Abuse Soldier Given Maximum Punishment

May 19, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Politics

The US soldier guilty of abusing Iraqi captives has been given the harshest possible punishment by a court martial.The first hearing into the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison saw specialist Jeremy Sivits receive a one year's jail, reduction in rank and bad conduct discharge.Choking with emotion, military policeman Jeremy Sivits had claimed he had been told intelligence officers told soldiers to carry out the abuse.
His testimony has lifted the lid on abuse at the facility, with Sivits, 24, naming colleagues who had carried out the acts.
He said: "They said they were told by military intelligence for them to keep doing what they were doing to the inmates because it was working - they were talking."
Sivits admitted knowing the torture was wrong but followed suit anyway.

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Moore speaks out on prisoner abuse

May 19, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Politics

Michael Moore is back in Cannes, this time with anti-Bush film Fahrenheit 9/11, and he's even angrier than when previously here with 2002's Bowling for Columbine.
This latest film shows shocking footage of abuse similar to the photos that recently came to light. American soldiers put bags over the heads of Iraqis and ridicule them while posing for photos alongside them.
Moore claims that the American media have covered up such images. He's incredulous at how easy it was for his team to get footage of Iraqis being mistreated.

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‘Everyone knew about abuse’ claim

May 19, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Politics

Iraqi detainees were forced to crawl through broken glass and wear women's sanitary products, according to the female American soldier who has become the face of the prisoner abuse scandal.

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Congress Revisits the Copyright Act

May 19, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Hacking, Politics

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s now famous Betamax decision. On January 17, 1984, the Court...

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Brits: ‘We Were Tortured In Camp Delta’

May 15, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Politics

Two Britons released from Guantanamo Bay have written to US President George Bush detailing tortures which they allege were inflicted upon them.Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal detailed a string of abuses which they claim were inflicted upon them by US interrogators at the Cuban base.The pair, from Tipton in the West Midlands, detailed allegations bear strong similarities to the allegations now being levelled at US personnel in Iraq.

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Rumsfeld visits Abu Ghraib

May 13, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Politics

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has visited Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, flying into the eye of the storm over Americans torturing prisoners that has shredded Washington's credibility in Iraq.
Hours after U.S. lawmakers viewed "sadistic" new photographs of abuse, Rumsfeld arrived at what was Saddam Hussein's most notorious prison on Thursday, where seven U.S. military police reservists are charged with sexually and physically tormenting detainees.

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Rumsfeld apologises for Iraq prison abuse

May 10, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Politics

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has taken responsibility for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops, offering his "deepest apology" to the victims, but says he will not resign just to satisfy his political enemies.
"These events occurred on my watch as secretary of defence. I am accountable for them. I take full responsibility," Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday.
Warning that he had seen new photographs and a videotape not yet made public that were hard to believe, Rumsfeld said: "I feel terrible about what happened to these detainees. They are human beings, they were in U.S. custody, our country had an obligation to treat them right. We didn't. That was wrong.
"To those Iraqis who were mistreated by members of the U.S. armed forces, I offer my deepest apology."
The tense hearing, broadcast live in the Arab world as well as the United States, carried major implications for Rumsfeld's future but also for U.S. support for President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq.
Rumsfeld, lacking his trademark bravado, said he had created a special commission to investigate the actions. But Arizona Senator John McCain said Americans needed all the available information at once, adding he was concerned that images of abuse would erode domestic support for the war.

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Cleric’s threat to female troops

May 10, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Politics, Religion

Iraqi worshippers have been told that anyone who captures a female British soldier can keep her as a slave. A...

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British troops face abuse claims in Iraq

May 10, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Politics

The Ministry of Defence is investigating fresh charges of abuse of Iraqi prisoners after a newspaper paraded a soldier who said he had witnessed savage beatings.
The Daily Mirror said on Friday the soldier, attached to a regiment already under a cloud, had given military police full details of the attacks, including names and ranks of those involved.
He said the violence was led by three ringleaders.
The Mirror has already printed pictures apparently showing British soldiers urinating on a hooded prisoner and beating him with a rifle butt, but their authenticity has been questioned.
Politicians and human rights groups said there appeared to be less doubt about the new allegations which, if proven, would make life even more difficult in the tinderbox of Iraq as the British government considers deploying more soldiers there.

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Iraqi Prisoners Mistreated

May 6, 2004 D. H. McKee
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Politics

A group of naked men are bound together on the floor of the prison; a hooded, naked man is handcuffed to a cell door, and another man is bound naked and arched with his arms behind him over the top bunk in a cell. That individual is wearing women's panties over his head.
The new collection included more than 1,000 digital images ranging from scenes of mundane military life to pictures showing crude simulations of sex among soldiers.
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