Category Archives: Iraq Atrocities

The ever-reliable Karl Lenz reports:

I have just looked at the criminal complaint filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights against high-ranking Americans with the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office under the 2002 German Code of Crimes against International Law, asserting liability for torture at Abu Ghraib.

Under German law, even if the Federal Prosecutor should be not inclined to initiate an investigation, the plaintiffs can appeal that decision to a court. If the plaintiffs don't change their minds for some reason, this is heading to court one way or the other.

In Posted in Iraq Atrocities | 2 Comments

The Guardian has a two-part series online called The road to Abu Ghraib. It's sufficiently weird that it reads like gonzo fiction, but we are asked to believe it.

Did a Major General really decide that psychic powers would let him walk through walls, and psychic healing could save troops wounded without access to ordinary medical care? And even if so, is this really connected to Abu Ghraib?

It's interesting, though, to read about the mythical First Earth Battalion and how the ideas behind it might have seeped into reality.

A Tiny Revolution: Uh Oh quotes Seymour Hersh speaking at Berkeley last Friday, October 8th:

I got a call last week from a soldier — it's different now, a lot of communication, 800 numbers. He's an American officer and he was in a unit halfway between Baghdad and the Syrian border. It's a place where we claim we've done great work at cleaning out the insurgency. He was a platoon commander. First lieutenant, ROTC guy.

It was a call about this. He had been bivouacing outside of town with his platoon. It was near, it was an agricultural area, and there was a granary around. And the guys that owned the granary, the Iraqis that owned the granary… It was an area that the insurgency had some control, but it was very quiet, it was not Fallujah. It was a town that was off the mainstream. Not much violence there. And his guys, the guys that owned the granary, had hired, my guess is from his language, I wasn't explicit — we're talking not more than three dozen, thirty or so guards. Any kind of work people were dying to do. So Iraqis were guarding the granary. His troops were bivouaced, they were stationed there, they got to know everybody…

They were a couple weeks together, they knew each other. So orders came down from the generals in Baghdad, we want to clear the village, like in Samarra. And as he told the story, another platoon from his company came and executed all the guards, as his people were screaming, stop. And he said they just shot them one by one. He went nuts, and his soldiers went nuts. And he's hysterical. He's totally hysterical. And he went to the captain. He was a lieutenant, he went to the company captain. And the company captain said, “No, you don't understand. That's a kill. We got thirty-six insurgents.”

George W. Bush is responsible for this. Don't forget that. George Bush is reponsible for this. As much as the individuals who pulled the triggers, George W. Bush is responsible for this.

Phil Carter reports that:

The Center for Public Integrity has obtained a series of previously classified documents from Rolling Stone writer Osha Gray Davidson surrounding the abuse investigations at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Most of the documents are appendices to the various investigative reports that have been done, such as sworn statements from BG Janis Karpinski's aide-de-camp and a high-ranking JAG officer at the prison, as well as an Army CID report documenting some of the worst abuses there. Together, these reports paint a picture of abuse far worse than what was originally reported.

(emphasis added)

I'm not sure I can bear to look.