How Many More Iraqis Can You Throw Behind Bars Without Trial?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/95583/how_many_more_iraqis_can_you_throw_behind_bars_without_trial/

By Fatih Abdulsalam, Azzaman. Posted August 19, 2008

Among the U.S.'s most vociferous criticisms of Saddam's regime was its practice of inhumane, summary arrests. Now it is guilty of the same.

Reports that U.S. and Iraqi government jails hold nearly 100,000 prisoners, most of them languishing there without trial and proof of wrong doing, are appalling.

Most arrests in Iraq whether by U.S. or Iraqi troops are arbitrary, carried out with little or no evidence.

The U.S. was most vociferous in its condemnation of the former regime for its arbitrary and summary arrests and inhuman conditions of its prisons.

But for many Iraqis this so-called 'beacon of democracy' has even surpassed Saddam Hussein in human rights violations.

U.S. troops can do almost everything with impunity in Iraq. They have the right to seize any one in the country merely on suspicion of 'terror' which no authority in the world can define what it really means.

And to provide enough room for its Iraqi suspects, the U.S. has built numerous prisons in the country -- perhaps its only post-war reconstruction feat.

[islandmkl]

1. bush/cheney/m.c.johnny all say before they can answer:

"How many per cell?"

[tblue]

2. It's also contractors, like Bl@ckwater.

And to say "U.S. troops can do almost everything with impunity in Iraq," is "not supporting the troops." Right.

We are so through the looking glass. God forgive us for not rising up and taking our country back.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

3. So are you, we surprised ?

[billyoc]

4. How many you got? With privatized prisons, the sky's the limit.

We'll just have these here prisoners build new prisons for those there prisoners...

[bobd0]

5. The disconnect is unbelievable

What America has done to the Iraqi people will go down in history as one of the greatest crimes against humanity ever perpetrated. But ask the average American and they'll tell you, with a smile, "The surge is working!"

The surge didn't work. Ethnic cleansing of mixed Sunni/Shia neighborhoods worked. Paying Sunni "Awakening Councils" not to fight worked. Incarcerating hundreds of thousands of Iraqis without charges worked. Paying a mercenary army of murdering "contractors" that outnumbers our military in Iraq worked.

Our government, our press, our citizens have all failed miserably and the Iraqi people continue to pay for it. Over a million Iraqis dead -- including innocent women and children, several million internally and externally displaced, a nation in shambles, a civil war still ready to flare up at any time, thousands of Americans dead and wounded, trillions of dollars wasted, America's reputation in tatters, and all for a LIE.

Yet the criminals who are responsible for this abomination will likely never face justice even as they continue to enjoy the profits of their war, while we and the Iraqi people will be paying the price for their crimes for generations to come.

[nosmokes]

6. "God forgive us for not rising up and taking our country back."

I don't think She will. Nor am I sure we are deserving of it. When the Ukraine saw their election stolen the country rose up in protest and a plentitude of citizens descended on Kiev despite the frigid winter weather and lack of places to stay and protested in the streets and the residents opened up their homes so out of towners could crash on the floor and they all ate watery soups and stews for a couple of weeks until the situation was made right. What'd we do here? We let nine old white men decide our fate (wrongly) and then sat on our fat asses in our comfortable homes too complacent to be bothered to be inconvenienced by going to the capitol and demanding our votes be counted and counted correctly.Damn but that democracy thing can so much work sometimes. And then we sat still for the war, we sat still, for the torture, we sat still for the war some more and we got people in office who were gonna stop it and then we sat still when they didn't. Would you forgive us? Hell, I betcha most here will support Pelosi and Reid for re-election. And it should be obvious by now that the only reason for a war in Iraq is to have a war in Iraq. And the Democratic leadership is as much a party to that as Dick Cheney.They just may not enjoy it as much.