There are lots of tortured and dead U.S. drug war prisoners too. In
fact, some ex-U.S. prison guards are responsible for some of the
injuries and deaths in Iraqi prisons. For lots of info on terrorized,
tortured, murdered, and disappeared U.S. and Iraqi prisoners:
http://www.google.com/search?q=site:cannabisculture%2Ecom+ghraib

"The International Committee of the Red Cross said in recent months that
it suspects the United States is hiding detainees in lockups across the
globe."
-- September 10, 2004. ABC News article: Lawmakers Troubled by 'Ghost
Detainees'.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040910_147.html

"Most broadly, Mr. Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General John Ashcroft,
has led the administration's efforts to justify the use of brutal
interrogation techniques in the name of fighting terrorism."
-- September 10, 2004. New York Times article: No Accountability on Abu
Ghraib.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/10/opinion/10fri1.html


-------------


New York Times. No Accountability on Abu Ghraib.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/10/opinion/10fri1.html

Published: September 10, 2004

After months of Senate hearings and eight Pentagon investigations, it is
obvious that the administration does not intend to hold any high-ranking
official accountable for the nightmare at Abu Ghraib. It was pretty
clear yesterday that Senator John Warner's well-intentioned hearings of
the Armed Services Committee are not going to do it either.

James Schlesinger, who was picked by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
to head a civilian investigation of Abu Ghraib and seems determined to
repay the favor, gave unhelpful testimony that included an incredible
statement that there was no policy "that encourages abuse." He told that
to the same senators who had heard earlier from a panel of generals that
the Central Intelligence Agency was still refusing to account for its
practice of hiding dozens of prisoners from the Red Cross. Mr. Rumsfeld
personally approved that violation of the Geneva Conventions and other
international treaties on at least one occasion.

At the hearing, Mr. Warner asked Mr. Schlesinger and Harold Brown,
another former secretary of defense, to be specific about their report's
talk of "institutional and personal responsibility at higher levels."
Neither man had any intention of doing that.

Senator John McCain, who was a prisoner of war in the Vietnam era, asked
Mr. Schlesinger with evident exasperation: "Isn't there some
accountability? Isn't there some responsibility?" Mr. Schlesinger
managed to come up with the colonel who read the first Red Cross report
on the abuse of prisoners in late 2003 and decided that it was not
credible. As for high-ranking officers and civilians, he intoned,
"careers will be negatively affected."

Senator Edward Kennedy tried again. He read a list of naval officers
fired for minor infractions committed by those under their command and
asked why the same high standards of responsibility should not apply to,
say, Mr. Rumsfeld. Mr. Schlesinger, who had earlier offered the bizarre
theory that "what constitutes 'humane treatment' lies in the eye of the
beholder," replied that "it's more complicated" when it came to holding
a high-ranking politician accountable. He said a man like Mr. Rumsfeld
must be judged on his "full performance."

We agree, enthusiastically. And with due respect to Mr. Warner - who has
bravely continued his hearings and seems willing to keep going for
months more - the answers are in.

Mr. Rumsfeld gave President Bush the legal advice that led to the
president's famous memo declaring that the United States could, at his
discretion, suspend the Geneva Conventions in the "global war on
terror," and that prisoners with the newly minted designation of
"unlawful combatants" were not entitled to the conventions' protections.
Mr. Rumsfeld authorized the use of brutal interrogation techniques at
the prison in Guantánamo Bay, some of which he later rescinded. His war
plans left the Army without enough forces to face the uprising that
followed Mr. Bush's ludicrously premature "mission accomplished"
photo-op. Those policies - which commanders were afraid to challenge -
left 97 untrained military police guarding some 7,000 Iraqis at Abu
Ghraib who were not considered prisoners of war.

Mr. Rumsfeld's staff sent the chief Guantánamo Bay jailer to Iraq.
There, he gave Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who was under immense pressure
from Washington to get intelligence on the Iraqi insurgency, a rundown
on how the military forced information out of prisoners at Guantánamo.
General Sanchez used that briefing, and the logic of the president's
memo on unlawful combatants, to authorize the use of dogs and other
illegal interrogation methods. He later tried to rescind the order, but
every investigation has shown that the notion that the rules had changed
was already widespread in Iraq, as well as at American military prisons
in Afghanistan.

Most broadly, Mr. Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General John Ashcroft,
has led the administration's efforts to justify the use of brutal
interrogation techniques in the name of fighting terrorism.

Late in the day of hearings, Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican,
offered a wry observation on how Mr. Rumsfeld's future had become
wrapped up in Mr. Bush's campaign. "I guess we'll get the real answer to
that after the election," he said.

Perhaps so, but that will be a year after the Red Cross first told the
Army that prisoners were being brutalized at military detention centers
all over Iraq, especially at Abu Ghraib. The American public, and the
rest of the world, should not have to wait that long.

---end of September 10, 2004 New York Times article.----

--------------------

ABCNEWS.com : Lawmakers Troubled by 'Ghost Detainees'.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040910_147.html

Lawmakers Troubled by 'Ghost Detainees'

Congress May Keep Focusing on Iraq Prison Abuse Scandal After More
'Ghost Detainees' Disclosed

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON Sept. 10, 2004 — Congress may keep up the focus on the prison
abuse scandal following the disclosure that the military has concealed
as many as 100 "ghost detainees" from the Red Cross.
The presence of prisoners held by the CIA outside of the military's
usual system of registration and care was an important finding of an
Army investigation completed last month. Defense officials had
previously only acknowledged eight such prisoners.

But on Thursday, Gen. Paul Kern, who oversaw the Army investigation of
the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, told the Senate Armed Services
Committee that the number was "in the dozens, perhaps up to 100."

Kern said he could not be precise because he did not have documentation.
Maj. Gen. George Fay, who investigated military intelligence officers at
Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, said he doubts the figure is as high as 100.
"I think it's somewhere in the area of maybe two dozen or so maybe
more," he said.

Senators criticized the CIA's lack of cooperation in providing the
information.

"The situation with the CIA and ghost soldiers is beginning to look like
a bad movie," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield declined to comment on the number of cases.
He noted the agency's inspector general is reviewing the CIA's
involvement in detention and interrogations in Iraq. "We take these
matters very seriously and are determined to examine thoroughly any
allegations of abuse," he said.

The generals and the authors of a separate report on prison abuses
discussed their investigations in a series of hearings Thursday by the
Senate and House Armed Services committees.

Fay said the Army made several requests to the CIA station chief in Iraq
for information about the detainees.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said in recent months that
it suspects the United States is hiding detainees in lockups across the
globe. Terror suspects reported by the FBI as captured have never turned
up in detention centers, and the United States has failed to reply to
agency demands for a list of everyone it's holding, the agency said.

Under the Geneva Conventions, the United States is obliged to give the
neutral, Swiss-run humanitarian agency access to prisoners of war and
other detainees to check on their conditions and allow them to send
messages to their families.

At Thursday's hearing, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said, "It's totally
unacceptable that documents that are requested from the CIA have not
been forthcoming" and urged the committee to "weigh in on the issue."
McCain said President Bush's nominee to head the CIA, Republican Rep.
Porter Goss of Florida, should be asked about the matter.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate committee, said he may
hold a hearing on the "ghost detainee" issue.

----end of September 10, 2004 ABC News article.

--------------------

Death Squad links. Drug war and more. Worldwide. Mostly U.S.-run or
U.S.-aided terrorism. Millions killed over decades. Torture on an
industrial scale. Murder, corruption, destabilization, disinformation,
subversion of democracy, etc.. Above the Law. What IS it about Texas,
coup d'etats, Dallas, "grassy knolls," contra-cocaine, Big Oil, Bush and
the Texas cocaine cowboy posse, etc.?
http://corporatism.tripod.com/squads.htm and
http://www.corporatism.netfirms.com/squads.htm

---------------

=====
MMM. Million Marijuana March.
Hundreds of cities rally worldwide yearly the first Saturday in May!
2004 reports, photos: http://www.corporatism.netfirms.com/mmm2004rep.htm
MMM Yahoo Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cannabisaction
1994-2000 Governor George W. Bush legacy: 4.7% of Texas adults
are NOW in jail, in prison, on probation, or on parole! Texas leads the world!
Republicrat USA: Nearly half a million people are behind bars NOW
for non-violent drug law violations. More than Western Europe,
with a larger population, incarcerates for everything! Please forward.
Vote for John Kerry if he publicly supports runoff voting! :)~~





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