Where did the GOP get this talking point? Tori Otten seems unaware. From Joe Biden's own mouth.
If Poroshenko is telling the truth -- I have no idea -- it actually makes even more sense.
If
Poroshenko is telling the truth, Joe made another baseless brag which
is totally in keeping with so many of his other statements.
- The US government has apparently failed to provide compensation
or other redress to Iraqis who suffered torture and other abuse by US
forces at Abu Ghraib and other US-run prisons in Iraq two decades ago.
- Iraqis tortured by US personnel still have no clear path for
receiving redress or recognition from the US government though the
effects of torture are a daily reality for many Iraqi survivors and
their families.
- In August 2022, the Pentagon released an action plan to reduce harm
to civilians in US military operations, but it doesn’t include any way
to receive compensation for past instances of civilian harm.
(Baghdad) – The United States government has apparently failed to provide compensation or other redress to Iraqis
who suffered torture and other abuse two decades after evidence emerged
of US forces mistreating detainees at Abu Ghraib and other US-run
prisons in Iraq, Human Rights Watch said today.
After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the US and its coalition allies held about 100,000
Iraqis between 2003 and 2009. Human Rights Watch and others have
documented torture and other ill-treatment by US forces in Iraq.
Survivors of abuse have come forward for years to give their accounts of
their treatment, but received little recognition from the US government
and no redress. Prohibitions against torture under US domestic law, the Geneva Conventions of 1949, and the United Nations Convention Against Torture, as well as customary international law, are absolute.
“Twenty years on,
Iraqis who were tortured by US personnel still have no clear path for
filing a claim or receiving any kind of redress or recognition from the
US government,” said Sarah Yager,
Washington director at Human Rights Watch. “US officials have indicated
that they prefer to leave torture in the past, but the long-term
effects of torture are still a daily reality for many Iraqis and their
families.”
Between April and July 2023, Human Rights Watch interviewed Taleb
al-Majli, a former detainee at Abu Ghraib prison, in addition to three
people with knowledge of his detention and his condition after his
release who wished to remain anonymous. Human Rights Watch also
interviewed a former US judge advocate who served in Baghdad in 2003, a
former member of Iraq’s High Commission for Human Rights, and
representatives of three nongovernmental organizations working on
torture. Human Rights Watch also reviewed media and nongovernmental
reports, as well as US government documents including US Department of
Defense investigations into alleged detainee abuse.
In May, Al-Majli told Human Rights Watch that US forces subjected him
to torture and other ill-treatment, including physical, psychological,
and sexual humiliation while detaining him at Abu Ghraib prison between
November 2003 and March 2005.
He said he was one of the men in a widely circulated photo at Abu
Ghraib that shows a group of naked, hooded prisoners on top of one
another in a human pyramid, while two US soldiers smile behind them.
“Two American soldiers, one male and one female, ordered us to strip
naked,” al-Majli said. “They piled us prisoners on top of each other. I
was one of them.”
Al-Majli said that US forces detained him while he was visiting relatives in Anbar province in 2003.
“On the morning of October 31 [2003], US forces surrounded the
village my uncle lived in,” al-Majli said. “They took boys and old men
from the village. I told them I’m a guest from Baghdad, I live in
Baghdad and just came to visit my uncle. They put a cover on my head and
tied my wrists with plastic zip ties, then loaded me into a Humvee.”
After a few days at Habbaniya military base and at an unknown
location in Iraq, US forces moved al-Majli to Abu Ghraib prison. “It was
then the torture started,” he said. “They took away our clothes. They
mocked us constantly while we were blindfolded with hoods over our
heads. We were completely powerless,” he said. “I was tortured by police
dogs, sound bombs, live fire, and water hoses.”
While Human Rights Watch is unable to conclusively verify al-Majli’s
account, including whether he was one of the men in the “human pyramid”
photo, his story of detention at Abu Ghraib is credible. Al Majli
presented corroborating evidence, including a prisoner identity card
with his full name, inmate number, and cell block, which he said US
forces issued him at Abu Ghraib after taking his photo, iris scan, and
fingerprints. Al-Majli also showed Human Rights Watch a letter he
obtained in 2013 from the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, a
governmental body with the mandate to protect and promote human rights
in Iraq, confirming his detention at Abu Ghraib prison, including his
date of arrest (October 31, 2003), and listing the same inmate number as
his prisoner identity card.
He said he has kept them all this time as proof of what he endured.
During the US occupation of Iraq from 2003 to 2011, authorities held
thousands of men, women, and children at Abu Ghraib prison. A February
2004 report to the US-led military coalition by the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said that military intelligence
officers told the ICRC that an estimated 70 to 90 percent of people in
coalition custody in Iraq in 2003 had been arrested by mistake.
Al-Majli said that after 16 months at Abu Ghraib, he was released
without charge. Though he gained his freedom, he said he found himself
physically ailing, penniless, and traumatized. While he was detained, he
said, he began biting his hands and wrists to cope with the trauma he
was experiencing, and has continued ever since. Raised, purple welts
were clearly visible across his hands and wrists.
“It became a mental health condition,” he said. “I did it in jail,
and after I left jail, and I keep doing it today. I try to avoid it, but
I can’t. Until today, I can’t wear short sleeves. When people see this,
I tell them it’s burns. I avoid questions.”
More than the pain he suffered himself, al-Majli laments the negative
effect it has had on his children: “This one year and four months
changed my entire being for the worse. It destroyed me and destroyed my
family. It’s the reason for my son’s health problems and the reasons my
daughters dropped out of school. They stole our future from us.”
For two decades, al-Majli has sought redress, including compensation
and an apology, for the abuse he suffered. Unable to afford a lawyer or
access the US embassy in Baghdad, al-Majli sought help from the Iraqi
Bar Association, which turned him away, telling him it did not handle
cases like his. Al-Majli then went to the Iraqi High Commission for
Human Rights, but all it could do was issue him a letter confirming he
is in their records as a former detainee at Abu Ghraib. He said he did
not know how to contact the US military and raise a claim.
Human Rights Watch wrote to the US Department of Defense on June 6,
2023, outlining al-Majli’s case, providing the research findings, and
requesting information on compensation for survivors of torture in Iraq.
Despite repeated follow-up requests, Human Rights Watch has not
received a response.
“I didn’t know what else I could do or where else to go,” al-Majli
said. Human Rights Watch was not able to find any legal pathway for
al-Majli to file a claim seeking recompense.
“The US secretary of defense and attorney general should investigate
allegations of torture and other abuse of people detained by the US
abroad during counterinsurgency operations linked to its ‘Global War on
Terrorism’,” Yager said. “US authorities should initiate appropriate
prosecutions against anyone implicated, whatever their rank or position.
The US should provide compensation, recognition, and official apologies
to survivors of abuse and their families.”
20 Years of US Silence
In 2004, then-US President George W. Bush apologized for the “humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners” at Abu Ghraib. Soon after, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress
that he had found a legal way to compensate Iraqi detainees who
suffered “grievous and brutal abuse and cruelty at the hands of a few
members of the United States armed forces. It’s the right thing to do,
and it is my intention to see that we do.”
Human Rights Watch has found no evidence that the US government has
paid any compensation or other redress to victims of detainee abuse in
Iraq, nor has the United States issued any individual apologies or other
amends.
Some victims have attempted to apply for compensation using the US Foreign Claims Act
(FCA). The law allows foreign nationals to obtain compensation for
death, injury, and damage to property from “noncombat activity or a
negligent or wrongful act or omission” caused by US service members.
However, it includes a so-called combat exclusion: claims are not
payable if the harm results from “action by enemy or U.S. forces engaged
in armed conflict or in immediate preparation for impending armed
conflict.” Furthermore, for al-Majli and other survivors of detainee
abuse during the invasion and occupation, filing a claim under the
Foreign Claims Act is not an option because claims must be filed within two years from the date of the alleged harm.
Human
Rights Watch was unable to find public evidence that payments have been
made under this law as compensation for detainee abuse, including
torture. In 2007, the American Civil Liberties Union obtained documents
detailing 506 claims made under the Foreign Claims Act: 488 in Iraq and 18 in Afghanistan. The majority of claims relate to harm or deaths caused by shootings, convoys, and vehicle accidents.
The only case
of a Foreign Claims Act payment relating to detention in those
documents was for a claimant who was paid US$1,000 for being unlawfully
detained in Iraq, with no mention of other abuse. Five other claims were for abuse in detention, but they are among eleven claims that do not contain the outcome, including whether payment was made.
The
US Defense Department did not respond to repeated requests for
information as to whether the US government made Foreign Claims Act or
other compensation payments to survivors or families of those who died
of detainee abuse in Iraq.
Jonathan Tracy, a former judge
advocate who handled claims of harm in Baghdad in 2003, told Human
Rights Watch he did not know of any Foreign Claims Act payments to
torture survivors by the Army. “If any of the survivors received a
payment, I would doubt the Army would have wanted to use Foreign Claims
Act money because it could be interpreted as an admission on the
government's part,” he said.
A US submission
to the UN Committee Against Torture from May 2006 reported that 33
detainees had by that date filed claims for compensation to the US Army,
28 of which were from Iraq.
The submission stated that “no
compensation has been provided to date, however, compensation has been
offered in two cases.” Subsequent submissions to the Committee Against
Torture do not contain updates to these figures, nor specify whether
those payments were made. Notably, according to the document, neither of
the two recommended payments was listed as compensation for torture or
other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
Other Iraqis
have attempted to find justice in US courts. But the US Justice
Department has repeatedly dismissed such cases using a 1946 law
that preserves US forces’ immunity for “any claim arising out of the
combatant activities of the military or naval forces, or the Coast
Guard, during time of war.”
So far, the only lawsuits able to advance have targeted military contractors. Those cases, too, face considerable obstacles. One such case, Al Shimari et al. v. CACI,
has been slowly making its way through courts since June 2008. The
lawsuit was brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights, a US-based
nongovernmental organization, on behalf of four Iraqi torture victims
against CACI International Inc. and CACI Premier Technology, Inc. The
lawsuit asserts that CACI, which the US government hired to interrogate
prisoners in Iraq, directed and participated in torture and other abuse
at Abu Ghraib.
CACI has attempted to have the case dismissed 18 times since it was first filed. On July 31, 2023, a federal judge refused CACI’s most recent motion to dismiss the case, which finally appears to be heading to trial.
Criminal Investigations into Detainee Abuse in Iraq
The
US Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) opened at least 506
investigations into alleged abuses of people in the hands of US and
other coalition forces in Iraq between 2003 and 2005, according to a US
Department of Defense document reviewed by Human Rights Watch. The
document details investigations into 376 cases of assault, 90 cases of
deaths, 34 cases of theft, and 6 cases of sexual assault allegedly
committed by US and coalition forces.
These US Army
criminal investigations paint a stark picture of the scale and range of
abuse that was alleged inside US-controlled prisons in Iraq. The most
high-profile cases – like the killing of Manadel al-Jamadi – and hundreds more cases of abuse that never made headlines are outlined with clinical descriptions of violence.
The
investigations concerned 225 allegations of assault and sexual assault
in US-controlled detention facilities, involving at least 318 potential
victims and 426 alleged abusers.
38 of those investigations upheld the allegations or found the accused guilty.
In
57 cases, investigators were unable to find sufficient evidence to
prove or disprove the allegation or were unable to identify the suspect.
In 79 cases, investigators declared the allegations unfounded. However,
cases reviewed by CID highlighted several shortcomings in investigative
processes, including a failure to identify and follow leads, failure to
locate and interview witnesses, over-reliance on medical records
without corroborating evidence, and failure to photograph or examine
crime scenes. For example:
In cases in which Army
officials interviewed the victims and knew their identities, it appears
that no attempt was made to couple punishments of abusers with
compensation or other forms of redress.
Nineteen
allegations of abuse were written off as standard operating procedure,
leading the CID to conclude that the “offenses were unfounded” or “did
not occur as alleged”:
Finally,
16 cases involved allegations of abuse committed by forces other than
the US Army. Such cases were referred to investigators of the alleged
abuser’s branch of the military, such as the Naval Criminal
Investigative Service (NCIS), for further investigation. For example:
A Climate Enabling Torture
When the photos of detainee abuse in Abu Ghraib went public, then-President Bush sought to minimize the systemic nature of the problem by calling
it “disgraceful conduct by a few American troops who dishonored our
country and disregarded our values.” But investigations including by Human Rights Watch
have found that decisions taken at the highest levels of government
enabled, sanctioned, and justified these acts. Abu Ghraib was but one of several
US military detention centers and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
“black sites” worldwide where US forces, intelligence agents, and
contractors carried out torture and other ill-treatment, or so-called
enhanced interrogation techniques.
When the first detainees
arrived at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from Afghanistan
in January 2002, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld labeled them
“unlawful combatants,” seeking to deny them protections under the
Geneva Conventions. The same month, the Bush administration intensified
its efforts to circumvent domestic and international prohibitions on
torture, with the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel issuing memos that sought to legally justify torture and protect those engaging in it.
Denying detainees these protections enabled Rumsfeld to expand the list of interrogation techniques for use against prisoners at Guantanamo between December 2002 and April 2003.
Subsequent
US government investigations, including the 2004 Final Report of the
Independent Panel to Review Department of Defense Detention Operations
(also known as the Schlesinger report),
found that “the augmented techniques [approved by Rumsfeld] for
Guantanamo migrated to Afghanistan and Iraq where they were neither
limited nor safeguarded.”
The use of these techniques
violated the prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or
degrading treatment of prisoners under the laws of armed conflict and
international criminal law.
The Bush administration limited the scope
of these policies and practices in subsequent years, including by
reducing the list of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” but stopped
short of banning torture. In January 2009, then-President Barack Obama rescinded all Bush-era memos allowing torture. However, he stated that his administration would prosecute neither the authors of the memos nor those who carried out the acts described in them in the belief that they were legal.
The Legacy of Abu Ghraib
Ninety-seven
US soldiers implicated in 38 cases of abuse that the US Army Criminal
Investigation Division investigated in Iraqi detention centers between
2003 and 2005 received punishments.
Just 11 of these
soldiers were referred to a court martial to face criminal charges,
where they were found guilty of crimes including dereliction of duty,
maltreatment, aggravated assault, and battery. 9 of the 11 served prison
sentences. Fourteen others received nonjudicial punishments (e.g., a
fine, reduction in rank, letter of reprimand, or discharge from the
service). Reports of disciplinary action were pending for 72 individuals
as of the document’s publication date, January 13, 2006.
There
is no public evidence that any US military officer has been held
accountable for criminal acts committed by subordinates under the
doctrine of command responsibility.
Human Rights Watch reports in 2005 and 2011
presented evidence warranting substantial criminal investigations into
high-level government officials for the roles they played in setting
interrogation and detention policies following the September 11, 2001
attacks, including former President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick
Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (now deceased), and CIA
Director George Tenet. Additional Human Rights Watch research outlined the systematic nature of torture in Iraq, and the high level of command at which it was condoned.
Every US administration from George W. Bush to Joe Biden has rebuffed efforts for meaningful accountability for torture.
Some
steps have been taken to change policies and introduce stricter
controls on the treatment of people in US custody abroad. Congress
passed new laws, including the Detainee Treatment Act
of 2005, which prohibits subjecting anyone in US custody or control,
“regardless of nationality or physical location,” to “cruel, inhuman, or
degrading treatment or punishment,” as defined by the Senate
reservation to Article 16 of the Convention Against Torture. The Defense
Department also established various offices and positions related to
“Detainee Affairs,” and initiated a department-wide review of
detainee-related policy directives.
In August 2022, the Pentagon released a 36-page action plan
aimed at reducing risks to civilians in US military operations. The
plan directs the Defense Department to incorporate civilian harm issues
into its strategy, planning, training, and doctrine; improve and
standardize investigations of civilian harm; and to review and update
guidance on responding to civilian harm. However, the plan fails to include
a mechanism for reviewing past instances of civilian harm that have
gone unaddressed, uninvestigated, and unacknowledged for 20 years.
See,
that's the thing about attention seekers like Sy Hersh. They follow
someone else's work on the issue (in the case of Abu Ghraib, Charles J.
Hanley of the ASSOCIATED PRESS) and refuse to credit them. Make it all
about themselves. Take up all the oxygen in the room. Then moving on
to stealing credit for the work of someone else instead of ever taking
the time to write an update on the story they (falsely) claim to have
owned. But if Sy had done a follow up, he never would have had time to
barnstorm the country with that pedophile at his side.
On NPR's MORNING EDITION today, Ruth Sherlock reports on the US government's refusal to keep its word to the survivors of Abu Ghraib.
As long as we're noting some of the damage done by the US government to Iraq, let's note this from an article ASHARQ AL-AWSAT published an hour or so ago:
Iyad Allawi was not pro-American. He did not recognize their right to
tailor the new Iraqi political scene as they wanted. Moreover, his
meetings with a number of US officials were not fruitful. In parallel,
no language of understanding was found with Tehran. He did not accept
its terms, while the Iranian capital failed to tolerate his approach.
On March 7, 2010, general elections were held in Iraq. The “Iraqiya”
list, led by Allawi, won 91 seats, while the State of Law coalition, led
by Nouri al-Maliki, obtained 89 seats.
According to the applicable interpretation of the constitution,
Allawi was supposed to be entrusted with the task of forming the new
government. Al-Maliki was able to get from the Federal Supreme Court
another interpretation of the article that talks about the largest bloc.
A severe political crisis erupted that lasted about nine months, and
ended in Al-Maliki’s favor.
I asked Allawi about the parties that prevented him from forming the
government, he replied: “We achieved victory in the elections despite
everything we were exposed to. Five hundred people were subjected to
procedures under the pretext of “de-Baathification.” Among them were a
number of our candidates. They assassinated nine persons. They closed
entire regions to prevent our supporters from voting, and yet we were
ahead of them by three seats. In fact, I was surprised by what happened.
I did not expect the American and Iranian stances to reach this point.
America and Iran prevented me from forming a government. They worked
together.”
Allawi continued: “During that period, then-US Vice President Joe
Biden visited Baghdad about three times a month. His concern was that I
would give up in favor of Al-Maliki. He asked me to assume the
presidency of the republic, and I told him that the people elected us to
form the government, so how could I become president of the republic
without a job or work (the nature of the position is quasi-protocol)...
Biden repeated his demand, and I replied: “By God, if you do not allow
me to become prime minister, terrorism will grow stronger... as will
hatred for the regime...”
“During that period, US-Iranian negotiations were taking place in
Muscat. The American delegation was headed by Ben Rhodes, Deputy
National Security Advisor under then-President Barack Obama. The Iranian
side conveyed to the Americans a threat, stating that Iran will stop
negotiations and cause problems in Iraq if Iyad Allawi becomes prime
minister.”
“The truth is that I met Biden about 20 times. I’ve known him since
he was in charge of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. His
personality is shaky, and he is a liar and a hypocrite,” Allawi stated.
I asked the former premier whether the US destroyed Iraq, he replied: “Yes, America ruined Iraq.”
The
multiple visits by Joe to Iraq during this time ended up producing The
Erbil Agreement which overturned the March 2010 election results and
gifted Nouri al-Maliki a second term as prime minister. To get the
various political leaders to agree to that, The Erbil Agreement also
contained promises from Nouri such as he would implement Article 140 of
the Constitution (which would determine whether Kirkuk was part of the
KRG or part of the Baghdad-based government). Nouri used the legal
contract to get a second term as prime minister and then, two months
later, had his spokesperson state publicly that the contract was illegal
and he was not bound to it.
Back in 2010, parts of the following paragraph used to appear regularly in the snapshots and we'd add to it as needed:
And
it did real damage. Iraqiya was not the party that was supposed to get
the most votes. It was brand new. It wasn't built around one sect.
It had a woman as its primary spokesperson. It had Shias, Sunnis,
Christians, Muslims, it was about unity and pulling together. And the
voters responded to that. Iraq would be on a different trajectory today
if the US had honored the votes of the Iraqi people.
