| by John Pilger | ANTIWAR.COM, July 12, 2008 |
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The military has created a wall of silence around its frequent resort to barbaric practices, including torture, and goes out of its way to avoid legal scrutiny. Five photographs together break a silence. The first is of a former Gurkha regimental sergeant major, Tul Bahadur Pun, aged 87. He sits in a wheelchair outside 10 Downing Street. He holds a board full of medals, including the Victoria Cross, the highest award for bravery, which he won serving in the British army. He has been refused entry to Britain and treatment for a serious heart ailment by the National Health Service: outrages rescinded only after a public campaign. On 25 June, he came to Downing Street to hand his Victoria Cross back to the Prime Minister, but Gordon Brown refused to see him. The second photograph is of a 12-year-old boy, one of three children. They are Kuchis, nomads of Afghanistan. They have been hit by NATO bombs, American or British, and nurses are trying to peel away their roasted skin with tweezers. On the night of 10 June, NATO planes struck again, killing at least 30 civilians in a single village: children, women, schoolteachers, students. On 4 July, another 22 civilians died like this. All, including the roasted children, are described as “militants” or “suspected Taliban.” The Defense Secretary, Des Browne, says the invasion of Afghanistan is “the noble cause of the 21st century.” The third photograph is of a computer-generated aircraft carrier not yet built, one of two of the biggest ships ever ordered for the Royal Navy. The £4bn contract is shared by BAE Systems, whose sale of 72 fighter jets to the corrupt tyranny in Saudi Arabia has made Britain the biggest arms merchant on earth, selling mostly to oppressive regimes in poor countries. At a time of economic crisis, Browne describes the carriers as “an affordable expenditure.” The fourth photograph is of a young British soldier, Gavin Williams, who was “beasted” to death by three noncommissioned officers. This “informal summary punishment,” which sent his body temperature to more than 41 degrees, was intended to “humiliate, push to the limit and hurt.” The torture was described in court as a fact of army life. The final photograph is of an Iraqi man, Baha Mousa, who was tortured to death by British soldiers. Taken during his post-mortem, it shows some of the 93 horrific injuries he suffered at the hands of men of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment who beat and abused him for 36 hours, including double-hooding him with hessian sacks in stifling heat. He was a hotel receptionist. Although his murder took place almost five years ago, it was only in May this year that the Ministry of Defense responded to the courts and agreed to an independent inquiry. A judge has described this as a “wall of silence.” A court martial convicted just one soldier of Mousa’s “inhumane treatment,” and he has since been quietly released. Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers, representing the families of Iraqis who have died in British custody, says the evidence is clear – abuse and torture by the British army is systemic. Shiner and his colleagues have witness statements and corroborations of prima facie crimes of an especially atrocious kind usually associated with the Americans. “The more cases I am dealing with, the worse it gets,” he says. These include an “incident” near the town of Majar al-Kabir in 2004, when British soldiers executed as many as 20 Iraqi prisoners after mutilating them. The latest is that of a 14-year-old boy who was forced to simulate anal and oral sex over a prolonged period. |
Archive for July, 2008
How Britain Wages War
July 13, 2008President George W Bush backs Israeli plan for strike on Iran
July 13, 2008As Tehran tests new missiles, America believes only a show of force can deter President Ahmadinejad
President George W Bush: US officials acknowledge that no American president can afford to remain idle if Israel is threatened
President George W Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepared to approve a future military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations with Tehran break down, according to a senior Pentagon official.
Despite the opposition of his own generals and widespread scepticism that America is ready to risk the military, political and economic consequences of an airborne strike on Iran, the president has given an “amber light” to an Israeli plan to attack Iran’s main nuclear sites with long-range bombing sorties, the official told The Sunday Times.
“Amber means get on with your preparations, stand by for immediate attack and tell us when you’re ready,” the official said. But the Israelis have also been told that they can expect no help from American forces and will not be able to use US military bases in Iraq for logistical support.
Nor is it certain that Bush’s amber light would ever turn to green without irrefutable evidence of lethal Iranian hostility. Tehran’s test launches of medium-range ballistic missiles last week were seen in Washington as provocative and poorly judged, but both the Pentagon and the CIA concluded that they did not represent an immediate threat of attack against Israeli or US targets.
“It’s really all down to the Israelis,” the Pentagon official added. “This administration will not attack Iran. This has already been decided. But the president is really preoccupied with the nuclear threat against Israel and I know he doesn’t believe that anything but force will deter Iran.”
The official added that Israel had not so far presented Bush with a convincing military proposal. “If there is no solid plan, the amber will never turn to green,” he said.
There was also resistance inside the Pentagon from officers concerned about Iranian retaliation. “The uniform people are opposed to the attack plans, mainly because they think it will endanger our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the source said.
Complicating the calculations in both Washington and Tel Aviv is the prospect of an incoming Democratic president who has already made it clear that he prefers negotiation to the use of force.
Senator Barack Obama’s previous opposition to the war in Iraq, and his apparent doubts about the urgency of the Iranian threat, have intensified pressure on the Israeli hawks to act before November’s US presidential election. “If I were an Israeli I wouldn’t wait,” the Pentagon official added.
An Aggressive and Hypocritical US Policy Toward Iran
July 12, 2008Ivan Eland | Antiwar, July 12, 2008
The chauvinistic American news media have focused on evil Iran’s missile tests and the indignant Bush administration reaction, while missing some key causes of the event. As if the Iranians had started the entire dust up, the media reported Gordon Johndroe, the White House spokesman, barking, “The Iranian regime only furthers the isolation of the Iranian people from the international community when it engages in this sort of activity.” The U.S. press then reported Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as bristling that the U.S. would defend its allies and protect its interests against attack.
The media could have given equal emphasis to the recent strident rhetoric and behavior of Israel and the Bush administration towards Iran, but didn’t. Not only has the Bush administration pointedly declined to rule out military action against Iran, the United States was conducting provocative naval maneuvers in the Persian Gulf near Iran before the Iranian missile tests. In addition, last month, according to U.S. intelligence officials, Israel conducted an exercise that simulated a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. In the American press, these provocations tend to get buried under sensational headlines implying Iranian aggressiveness in launching the missiles. For example, the headline for a New York Times article on the subject read, “Iran Launches 9 Missiles in War Games, One with Range Said to Include Israel.”
Via the missile firings and by bluntly saying that if attacked, a counterattack on Israel and the U.S. fleet would ensue, Iran was merely trying to deter any potential Israeli or Bush administration attack before the U.S. elections. Iran – not Israel or the U.S. – has the fear of being attacked.
The American public assumes that the U.S. being a democracy automatically translates into being right in disputes overseas. But statistics show that democracies are no less aggressive overseas than non-democracies. In fact, by far the most aggressive country in the post-World War II world – if measured in the numbers of military and covert interventions – is the United States. Iran may be indirectly supporting militias in Iraq, Gaza, and Lebanon, but the United States, just since 2001, has invaded and occupied two countries and changed their governments using armed force.
Iran got permanently on the wrong side of U.S. policy after its fundamentalist Islamic revolution and the taking of U.S. diplomats hostage in 1979. However, the American people have always been oblivious to what caused that burst of anti-American venom. In 1953, the CIA ousted Mohammed Mossadeq, the elected leader of Iran, because he nationalized British oil interests. The U.S. government reinstated and supported the brutal Shah, who ruled until the revolution in 1978, and grabbed 40 percent of Iran’s oil for American companies.
The Real Crisis in Pakistan
July 12, 2008Foreign Policy In Focus, July 11, 2008
Fouad Pervez
America’s image of Pakistan is of a nation on the brink of total chaos. While there is certainly a great deal of instability in Pakistan, a more serious problem is the severe disconnect between the emerging crises in Pakistan and U.S. foreign policy toward the country. Unresolved, this disconnect could have tragic consequences for the security of people in both countries.
According to Washington, the crisis in Pakistan has to do with extremist elements in the northwest region abetting Taliban-friendly forces in Afghanistan. The United States is concerned that these extremist elements could help weaken Afghanistan as well as destabilize Pakistani politics by fanning the flames of anti-Americanism. The Bush administration is also focused on supporting Pakistani President Musharraf, though both Republicans and Democrats in Congress have become increasingly critical of this erstwhile ally. In such a fear-based environment, the United States has conducted several unilateral military strikes within Pakistan, undercutting the country’s sovereignty. The most recent strike killed 11 Pakistani soldiers several weeks ago and drew heavy criticism from military and political leaders in Pakistan.
The U.S. characterization of the problems in Pakistan is not accurate. There certainly are extremist elements within the population. These groups and individuals are willing to use violence to achieve ideological goals that go against the grain of human rights and social justice. The day I left Islamabad, for instance, a bomb exploded at the Danish embassy. Just a few days ago, a suicide bomber killed 11 police officers by the Red Mosque complex, a few blocks from my aunt’s home. The substantial rise in violence, especially bombings, over the past few years is very real. These groups are also probably aiding Taliban elements in the northwest region of the country, and are attempting to use violence and coercion to destabilize Pakistan.
However, these activities are being done on a very small level by a very small segment of the population. These extremist elements aren’t taking over power anytime soon. While Pakistanis are religious, they are, oddly enough, equally secular. It is hard to imagine any scenario in which an “Islamist” group has a chance to sweep into power. In fact, much of the support for the religious groups comes because they are one of the only real voices of opposition to the government.
Marine’s graphic interview describes killing of prisoners in Iraq
July 12, 2008Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, in a tape-recorded interview, says he and a fellow sergeant were ordered to kill the prisoners during a sweep through a Fallouja neighborhood in 2004.
By Tony Perry
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer | Los Angeles Times, July 11, 2008
CAMP PENDLETON — A graphic, vulgarity-laced interview in which a Marine described how he and two other Marines killed four unarmed prisoners in Iraq was played today during a preliminary hearing in the case.
Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, in a tape-recorded interview with a Naval Criminal Investigative Service agent, said he and Sgt. Ryan Weemer were ordered by Sgt. Jose Nazario to kill the prisoners as the Marines swept through a neighborhood in Fallouja in late 2004.
Several minutes of the tape were played at the hearing for Weemer, who faces murder and dereliction of duty charges. Nelson faces similar charges, and Nazario faces manslaughter charges in federal court in Riverside.
Nelson told the investigator that Nazario told him, “I’m not doing all this [expletive] by myself. You’re doing one and Weemer is doing one.”
Nelson said that he watched in shock as Nazario shot a kneeling prisoner at point-blank range: “He hit the dude in the forehead, the dude went down and there was blood . . . all over his [Nazario’s] boots.”
Weemer then used his service pistol to shoot one of the prisoners, Nelson said. “He shot him and the dude was on the ground and rolling and [Weemer] was shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting.”
The case began when Weemer, who had left the Marine Corps, told a job interviewer from the Secret Service about the killings. The Marine Corps recalled him to active-duty so he could be charged.
Nelson and Weemer, in their interviews, said that Nazario ordered the killings after getting a radio message from a superior that ordered the Marines not to take time to process the prisoners according to the rules. The Marines were needed to support other Marines sweeping through the insurgent-held city, Weemer said in his interview.
A hearing officer, at the conclusion of the preliminary hearing, will recommend to Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland whether the case should go to court martial, be dropped or be handled through an administrative procedure.
After seeing Weemer and Nazario shot prisoners, Nelson said he lost his reluctance to join in the killings. “I said [expletive] and I shot my dude.”
Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times
Bosnia remembers Srebrenica victims
July 12, 2008| Al Jazeera, July 11, 2008 | |||
Some 30,000 Muslims from across Bosnia have gathered to remember the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and bury the remains of more than 300 newly identified victims. The funeral ceremony for the 308 Muslims, who were among 8,000 killed in Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II, was held at a memorial site just outside the eastern town. The remains of the victims, aged between 15 and 84, were exhumed from mass graves after the end of Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war and identified by DNA analysis. “It was so hard when they informed me that my father has been identified,”Vanesa Mehmedovic, who is to bury her father Mevludin, said. “However, since he is not with us in a way, I’m glad that his soul will finally find peace,” she said. Symbolic march Almost 220 buses ferrying around 10,000 people converged on Srebrenica, while many more arrrived in other vehicles, organisers said. The commemoration was held amid fears of possible anti-Muslim violence due to Bosnian Serb anger with a UN court’s decision last week to clear Naser Oric, the former commander of Muslim forces in Srebrenica, of war crimes. Refik Dervisevic, a massacre survivor, arrived in Srebrenica late Thursday after taking part in a 100-kilometre “March of Peace”. Some 2,000 people participated in the symbolic march from the village of Nezuk, near the eastern town of Tuzla, to Srebrenica, the route taken by many Muslims seeking to flee Serb forces. “This is the third time that I am taking part in the march,” Dervisevic said. “The first time I did not remember anything. I was just walking being haunted by thoughts. “Last year I remembered the details from July 1995. I saw the place where I separated from my brother who was killed.” So far some 2,900 Srebrenica victims have been buried at the memorial built in 2003. Thousands of others are yet to be exhumed and identified in the area, where around 70 mass graves have been uncovered. Act of genocide Near the end of Bosnia’s war, Serb forces overran the then UN-protected enclave summarily killing some 8,000 Muslim men and boys. The International court of justice and the UN war crimes tribunal, both based in The Hague, have ruled that the Srebrenica massacre was an act of genocide. The alleged masterminds, wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic, are still at large. “It’s a shame that 13 years after what has happened in Srebrenica and after the end of the war, Karadzic and Mladic are not arrested,” the Dnevni Avaz daily newspaper quoted John Williamson, the US war crimes ambassador, as saying. “We will continue to urge the leaders in the region to do everything they can to make fugitives face justice and I’m sure that they will be arrested,” Williamson, who also attended the commemoration., said. His words were echoed by the victims’ relatives. “We are still fighting to prove to the world what has happened here while those who are the most responsible for the crime are being rewarded with freedom,” Munira Subasic, head of an association of Srebrenica mothers, said. Srebrenica remains a part of the Serb-run entity of Republika Srpska, which along with the Muslim-Croat Federation makes up post-war Bosnia. |
Israeli jets using Iraq’s airspace
July 11, 2008The US has allowed Israeli jets to use US airbases and fly over Iraqi air space for a likely attack against Iran, Iraqi media say. It is more than a month that some Israeli planes belonging to Israeli air force use the US military bases in Iraq to land and take off, Iraqi Nahrainnet news network said Wednesday, quoting informed sources close to Iraq’s Defense Ministry.
The activities and traffic of warplanes- especially at nights- has lately increased in the US airbases in Nasiriya southeast of Baghdad and Haditha a city in the western Iraq province of Al Anbar, the Iraqi residents and sources said.
They said the US fighters, cargo planes, helicopters and unmanned planes have intensified their flights in the last three weeks.
The US military officials have imposed severe security measures around the bases, they said.
They said some aircraft suspected to be Israeli warplanes coming from Jordan, have landed in the US controlled al-Assad airbase near Haditha.
It is believed that these activities are parts of a joint Israeli-US training, preparation and coordination to launch an air raid against Iran’s nuclear plants.
Israel has conducted a military drill under the supervision of top US military commanders over the Mediterranean Sea from May 28 to June 12, using more than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters, along with helicopters and refueling tanks which many consider as a possible rehearsal for a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
US ‘killed 47 Afghan civilians’
July 11, 2008BBC NEWS, July 11, 2008
Medical staff help a boy injured in Sunday’s attack
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A US air strike in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday killed 47 civilians, 39 of them women and children, an Afghan government investigating team says.
Reports at the time said that 20 people were killed in the airstrike in Nangarhar province. The US military said they were militants.
But local people said the dead were wedding party guests.
Correspondents say the issue of civilian casualties is hugely sensitive in Afghanistan.
President Hamid Karzai has said that no civilian casualty is acceptable.
Demand for trial
Mr Karzai set up a nine-man commission to look into Sunday’s incident.
The commission is headed by Senate deputy speaker, Burhanullah Shinwari whose constituency is in Nangarhar province. He told the BBC: ”Our investigation found out that 47 civilians (were killed) by the American bombing and nine others injured.
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“There are 39 women and children” among those killed, he said. The eight other people who died were “between the ages of 14 and 18”.
A spokeswoman for the US coalition, Lt Rumi Nielson-Green told the AFP news agency that the force was also investigating the incident and regretted any loss of civilian life. “We never target non-combatants. We do go to great length to avoid civilian casualties,” she said.
At the time the US said that those killed were militants involved in previous mortar attacks on a Nato base.
The incident happened in the remote district of Deh Bala, close to the Afghan border.
Mirwais Yasini, deputy speaker for the lower house of parliament, also has his constituency in Nangarhar. ”We are very sad about the killings in Deh Bala. People should be compensated,” he told the BBC.
“These operations widen the gap between the people and the government.”
He said that those who passed on intelligence to the US military ahead of the air strike should be tried, “as well as those who carried out the bombing”.
Mr Yasini demanded that “all operations should be conducted in full co-operation with our security forces in the future”.
Peace and Justice Post 