Month: October 2004

For those who may have been wondering where the US disappears their super-secret captives, Haaretz is claiming to know:

Most of the Al-Qaida detainees who were arrested in Afghanistan in the course of the war or its aftermath were transfered to the American base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A minority were held in Pakistan, where some had been picked up, and were later moved to Jordan.

It is not known where precisely in the Hashemite kingdom they are being held, but they are thought to be at a secret facility belonging to Jordanian intelligence or at a secret base.

Their detention outside the U.S. enables CIA interrogators to apply interrogation methods that are banned by U.S. law, and to do so in a country where cooperation with the Americans is particularly close, thereby reducing the danger of leaks.

According to the Human Rights Watch report, the CIA was granted special permission by the U.S. law enforcement authorities to operate “other laws” at the secret facility with regard to interrogation methods.

Detainees are subjected to physical and psychological pressure that includes the use of simulated drowning, loud music, sleep deprivation, and sensory deprivation. Some of these methods were exposed with the revelation of torture techniques used by American interrogators at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

The CIA’s prisoners at the facility in Jordan include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, considered Al-Qaida’s head of operations and number three in the Al-Qaida hierarchy after Osama bin Laden and Aiman al-Zawahiri, who have eluded capture.

On this topic, zeynep at Under the Same Sun makes this perceptive observation:

Human Rights Watch has tracked down 11 people that the U.S. won’t even acknowledge are in custody. The fact that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed as well as Abu Zubaydah are amone the eleven will make many people think, oh, well — those are bunch of terrorists. Frankly, I’d find it hard to get excited about anyone who planned the mass murder of thousands of people. But this is not about them, but about what kind of society are.

In fact, people’s reluctance to respect the rights of the guilty –or those perceived to be guilty as those freed from death-row will testify– is why we have courts and laws. How do we know it’s only eleven people who’ve disappeared down this Gulag? How do we know they’re guilty? Why can’t they be brought to justice, be tried in court? What are they hiding?

History is crystal clear on this topic: once a society okays the disappearance of a few without accountability, the unaccountable inevitably widen their scope of operations. We’ve been warned.

Senators Jim Bunning (R, Ky.) and Mark Dayton (D, Minn.) are convinced al-Qaeda is out to get them. Why al-Qaeda would bother with either of these clowns is anyone’s guess, but please remember their names the next time someone calls you paranoid for objecting to the PATRIOT Act (which Bunning and Dayton support, of course.)

Europe need no longer cringe in fear of being 45 minutes from a WMD strike from Iraq! Whew!

A big Antiwar.com welcome to our newest blogger, Kevin Michael Grace. Kevin is a Canadian paleocon who has his own show over at The Ambler. We got tired of copying and pasting from his site, so we decided to just go ahead and invite him over. Enjoy!

Titan Corp. contractors beheaded

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) An Islamic Web site on Monday showed the beheading of two hostages one a Turkish contractor and the other an Iraqi Kurdish translator wearing a badge of the Titan security company. A statement said the two were killed by the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, which also claimed responsibility for slaughtering 12 Nepalese workers and three Iraqi Kurds on Aug. 31

Titan Corporation

On a related topic:

KIRKUK, Oct 11 (AFP) – A spike in the number of kidnappings of Turkish tanker drivers delivering fuel to Iraq has plunged the northern city of Kirkuk in an energy crisis, an oil executive said Monday.

“For the first time, Kirkuk is facing a severe fuel shortage because Turkish drivers are refusing to come to Iraq because of the threat of kidnapping and attacks on the road between the two countries,” said Ali Sahin, director of the General Oil Products company during a city council meeting.

He said the Kirkuk refinery was in no position to meet all of the region’s demand, especially with winter approaching.

Two other beheaded bodies were found near Mosul today, but were not identified.

I think I’ll predict that the “weapons handover” currently being touted as part of a “peace deal” between the Mahdi Army of Muqtada al Sadr and the Occupation and it’s Puppets is well on it’s way to fizzling out.

First of all, the deal was that the Mahdi army turn in “medium and heavy weapons” for cash from the government. Early reports say that whoever was supposed to dole out the cash never showed up. In lieu of the promised cash, the Iraqi police have begun to issue “receipts” which insurgents can cash in at some later unspecified point. If you were a guerilla, would you go for that?

According to the AFP, the guerillas are selling their weapons to dealers who are then bringing them to the weapon collection points to collect the money.

It was intermediaries, not bearded militiamen, who handed over the bulk of weapons.

“You see, our bosses sold weapons to the Mehdi Army in the first place,” says Hashim, seemingly proud that he is part of the whole scheme.

“Now we bought them back from them and we will sell them to whoever pays the highest price, and we heard the government is paying good dollars.”

An RPG launcher was fetching 170 dollars, while a sniper rifle was going for 640 dollars, according to a list drawn up by a committee of the interior and defence ministries and the local city council.

They have been charged with overseeing the whole process, which is expected to last until Friday.

Hashim says most of the weapons that were handed in were Russian-made and belonged to the once-mighty army of ousted president Saddam Hussein.

“If this whole ceasefire falls through, we will be ready to rearm the Mehdi Army,” he says, before he is called over by one his companions to unload another stash of mortar launchers and rockets.

And if early signs are any indication, the so-called ceasefire and disarmament initiative appears to be fraught with mistrust and misunderstanding on both sides.

The mechanics of the deal were verbally thrashed out at a meeting Saturday between two Sadr loyalists, Iraq’s National Security Advisor Kassem Daoud and the US military’s Colonel Abe Abrams.

The aim is to restore security and begin reconstruction in Sadr City, which has been the scene of recurring violence and fighting since Sadr launched his revolt against the US occupation in April.

Sadr leaders said Sunday at their base in Sadr City’s Al-Hikma mosque that they expected nothing less than an immediate end to raids and arrests by US troops in the area.

They also demand the release of all their prisoners held in US-run detention centres, estimating their number at 500.

Although both the Iraqi government and the US military have endorsed the initiative, they have taken a wait-and-see approach given so many false starts in the past, insisting they retain the right to conduct raids.

“There is no agreement, there is no ceasefire,” says the US battalion commander for Sadr City, Lieutenant Colonel Gary Volesky, in front of the Al-Jazayer police station, another drop-off centre.

“The leadership (Sadr) has to get out and say that the militia has no role, and that has not been met yet,” he said.