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Today's
Stories
May
4, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Privatized Torture
May
3, 2004
Virginia
Tilley
Let the Wall of Silence Fall
May
1 / 2, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
An Army in Disgrace, a Policy
in Tatters, the Real Prospect of Defeat
Robert
Fisk
"Good Guys" Who Can Do No
Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
Watching Niagara: Stupid Leaders,
Useless Spies, Angry World
Heather
Williams
Gringo, We're Going Home: Latin
American Troops Flee Iraq
Diane
Rejman
An Army Vet on Torture in Iraq:
Abu Ghraib as My Lai?
Diane
Christian
Blood Spilling: Osama, Bush and
Sharon Speak the Same Language
Patrick
Cockburn
Seems Like Old Times in Fallujah
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Torturous Logic: Shocked,
Shocked, Shocked
Chris
Floyd
Suicide Bomber: Neocons, Nihilists
and Annihilation
April
29 / 30, 2004
Dave
Zirin
A Pawn in Their Game: the Unlonesome
Death of Pat Tillman
Kathy
Kelly
The Warden's Tour
Greg
Weiher
Fallujah and the Warsaw Ghetto: the
Banality of Evil
Michael
S. Ladah
Terrorism and Assassination: the
Ultimate Depception
Patrick
Cockburn
The Fallujah Mutinies
April
28, 2004
April
28, 2004
Christopher
Brauchli
Meet Congressman Know-Nothing:
Tom Tancredo
Wendy
Brinker
The Politics of the Numb
Faisal
Kutty
The Dirty Work of Canadian Intelligence
John
Chuckman
Seeking the Evil One
Mike
Whitney
Flag-Draped Coffins and the Seattle Times
Tom
Mountain
Rwanda and the F***** Word
Graeme
Greenback
The Iraqi Alamo: a CNN/CIA Production
Tracy
McLellan
The War Comes Home
M.
Junaid Alam
We are the Barbarians
William
Loren Katz
Iraq, the US and an Old Lesson
April 27, 2004
James
Davis
The Colombia 3 Acquitted
Dave
Lindorff
Chalabi as Prosecutor
Bruce
Schneier
Terrorist Threats and Political
Gain
Cockburn
/ Sengupta
British Generals Resist Calls for
More Troops to Aid Americans in Iraq
Walt
Brasch
Presidential Letters: The Day I
Was Asked to Feed an Elephant
Saul
Landau
The Empire in Denial and the Denial
of Empire
April 26, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Crossing the Shia Line: US Troops
Prepare to Enter Najaf
Wayne
Madsen
Trading Places: Will the US Go the Way of the USSR?
Grover
Furr
Protest, Rebellion, Commitment
Elaine
Cassel
Lies About the Patriot Act
Mickey
Z.
Inspired by Pat Tillman?
Greg
Moses
Bremer's De-De-Ba'athjfication Gambit
Gila
Svirsky
Anarchy in Our Souls
Uri
Avnery
Vanunu and the Terrible Secret
April 24 / 25, 2004
William
A. Cook
Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry
and Bush Melt into One
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Stryking Out: a General, GM and the Army's Latest Tank
Brandy
Baker
A Revitalized Women's Movement? Let's Hope So
Robert
Fisk
A Warning to Those Who Dare Criticize Israel in the Land of Free
Speech
Ben
Tripp
October Surmise: a Case of Worst Scenarios
Nelson
Valdés
"Submit or Die": Iraq and the American Borg
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Return to the Future
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Killed Pat Tillman
Mark
Scaramella
Does Anybody Know Anything?
Patrick
Cockburn
The Return of Saddam's Generals
Gary
Engler
Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas
Col.
Dan Smith
Whistling in the Dark: Israel, Palestine and Bush
Greg
Weiher
Iraq is Utterly Unlike Vietnam...
Elaine
Cassel
Life on the Outside: a Review
Vanessa
Jones
Letter from Australia: Why an Independent Won Sydney
Jim
French
Agriculture's Bullied Market
Hammond
Guthrie
Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and The Beatles
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Holt, Albert, LaMorticella
April 23, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
The Only Solution is Immediate Withdrawal
Dave
Lindorff
Imagination Deficit Disorder
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Contractors and Mercenaries: the Rising Corporate Military Monster
Norman
Solomon
Country Joe Band, 2004: "What Are We Fighting For?"
Cynthia
McKinney
All Things Are Not Equal: the Perils of Globalization
CounterPunch
Wire
A Bitch Called Wanda
Karyn
Strickler
Sierra Club, Inc.
Hammond
Guthrie
Yellow Caked in the Face
Paul
de Rooij
Graveyard of Justifications: Glossary
of the Iraqi Occupation
April 22, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
When Terror Came to Basra: "I
Saw a Minibus of Children on Fire"
Tanya
Reinhart
The Wall Behind Disengagement
Lance
Selfa
Why is Kucinich Still in the Race?
Josh
Frank
Street Fighting Man? Kucinich's Pulled Punches
Sen.
Robert Byrd
Bush Owes America Answers on Iraq
William
S. Lind
Why We Get It Wrong
Mickey
Z.
Undoing the Latches
Robert
Jensen
Why They Fast: Remembering the Victims of the World Bank
John
L. Hess
The New York Times from 30,000 Feet
April
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Yeats on Iraq
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia's Forgotten Prisoners
Dr.
Susan Block
Bush's Taliban Drug Deal
William
A. Cook
George 1 to George 2
Jack
Random
Iraq and Vietnam
Jean-Guy
Allard
Alarcon Meets the Editors
Mike
Whitney
Charade in the Desert
Bill
Christison
Only Major Policies Changes Can
Help Washington Now
April 20, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Bush and Kerry Share a Problem
Stan
Cox
Wal-Mart's Magic Numbers
Bruce
Anderson
On Listening to Air America
Joseph
Kalvoda
Czech Mate for Condi
Greg
Moses
Yesterday's Intelligence
Stan
Goff
The Democrats and Iraq
Website
of the Day
Santorum Happens
April 19, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
The "Central Hand" of the
Resistance
Mike
Whitney
Bob Woodward's Imperial Trifles
Douglas
Valentine
52 Pick-Up and the 100-to-1
Rule
John
Chuckman
The Sharon Annex: Evil Does Often
Triumph
Doug
Giebel
Welcome to the Club
Rahul
Mahajan
Hospital Closings and War Crimes
April
16 / 18, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Bush Legitimizes Terror
Saul
Landau
Subverting Brazil and Cuba
Dave
Lindorff
Paying for War: $2,150 per Family
and Counting
Brandy
Baker
Fallujah's Collateral Damage
Mickey
Z.
The Left Attacks from the Right
Bruce
Jackson
The Bush Press Conference: Gott Mit
Uns
Norman
Solomon
How the "NewsHour" Changed
History
Alexander
Cockburn
Bush, Kerry and Empire
April
15, 2004
Greg
Moses
Follow the Families, Not the Script
Virginia
Tilley
The Carnage According to Gen. Kimmitt:
Just Change the Channel
Ron
Jacobs
They Coulda Been Champions of the
World: Hurricane Carter and Ron Kovic
Michael
Neumann
A Happy Compromise: Hate Crimes
Reporting in the Toronto Globe and Mail
April
14, 2004
Tom
Reeves
Return to Haiti: an American Learning
Zone
Reza
Fiyouzat
Japan and Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
What Bush Really Said
Diane
Christian
The Real Passion
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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May
4, 2004
Inside the Cells
of Abu Ghraib
The CIA Privatized
Torture
By KURT NIMMO
Damn video and digital cameras.
If not for the availability
of these electronic devices, it is possible the world would have
never viewed -- to its collective disgust -- the images of the
hideous events that took place in the murky depths of the Abu
Ghraib military prison.
It's safe to say US Brig. Gen.
Janis Karpinski -- who commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade
in Baghdad and will likely be held responsible for what happened
inside Abu Ghraib -- regrets such devices ever existed.
It is not simply a proliferation
of cheap electronic cameras that revealed how US military and
intelligence officers and agents work over detainees, but a secret
US Army internal investigation report leaked to the New Yorker
and handed over to ace investigative journalist Seymour Hersh
played an important role as well.
According to the author of
the report, Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, reservist military police
at Abu Ghraib were instructed by Army military officers and the
CIA to "set physical and mental conditions for favorable
interrogation of witnesses" -- in other words they were
to be tortured until they were reduced to well-disposed porridge.
As we now understand, it was
not simply the military and the CIA involved the torture at Abu
Ghraib -- so-called interrogation specialists from private  defense
contractors were hired to humiliate and break detainees identified
by Hersh as common criminals, security detainees suspected of
crimes against the occupation, and a small number of suspected
high-value leaders of the resistance against the occupation.
Following Hersh's explosive
revelations, the Guardian filled in conspicuous gaps and reported
companies contracted at Abu Ghraib include CACI International
and the Titan Corporation. CACI's website claims its mission
is to "help America's intelligence community collect, analyze
and share global information in the war on terrorism." Titan
describes itself as "a leading provider of comprehensive
information and communications products, solutions and services
for national security."
As Julian Borger of the Guardian
points out, the military and the CIA may be using private "security"
and "national security" corporations because they are
not under military jurisdiction. "One civilian contractor
was accused of raping a young male prisoner but has not been
charged because military law has no jurisdiction over him,"
writes Borger.
In fact, the CIA has used torture
by proxy for decades.
Consider as an example the
CIA's activities in Guatemala. "In March 1995, it was revealed
that CIA Guatemalan assets were involved in the murders of American
citizen Michael Devine and Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, a guerrilla
leader married to an American woman, Jennifer Harbury,"
writes Jon Elliston. Harbury and Sister Diana Ortiz -- an American
nun kidnapped, raped, and tortured by Guatemalan security forces
in 1989 -- managed to gain Clinton White House assurances that
the CIA's involvement in Guatemala would be made public.
But as investigative journalist
Allan Nairn discovered, the CIA had "systematic links to
Guatemalan Army death squad operations that go far beyond the
disclosures" made public by the Clinton administration.
Nairn interviewed former officials from the United States and
Guatemala who revealed that "CIA operatives work inside
a Guatemalan Army unit that maintains a network of torture centers
and has killed thousands of Guatemalan civilians."
A former U.S. Defense Intelligence
Agency official in Guatemala told Nairn the involvement was so
extensive that "it would be an embarrassing situation if
you ever had a roll call of everybody in the Guatemalan Army
who ever collected a CIA paycheck."
In June 1995, Baltimore Sun
reporters Gary Cohn and Ginger Thompson revealed the CIA's close
involvement with a Honduran military intelligence unit, Battalion
316. As Cohn and Thompson reported, the CIA worked with Argentine
military experts that had a decade of experience torturing and
killing dissidents. The CIA and Argentine thugs instructed and
guided Battalion 316 in surveillance and interrogation in much
the same way the CIA and the Pentagon's MI apparently instructed
"contractors" from CACI International and the Titan
Corporation at Abu Ghraib in the torture of unfortunate Iraqis.
In addition to Honduras and
Guatemala, the CIA has instructed torturers and assisted in overthrowing
governments in Chile, Bolivia,Uruguay, Greece, the Dominican
Republic, Indonesia, El Salvador, Brazil, Ecuador, Congo, Haiti,
Laos, Iran, and elsewhere. Noriega, Galtieri, Pinochet, Rodriguez,
Fujimori, and Alvarado -- these are but a few of the murderous
dictators tutored by the CIA. Both the Taliban and al-Qaeda are
creations of the CIA. According to the Association for Responsible
Dissent, by 1987 6 million people had died as a result of CIA
covert operations. William Blum, a former State Department official
and historian, terms this an "American Holocaust."
Bush "plans to 'unleash'
the CIA to perpetrate political assassinations, torture and a
string of human rights violations," writes Raymond Ker of
Middle East News, "...'physical interrogation' (read: torture)
is recommended by the venerable Newsweek magazine; and George
W Bush orders the institution of military tribunals for suspected
terrorists in camera and without a jury."
It appears this is what happened
at Abu Ghraib -- the CIA and military intelligence were "unleashed"
on those in the Iraq resistance (or simply suspected of being
associated with the Iraqi resistance or maybe insulting viceroy
Bremer's intelligence).
9/11 provided the CIA with
a custom-made excuse to continue its gratuitous use of torture,
either directly or through proxy. After thethe Senate Intelligence
Committee conducted hearings on terrorism in December 2002, several
CIA officers told Alasdair Palmer of the UK Telegraph that "they
were in no doubt about what they would have to do: they would
have to torture people ... The unanimity in American law-enforcement
circles is striking. Torture is no longer simply a topic for
debate. The debate has been won."
At the Bagram air force base
in Afghanistan, this debate is ancient history -- and there is
absolutely no worry about human rights or the Geneva Convention
as it pertains to prisoners of war. As the Washington Post reported
in December 2002, the CIA routinely tortured al-Qaeda and Taliban
suspects at Bagram -- interrogations resulting in at least two
deaths.
Cofer Black, the former director
of the CIA's counter-terrorist branch, told a congressional intelligence
committee at the time: "All you need to know: there was
a before 9/11, and there was an after 9/11... After 9/11 the
gloves come off."
According to US officials responsible
for capturing and detaining terrorist suspects, the only problem
with torture is that the CIA was prevented from using it by fence-straddling
lawmakers and a public without stomach. "If you don't violate
someone's human rights some of the time, you probably aren't
doing your job," an official told the Washington Post.
Late last year the Sunday Times
reported the CIA was actively recruiting former agents from Saddam
Hussein's notorious security force, Mukhabarat. Mohammed Abdullah,
who had spent 10 years in the Mukhabarat and eight in Iraqi military
intelligence, told the Sunday Times he was on the CIA's payroll
-- hired to hunt down members of the resistance as well as Iraqis
allegedly spying for Iran and Syria. "If successfully set
up, the group would work in tandem with American forces but would
have its own structure and relative independence," an anonymous
intelligence officer told the Times. "It could be expected
to be fairly ruthless in dealing with the remnants of Saddam."
It does not seem to matter to the CIA or Bush, however, that
many former members of Mukhabarat remain Saddam loyalists.
Considering the above, a pattern
begins to emerge: the CIA runs the counterinsurgency effort in
Iraq, from directing Mukhabarat in the field -- rounding up resistance
fighters and their supporters -- to overseeing the operations
of mercenaries (many recruited from Chilean and South African
military services) and directing "interrogations" conducted
by private companies such as CACI International, the Titan Corporation,
and defense contractors.
Although individual soldiers
are under investigation for abusing Iraqi detainees -- and Hersh
names them in his article -- there is no mention of the CIA,
military intelligence, or private corporations (this information
was provided by Jullian Borger of the Guardian, aBritishnewspaper).
As usual in such situations, lowly scapegoats will be sacrificed
-- careers ruined, pensions lost -- and the real culprits will
fade into the background, allowed to continue their repulsive
work.
On Sunday, May 2, Fox News
and CNN were strangely mute about the scandal, although the European
and Arab press continued to publish accounts of the torture.
Of course, considering another CIA Operation -- innocuously dubbed
Operation Mockingbird -- this should be expected. As far back
as the late 1940s, the CIA recruited US news organizations and
individual journalists as disseminators of CIA propaganda. All
told, at least 25 news organizations and 400 journalists became
helpmates for the mega-snoop organization.
Of course, for Iraqis finding
such behavior deeply offensive -- especially the pornographic
aspects at odds with Arab culture -- the wholesale depravity
of Abu Ghraib will serve as yet more inspiration to resist the
occupation and eventually get rid Bush, the CIA, and their hired
sadists. Fox News and CNN may choose to allow Abu Ghraib drop
from the media radar screen and move on to more superficial and
politically disengaged news items but in the Arab world the damage
has been done and it has momentous consequences.
On the day the US leaves Iraq
in disgrace, not even Fox News will not be able to ignore helicopters
departing from the roof of the US embassy in Baghdad.
Kurt Nimmo is a photographer and multimedia developer
in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Visit his excellent no holds barred
blog at www.kurtnimmo.com/blogger.html
. Nimmo is a contributor to Cockburn and St. Clair's,
The
Politics of Anti-Semitism. A collection of his essays
for CounterPunch, Another
Day in the Empire, is now available from Dandelion Books.
He can be reached at: nimmo@zianet.com
Weekend Edition
Features for April 24 / 25, 2004
William
A. Cook
Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry
and Bush Melt into One
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Stryking Out: a General, GM and the Army's Latest Tank
Brandy
Baker
A Revitalized Women's Movement? Let's Hope So
Robert
Fisk
A Warning to Those Who Dare Criticize Israel in the Land of Free
Speech
Ben
Tripp
October Surmise: a Case of Worst Scenarios
Nelson
Valdés
"Submit or Die": Iraq and the American Borg
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Return to the Future
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Killed Pat Tillman
Mark
Scaramella
Does Anybody Know Anything?
Patrick
Cockburn
The Return of Saddam's Generals
Gary
Engler
Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas
Col.
Dan Smith
Whistling in the Dark: Israel, Palestine and Bush
Greg
Weiher
Iraq is Utterly Unlike Vietnam...
Elaine
Cassel
Life on the Outside: a Review
Vanessa
Jones
Letter from Australia: Why an Independent Won Sydney
Jim
French
Agriculture's Bullied Market
Hammond
Guthrie
Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and The Beatles
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Holt, Albert, LaMorticella
|