By Think Progress on June 18th, 2008
Ex. State Dept. Official: Hundreds of detainees died in U.S. custody, at least 25 murdered.
At today’s House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil Rights
hearing on torture, Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, told Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) that over 100 detainees have died in U.S. custody, with up to 27 of these declared homicides:NADLER: Your testimony said 100 detainees have died in detention; do you believe the 25 of those were in effect murdered?
WILKERSON: Mr. Chairman, I think the number’s actually higher than that now. Last time I checked it was 108.
A February 2006 Human Rights First report found that although hundreds of people in U.S. custody had died and eight people were tortured to death, only
12 deaths had “resulted in punishment of any kind for any U.S. official.”Transcript:
NADLER: Colonel Wilkerson, in your prepared testimony, you write that “as I compiled my dossier for Secretary Powell, and as I did further research, and as my views grew firmer and firmer I had to reread that memo (of February 7, 2002), “I needed to balance in my own mind the overwhelming evidence that my own government had sanctioned abuse and torture, which at its worse had led to the murder of 25 detainees and at least 100 detainee deaths. We have murder at least 25 people in detention. That was the clear low point [lower end of the range] of the evidence.” Your testimony said 100 detainees have died in detention; do
you believe the 25 of those were in effect murdered?
WILKERSON: Mr. Chairman, I think the number’s actually higher than that now. Last time I checked it was 108, and the total number that were declared homicides by the military services, or by the CIA, or others doing investigations, CID, and so forth — was 25, 26, 27.
NADLER: Were declared homicides?
WILKERSON: Right, starting as early as December 2001 in Afghanistan.
NADLER: And these were homicides committed by people engaged in interrogations?
WILKERSON: Or in guarding prisoners, or something like that. People who were in detention.
NADLER: They were in detention, not trying to escape or anything, declared homicides by our own authorities.
End of Article
This USAF-NATO Anti-War veteran selected a few comments which I believe adequately reflects the disgust and outrage that all decent peoples, especially Americans, should feel in the barbaric, criminal, Nazi tactics employed by this Bush administration with the complicit criminal involvement of Pelosi, Hoyer, Conyers, Reid and every member of Congress who voted to support these “imperialistic” wars and refuse to put the impeachment process in effect. And, we wonder why third world countries of poor people hate us!.
Gregor Samsa Says:
That’s right. These prisoners were murdered.
And, since for the first time in history, approval for torturing prisoners came from the higher echelons in the current administration, Rumsfeld et al are war criminals.
Not that I had any doubt about it.
June 18th, 2008 at 9:14 pmcurmudgeon Says:
According to the “official” Bush Administration version of the events on 9/11, of the nineteen hijackers, their countries of origin and numbers were as follows: Saudi Arabia (15), United Arab Emirates (2), Egypt (1) and Lebanon (1). Well, the United States is certainly teaching those countries a lesson, huh?
June 18th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
bogtrotters Says:
Reprehensible. Unforgivable. Un-American.
June 18th, 2008 at 9:33 pmhanshiro Says:
Well, let’s see…
bush administration Torturing people.
bush administration murdering people, beating deaths.
bush administration experimenting on our troops without their knowledge.
bush administration invading a sovereign nation under false pretenses.
bush administration spying on US citizens without a court order.
bush administration enabled and held unaccountable by a toothless legislature.
This is America….forget the “No True Scotsman” fallacy to pretend this somehow “isn’t America”….this is America now. This is bush’s america because we allow it; One day at a time.
We are allowing Pelosi, Reid, and Coward Conyers to let republican-nazi war criminals bush and cheney, rice and powell, rumsfeld and wolfowitz, Ashcroft and Gonzales, to walk around scot-free.
Reverend Wright was correct: God damn bush’s America. Cuz we don’t.
June 18th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
And Yet... Says:
The ACLU in 10/05 just about defined what BushCo authorized. No matter how much the Fed Admin. buttboys & girls squirm in the hearings, this is what their documents authorized:
http://action.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/102405/ http://www.aclu.org/ intlhumanrights/ gen/ 21236prs20051024.htmlAn excerpt (sorry for its length; it’s actually brief compared to the whole report)-
The records reveal the following facts:
A 27-year-old Iraqi male died while being interrogated by Navy Seals on April 5, 2004, in Mosul, Iraq. During his confinement he was hooded, flex-cuffed, sleep deprived and subjected to hot and cold environmental conditions, including the use of cold water on his body and hood. The exact cause of death was “”undetermined”" although the autopsy stated that hypothermia may have contributed to his death. Notes say he “”struggled/ interrogated/ died sleeping.”" Some facts relating to this case have been previously reported. (In April 2003, Secretary Rumsfeld authorized the use of “”environmental manipulation”" as an interrogation technique in Guantánamo Bay. In September 2003, Lt. Gen. Sanchez also authorized this technique for use in Iraq. Although Lt. Gen. Sanchez later rescinded the September 2003 techniques, he authorized “”changes in environmental quality”" in October 2003.)
An Iraqi detainee (also described as a white male) died on January 9, 2004, in Al Asad, Iraq, while being interrogated by “”OGA.”" He was standing, shackled to the top of a door frame with a gag in his mouth at the time he died. The cause of death was asphyxia and blunt force injuries. Notes summarizing the autopsies record the circumstances of death as “”Q by OGA, gagged in standing restraint.”" (Facts in the autopsy report appear to match the previously reported case of Abdul Jaleel.)
A detainee was smothered to death during an interrogation by Military Intelligence on November 26, 2003, in Al Qaim, Iraq. A previously released autopsy report, that appears to be of General Mowhoush, lists “”asphyxia due to smothering and chest compression”" as the cause of death and cites bruises from the impact with a blunt object. New documents specifically record the circumstances of death as “”Q by MI, died during interrogation.”"
A detainee at Abu Ghraib Prison, captured by Navy Seal Team number seven, died on November 4, 2003, during an interrogation by Navy Seals and “”OGA.”" A previously released autopsy report, that appears to be of Manadel Al Jamadi, shows that the cause of his death was “”blunt force injury complicated by compromised respiration.”" New documents specifically record the circumstances of death as “”Q by OGA and NSWT died during interrogation.”"
An Afghan civilian died from “”multiple blunt force injuries to head, torso and extremities”" on November 6, 2003, at a Forward Operating Base in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. (Facts in the autopsy report appear to match the previously reported case of Abdul Wahid.)
A 52-year-old male Iraqi was strangled to death at the Whitehorse detainment facility on June 6, 2003, in Nasiriyah, Iraq. His autopsy also revealed bone and rib fractures, and multiple bruises on his body. (Facts in the autopsy report appear to match the previously reported case of Nagm Sadoon Hatab.)
hellinabucket Says:
These are war crimes. What does this country stand for if we don’t hold all accountable to the laws we have. For the Bush administration to hide behind the term “Enemy Combatant” to conduct torture and condone murder is the most despicable act I have ever seen come out of the White House.
No blowjob is bigger than the one we’ve been getting from these bags of wind for the last 7 years.
It’s time to impeach.
June 19th, 2008 at 10:03 am
428CobraJet Says:
Pelosi and the dems, won’t do anything, because this war and the war crimes that go with it, are being done for the Ashke-Nazi Fatherland in the Middle East. They are the Masters of both parties. Sad but true! Research the U.S.S. Liberty attack. And that attack was 40 years ago. Their control over this country, has grown since 1967.
If this country is going to survive, we must break free of the death grip, these Inhuman Monsters have over the U.S.A! They will surely destroy it, if we don’t. And it must be soon.