Killing Kids American-Style. According to news reports , 15-year-old eighth-grader Jaime Gonzalez, who was shot and killed yesterday by police in his middle school in Brownsville, TX, was hit three times: twice in the chest and once “from the back of the head.” Police say they were called by school authorities because Gonzalez was carrying a gun, which turned out to be a realistic-looking pellet gun, a weapon that uses compressed air to fire a metal pellet which, while perhaps a threat to the eye, does not pose a serious threat to life. There is now a national discussion going on in the media about whether police used excessive force in the incident, and there is, in Brownsville and at Gonzalez’s school, both anger and mourning.
The boy had reportedly been a victim of bullying. Documents received from the Department of the Army in response to ACLU Freedom of Information Act Request. Iraqi Torture Scandal Touches Highest Levels of NATO. New "sick details" emerge about water torture - War Room. The official government narrative, as defended by Donald Rumsfeld, is that no prisoners were waterboarded at Guantanamo Bay; the CIA did use waterboarding as an interrogation technique, but only at so-called “black sites”; and only three prisoners were subjected to this treatment.
However, new evidence is emerging to the contrary, largely in anecdotal form. As Truthout reported this week, a number of stories have come out about forced water choking and other uses of water for torture at sites including Gitmo. Investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill discussed the issue with Keith Olbermann Thursday. He recalled an incident he had investigated (which would not be classified as waterboarding) of a former Guantanamo detainee having a high pressure water hose fixed up a nostril. Water would be forced up his head until suffocation.
Scahill noted President Obama’s “extremely poor record” at holding people accountable for torturous acts and expressed concern that little has changed at Guantanamo. So, Why is WikiLeaks a Good Thing Again? U.S. interrogation techniques. U.S. interrogation techniques In late 2002 and early 2003, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved specific interrogation techniques for extracting information from Taliban and al-Qaeda detainees at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Bush administration made the previously classified lists public Tuesday. The final April 2003 list of 24 techniques approved by Rumsfeld, plus three he rejected out of hand and seven that were initially approved but apparently later rejected: Approved techniques • "Direct": Asking straightforward questions. General promised quick results if Gitmo plan used at Abu Ghraib. General promised quick results if Gitmo plan used at Abu Ghraib By Blake Morrison and Peter Eisler, USA TODAY The general who pushed for more aggressive interrogation tactics at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison predicted better intelligence within a month if his strategies were adopted, according to a copy of his classified plan obtained by USA TODAY.
In the plan, sent in early September to top military officials in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller promised that "a significant improvement in actionable intelligence will be realized within 30 days. " The recommendations in Miller's 12-page report were based on the interrogation operation he supervised at the U.S. By Oct. 12, the Army moved ahead with Miller's strategy to team guards and interrogators, an approach at odds with long-established military doctrine. By late October, guards began abusing prisoners and taking humiliating photos of them. Miller's plan was not among documents released Tuesday by the White House. Donald Rumsfeld, “Known and Unknown, A Memoir” « Arturo's space. Donald Rumsfeld, “Known and Unknown, A Memoir” Posted on The Rumsfeld Papers.
d20040622doc5. d20040622doc6. d20040622doc7. d20040622doc8. d20040622doc9. 06-22-01. 07-09. National and International News. Abu Ghraib deal made NEWARK, N.J. — An Army sergeant accused in the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal will plead guilty to reduced charges next week as part of a deal with military prosecutors, his lawyer said Thursday.
Sgt. Javal Davis had been charged with conspiracy to maltreat detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison, dereliction of duty, and maltreatment of detainees. Graner often disobeyed FORT HOOD, Texas — The first witness for Army Spc. Graner case continues. Rumsfeld OK'd harsh treatment. Rumsfeld OK'd harsh treatment By John Diamond, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — In an extraordinary disclosure of classified material, the Bush administration released 258 pages of internal documents Tuesday that portray harsh interrogation techniques — including stripping terror suspects and threatening them with dogs — as a necessary response to threats from al-Qaeda terrorists.
The release of lists of interrogation techniques and other documents previously kept secret even from U.S. allies was a bid by the administration to quiet harsh criticism over its handling of prisoners in the war on terror and the conflict in Iraq. Though some of the memos argued that Bush had the right to approve torture, the administration said it had never done so, and pointed to techniques it said fell far short of torture. In a separate press briefing Tuesday, the Justice Department backed away from a memo written in 2002 that appeared to justify the use of torture in the war on terror.