U.S. accused of kidnappings in Iraq

[muriel_volestrangler]

Congress demands that the Pentagon release documents alleging that U.S. forces kidnapped family members of terror suspects

Congress has demanded that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld hand over a raft of documents to Congress that could substantiate allegations that U.S. forces have tried to break terror suspects by kidnapping and mistreating their family members. Rumsfeld has until 5 p.m. Friday to comply.

It now appears that kidnapping, scarcely covered by the media, and absent in the major military investigations of detainee abuse, may have been systematically employed by U.S. troops. Salon has obtained Army documents that show several cases where U.S. forces abducted terror suspects’ families. After he was thrown in prison, Cpl. Charles Graner, the alleged ringleader at Abu Ghraib, told investigators the military routinely kidnapped family members to force suspects to turn themselves in.

A House subcommittee led by Connecticut Republican Christopher Shays took the unusual step last month of issuing Rumsfeld a subpoena for the documents after months of stonewalling by the Pentagon. Shays had requested the documents in a March 7 letter. "There was no response" to the letter, a frustrated Shays told Salon. "We are not going to back off this."
...
The subpoena also includes a separate demand, at the behest of Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., for any documents that might show that U.S. forces were systematically detaining family members of suspects at Abu Ghraib, and mistreating them to force suspects to talk.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/07/14/kidnap/

The article goes on to give details of cases where family members were kidnapped and tortured.

[rooboy]

1. Kidnappings, rapes, torture... just how the Founding Fathers wanted it. nt

[saigon68]

6. rape from an iraqi blog

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_riverbendblog_archive.html#115264752348608248



Rape. The latest of American atrocities. Though it's not really the latest- it's just the one that's being publicized the most. The poor girl Abeer was neither the first to be raped by American troops, nor will she be the last. The only reason this rape was brought to light and publicized is that her whole immediate family were killed along with her. Rape is a taboo subject in Iraq. Families don't report rapes here, they avenge them. We've been hearing whisperings about rapes in American-controlled prisons and during sieges of towns like Haditha and Samarra for the last three years. The naiveté of Americans who can't believe their 'heroes' are committing such atrocities is ridiculous. Who ever heard of an occupying army committing rape??? You raped the country, why not the people?

[Kutjara]

2. So have we lost the moral high ground yet? n/t

[Binka]

3. We Are Beneath The Belly Of A Snake n/t

[Hissyspit]

7. Hi, Binka.

How is Ben?

[Lochloosa]

12. Second that question...

Hey babe. :loveya:

[KansDem]

20. Moral high ground?

Bush has taken our "moral high ground" and stuck it squarely on the bottom of the deepest cesspool.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. Why does Rummie still have a job?

His deliberate incompetence is astounding.

[izzie]

5. Is this like Saddam giving aid to families? If that is bad why not this?

I know it is some what putting apples and oranges together but I see it as some what in the same vain. Any thoughts on this?

[leftchick]

8. I sure am glad saddam is gone

now we have US style torture, rape rooms, kidnappings and cold blooded murders. It is so much better when westerners do it!

:(

[Solly Mack]

9. America, the war crime nation

Gosh, aren't folks just so proud!

[rosesaylavee]

10. We need to hold every last damn one

of these Republicans responsible for each and every death, maiming and terror act in rebuttal to their creation and support of this evil administration.

We will never forget who is in office now - we will hold them accountable. They best be preparing their statements as to what they did personally to circumvent the seizure of our civil rights and those of our neighbors around the world.

We need to be prepared for the war crime tribunals that will carry us into the next decade... Some repubs are responsible and they will pay for what they are doing to our country. They won't be immune to the fallout from this war in Iraq and the so-called War on Terra.

Just pissed to the nth degree this am - and tired of being so.

[acmavm]

11. This little tidbit of criminal activity has been a well known

public fact for months now. Wonder what's finally heating up the investigation.

[gratuitous]

16. What IS finally heating up the investigation?

You don't suppose it might have anything to do with politics? I note that in the story, right after Christopher Shays (R) vents a little fake dudgeon, the name of Henry Waxman appears. If the GOP loses control of the House, Mr. Waxman becomes Chairman Waxman, with the full power of congressional subpoenas.

If the GOP can go through the charade of an investigation now, while nobody's much paying attention, they can then say that Waxman is just going over old ground when he gears up a real investigation next year. The actual facts of U.S. military misconduct will be obscured as once again GOP politics trumps everything, and the Elephant once again flies above the Eagle.

[Tempest]

17. It's been known for years, not just months

When the Abu Ghraib scandal broke in 2004, released prisoners told stories of how their families were abducted and threatened with rape and torture if the prisoners didn't cooperate. According to one report, a wife of a prisoner had her arm broken in front of her husband by a U.S. interrogator.

Apparently the "Liberal" media didn't see fit to spend much time on the accusations.

[Rose Siding]

13. They could just ask Col Hogg about it-

July 03, it was right there in the WP -kidnapping, complete with ransom note. (maybe only DUers read the paper that day)

snip>
Col. David Hogg, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, said tougher methods are being used to gather the intelligence. On Wednesday night, he said, his troops picked up the wife and daughter of an Iraqi lieutenant general. They left a note: "If you want your family released, turn yourself in." Such tactics are justified, he said, because, "It's an intelligence operation with detainees, and these people have info." They would have been released in due course, he added later.

The tactic worked. On Friday, Hogg said, the lieutenant general appeared at the front gate of the U.S. base and surrendered.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54345-2003Jul27?language=printer

I contacted all my reps when this happened. One told me that they'd pressed the incident with a DoD contact who said I'd be contacted with info about it with the same priority as family notification. That's the term the Cantwell's staffer used in an email the next day, so I knew it was probably a big deal. I never heard back.

I've wondered about it since and driven myself a little nuts looking for the emails -I still have the file, but just the staffer's first name and not the orig emails.

[ninkasi]

19. I remember the kidnappings

being discussed here at DU. The military excused the kidnappings as being "justified". Bush and the Republicans have excused every single atrocity as being justified, and the sad truth is that NOTHING justifies what we have done in Iraq. Bush sees himself as the center of the universe, and often falls back on the "this is a different kind of war" claims.

Kidnapping innocent people is a shameful thing to do, but this is an administration which has no shame, and which will do whatever Bush pleases. Kidnapping, torture, death and destruction, all being committed in our names. These horrors are authorized by a man who isn't qualified to guard the porta-potties at a massive Freeper rally of 8 or 9 dedicated chicken-hawks.

[Rose Siding]

21. That Colonel is now a senior trainer, stateside-

• Col. David R. Hogg, commander, operations group, National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif., to assistant division commander, 1st Armored Division, U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army, Germany.

http://staging.armytimes.com/story.php?f=0-ARMYPAPER-1748929.php

He's mentioned in an article last week-

SAFE ENVIRONMENT. The process originated at the Army's National Training Center, says Colonel David Hogg, a senior trainer at the center and commander of its Operations Group. "It was one of those things that started in the early '80s to allow us to examine ourselves, to come to grips with how to make it better, and to eliminate the perception of zero defects," says Hogg. The review process was part of a larger transformation for the Army at the time, away from leadership that often punished mistakes with demotion to one that saw them as learning opportunities. Now, says Hogg, "the process is incorporated into our Army psyche."

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_28/b3992011.htm

:(

[Doctor_J]

14. When will Rove and FoxNews blame this on Clinton?

As you all know, Big Dog getting a bj in the Oval Office has led to our soldiers behaving like this.

[Julius Civitatus]

15. How much clearer can it be? Rumsfeld is a war criminal

He should be tried in a court of law for war crimes. Every day they release more info that points at a horribly messed up mismanagement of the war by Rummy. He needs to step down, and they need to bring this guy to court. This is beyond acceptable.

[Barrett808]

18. And many, if not most of the innocents at Abu Ghraib are hostages

The US has denied taking hostages on a few occasions, but it's clear to anybody with eyes that these periodic "prisoner releases" are the result of deals with the insurgency.

[Moderator]

22. kick

[jpak]

23. Early in the war US troops blatantly used kidnapping

as a means to apprehend wanted Iraqis.

I saw a video clip of an Army officer admitting to this (he said they "detained" the family of one of Saddam's henchmen in hopes of finding him).

This stuff has gone on for several years - under or unreported by the embedded press....

[krkaufman]

24. If that ain't war crimes, it sure should be. n/t

[IndianaGreen]

25. Those are war crimes, and they were reported in the British press

The American press was cheerleading our glorious Commander-in-Chief.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

26. We were talking about this in 2004:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0517/p01s02-woiq.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=582473