Revealed: U.S. Interrogators May Have Killed Dozens of Detainees

[G_j]

://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/139867/revealed%3A_u.s._interrogators_may_have_killed_dozens_of_detainees/


Revealed: U.S. Interrogators May Have Killed Dozens of Detainees
By John Byrne, Raw Story. Posted May 6, 2009.

In all, 98 detainees have died while in U.S. hands, with 34 identified as homicides, at least eight of which were tortured to death.


United States interrogators killed nearly four dozen detainees during or after their interrogations, according a report published by a human rights researcher based on a Human Rights First report and followup investigations.

In all, 98 detainees have died while in U.S. hands. Thirty-four homicides have been identified, with at least eight detainees -- and as many as 12 -- having been tortured to death, according to a 2006 Human Rights First report that underwrites the researcher’s posting. The causes of 48 more deaths remain uncertain.

The researcher, John Sifton, worked for five years for Human Rights Watch. In a posting Tuesday, he documents myriad cases of detainees who died at the hands of their U.S. interrogators. Some of the instances he cites are graphic.

Most of those taken captive were killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. They include at least one Afghani soldier, Jamal Naseer, who was mistakenly arrested in 2004. “Those arrested with Naseer later said that during interrogations U.S. personnel punched and kicked them, hung them upside down, and hit them with sticks or cables,” Sifton writes. “Some said they were doused with cold water and forced to lie in the snow. Nasser collapsed about two weeks after the arrest, complaining of stomach pain, probably an internal hemorrhage.”

Another Afghan killing occurred in 2002. Mohammad Sayari was killed by four U.S. servicemembers after being detained for allegedly “following their movements.” A Pentagon document obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2005 said that the Defense Department found a captain and three sergeants had “murdered” Sayari, but the section dealing with the department’s probe was redacted.

..more..

[azul]

1. Rule of law defunct?

Maybe attorneys will make the case that the laws do not apply to people in the highest offices, and so people being equal and all, the laws cannot be applied to anyone.

Anarchy everyone?

The story is too raw for the soft-serving MSM, and needs much more propaganda and psychological preparation before enough of the population will accept it as a necessary security measure without producing mass madness and shame.

[G_j]

2. yes it is too nasty for the corporate media

in fact they have managed to avoid all the nastiest stuff.
If Americans only knew?

[mmonk]

3. Why do people still say may?

An internal report already revealed or acknowledged it.

[Echo In Light]

9. In America, truth is deflected as long as possible, and by any/all means until it's forced out ...

...incramentally

[uppityperson]

10. It would be very good to get those reports out and dealt with, someday. nt

[sattahipdeep]

4. Alyssa Peterson. Are we sure it was suicide?

Peterson was an Arabic speaking interrogator assigned to the prison at the Tal-afar airbase in far northwestern Iraq near the Syrian border.

According to the Army's investigation into her death, obtained by a KNAU reporter through the Freedom of Information Act, Peterson objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners.

She refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as the cage.

Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Alyssa objected to.

They say all records of those techniques have now been destroyed.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/43820/cover_up_of_soldier_who_committed_suicide_rather_than_torture_detainees_%5Baudio%5D/


"She said that she did not know how to be two people; she ... could not be one person in the cage and another outside the wire."

The official report revealed that a notebook she had written in was found next to her body, but blacked out its contents.

A report in The Arizona Daily Sun of Flagstaff -- three years after Alyssa's death -- revealed that Spc. Peterson's mother, Bobbi Peterson, reached at her home in northern Arizona, said that neither she nor her husband Richard had received any official documents that contained information outlined in Elston's report.

In other words: Like the press and the public, even the parents had been kept in the dark.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003965876

[G_j]

5. just one more death to sweep under the rug

it's the name of the game.

[G_j]

6. K

:bounce:

[Supersedeas]

7. winning/taking hearts of minds...not with reality...but with secrecy

[uppityperson]

8. k&r for important matters that haven't gone away or been dealt with yet

[Psychic Consortium]

11. The entire truth must come out. And it will.

If we remain a nation of barbarians we will not survive.

[G_j]

12. K