Betreff: Demand Just Resolution to Abu Ghraib
Von: EPIC Dispatch
Datum: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 15:19:22 -0500 (CDT)


 


 
 


In the Presidential debate over Iraq, there has been one glaring omission: the need to investigate and redress the torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib and systemic abuse committed at U.S.-run detention facilities abroad.

 

Over the past month, neither President Bush nor Senator Kerry has raised this issue. And neither has said whether or not they will continue the post-9/11 policy of U.S. impunity with regard to international law prohibiting torture.

 

The candidates’ failure to address the prisoner abuse scandal harms U.S. relations with the Muslim world, especially in Iraq, puts our troops at further risk, and makes us less safe and respected in the world.

 

TAKE ACTION NOW.

 

In the final days before the election, make the Bush administration’s breach of international law a Presidential Campaign issue. You can make it happen by demanding: (1) a full investigation into U.S. handling of foreign prisoners by an independent commission; (2) full accountability for all those involved in the scandal, including senior U.S. administration officials and private military contractors; and (3) renewed U.S. commitment to human rights and international law.

 

What you can do.

 

¨         Challenge the Candidates. Contact their campaign offices. Don’t let Senator Kerry or President Bush go another day without addressing the issue of torture at U.S.-run prisons abroad.

 

¨         Speak Out. Take advantage of radio call-in shows, write a letter to the editor, raise your voice at public forums, and protest.

 

¨         Sign the Honor the Legacy petition. Join EPIC, Amnesty International USA, Oxfam, Veterans for Common Sense, and our other partners in urging President Bush to honor America’s commitment to international law.

 

To take action and support this campaign, visit EPIC’s ACTION CENTER today.

 

Sincerely,

Michelle Suwannukul

EPIC Campaign Director

 

P.S. Spread the word by sending the following link to your friends and encouraging them to join you in demanding a just resolution to Abu Ghraib.

http://www.epic-usa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=411

 

 

EPIC Dispatch No. 201
Demand Just Resolution to Abu Ghraib
10/28/04

 

 

Calls for Just Resolution to Abu Ghraib Intensify

 

Last June, President Bush declared: “The United States is committed to the world-wide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example. I call on all governments to join with the United States and the community of law-abiding nations in prohibiting, investigating, and prosecuting all acts of torture and in undertaking to prevent other cruel and unusual punishment.” Four months later, not one senior official has been held accountable.

 

In recent days major newspapers have run editorials and informed commentary demanding a just resolution to Abu Ghraib.  Now Amnesty International has released a 200-page analysis of the practices and decisions that led to torture in Iraq, and abuse in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

 

Editorial: Abu Ghraib, Unresolved

New York Times, October 28, 2004

http://www.epic-usa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=412

 

Op-ed: Promoting Abu Ghraib by Deborah Pearlstein

The American Prospect, October 26, 2004

http://www.epic-usa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=414

 

Editorial: Remember Abu Ghraib

Washington Post, October 15, 2004

http://www.epic-usa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=413

 

“Call to Presidential Candidates to commit to ending torture”

Amnesty International, October 27, 2004

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR511472004

 

Summary of Recent Investigations

 

Last May, a report by General Antonio M. Taguba investigating “sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses” at Abu Ghraib was leaked to the press. That report and photos of blatant abuse continues to cause controversy, leading to 6 more Pentagon-appointed investigations. However, recent reports by the Schlesinger commission and the internal Army review reveal the limits of putting the Pentagon in charge of investigating itself. While some of these reports criticize top officials, the role U.S. policy played in the mistreatment and torture of detainees has not been addressed by a single investigation. That is why EPIC believes a Congressionally-mandated independent commission is required. Until justice is served, you can rely on EPIC to track completed and ongoing investigations into U.S. military abuses at detention facilities abroad.

 

For an up-to-date list of investigations and key findings, go to:

http://www.epic-usa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=410

 

 

Chain of Command

 

Few reporters impact the American political agenda like Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Sy Hersh.  In “Chain of Command” (New Yorker 5/17/04), Hersh scrutinizes U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his “impatience with military protocol” regarding prisoners caught in the course of military operations. Flipping the “few bad apples” scenario on its head, Hersh reports how actions taken by a powerful few created a command environment that led to systemic abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and other U.S.-run facilities abroad. Although the Pentagon insists that the investigation into Abu Ghraib has moved routinely through the chain of command, not one senior official has been held accountable. 

 

Read the full article at:

http://www.epic-usa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=382

 

Watch Sy Hersh’s recent lecture at Berkeley

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/10/11_hersh.shtml

 

 

Making Torture Legal

 

The United States appears to be following a dangerous double standard: although we deem ourselves uniquely a country under law, we have cast it aside in the case of torture at Abu Ghraib.  By rejecting the Geneva Conventions, the United States demonstrates that we no longer base our conduct on international obligations and rule of law, but rather on policy preferences.  The “removal of prohibitions on torture cleared the way for the horrors that have been revealed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo and make a mockery of the administration assertions that a few misguided enlisted personnel perpetrated the vile abuse of prisoners.”  Underlining American integrity, Lewis calls for an independent prosecutor to embark on a criminal investigation for the abuses seeing this as the only “way for America to recover its good name - and its moral sense of itself.”

 

Read the commentary at:

http://www.epic-usa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=386

 

 

The Gray Zone

 

“The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focused on the hunt of Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq.”  Sy Hersh goes deeper into the prison abuses at Abu Ghraib to trace accountability up the chain of command.  From the reconstruction of Iraq to altering the prison system to focus on interrogation, Hersh explains how a slew of different factors and powerful actors created an atmosphere for abuse.  Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, states, “We’re giving the world a ready made excuse to ignore the Geneva Conventions.  Rumsfeld has lowered the bar.”

 

Read the full story at:

http://www.epic-usa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=384

 

 

Abu Ghraib: The Hidden Story

 

Mark Danner examines how Abu Ghraib has created two ‘master narratives’.  The first is that of President Bush who supports the “few bad apples argument, long the classic defense of states accused of torture.”  The Abu Ghraib scandal is an account of how American soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere perform acts with approval of higher officials that is tantamount to torture.  The second narrative of Abu Ghraib is that of Arabs and Muslims “who point to the scandal’s images as perfect symbols of the subjugation and degradation that the American occupiers have inflicted on Iraq and the rest of the Arab world.”

 

Read the full story at:

http://www.epic-usa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=388

 

 

Act Now to Stop Torture

 

Tell the candidates, the U.S. press, and the American public why we cannot ignore what happened at Abu Ghraib.  And join EPIC, Amnesty International, Oxfam America, Veterans for Common Sense, and the National Council of Churches in demanding that President Bush honor international law.

 

To take action, visit EPIC’s ACTION CENTER at:

http://www.epic-usa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=230

 

To support this campaign, make a donation today at:

https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=1621

 

 

Please visit Education for Peace in Iraq Center at www.epic-usa.org