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worldbefree
07-25-2005, 03:59 PM
2,000 vets call for release of more Abu Ghraib photos

RAW STORY

Veterans for Common Sense (VCS), a nonpartisan veterans' organization with 12,000 members, called for a commission to investigate torture allegations today, in response to the Pentagon refusal to release photos and videos from Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, the group said in a release Monday. Details follow.
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In an open letter, signed by more than 2,000 veterans and supporters (including 5 flag-rank officers and more than 200 commissioned officers), the veterans urged Congress and the President to "commit -- immediately and publicly -- to support the creation of an independent commission to investigate and report on the detention and interrogation practices of U.S. military and intelligence agencies deployed in the war on terror."

Charles Sheehan-Miles, a 1991 Gulf War veteran and the group's executive director, said, "Once again the administration is fighting to prevent any possible public accountability for its policies, instead choosing to blame it all on the troops. To court-martial privates while high ranking officials get promoted is damaging to the very principle of command responsibility and undermines the U.S. military."
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Veterans for Common Sense is co-plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of human rights and civil liberties groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights. The lawsuit has generated thousands of pages of documents in the last year documenting torture, abuse and in some cases murder in U.S. detention centers.

Individuals who have seen the photos and videos, including some members of Congress and journalist Seymour Hersh, have reported they include scenes far worse than anything released from Abu Ghraib thus far, including rape and the videotaped beating of a prisoner. The courts had ordered the Pentagon to release the photos by Friday, July 22, but the Pentagon filed a last minute brief attempting to block their release.

Sheehan-Miles said, "The Pentagon is doing everything it can to prevent the release of these graphic images, because they know that if the U.S. public were to see the true scope of the abuses, the demands for an independent investigation would be too strong to be ignored."

The full text of the letter and list of signers is available at www.veteransforcommonsense.org. RAW STORY couldn't find the letter there; please send it to editor@rawstory.com if you find it.


http://estaticos.elmundo.es/elmundo/fotosdeldia/2005/01/19/1106095855_extras_fotos_del_dia_0.jpg


http://rawstory.com/news/2005/2000_vets_call_for_release_of_more_Abu_Ghraib_p_07 25.html

worldbefree
07-25-2005, 08:38 PM
http://www.rawstory.com/images/new/ghraib3.jpg

http://www.rawstory.com/

ODShowtime
07-25-2005, 08:46 PM
Originally posted by worldbefree
2,000 vets call for release of more Abu Ghraib photos

Two choices:

1. release info. the horrible shame may generate favorable negative reaction to gw&friends

2. stifle the videos/photos and allow the people who were actually responsible for these actions to rise even further up the chain of command in our country. All the while the grunts get the shaft and the American Serviceman gets his reputation throughout the world destroyed.

Thanks for the great choices gw&friends!

Some of you people don't even see how far we've gone from where we're supposed to be.

worldbefree
07-26-2005, 10:13 AM
http:\\www.rawstory.com

http://www.rawstory.com/images/new/iraqgi.jpg

worldbefree
07-26-2005, 01:34 PM
I hope they raise the recruiting age so I can enlist and partake in the activities. Would sure beat working in a high-rise office building.

Witness: Dogs Bit Abu Ghraib Detainees

By DAVID DISHNEAU, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 46 minutes ago

Two Iraqis at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison were bitten by dogs as they were being handled by sergeants who were competing to see who could scare more detainees, a witness testified Tuesday.

Pvt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick II — himself convicted of abusing inmates at the military prison — testified by phone in the Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury proceeding, for Sgts. Santos A. Cardona and Michael J. Smith.

The Army had announced the hearing on Monday.

A dog handled by Cardona bit a detainee on both thighs, severely enough to require stitches, Frederick said. A dog handled by Smith bit an inmate on one of his wrists, but not hard enough to the break the skin, he said.

Frederick also said he heard both defendants say they were competing, using their dogs, to see how many detainees they could frighten into urinating on themselves.

He is serving an eight-year sentence at a military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., after pleading guilty to conspiracy, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees, assault and committing an indecent act.

Frederick was the first witness at the hearing at Fort Meade, which is about 15 miles south of Baltimore.

Cardona, of the 42nd Military Police Detachment at Fort Bragg, N.C., and Smith, the 523rd Military Police Detachment of Fort Riley, Kan., face various counts of cruelty and maltreatment, conspiracy to maltreat detainees, aggravated assault, dereliction and duty and making a false official statement. Smith also faces one count of wrongfully committing an indecent act.

If convicted, Cardona faces up to 16 1/2 years in prison, Smith up to 29 1/2 years. They both also could face reduction in rank to private, dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of pay.

The abuses allegedly happened from November 2003 to January 2004, when both soldiers were attached to the 320th Military Police Battalion, one of the units guarding Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

Smith told investigators in February 2004 that he and Cardona used their unmuzzled dogs to help a military intelligence unit, "psychologically breaking (detainees) down" before interrogations.

Investigators said Cardona acknowledged that his dog bit a detainee in December 2003.

Col. Thomas M. Pappas, commander of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, which conducted interrogations at Abu Ghraib, was reprimanded and fined in May.

Eight Army reservists have been convicted of abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib. Another, Pfc. Lynndie England, is awaiting trial.

Cardona's civilian attorney, Harvey J. Volzer, didn't return messages seeking comment Monday afternoon. It wasn't immediately known who represented Smith.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050726/ap_on_re_us/prisoner_abuse_dogs&printer=1;_ylt=AutCMTiyiz.C_LHr7a6RLvBH2ocA;_ylu=X 3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

worldbefree
07-26-2005, 01:41 PM
I want to be on the front line fighting the war on terror instead of sitting in an office building waiting for it to blow-up.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/07/25/national/training.real.184.2.jpg

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/26/national/26training.html?

worldbefree
07-26-2005, 02:10 PM
I wonder if he continues to be paid by his employer while he's serving his sentence.


Guardsman Gets 18 Months on Lesser Charge

By RYAN LENZ, Associated Press WriterTue Jul 26, 9:15 AM ET

An Indiana National Guard soldier charged with murder in the death of an Iraqi police officer unraveled the truth behind months of conflicting stories with a clear statement of guilt.

Cpl. Dustin Berg, 22, pleaded guilty Monday to a lesser charge of negligent homicide in a shooting he had previously claimed was self-defense. But during his court-martial, Berg said the November 2003 shooting was a rash judgment. He said it was a mistake to try to cover up the incident by shooting himself in the stomach.

"If you ask me now, if I'm sorry for what I did, I don't know if sorry is the word for it. You can't explain what it does to you when you take somebody else's life," he said. "There is no punishment, there is nothing anybody can do that can take away the nightmares that come every night when I lay my head down to go to bed."

Berg, of Ferdinand, Ind., will spend 18 months in prison under a plea agreement. He will also be discharged from the Army for bad conduct.

Berg, who had embraced his pregnant wife during the wait for his sentence, burst into tears when the judge announced it and continued crying when he was assured no more than 18 months in prison.

Berg had changed his story multiple times for prosecutors. At one time he said he was shot because he was trying to report suspected insurgent activity. On Monday, Berg admitted shooting himself on purpose in an attempt to make it appear he was defending himself against the officer with whom he was on patrol.

Berg declined to speak with reporters following the court-martial, but he addressed the military judge to make a tearful plea for a lenient sentence.

"I made a choice that would change my life forever. I got stuck in a situation I was not mentally prepared to handle," Berg said after the judge had accepted his guilty plea.

The 18-month sentence was less than a six-year sentence the judge recommended Monday, but military law requires that a judge accept the sentencing terms of a plea agreement in a court-martial.

Berg also pleaded guilty to two counts of making false statements and intentionally wounding himself.

Berg's civilian attorney, Charles Gittins, had asked the court to discharge Berg but not confine him to a military prison because Berg is newly married and has a child on the way.

Berg's mother also pleaded for leniency during testimony. "He is not a murderer," Mary Berg said, choking back tears. "There is no way that under normal circumstances this would have happened. "

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050726/ap_on_re_us/guardsman_charged&printer=1;_ylt=AkdYkhNDM1p_NokXeYuose1H2ocA;_ylu=X 3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-