Under US, torture returns to Abu Ghraib
Compiled by Bob Strott
May 5 (AGR)— Seven more US soldiers have been disciplined,
as the torture scandal at the Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad continues
to spread, triggering an inquiry into military intelligence.
Six officers and sergeants were issued with formal reprimands,
possibly ending their military careers, for their failure to stop
the abuse of Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib – Saddam Hussein’s
infamous torture prison. The seventh soldier was given a lesser
rebuke.
Six military policemen are already facing criminal charges for
assaulting and sexually humiliating prisoners.
Prison guards and interrogators attempted to cover up the systematic
abuse of Iraqi inmates from the international Red Cross according
to a US general dismissed after evidence surfaced of torture at
a jail near Baghdad.
The claims add weight to a growing body of evidence that the reports
of torture at Abu Ghraib prison reflect a pattern of abuse which
goes far beyond the six guards now facing possible courts martial.
The former head of US military prisons in Iraq, Brigadier General
Janis Karpinski, who was relieved of her command earlier this
year, has alleged that military intelligence officers discouraged
her from entering the cell block at Abu Ghraib where they interrogated
prisoners. They also went “to great lengths to try to exclude”
the International Red Cross from their prison wing.
A US military investigation, carried out by Maj. Gen. Antonio
Taguba, uncovered evidence of war crimes against the inmates,
including: breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric
liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating
detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees
with rape; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps
a broom stick.
The New Yorker magazine, which obtained a complete copy of the
report, observed: “General Taguba saved his harshest words
for the military intelligence officers and private contractors.”
The Taguba report urged disciplinary action against two employees
of a Virginia-based firm, CACI International, hired to carry out
interrogations.
It is unclear what, if any, legal jurisdiction such contractors
operate under while on assignment in Iraq and observers of the
rapidly growing private security industry have warned that they
are dangerously unregulated.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that there are fewer rules
to govern the behavior of private contractors in Iraq. “A
lot of those people are cowboys – cowboys and scary people,”
says Steven Schooner, a contracting expert at George Washington
University Law School. Peter Singer, writing in the Guardian,
says the allegations of abuse show that outsourcing military jobs
has gone too far.
In an interview with the Washington Post, General Karpinski sought
to distance herself from the prison scandal. “The prison,
and that particular cell block where the events took place, were
under the control of the MI [military intelligence] command,”
she said.
She conceded that she “probably should have been more aggressive”
about visiting the cell block, particularly after military intelligence
officers went “to great lengths to try to exclude the ICRC
[International Committee for the Red Cross] from access to that
interrogation wing”.
Some photographs of abuse at Abu Ghraib have been broadcast and
published in recent days, since “60 Minutes II” first
broadcast them on Apr. 28. One photo shows a naked Iraqi man kneeling
in front of another naked Iraqi man, who is standing over him
with a bag over his head, while another shows a female American
soldier pointing as an Iraqi man with a bag over his head is masturbating.
Another photo shows an American soldier sitting on top of a naked
Iraqi man, who is straining to look up, and still more photos
show naked Iraqi men in a human pyramid.
Documents from an Apr. 2 military court hearing in Iraq provide
new details about the abuse. The documents show that Specialist
Matthew Carl Wisdom, of the 372nd Military Police Company at Abu
Ghraib, appeared in the hearing and described some of the acts
of abuse he saw.
“I went down to Tier 1 [the cellblock where much of the abuse
is said to have occurred] and when I looked down the corridor,
I saw two naked detainees, one masturbating to another kneeling
with its mouth open,” he is quoted as saying. “I thought
I should just get out of there. I didn’t think it was right,
as it seemed like the wrong thing to do. I saw Staff Sergeant
Frederick walking towards me, and he said, `Look what these animals
do when you leave them alone for two seconds.’ “
Yesterday the mother of one detainee, Samira Hassan, said the
latest allegations were horribly familiar.
Her 22-year-old son Abbas had been arrested three months ago while
walking past a US military base in the Baghdad suburb of Amariya.
She finally managed to see him in prison two weeks ago. “He
told me they are using electric shocks against the prisoners and
taking off their clothes. He also told me something I can hardly
talk about — that the Americans are raping the Iraqi men.
“This is terrible,” Hassan said. “This is shame
for us. We have a different culture and different religion. They
should not do that.
“We are not talking about one case but of thousands of cases,”
she said. “The Americans said they would bring us freedom.
Is this what they mean?”
The abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was first reported in January
by a Military Police Officer who discovered the abuse photos on
a CD. In March, the military announced that 17 people “had
been removed from duty” because of charges of abuse of prisoners,
but released no details. Some family members of those involved
had also known about the abuses, because of e-mails they had received
from Iraq. The Baltimore Sun reports that even though there was
no early official notification of the charges, word about the
situation spread among families back in the US.
“A lot of us have known about the arrests and the court-martial,
but everyone knew to keep their mouths shut,” said the woman,
who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of hurting her relative’s
military career.
The widening prison-abuse scandal in Iraq, which has stirred anger
in the Arab world just as the Marines have tried to defuse a bloody
confrontation in Falluja, holds the potential to damage efforts
by American officials to meet a June 30 deadline to transfer limited
self-rule to the Iraqi people. It appeared to have caught senior
Pentagon officials and some top officers off guard on May 2, despite
President Bush’s condemnation of the abuses days before.
Appearing on three Sunday talk shows, Gen. Richard B. Myers, the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave conflicting answers
when asked if the problems at Abu Ghraib were systemic throughout
detention centers in Iraq.
At first, Gen. Myers insisted that the instances of mistreatment
were not widespread and were the actions of “just a handful”
of soldiers who had unfairly tainted all American forces in Iraq.
But when pressed, he acknowledged that he had not yet read the
classified, 53-page Army report completed in February by Maj.
Gen. Antonio Taguba.
The Taguba report, as well as other documents, reveal a much broader
pattern of command failures than initially acknowledged by the
Pentagon and the Bush administration in responding to outrage
over the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison.
A recent report by Human Rights Watch described similar treatment
of prisoners at Baghram and other US-run detention centers in
Afghanistan. The deaths of at least two prisoners in American
custody in Afghanistan were officially declared homicides by US
military doctors who performed autopsies on the victims.
Sources: Christian Science Monitor,
Guardian (UK), Independent (UK), New York Times, Observer (UK),
Washington Post
May Day marked by protest and celebration
worldwide
Compiled by Josh Ferguson
May 4 (AGR) -- This May 1, workers and activists from around
the world gathered to celebrate Mayday, the international workers
holiday, with events ranging from large-scale demonstrations and
protests to bike rides, picnics, and other celebratory events.
In what was perhaps the largest reported event, an estimated 100,000
people took to the streets of Montreal, marching through working
class neighborhoods to their final destination, a park downtown.
Organized by union leaders and community activists, the march was
to call for changes in Canada’s domestic policies, and to demand
further protection for workers’ rights. The event ended after
police intervened and forced the crowd to disperse, spurring some
confrontation between protesters and police, as well as between
different factions of attending protesters.
In Atlanta, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) held a rally
outside of two local grocery stores, demanding a boycott of Mt.
Olive pickle products, until Mt. Olive guarantees their workers
a living wage, sanitary housing, and protection from toxic pesticides.
Over fifty protesters demonstrated for over an hour and a half before
police forced the group to disband.
Sixty people gathered in Willow Park in Louisville for a puppet
show reenacting Chicago’s 1886 Haymarket Massacre, after which
they threw a festive street party, complete with bonfires, balloons,
and dancing. After forty five minutes, police fired pepper spray
on the partiers, ending the party abruptly.
In Sydney, labor unions and anti-war groups brought over a thousand
people into the streets to demand social justice at home and abroad.
In Tel Aviv, violence broke out between Zionist labor unions and
anarchist groups during a large scale labor rights rally. Anarchists
were hassled and then finally attacked by labor union organizers
and activists, resulting in a number of injuries.
Over 100 people were arrested in Berlin, during the city’s
yearly tradition of throwing beer bottles at police officers. In
preparation for the event, the city had deployed over 8,000 police
officers to the streets, and the American state department issued
an official warning urging caution for Americans living in the city.
In Dublin, there was an entire weekend of action, including solidarity
rallies outside of prisons, the opening of public parks, a 500+
participant Critical Mass bike ride, and a three thousand person
demonstration towards the EU summit, where police attacked the marchers
with water cannons and batons. 25 protesters were arrested, and
there were several reported injuries. The march eventually dispersed
around 11:30 pm.
In Barcelona, the Euromayday Parade started at 6:00 in the afternoon
with an estimated 10 to 15,000 participants. An old police station
was temporarily occupied by a crowd of protesters, and the crowd
held the streets against police confrontation until march organizers
called for the group to disband around midnight, in response to
heavy police aggression, which resulted in injuries and arrests.
In Milan, the Euromayday Parade was joined by over 80,000 people
marching through the city center, dancing to music being played
on loudspeakers, and protesting EU policy along the way.
Workers in Tehran, Iran held a large scale protest demanding workers’
rights and expressing discontent with current living standards and
job conditions. Politicians and labor union organizers joined the
rally with speeches advocating fair treatment of Iran’s workers.
Activists in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, took to the streets to
protest war and occupation in Iraq. Protesters from various peace
groups and socialist organizations chanted against George Bush and
Tony Blair while calling for peace worldwide.
In Los Angeles, the May Day Caravan, a coalition of immigrant worker
organizations, departed from McArthur Park at 12:30 pm. About 500
immigrant workers and others showed up to take buses and cars to
the Federal Building in Westwood, then to Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger’s
offices in Santa Monica, and finally to Koreatown, where a march
of nearly 2,000 people took place.
The origins of May Day
May Day, the first of May, got its start as an ancient pagan holiday
celebrating the first planting of spring. Originally performed as
a religious festival, by the middle ages it had evolved into a celebration
not only of crops, but of romance and social equality as well. It
was considered a holiday for the common people, since it was not
a religious holiday, and could therefore be celebrated freely without
solemn Christian observances and restrictions. The day was celebrated
widely until the church outlawed it’s observance in the 1600’s,
in response to the day’s lighthearted, celebratory atmosphere
and its momentary casting off of social authority. Even after it
was abandoned by many Europeans, trade unions continued to celebrate
the holiday until the late 18th century.
May Day received new meaning as a workers holiday in 1886, when
the American Federation of Labor adopted a resolution demanding
an eight hour work day for American workers, starting May 1.
Around the country, workers who did not receive an eight hour day
went on strike. In Chicago, most notably, police killed six strikers.
The next day Chicago anarchists held a public meeting in Haymarket
Square to discuss the police brutality of the previous day. One
180 police officers converged on the peaceful meeting and demanded
its dispersement, at which point a bomb went off, killing one police
officer and injuring many more. Police then opened fire on the spectators
at the meeting, and eight anarchists were arrested and charged as
accessories to murder. Four of the men were executed by the state
of Illinois; the others were eventually pardoned.
The next year, the Paris International Workingmen’s Association
called for May first to be remembered as an international workers’
holiday, in memory of those workers killed as a result of the strikes
the year before.
Now the day is considered worldwide to be a time for celebration
and for public demands for the rights of workers. In many socialist
countries it is a state-sponsored holiday; in many other places
it is celebrated by the workers, but not officially recognized by
the state.
Sources: Indymedia, A-Infos
News Source, Green Left Weekly, Ourmayday.org.uk
Brazil uses WTO to win trade triumph
By Mario Osava
Rio de Janeiro, Apr. 29 (IPS)— The World Trade Organization
(WTO) ruling against US cotton subsidies strengthens Brazil’s
leadership of the Group of 20 (G20), a bloc of developing countries,
at a key moment in several trade negotiation processes.
The ruling, whose final details are to be released on Jun. 18,
was announced Monday. The United States is expected to file an
appeal.
The concrete effects of the decision by a WTO dispute settlement
panel in favor of exports from cotton-producing countries could
take a while to be seen in the cotton sector, but the impact on
trade talks will be immediate.
Brazil brought the case in 2002, and the WTO set up a three-member
panel to study the complaint in March 2003.
This is a first breach opened up in the US, European Union and
Japanese defense of the subsidies they shell out to their farmers.
Such supports are the main obstacle to the current multilateral
trade talks known as the Doha Round, which have made very little
progress towards meeting the 2005 deadline for completion.
The G20, with Brazil, India and South Africa at the forefront,
emerged prior to the WTO’s ministerial conference in Cancún,
Mexico, last year, focused on ensuring that the United States
and the EU’s agricultural subsidies would be on the negotiating
table.
Brazil’s triumph this week encourages other sectors of the
farm industry and other countries to “lose their fear”
of using the WTO to question agricultural protectionism, says
Helio Tollini, executive director of the Brazilian Association
of Cotton Producers, (ABRAPA.)
Other business associations are turning to ABRAPA, seeking ways
to follow the path created by the cotton growers, Tollini told
IPS. Wealthy countries that subsidize their farm sector will now
have to open their agricultural markets or face new legal actions
at the WTO, he predicted.
That “fear” should also be eradicated amongst the governments
of developing countries. The Brazilian government “was very
resistant” to pressure from the private sector for presenting
a claim to the WTO, said Antonio Donizetti, head of foreign trade
issues for the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock,
(CNA.)
In 2002, at the insistence of then-secretary of production and
commercialization at the Ministry of Agriculture, Pedro Camargo
Neto, Brazil’s Foreign Ministry agreed to go ahead with the
challenge against US cotton subsidies.
Brazil also filed a claim with the WTO dispute settlement body
against the EU’s subsidies for sugar exports, another battle
that could have major repercussions for global trade.
And Argentina is considering a challenge against the US subsidies
for its dairy producers, an initiative that has gathered strength
now as a result of the cotton ruling.
Meat and oil-producing crops are other products that receive heavy
supports in several countries and could be targeted for claims
at the WTO, Donizetti told IPS.
If the United States, which dominates international cotton trade
with a 40 percent share, were to agree to eliminate subsidies,
Brazil could more than double its cotton exports, forecast to
reach 500 million tons this year, according to ABRAPA.
But that increase in exports will not be possible in the short
term, given the likely US appeal of the WTO ruling. And there
is no assurance that Washington would change its policy of supporting
the 25,000 cotton growers in the United States, because the WTO
decision is not binding, but is instead a “moral condemnation,”
says Donizetti.
If the United States does not comply, the WTO could authorize
Brazil to implement trade reprisals, but that is a step that the
country is surely not interested in, he said.
However, the dispute settlement body’s decision undermines
the position of the rich countries in the global trade negotiations,
and gives the G20 a boost in its fight against domestic supports
for agriculture in wealthy nations, said Donizetti.
And Brazil’s perseverance is helping to consolidate its leadership
of the group, he added.
This shift in the balance of forces not only affects the Doha
Round, but could also influence the talks for setting up the Free
Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the hemisphere-wide treaty
in which the United States refuses to discuss farm subsidies.
It could also have an effect on the negotiations for a free trade
agreement between the EU and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur,
comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay), which have
made progress in the past few months and are expected to wrap
up by the end of this year.
If Washington ends its cotton subsidies, the ones who stand to
benefit most are the farmers of western Africa, where cotton is
of great economic and social importance as the source of income
— though paltry currently — for millions of people.
In Benin, for example, cotton represents 40 percent of the country’s
export revenues, said Tollini.
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