Ex-Abu Ghraib general among anti-war speakers

[DoYouEverWonder]

January 22, 2006

A former general in charge of the Abu Ghraib prison during the 2004 abuse scandal there and England's former ambassador to Uzbekistan were among several people to speak out against the Bush administration's handling of the "War on Terror" Saturday at an anti-war hearing at Manhattan's Riverside Church.

Craig Murray, ousted as Britain's ambassador to Uzbekistan after he criticized the use of intelligence gained through torture, said Uzbek security forces supplying interrogation findings to the CIA used torture "on an industrial scale." In two cases he said he documented that people were boiled alive.

<snip>

Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski said photographs of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison "opened a huge door on" America's mishandling of the war, and that soldiers trained to handle prisoners of war were ill-suited for running Iraq's civilian prisons.

Karpinski also said as many as 85 percent of the Iraqi detainees there were "guilty of nothing," but were not released because interrogators "were afraid of releasing the next Osama bin Laden."

The commission was organized by Not In Our Name, a New York-based activist group formed to challenge American military actions abroad, and alleged Bush administration erosions of civil liberties at home.

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/iraq/am-chur0121,0,3678199.story?coll=nyc-homepage-breaking2

[0007]

1. Finally a breath of fresh air....

another piece of the article.

"I would rather die than to have tortured to save my life," Murray said, drawing applause from the crowd of more than 500 people.

His appearance followed a Friday radio interview in which he said, "We're not talking about marginal definitions of torture. The U.S. knew this was happening and encouraged it by being prepared to accept and give credence to the results of it."

Murray said in its quest to secure increasingly scarce oil and gas supplies, President George W. Bush is fanning anti-American sentiments in the Islamic world. "They are making America a much more dangerous place," he said.

The hearing was held by a panel calling itself the Bush Crimes Commission, which has issued "indictments" against Bush and others for what it says are crimes against humanity perpetrated in America's prosecution of the Iraq war. The commission, which has no legal standing, said it had invited the Bush administration to rebut the allegations.

A White House press officer declined comment Saturday.

[MrPrax]

2. Wow!!

Actually quite a 'coup' for Not In Our Name (pardon the pun)

When a guy that high on the military food chain starts seeing the light and demonstrates his willingness to defend the Republic and it's ideals, then more dominoes will likely start falling.

A big key to the anti-war position should be to start involving the military and telling them that following orders from a increasingly illegal gov't is NOT your duty--defending the country is your duty.

If this gets more out of control, then people in the military are going to have to face this choice...you either are killing for a tyrant or killing for Americans. Which is it?

[leesa]

3. Karpinski is doing a lot of hard work to get the truth out. She has a book

called 'My Army' which tells her side of the story about Abu Ghraib.

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. I saw her on the Daily Show a few months ago

I was surprised how honest and straight forward she seemed. At least there are few people in this thing that have some integrity left.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Great article.Both these brave people should avoid private planes.n/t

[rodeodance]

6. I love the groups name "Not In Our Name"---

[rodeodance]

7. Recommend It:

[DeepModem Mom]

8. kick

[cantstandbush]

9. How can we get the MSM to talk about this? n/t

[0rganism]

11. Buy time for an infomercial?

It's the only way I can see getting it done.

Of course, to get it past the censors, we'd have to disguise it as an ad for diet pills or aphrodisiacs.

[sandnsea]

12. I think we have to do this

All the liberal 527's might want to stop running issue ads and start paying for longer infomercials because we clearly aren't getting the complete story of anything through the noise machine.

[f-bush]

10. Excellent

There needs to be more publicity about these sort of things. Speakers like that and their message need to be brought to the entire country.

[sandnsea]

13. Another story in WaPo

Graner's wife, who was also at Abu Ghraib, is speaking out. Article also states 251 military members have been investigated and had some sort of punishment.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/22/AR2006012200928.html

[TheBaldyMan]

14. Craig Murray was on Democracy Now a couple of days back

He was electrifying. If anyone feels discouraged, like it isn't worth kicking Bush and Blair out of office and dragging their miserable hides into the ICC. Watch his interview with Amy Goodman.

Bush and Blair are evil and must be brought to account for their actions.