. Torture, in my opinion, comes from a deep fear of the unknown. From a place so petrified and frozen with fear that we use any means possible to avoid what it is we're afraid of.
Are we a country that is strong, or weak? Strong enough to say to the rest of the world, especially those that use terror, that we will fight to the last citizen to rebuff your advances, but we will not , NOT cross that line that separates us from you? Think about it; are you willing to become them to stop them?
Freedom is not free.
@pulmanomancer: It is obvious what is gained by releasing the photos. Releasing them will outrage the public to the point where the military will take steps to ensure this never happens again. If you bury them, the military has no incentive to put such safeguards in place. It's rather well-established that letting criminals get away with crime encourages them to offend again. (It's disheartening that I even had to explain this, given how basic it is....)
There is only black and white in torture-defending right-wing universe. Ever heard of the concept known as justice?
"A foul handful' are not responsible for a thousand or more photographs! And if a few bad apples are convicted, good. Let's go after the rest and their commanders. Maybe in my lifetime the credibility of our country will be returned. Withholding these photos is just making Obama look like the tool he very probably is. Indeed the collective imagination of the world will probably do us more damage than acknowledging and punishing ALL of the parties could begin to do. Let's start at the top instead of the bottom. And then get our asses back where we belong- at home. And not doing video-remote war either. I wonder if the suicide rate for those 'soldiers' (who drop bombs from Kansas or wherever) is comparable to those who have to see the children they've killed. Like the world, I doubt these people are without imaginations- just mislead (at best) or conscienceless. Welcome to the future- cowards and bullies take your shots, before we turn this wonderful planet over to the roaches..........(and Banjo1).
Felixama
Can you imagine being President Obama, sitting in his office viewing these photos ( and probably getting sick to his stomach)? Then having to decide if it would be best to show the photos to the rest of the world, thereby demostrating what monsters we are, and prosecuting every one of those fucks, top to bottom OR as President of this great country having a dilema in his own mind if its better to sit on them, in an attempt to protect us from the monumental fuckups of Bush and Co. in the eyes of the world.
I would not want to have to make that decision. You must understand that he walked into this mess. I do not think Obama is a tool, and I voted for Nader.
Will the neocons defend rape now? Yes
Why? because morals and laws means nothing to their leader Dick Cheney whom aproved it.
Progressive 2
How did you do on reading comprehension tests before they kicked you out of school?
Banjo1 would break after you shut off his internet. He'd tell you every secret he knows. What I am saying is Banjo1 is a coward who has never seen combat, and so is irrelevant to the discussion.
Banjo said exactly what we expected him to say. The moral relativity here is amazing and sad. And yes they will indeed defend rape and the rest of it.
Hawnzz
You must have gone to the same school as Progressive2 and got tossed out as soon.
Banjo,
Pathetic....
Banjo finds the pictures erotic....Rest assured if Banjo were there he would have participated in the "Acts". Yet another sexually repressed hyper Conservative finding pleasure in Rape and Torture of others.
We wonder why the Arab world htaes us?. Just look @ the above pictures. Sick stuff.
Go ARMY.....
It amazes me how often the left veers into disquisitions about repressed homosexuality. It's clear that below the surface they have a lot of hatred for gays and think nothing could be worse than being one. The gay lefties assume anyone critical of their agenda has to be not only (a) homosexual but (b) self loathing. Strange.
Banjo1. You are not simply criticle, you obsess over gay issues. The vast majority of your threads ALWAYS have some gay theme.
Banjo you dont have the guts to show your REAL you in peron so you troll on websites and write your blather.
Yes it's quite obvious the left hates Gays by progressing gay causes like marriage,
equal rights,
civil rights etc.
Yes the left HATES gays, got it.....
Banjo, please tell us why you obsess over same sex issues?.
A few closeted gay bashing Conservatives like yourself.
Ted Haggart. ( Meth snorting / hooker addict )
Larry Craig. ( I have a wide stance )
Banjo1. ( One can only guess )
James Dobson.
Matt Drudge. ( Duh )
Ralph Reed. ( Duh )
Yeah, us progressives hate homosexuals so much we fought our asses off for Prop 8. You have a really warped prospective.
It may not be sexual repression, but there is some trauma involved with toilet training for sure.
This discussion of the demeaning and degrading of prisoners in US custody is sensationalizing and harmful to our military in harm's way. The photographs should be handled through proper legal and military channels....the safety of our troop trumps the publics' right to know. Progressive or conservative should be in agreement on this...Tina Brown should take a stand as an American and take this smut off this site!
OK, so it's the discussion to which you object, not the barbarity of the actions taken in our name? How'd they get placed in harm's way to begin with?
Could it be that the actions, not the evidence thereof, are the problem? What if we didn't torture, demean, or degrade detainees? What if we hadn't committed the supreme crime of aggressive war? How 'bout we end the criminal enterprise, instead of trying to hide its horrific face?
Shorter pattyann1:
Yes, dear Big Daddy gov't, please keep me safe in my nursery world, where we always are the good guys and the good guys always win. Please don't present me with facts I cannot face.
Yeah, good thing the 'enemy' hasn't got an innernets account or they might find out. The pictures are outed. it is confirmed from multiple sources.
Lindsey graham 2004: "The American public needs to understand, we're talking about rape and murder here," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), telling reporters in 2004 why the Abu Ghraib photos should not be released as former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld faced calls for his resignation. "We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience. We're talking about rape and murder and some very serious charges."
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Come on Daily Beast
This censorship thing is
Getting ridiculous.
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The puzzle is how to bring the perpetrators to justice without making the pictures public in an open trial . Presumably evidential rules apply in military court and the pictures must be shown and admitted into evidence.
That is indeed the question.
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Are all of the pictures you saw from the previously released images on Salon et al, or are they new? Because there are also fake pictures that have been circulating that have been debunked as originating on a porn site, such as one depicting a woman being forced to perform oral sex.
The perpetrators have been brought to justice and are taking their meals in prison at present. Keep up with the news.
Who set the precedent?
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Come on Daily Beast
We're grown-ups.
Stop the censorship already.
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No the perpetrators ARE NOT in jail. Cheney and Rumefeld still walking the streets.
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How do you you know?
There has been no confirmation that the soldiers and contractors depicted in the pictures are the same as those previously convicted.
The photos that were set to be released were not simply from Abu Ghraib. They were from Afghanistan and other parts of Iraq. Graner & England were prosecuted for what they did at Abu Ghraib, but considering a good portion of these photos were taken elsewhere and presumably involve other servicemen and women, it is inaccurate to claim that the perpetrators have been brought to justice.
Covering up these photos is what is exacerbating the problem. If the pentagon and the White House had just come out and said, "Yes there are photos depicting sexual and physical abuse but they are of a sensitive nature so we are not releasing them to the public," this story would not exist. But because they are trying to hide the information, journalists are making these images public to bring the truth to light. Stop attacking journalists for doing what they should be doing, which is holding our public officials accountable; if anyone is to blame for "putting our soldiers in harms way" (as if they are all safe right now) it is the administration of our government for trying to cover up evidence of terrible acts.
Sounds about right and one would think that any reasonable person serving in the military would also be repulsed by these terrible acts and want to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Absolutely! By trying to suppress these photos and hide the truly ugly nature of what occurred, the Obama administration is actually making things worse, both for the public and for American troops.
Obama should hold a press conference, apologize to the world for what transpired, promise that the military personnel who perpetrated these acts will be brought to justice, and promise that it will not happen again.
Suppression of the truth never works. The more horrible an atrocity, the more light that needs to be shone on it. Did we learn nothing from the death camps of the Nazi's and Vietnam?
Aaronthethird: You are exactly right. If the administration would have just been truthful instead of "lying" about the photographs there would be no story. When are they going to learn... Polititicians should be required to take a class on ethics before entering office.
With all due respect, does anyone remember the last time a Pentagon spokesman or a spokesman from the Dept. of Defense, on the record, has told the truth or admitted a mistake? About the same number of times George Bush has...
Bravo, o brother my Brother. This is the most exciting potential of the Web (to me): busting myths, loaded with malign intent, even as propagandists deploy them.
With 27,000 "influence operators," a $4.7 billion budget, and the corporate media's obsequiousness (with a few notable exceptions), I wonder: what other attempts to jack our shared narrative are under way?
I'm still stunned by your 11 Feb 09 article in Harper's.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pentagon Targeted and Mistreated Journalists, AP Head Charges
http://harpers.org/archive/2009/02/hbc-90004359
The Associated Press's special report on Pentagon "influence operations" can be read here [ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29039384/ ]. The Pentagon's Public Affairs Office has been one of the last redoubts of the Neoconservatives. Burrowed Bush era figures remain in key positions in the office, which had responsibility for implementation of some of the Rumsfeld Pentagon's most controversial strategies in which
***the American public was targeted with practices previously associated with battlefield psy-ops.***
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Doesn't that constitute our own military
firing on us? Are the influence operators any different than snipers? And the infamous "Message Force Multipliers"?
A) Hide intentions;
B) Fire "live" rounds at target audiences with high-power microphones etc. with the intention of forcing a change in behavior against the will of the target;
C) Make career-advancing killings.
Or we could see it as the attempt to hack into the psyches of Americans as if we were mere voting-machines on two legs.
My fellow psychologists have weaponized psyche itself, and the DoD has turned against us.
To our NSA-type fiends, with bodies to hide all over the world, are we, the sovereign citizens, now the enemy?
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29060453/
There's a slight difference there at the end. Thanks for pointing it out, I've been habitually posting that dead link for months now.
The actual report is proving more elusive than I expected. Prof. Horton, a little help?
See also
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/05/pentagon-boosts-spending_n_1644 10.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/pentagon-propaganda
Disgusting is such a weak word to be used to describe such activities. These solders, under the leadership of people like cheny and bush, have been reduced to sub-human level of existence. I really don't know how they can live with themselves. In addition to the personal horror that this story displays, this is something that all of western civilization will have to live with for hundreds of years. How can you convince people that we in the west are civilized when we do things like this?
This story also demonstrates what is going to happen if Obama does not immediately release these photos and arrest the perpetrators of these horrible acts. That is stories such as this and rumours (some true some false) will dribble out and keep this in the face of Muslims for an extended period of time. While I agree we need to move on, we also need to show the world that we are at least one rung up the ladder from animals by at the least demonstrating that we punish those who among us are animals. That means everyone who is responsible...from the individual solder to cheny and bush!!!!
I agree. Anyone reasonable suspicion of complicity for any reason, at all levels, should be subject to a full criminal investigation.
The Nuremburg defence doesn't wash.
WTF are you saying?
felixsama: I think GM2009 means:
Any reasonable suspicion of complicity (no matter what) should be subjec to a full criminal investigation.
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Who each released identical talking points. Go back and compare the two statements. Worded exactly alike with a little extra word-smithing by Gibbs.
They are in a corner now. The Daily Telegraph, the New Yorker, the UK Guardian, Lindsey Graham, The New Yorker, gen. Anthony Taguba and now the Beast.
If Gibbs wanted to know the soccer score he might check one of these sources but if sought some credible information he'd probably turn on the Pentagon Channel.
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I guess Banjo1 still thinks the 9/11 hi jackers were Iraqis. As the Iraqis were not involved in 9/11 and were not terrorists, the reason they were tortured and abused could only have been for the amusement of the abusers. Some fun. Sick puppies.
Banjo: Yes, 19 gay Iraqi highjackers armed with WMDs
GM that's funny.
GM don't believe her.
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Thank God for this country's free press. Bush/Cheney tried for 8 years to create a closed society like China, Iran, and North Korea so their terrible acts against innocents could remain hidden. Now that they are out of power our press is discovering and exposing their indefensable actions. They NEVER wanted Osama Bin Laden. They never looked for him. They captured these detainees and tortured them hoping to create a connection between the 911 attacks and Iraq. When they couldn't find one, they made one up and began the war on Iraq. We are the most powerful country in the world and if Bush/Cheney really wanted Bin Laden, we could have found him. I believe we know where he is and we are helping to protect him. He was a friend to our country in the 80's and Bush/Cheney just didn't want to bring him to justice. Plain and simple. If torture really worked we would have Bin Laden and never would have gone into Iraq. Hussein was a terrible person but we have never openly engaged in the killing of Heads of States anywhere in the world and there was no threat reason to the US to attack Iraq and have 5000 US soldiers killed there and many more maimed and ruined for life. Obama inherited a terrible mess. He is doing a very good job. Before anyone attacks me, I am an ex Air Force pilot and flew in GW I. I speak from experience, not rhetoric.
You are right, they never sought Bin Laden.
Check out the Youtube posting: Zero-A 9/11 Investigation, Italian made documentary (in English).
Even a hardened skeptic will have problems refuting the verifiable facts there.
oh of course, Osama Bin Laden was release from FBI's most wanted list in 2005... but "we're fightin' terrorism!"
Banjo1, you voted the people who condoned these crimes into office and you are defiantly not ashamed of it and would probably do it again, so you subscribe to the same sub-human morality clan.. Aliases Nazis, KKK, Neocons etc..
If the troops committed it, expose it, prosecute the guilty, and come clean so that it would not happen again. We need to send a signal to the world that our military does and will not tolerate these acts of barbarism. This, on the contrary, will restore and strengthen faith in our military and earn us respect from the rest of the world
These are the same folks who have already been prosecuted; what precisely is gained by bringing all of this up again?
The point is to expose it, if it's systemic or 'the few bad apples' (Ha Ha) STORY.
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Thank you.
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