Troops out?

10 Responses to Troops out?

1. Pingback: Iraq Reviews: Iraq Archives

2. Nadia says:

   October 30, 2005 at 14:31

   Thank you Lady­Bird. I’ll check it up later and see if they have put it up on the Inter­net site. I don’t have BBC.
3. LadyBird says:

   October 30, 2005 at 14:39

   Nadia
   I will check in the com­ing days if Panorama can be down­loaded somewhere.
4. Jon says:

   October 31, 2005 at 09:15

   *I had a nice vaca­tion for a week. Did any­one miss me? Going to have to clock some over­time to catch up here.

   To start, here’s a let­ter from one of my Con­gress­peo­ple which I thought peo­ple would find inter­est­ing.*
   _____
   Thank you for con­tact­ing me to express your sup­port for leg­is­la­tion that would pro­hibit cruel, degrad­ing treat­ment of per­sons in the cus­tody of United States gov­ern­ment. I appre­ci­ate your com­ments on this impor­tant issue and wel­come the oppor­tu­nity to respond.

   Since the emer­gence of pho­tographs depict­ing the abuse of pris­on­ers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, many ques­tions have been raised about the treat­ment of enemy com­bat­ants cap­tured by U.S. and Coali­tion forces from Iraq, Afghanistan, as well as domes­ti­cally. Most recently, evi­dence has sur­faced indi­cat­ing that U.S. agents in Guan­tanamo Bay, Cuba may have been involved in ques­tion­able activ­i­ties, includ­ing the des­e­cra­tion of the Quran, the Islamic holy book. Also, alle­ga­tions have been made that U.S. agents have facil­i­tated the depor­ta­tion and trans­porta­tion of ter­ror sus­pects from the U.S. to nations whose laws per­mit tor­ture.

   I strongly oppose the use of tor­ture by the United States and all of our allies. United States law and inter­na­tional treaties to which the United States is a sig­na­tory expressly pro­hibit the use or facil­i­ta­tion of tor­ture. To this end, I have voted repeat­edly to pro­hibit the use fed­eral funds to con­duct or enable the tor­ture of an indi­vid­ual, regard­less of nation­al­ity. The Bush Admin­is­tra­tion, how­ever, has deter­mined that nei­ther the Con­sti­tu­tion nor the United Nations Con­ven­tion Against Tor­ture, as imple­mented by the United States, applies to aliens held over­seas. I am deeply con­cerned by this posi­tion because I believe that it puts U.S. ser­vice per­son­nel deployed over­seas at greater risk of vio­lent reprisals and it serves as a strong recruit­ing tool for inter­na­tional ter­ror­ists.

   Recently, I joined with my col­leagues in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives to sup­port a res­o­lu­tion call­ing for an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion into the alle­ga­tions of tor­ture at Guan­tanamo Bay. Although I am hope­ful that the House will con­sider this impor­tant leg­is­la­tion in the near future, the House Repub­li­can lead­er­ship has blocked all other efforts to inves­ti­gate this sit­u­a­tion.

   On Octo­ber 7th, the Sen­ate over­whelm­ingly passed an amend­ment to the 2006 Defense Appro­pri­a­tions bill (H.R. 2863) intro­duced by Sen­a­tor John McCain that explic­itly bars cruel and inhu­mane treat­ment of detainees and requires inter­roga­tors to rely on reg­u­la­tions stip­u­lated in the Army’s field man­ual. I strongly sup­port this lan­guage because it cre­ates clear stan­dards of con­duct that reflect the ideals our sol­diers risk their lives for. Unfor­tu­nately, the White House has already threat­ened to veto the mea­sure, and Vice Pres­i­dent Cheney is actively cam­paign­ing to exempt the CIA from the pro­vi­sion.

   Abuse of pris­on­ers harms — not helps — us in the war on ter­ror. Sub­ject­ing pris­on­ers to abuse leads to bad intel­li­gence, because under tor­ture a detainee will tell his inter­roga­tor any­thing to make the pain stop. In addi­tion, mis­treat­ment of our pris­on­ers endan­gers U.S. troops who might be cap­tured by the enemy — if not in this war, then in the next. If allowed to occur, inci­dents of pris­oner abuse will inevitably become pub­lic, and when they do, the cruel actions of a few will have the power to tar­nish the image of our nation in the eyes of the world.

   While the House ver­sion of the Defense Appro­pri­a­tions bill did not include a detainee pro­vi­sion, Sen­a­tor McCain’s amend­ment will cer­tainly be debated fur­ther as the House and Sen­ate come together to craft the final appro­pri­a­tions bill. As this process con­tin­ues, you may be assured that I will con­tinue to sup­port such a ban on tor­ture and will cer­tainly keep your com­ments in mind should I have the oppor­tu­nity to vote on this mat­ter in the future.

   As Amer­i­cans, we must hold our­selves to humane stan­dards of treat­ment of pris­on­ers — no mat­ter how evil they may be. Ter­ror­ists cer­tainly don’t deserve our sym­pa­thy. But this isn’t about who they are. This is about who we are, and about the val­ues that dis­tin­guish us from our enemies.

   Again, thank you for con­tact­ing me. Please feel free to do so on any issue of con­cern to you.
5. Jon says:

   October 31, 2005 at 09:24

   Bush Uses Iraq to Deflect Criticism

   An embat­tled Pres­i­dent George Bush sought on Sat­ur­day to shift the focus away from a host of domes­tic polit­i­cal crises by call­ing for the Amer­i­can peo­ple to back the strug­gle for democ­racy in Iraq.

   At the end of a dis­as­trous week for the White House, which cul­mi­nated in the indict­ment and res­ig­na­tion of senior aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Bush and senior Repub­li­cans launched a counter-offensive in a bid to regain the polit­i­cal initiative.

   *Editor’s Note — One fas­cist down… a few hun­dred to go.*
6. Jon says:

   October 31, 2005 at 09:27

   Nobody ever said fun­da­men­tal­ists were smart.

   *Editor’s Note — This has got to be in the run­ning for a Dar­win Award.*
7. LadyBird says:

   October 31, 2005 at 09:30

   Good to see you back Jon
8. Jon says:

   October 31, 2005 at 10:18

   Thanks! It’s good to be back! I missed all the play­ful banter. ;-)
9. Nadia says:

   October 31, 2005 at 21:23

   Wel­come back Jon!!!
10. Jon says:

    November 2, 2005 at 11:15

    Thanks! Let’s hope we can do some good here.