Psst. Don’t tell the Muslims, or they might get mad, riot, and kill some people.
Airing tonight, on Australian television:
An investigation by SBS’s Dateline program, to be aired tonight, filmed the burning of the bodies.
It also filmed a US Army psychological operations unit broadcasting a message boasting of the burnt corpses into a village believed to be harbouring Taliban.
According to an SBS translation of the message, delivered in the local language, the soldiers accused Taliban fighters near Kandahar of being “cowardly dogs”. “You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burnt. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be,” the message reportedly said.
“You attack and run away like women. You call yourself Taliban but you are a disgrace to the Muslim religion, and you bring shame upon your family. Come and fight like men instead of the cowardly dogs you are.”
The burning of a body is a deep insult to Muslims. Islam requires burial within 24 hours.
Our psy-ops guys are so clever. They really excel at convincing Muslims that we have respect for their religion, culture, and status as human beings.
Add this to list of Geneva violations, and let’s get the impeachment rolling.
Update [2005-10-19 18:37:51 by BooMan]: also see Spiderleaf’s diary on this topic.
just another nail in the shame we all must share….when will this ever stop?! I am very tired of this crap. I can bet rummy is just thrilled too…:o(
The horror never ends!
Here’s a new AP story about detainee abuse at Gitmo:
The repeated removal and insertion of the tubes has caused striking prisoners to vomit “substantial amounts of blood,” and to experience intense pain that they have equated with torture, the lawyers reported to a federal judge after visiting their clients at the U.S. base in eastern Cuba.
**
Lt. Col. Jeremy Martin, a military spokesman for the Guantanamo detention center, said all detainees in the hunger strike are closely monitored by medical personnel and mistreatment is not tolerated, though he did not know the specific procedures for handling of feeding tubes.
“Detainees … are treated humanely,” Martin said. “Claims to the contrary are wholly inaccurate and blatantly misrepresent the excellent work being done here by honorable military and civilian professionals.”
Oh go f*ck yourself Col Martin.
This is all on Rumsfeld’s and Bush’s shoulders and they damn well better feel the weight of it damn soon.
Of everything this administration has done, this inability to control the troops use of torture (or to even care about it) boils my blood the most.
“…intense pain that they have equated with torture…”
So Ben Fox of the AP doesn’t believe jamming dirty plastic tubing down someone’s throat, causing them to vomit blood, is torture?
Why bother qualifying it? It’s fucking torture, and anyone who sees it otherwise is a brownshirt.
How do we explain to our children and grandchildren such atrocities against human beings? How do we show the rest of the world that these such actions are NOT American in any way shape or form? And Bush expects the insurgencies to just drop their weapons when soldiers are treating their religion with such contempt? SHAME SHAME SHAME on the administration and ALL that allow this type of brutality to take place.
It is US policy, it is what defines America to the world, and it is the value system your children and grandchildren are being taught by your government and the mainstream of your society.
All you can do is teach them to oppose their government, which your president has decreed is terrorism.
WOW! I call BS on that. I don’t for one minute it is US policy to do these horrific things. I feel it is the “current regime” not that of America and all our forefathers envisioned. THIS is not the American way no matter what you think of the current administration. They are the criminals NOT all of AMerica.
A few weeks ago, somewhere between 300 and 500 thousand people marched in Washington to protest the crusades.
There are about 300 million people in the US, so even if you take away the elderly, infirm, poor, who would have marched but could not, you can still not reasonably conclude that the US mainstream opposes the regime.
It may be fashionable in some circles to call Americans sheeple and stupid, but suppose for a minute that Washington announced tomorrow that 200 billion dollars of your tax money would be spent to provide housing and medical treatment for every single mother making under $50K.
How many hours do you think it would be before the mall teemed with outraged Americans in crowds of 7, swelling to 8 figures?
There is a verse in the Christian Bible, I can’t remember the chapter and verse, but it goes something like this: Show me where your treasure is, and I will tell you where your heart is.
Americans know what they want, and the day their tax dollars are spent on something that is not in accordance with their values, you can be sure that on that day, the American people will not hesitate to exercise their constitutional right to change their government, even if as many as 1 in a hundred disagree.
As for the “few bad apples” argument, it has never really caught on outside the US. Maybe because people outside the US know what happens to barrels of apples with a few bad ones.
That is just plain bigotted to say imo. Do you really expect that millions of people can just drop everything in their life to go to DC to protest this illegal war? WE THE PEOPLE(or at least half of us that voted) NEVER WANTED GWB for our preznit and knew what a liar and criminal he was/is. I am totally offended by your blanket statement that we are responsible for the actions of the military and it’s leaders. I never said anything about a few bad apples either so please do not put words into my mouth. I am appalled and ashamed of my GOVERNMENT NOT my people!!!
Most Americans do not oppose their government, or its policies.
While those who do cannot be commended enough for their bravery, the fact remains that the majority of Americans are simply not “totally offended” by spending their money on crimes against humanity.
I will ask you again what you think the reaction would be from that vast mainstream should the US announce that such a sum, even a fraction of that sum, would be spent to care for the weakest and most vulnerable Americans, instead of slaughtering and torturing people in far off lands. Not to pressure you for an answer, but to suggest that the subject of what would be totally offensive to the US mainstream is worth considering.
I regret that you have the need to see blanket statements in my remarks, but I am not without sympathy for your predicament.
If it helps to direct your anger toward me because I say your are in the minority, go with that.
Americans must decide whether exceptionalism is worth the cost. It is a deeply ingrained value, so deep that even examining it is painful and will naturally occasion some anger.
Seeing as your obviously from a very enlightened country. Might we know where Shangri La might be Mr. Fatwa? This country you live in is powerful yet merciful? Thats very rare in history. Its not Americans who pull this shit its the fucking human race. What country has no blood dripping from its finger tips. These assholes in the Whitehouse are going to be taking their war machine home after two more rounds of elections. Whats the situation in your country sir?
employed by the US against its own people during the Womens’ Suffrage movement.
Please forgive me for not researching what arguments were put forth by defenders of the practice at that time, but I am sure that “it’s just human nature” represents a great advancement.
And you also make a very compelling argument for immediately disarming the US, since it possesses, purchases, and distributes more weaponry than any other country on earth.
If the whole house is filled with garbage, if we clean out the Great Room, we can at least have a place to sit down and tackle those closets.
Uh huh. I’m from the United States.
Most Americans do not oppose their government, or its policies.
Did you take a new poll that we don’t know about?
and compared it to footage of Caracas in the wake of the “coup attempt.”
That doesn’t address your statement that I asked about. Or is opposal only limited to protests?
It may well be, in fact, you could probably make a very good argument that there are many Americans, even among They Who Were Not Polled, who in their heart of hearts, have at least once or twice felt some strange and unfamiliar sensation, that when analyzed, led them to the unthinkable question, “Am I then, with the terrorists?” and it is certainly understandable that these anguished souls should hesitate, not only to act on, but even to voice, such a thought.
If the day ever comes that a significant percentage of the American people become significantly opposed to how their money is spent, I can assure you that you will not need to check webcams or seek refuge in “polls.” The events will be televised.
Meanwhile, the popular pilot project at Guantanamo is even more successful than the authors dreamed.
Ducky, you live in the U.S. too, right? So you’re speaking about yourself also?
No nation is without its horrors and halls of shame. None.
And I frankly don’t think we’ll ever get a good and loving populace and nation, in part because humans are by nature aggressive and territorial… it’s in the genes. Just like it’s in the genes of the raccoons I put food out for, or the cats in the neighborhood…. every one of them wants to claim their own turf, and be the lord thereof.
But I do believe that we can try hard to be better people and to exemplify — really — the teachings of great inspirational masters such as Jesus. (I’m a heathen, but I find his words, if they were his words, to be wonderfully hopeful and inspirational.)
I also think it’s a mistake to constantly condemn any group of people. FIrst, it’s a stance that gets one nowhere fast because it alienates and angers people. People tend to be drawn to examples that lift their spirits.
Just a statement of fact.
And I will be the first to agree that criticism of crimes against humanity makes many Americans much angrier than the torture itself.
I think that’s a good sign. To me, it shows that somewhere in there is a recognition that it is wrong, and that is, in my opinion, a step up from assertions that it is the right thing to do.
While I confess I am unable to immediately come up with any additional spirit-lifting comments on nose tube torture, I have addressed some of your other points in my reply to Salunga above. (or maybe below)
ummm… http://www.boomantribune.com/?op=displaystory;sid=2005/10/19/12153/907
currently on world list…
merci for the update boo
It is really almost unbelievable.
and incompetant.
I suppose the latter is a bit of a silver lining, considering.
Why does our military continue to motivate the opposition? Who the fuck is in charge of this shit. The same people who want an amendment against burning our flag here see no harm in burning their bodies. When the contractors bodies were burned in Fallujah remember our outrage. THINK. Don’t be a fucking bush, THINK Don’t be a fucking cheney, THINK. Don’t be a fucking bin laden, THINK. Don’t be a fucking saddam, THINK. Don’t be a mao or a stalin or a hitler. THINK THINK THINK.
Sorry DT…still disagree with you. I am talking of this current administration and the crimes “they” not we have committed against humanity. I talk to people all day long. White, black, republican, dem, liberal, conservative, independent, libertarian. You are making a blanket statement. It is like saying Saddam is an evil man that is an Iraqi. So does that make all Iraqis eveil? Get real man.
Either the US is a democracy, whose government and gunmen serve its people and act in accordance with their will and desires, or the people of the US are helpless victims held hostage by a bestial cartel of warlords in urgent need of immediate liberation by any means necessary.
That is a decision that only the American people can make, and by the American people I do not mean only the small and courageous minority who dare to oppose the brutes. Personally, I wish they could. I wish all those people who marched, and all those who stood with them in spirit could summon the C-130s and cart the whole nasty bunch, warlords, henchmen, greedbarons and their familiars in the “congress” off to the Hague, call home the gunmen, cease aggression and disarm.
But even the most courageous, dedicated and vocal small minority does not a groundswell make, much less a revolution, and just as it is not pragmatic for “leaders” of other nations to base their foreign policies on that precious few, but on the bombers wielded and championed by the ruling majority, neither can the people of those nations afford to risk the future of their own children, their own nations, on even the most valiant efforts of a marginalized fringe element of Somalia with money.
And what if Kerry really did win the election but the vote was tampered with? THEN would you believe we are against this cabal? Jeez DT. Have you no empathy for what we have been through these past five years? Do you really think we don’t give a shit and are not doing all we can? Am I disappointed im many of my fellow Americans? You bet your sweet ass I am. Almost half of the registered voters didn’t bother to even vote in 04. Ignorant lazy, self centered to the max. That still does not make the other fifty percent responsible for the government. End of this debate on my end.
And in my opinion, they are very sincere in their belief that outsourcing the wetwork would greatly improve the crusade, and make it more progressive, and that Iraqis would much rather be murdered by gunmen wearing different uniforms and hats.
That view, in fact was shared by supporters of all the candidates, and there is no question that it would be popular in the US itself.
However, because I don’t think that there is much chance of it getting an enthusiastic reaction in Iraq and beyond, so if I were hired by the US as a consultant on the subject of national security, it would be unethical for me to do otherwise than recommend against the policy, and suggest cessation of aggression and disarmament as the most prudent path of safety and security of ordinary Americans of all political persuasions, whose common bond is lack of bunker access.
let us know when everyone else is willing to disarm too, Ductape.
Or is disarmed. First the Great Room, then the closets.
The US unquestionably possesses the most destructive capability of any other entity on earth, not only in modern times, but in all history.
And the US is also unique in its proven track record with regard to utilizing that destructive capability against other nations. Now that may be a modern times only record, to be fair, Genghis Khan did not have any nukes, and Rome didn’t even have napalm.
our deathcount is really close to Germany’s and Russia’s, or even China’s.
This is not about disarmament. This is about our military breaking its own code of conduct, and having that code reduced to toilet paper.
The question of who the US gunmen serve, whose will they carry out, can only be answered by Americans.
The question of how US will be disarmed can be answered by the Americans, or Americans can choose to have the world decide.
is not going to be disarmed. And I mean that as it pertains to the Pentagon as much as I mean it as it pertains to Bubba from Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Just as the CIA advised Bush that Saddam was most likely to give his WMD to terrorists if he thought he was about to lose them in an invasion, we are most likely to turn the world to glass if you attempt to disarm us.
I know it makes you uncomfortable that he combine so much firepower with so much Wild West thirst for outlaw ethics and rabid mineral speculation, but we ain’t changing.
Maybe that is your point. Maybe liberals need to face the facts. But we still behave ourselves much better than any previous hegemon. Even Napoleon spread liberal ideas throughout Europe until by 1848 the peasants got ‘uppity’.
The only negotiating chip US has is voluntary disarmament.
Once I reach a critical level of certainty that you are going to kill me whether I bow to you or not, you have no more chips.
This is a strategic error being played out by the US within its own borders, as well as outside them.
Sun Tzu warned against this, I think. If he didn’t, he should have. I know I advised him to mention it.
How arrogant.
“Arrogant” is the word more commonly employed by non-Americans to describe the notion that Iraqis or anybody else will be grateful to be slaughtered by rented French guys in blue hats.
“Uppity” is the term more commonly employed by Americans to describe the shamelessness of non-Americans who dare to disagree with this premise.
Look DT, we do not disagree on the state of affairs in Iraq or that we should not be there. So why are you trying to lay this obscenity on me? I am not for the war and never have been. What GWB and company has done to the Iraqi people makes me sick. I am not disagreeing with the premise the war is shameful you idiot. I disagree that you feel it necessary to berate ALL Americans for it. Get off my back.
“It’s just some good ol’ fashion hazing. Letting the boys have some fun.”
“It’s not like it hurt anyone, since they were already dead!”
(Yes, I can hear the GOP talking points already…)
Disbarassed?
Embargusted?
Just makes you want to crawl under a rock. Jeez.
.
Another returned troop, also anonymous, says, “We would defecate on and run over dead Iraqi bodies.”
As revenge, the U.S. Command ordered twice to raze the city of Fallujah, killing thousands, destroying lives and livelyhood of tens of thousands, in essence devastating communities.
By any measure a war crime, foretold by the heavy handed assault at the outset of the invasion, when U.S. forces wanted to establish their HQ in a local school. The protest that followed led to the death of 35 civilians. The rest is history.
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We are shamed and this will end. This administration has encouraged the worst behavior in our youthful soldiers. Where are the officers? Why is this allowed to go on? We used to stand for something besides atrocities.
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Australia’s SBS television – DATELINE
Psych War in Afghanistan
Transcript and Video of Interview
“You are too scared to
retrieve their bodies –
this just proves you are
the lady boys we always
believed you to be.”
US PsyOps’ alleged message
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