Iraqi children jailed by US army

Posted on May 15, 2008 by petrel41

This 2013 video from the USA is called Children Horribly Deformed by US Chemical Weapons in Iraq.

From AFP news agency:

US Army detains 500 minors in Iraq: report

Thursday, May 15, 2008 (Washington)

Around 500 minors are currently detained by the US army in Iraq, as well as nearly a dozen juveniles in Afghanistan, a US civil liberties group revealed.

”Since 2002, the United States has held approximately 2,500 individuals under the age of 18 at the time of their capture in Guantanamo Bay, in Iraq, and in Afghanistan,” said a US government report for the UN children’s agency, made public by the American Civil Liberties Union.

”As of April 2008, US forces held approximately 500 juveniles” in Iraq, where ”all detainees, regardless of age, are held by US forces as imperative threats to security at the request of the sovereign Iraqi government and pursuant to a UN Security Council Resolution,” the report said.

Pentagon spokesman Jeffrey Gordon confirmed the report was true but gave no further comment.

The number of minors in US detention in Iraq rose as high as 800 in 2007.

In addition, around 10 minors are currently held in US custody in Afghanistan‘s Bagram prison, and are considered ”enemy combatants.”

These are just the figures for the United States Army. There are also other United States military forces, like the Marines etc., other United States government agencies, private mercenary corporations, British and other Bush allies, etc. in Iraq and Afghanistan. The number of children they detain is not included in this report.

New Mark Fiore animation on Blackwater

Posted on May 15, 2008 by petrel41

This video from MSNBC in the USA is called Blackwater Founder Comes Under Fire.

There is a new animation by Mark Fiore from the USA on the Internet.

It is called Blackwater Business School.

It is about the US mercenary corporation Blackwater and its crimes in the Iraq war.

The animation is here.

British torture in Iraq

Posted on May 15, 2008 by petrel41

This video is called Sexual abuse and Torture by British troops in Iraq.

From British daily News Line:

Thursday, 15 May 2008

Baha Mousa torture inquiry conceded by Defence Secretary

Liberty Director Shami Chakrabarti and Public Interest Lawyers solicitor Phil Shiner yesterday welcomed an announcement by the Secretary of State for Defence of an independent inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005 into the circumstances surrounding the death of Baha Mousa.

The inquiry will also examine the torture and ill treatment of his nine hotel colleagues and how it came about that five techniques banned in 1972 were reintroduced in Iraq.

Lawyers for the victims of scores of Iraqis tortured and killed whilst in detention with UK forces when the UK occupied SE Iraq yesterday released a letter of 18 April 2008 to the Secretary of State for Defence.

In this they list all the incidents and matters that require to be included in this inquiry.

Shiner who is acting in all these cases said of the inquiry:

‘This will need to get to the bottom of how it came about that the 5 techniques banned in 1972 – hooding, stressing, food and water deprivation, sleep deprivation and noise – were reintroduced as apparently Standard Operating Procedure for all Battle Groups.

‘Further it would need to establish what lessons are to be learned not just from the death of Baha Mousa, but the torture of his hotel colleagues, the sexual and religious humiliation in play in that incident and in the Camp Bread Basket case, and the appalling evidence in the case arising from the Danny Boy incident.

‘In this case the most serious allegations that could be made about UK forces’ behaviour in Iraq include that 20 Iraqis were executed at Abu Naji facility in May 2004 another nine survivors tortured, and that bodies were mutilated.

‘It will not be sufficient if the inquiry has a narrow remit and does not look at all the cases and issues.

‘The public, as well as Parliament, must be given the opportunity of fully understanding what went wrong in our detention policy in Iraq and what are the lessons to be learned for the future.’