Antiwar.com Blog

when not-quite-white terrorists defeated their more civilized occupiers! Aka, Cinco de Mayo.

Here’s an update to this post about the “private contractor” working for the CIA in Iraq murdering an Iraqi. Amazingly, there’s another one – and a murder a CIA officer is thought to have committed.

The AP reports:

In addition, the deaths of two Iraqi prisoners already have been ruled homicides, the Army said Tuesday. In one case, a soldier was court-martialed, reduced in rank and discharged from the Army. In the other case, a CIA contract interrogator’s conduct has been referred to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution, the Army said.

Meanwhile, an intelligence official said Wednesday that the CIA inspector general is investigating two other deaths involving CIA interrogators. One took place at an Afghan prison near the Pakistan border in June 2003 and involved an independent contractor working for the CIA. The other death occurred at another, unspecified location in Iraq and involved a CIA interrogator, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

That means that in total, U.S. officials have acknowledged two prisoner deaths they consider to be homicides, and have ongoing investigations into another 12 deaths.

A recurring feature in which we take a look at U.S. occupations around the globe, via the viciously anti-American Stars & Stripes. Story #1:

Ramstein airmen face courts-martial on indecent assault charges

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Two Ramstein Air Base airmen face courts-martial this month on charges of indecent assault stemming from an incident in a base dormitory. …

The two airmen allegedly committed the offenses against one female victim on Aug. 15 in an on-base dormitory, Young said.

Eh, the Nazi Kraut had it coming. Next up:

Two sailors indicted in connection with theft of fishing boat in Japan

SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — The Nagasaki Prosecutor’s Office, Sasebo Branch, indicted two USS Fort McHenry sailors Friday in connection with the April 12 theft of a fishing boat.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Tyler Montayne Dutcher, 21, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Brandon James Kelley, 20, were arrested April 12 when they were discovered inside the stolen boat after allegedly running the craft aground.

The indictment charges them in the theft of the boat and endangering traffic through negligence, according to a Japanese news report.

The indictment alleges that the two sailors stole the boat, worth about $139,000, around midnight April 12 while it was moored at in Kashimae Cho. It says they took the boat on a 40-minute joyride, then ran it aground damaging several parts.

Shortly after their arrest, an Ainoura police spokesman said the key was in the ignition when the sailors boarded the boat owned by a local seafood company.

Well, come on, the key was in the ignition! Boys will be boys! This sort of thing happens at fraternity houses all the time! Speaking of which:

Alleged Okinawa intruder reportedly many times over legal intoxication limit

OKINAWA CITY, Okinawa — Okinawa prefectural police said they were holding in custody Monday a U.S. Marine for illegally entering an off-base apartment Sunday.

Cpl. Jerry R. Campbell Jr., 25, was arrested for trespassing at 5:20 a.m., as he stood outside the apartment in the Yaejima district of Okinawa City, a police spokesman said.

According to the police report, Campbell, a Camp Schwab-based Marine who tested nearly seven times the legal limit for public intoxication in Japan, wandered into a ground-floor apartment.

The 45-year-old woman living in the apartment said that after hearing a noise, she turned on the living room light and saw Campbell standing in the middle of the floor clad only in a T-shirt. …

Police officers found Campbell’s wallet, pants and soiled underwear in a flowerbed at the apartment complex, the police spokesman said.

Ingrates!

Nikolai at Lenin’s Tomb seems to have caught an interesting case of possible revisionism.

He quotes a BBC article:

Those torture photos? Military intelligence ordered them to be taken :

The lawyer for one of the soldiers accused of being involved in the events which prompted outrage around the world said orders had been given for the photographs to be taken.

“They were part of the psychological manipulation of the prisoners being interrogated,” Guy Womack, attorney for Charles Graner Jr, told NBC television.

“It was being controlled and devised by the military intelligence community and other governmental agencies, including the CIA,” he said, adding that the soldiers were simply “following orders”

.

Now the BBC article has a different title and the sentence about the pictures being ordered taken is gone. However, Google News still has the original article though the link now takes you to the revised article.

Answers demanded over Iraq abuse
BBC News, UK – 21 hours ago
… one of the soldiers accused of being involved in the events which prompted outrage around the world said orders had been given for the photographs to be taken. …

The internet never forgets. Looks like either a soldier has been edited for making unapproved statements or the BBC misquoted him and failed to post a correction.

Why they would do this is beyond me.

Scores of prisoners released from the controversial Abu Ghraib prison Tuesday were forced to take a winding, nearly five-hour journey through central Iraq on three hot, rickety buses escorted by U.S. military Humvees before being deposited without explanation in the middle of a gravel quarry near Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit.

It was unclear why the detainees, at least a hundred of them, were dropped off at the remote location 120 miles north of Baghdad. Some got rides home from relatives who had frantically followed the buses in their vehicles. Others climbed into the back of a dump truck or returned to their buses and got a ride back to Baghdad. A few were still milling about on the dirt road where they were released when a reporter and photographer left the scene.

The bizarre ordeal for the detainees came as the U.S. military continues to reel from the prisoner-abuse scandal that erupted last week. Photographs showed Iraqis at Abu Ghraib being subjected to various humiliations, including being stripped naked and forced to simulate sex acts.

U.S. military officials didn’t respond to several requests for comment about the way detainees were released Tuesday. Soldiers who escorted the convoy said briefly that there was some kind of mix-up, then they quickly drove away.

One of the Iraqi bus drivers said angrily as he was driving away: “They are playing with their nerves. They are trying to destroy them. This is not the first time.”

The Pentagon announced today that they were going to reduce the population of Abu Ghraib Prison by half. But why take them on this bizarre bus ride and dump them at a quarry? Why can’t they just walk out the gate and get picked up by family?

On Tuesday, most of the detainees appeared relieved to be out of custody. Some embraced relatives while others danced and chanted. One furiously tore up what appeared to be a glossy English-language brochure.

All were bound at the wrists during the journey, which started at the prison just west of Baghdad sometime before 10 a.m.

The three buses were escorted by three Humvees as they traveled first to Baghdad. As they entered the city, the convoy made a U-turn and then headed north. The buses were followed by nearly two dozen vehicles that move from side to side with turns and lane shifts.

About 60 miles north of Baghdad, near the town of Balad, the buses turned down a side road and entered a military base.

Outside the gate, Iraqis hoping to find relatives on the buses asked what was happening but were told only that the convoy was refueling. After about 15 minutes, an Iraqi guard suggested that family members drive to a second entrance where the convoy might emerge.

The Iraqis drove back to the main highway and waited at the turnoff leading to the other gate. There they could see if the convoy was coming from either direction.

Kamell Hassen, 52, of Samarra, said he was at the prison to inquire about when his brother, Thamer, 40, would be released, but couldn’t get any information.

“I saw three buses getting out of the prison,” he said. “I decided to follow the buses.”

Hassen said coalition forces came to his house in December and took his brother away after beating him in front of his family.

He said after the pictures of the Abu Ghraib prisoners were aired last week, “all my family is getting crazy.”

“This is a crime against humanity,” he said. “This is a crime against Islam and other religions.”

Though he didn’t know if his brother was on any of the buses, he said he was willing to follow them “until midnight.”

Suddenly the convoy appeared again on the main highway. The detainees waved from their windows as they rode by. The awaiting Iraqis scrambled into their vehicles to resume the mysterious pursuit.

The convoy eventually reached the outskirts of Tikrit and wound its way down some residential streets before crossing a bridge and driving onto a dirt road.

About a mile down the road the convoy stopped and, after a few moments of confusion, the prisoners were released around 2:30 p.m.

One detainee, who declined to give his name, asked, “Is this democracy?”

This callous treatment just reinforces the impression of American disregard for the Iraqis’ wellbeing and dignity. Why can’t they do something decent for just once! Not even in the middle of the furor over the revelation of systematic torture and murder in Abu Ghraib, do they try to display some humanity. This is digusting.

An unorthodox suggestion from the Rational Enquirer. (Great post, except for the bit about tax cuts.) At issue here is not whether or not the Iraqi resistance are good guys or bad guys, as some simpletons frame it, but whether or not the unopposed domination of the Empire is good for its citizens.