Boy among five tortured in Iraq -- US military

[sabra]

Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD, May 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Monday it had found five Iraqis, including a boy, who had been kidnapped and tortured by militants the captives described as foreign fighters.

The four unidentified men and the boy were found during raids against an al Qaeda network in Garma, about 30 km (20 miles) west of Baghdad in Anbar province, a Sunni Arab insurgency stronghold.

They were found inside a padlocked room and had been beaten with chains, cables and hoses, the U.S military said in a statement.

"The boy stated the terrorists had hooked electrical wires to his tongue and shocked him," it said. It did not give the boy's age.

"The hostages indicated their captors were foreign fighters who spoke with different accents."

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L21661229.htm

[gratuitous]

1. So, is our military appalled, outraged or jealous?

Because it's real tough to condemn torture when you're doing it yourself, and your country has major party candidates enthusiastically endorsing torture in debates.

[Kagemusha]

3. Let alone our glorious allies

One word: Ugh.

[KansDem]

4. Case in point: the Sy Hersh revelations and other reports...

Seymour Hersh says the US government has videotapes of boys being sodomized at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

"The worst is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking," the reporter told an ACLU convention last week. Hersh says there was "a massive amount of criminal wrongdoing that was covered up at the highest command out there, and higher."

--more--
Daily Kos

He was full of fear, very alone. He had the thinnest little arms that I have ever seen. His whole body shook. His wrists were so thin that we could not put handcuffs on him. As soon as I saw him for the first time and led him to the interrogation, I felt sorry for him. The interrogation specialists doused him with water and put him in a truck. Then they drove with him throughout the night, and at that time it was very, very cold. Then they smeared him with mud and showed him to his likewise imprisoned father. With him they had tried out other interrogation methods. But they had not succeeded in making him talk. The interrogation specialists told me that after the father had seen his son in that condition, it broke his heart. He wept and promised to tell them what they wanted to know.

--more--
csmonitor

But don't worry...there appears to have been no organ failure!

[ptolle]

8. status

I've often had to wonder if individuals in Iraq become "insurgents" or the "foreign fighters" of the original report because they're now dead or in our custody or is it the other way round.Either way our implicit condoning of torture frees others to pursue that course. Too bad no one will ever have a chance to waterboard seedy gonzales or john yoo.

[daleo]

9. Sadly, your rhetorical question is spot on

The west is no longer in much of a position to condemn torture.

For example, Canadian troops have been handing over people in Afghanistan, that were then tortured. The safeguards against it were insufficient, to say the least. Our (Conservative) government stonewalled on this point for weeks, until they finally had to admit it was true.

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. The only difference between this and what we have been doing is...

That our torturers have (mostly) been members of the regular military of a recognized world government who pay lip-service to the Geneva Conventions canons prohibiting torture, and with the full knowledge and support of said recognized world government.

Damn, I really wish I could use the sarcasm tag here.

[OwnedByFerrets]

5. To an Iranian boy,

wouldnt "americans" be deemed "foreign fighters who spoke with different accents."?

[ooglymoogly]

6. does anyone else find this article typicly vague on details?

"foreign fighters all speaking in different accents"? "Didn't give the boys age"? Sounds like more claptrap to support the claim of outside interference supporting widening the war. If the men captured could determine that their captors were foreign fighters speaking with different tribal accents, an odd distinction under this circumstance since there are more than one tribe in Iraq and on the borders of Iraq there is a mingling of tribes. since they used the word foreign, then surely they must know from what country these accents came, an extremely important detail. But then vagueness leaves a blank canvas for more perfect propaganda tailored to whichever way the wind is blowing.

[rocktivity]

7. As far as they're concerned, the US troops are the foreign fighters

Is this supposed to make us feel okay about torturing others?

:evilgrin:
rocknation