Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Torture e morti, la guerra di Bush sulle tv Usa

Torture e morti, la guerra di Bush sulle tv Usa
di Bruno Marolo
[ ] WASHINGTON. Si squarcia il velo della censura e un'America sgomenta si
trova di fronte alle vere immagini della guerra in Iraq. La Cbs manda in
onda le fotografie dei «liberatori» americani che infliggono ai
prigionieri politici iracheni le stesse torture di cui la Casa Bianca
accusa il regime di Saddam Hussein. La Abc dedica una intera trasmissione
ai volti dei soldati uccisi in combattimento, dei quali il governo cercava
di nascondere le bare.
Il Pentagono ha sospeso 17 militari americani, tra cui un generale donna,
e ha annunciato che almeno sei saranno giudicati da una corte marziale.
Gli alti comandi sostengono che le torture dei prigionieri erano casi
isolati, ma le immagini e le testimonianze raccolte dalla Cbs raccontano
una storia diversa. In decine di fotografie si vedono detenuti iracheni
con elettrodi sui genitali, oppure obbligati a simulare atti omosessuali
mentre i loro carcerieri americani ridono e applaudono. Una immagine
mostra una piramide formata dai corpi nudi dei prigionieri, su uno dei
quali gli aguzzini hanno scritto un insulto con la vernice. Un'altra
documenta il terrore di un iracheno inerme attaccato da un cane.
Il presidente Bush in campagna elettorale sostiene che in Iraq sta
tornando la normalità. In un certo senso questo è vero. Le fotografie
delle torture sono state scattate nel carcere di Abu Ghraib, presso
Baghdad, tristemente famoso per gli orrori del passato regime. Il regime è
cambiato e i prigionieri politici sono altri ma i metodi di interrogatorio
prediletti da Saddam sono ancora in uso. Racconta Bob Baer, ex direttore
dell'ufficio della Cia a Baghdad: «Sono entrato ad Abu Ghraib due giorni
dopo la liberazione. Mi sono detto: se c'era una ragione per rovesciare il
regime era questa. Ho visto le camere di tortura, le piaghe dei
prigionieri azzannati dai cani, gli elettrodi attaccati ai muri. Abbiamo
invaso l'Iraq per far cessare queste atrocità ed ecco che si ripetono
sotto la nostra bandiera».
Janice Karpinsky, una delle tante donne generali nelle forze armate
americane, comandava le guardie ad Abu Ghraib. In ottobre aveva
accompagnato le televisioni americane per alcune riprese di propaganda nel
carcere. «Siamo all'altezza - si era vantata - dei migliori istituti di
custodia internazionali. Ci prendiamo cura dei detenuti nel miglior modo
possibile». Il sergente Chip Frederick, denunciato alla corte marziale, ha
dato qualche indicazione sul tipo di cure. È un ex guardia carceraria
della Virginia, richiamato sotto le armi. Ha confessato che detenuti
incappucciati, con elettrodi collegati ai polsi, erano costretti a stare
in equilibrio su una cassetta e veniva detto loro che se fossero caduti
avrebbero ricevuto una scossa mortale. «Di solito - ha spiegato -
confessavano nel giro di qualche ora. Gli ufficiali dello spionaggio
militare si complimentavano con me per l'ottimo lavoro e invitavano altri
colleghi ad assistere agli interrogatori per imparare».
Nella maggior parte delle fotografie americani in divisa, uomini e donne,
ridono, fanno il segno di trionfo con il pollice alzato, o segnano a dito
i prigionieri maschi che simulano accoppiamenti omosessuali. Una immagine
mostra il corpo di un prigioniero coperto di lividi e ferite,
apparentemente morto, sul pavimento del carcere. Un detenuto interrogato
dai giudici militari ha raccontato che un minorenne arrestato è stato
violentato in carcere da un traduttore del comando americano. «Il ragazzo
gridava - ha sostenuto - mentre le soldatesse americane ridevano e
scattavano fotografie».
La Cbs ha spiegato che il capo di Stato maggiore delle forze armate,
generale Richard Myers, era intervenuto personalmente per bloccare la
trasmissione «data la situazione difficile in Iraq». Dopo due settimane di
indugi la rete televisiva ha deciso che non era possibile tenere segreto
più a lungo il materiale. Il fronte della censura si sgretola. Si è
ribellato anche un conservatore come Ted Koppel, il conduttore di
Nightline, la trasmissione di attualità della Abc. Una delle prossime
edizioni di Nightline sarà interamente occupata dalle 523 fotografie di
soldati americani morti in combattimento in Iraq. Per ragioni di spazio
non saranno nominati i 201 morti per incidenti, suicidi o fuoco amico.
Leroy Sievers, produttrice della trasmissione, ha spiegato: «Ci siamo resi
conto che i morti in Iraq venivano citati soltanto come numeri e abbiamo
voluto ricordarli mostrando i loro volti ai telespettatori, che siano
d'accordo o no con la guerra».
-- 
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di interrogatorio prediletti da Saddam sono ancora in uso.
Erano interrogatori?  E come lo sa il giornalista?  Sono curioso.
-Stefano

 -Stefano
sei curioso?
sperando che tu capisca l'inglese, ti invito cordialmente a leggere questo:
anna
Depravity as 'Liberation' 
The torture of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison
is emblematic of our crazed foreign policy  
by Justin Raimondo 
The Abu Ghraib prison was a symbol of Saddam's horrific tyranny:
electrodes hanging out of the walls, floors stained with the blood of
god-knows-how-many victims, bodies dangling from meat-hooks, like in some
cheap Grade-B horror flick. So when the Americans came and "liberated" the
place, the long-suffering Iraqi people were supposed to be grateful. After
all, the sadistic torturers of the Ba'athist regime were gone, and it was
a new day – or was it?
Well, not all that new, according to a shocking report broadcast by CBS
the other night. 60 Minutes II showed photos taken of American soldiers
guarding the prison torturing their charges. The images show the American
"liberators" liberating their own perverted libidos, posed next to naked
prisoners who were being forced into simulating sex with each other. In
one macabre shot, a hooded prisoner stands precariously perched on a
pedestal, with electrodes attached to his arms: he is reportedly told that
if he falls, he'll be electrocuted. There are several photos in which
naked prisoners are stacked in a pyramid, and one with a slur written on
his skin in English. Photos in the possession of the military authorities
show a prisoner whose genitals are attached to wires. In one, a dog is
shown attacking an Iraqi prisoner. The authorities are investigating the
account of an Iraqi who alleges that a translator, hired by the Americans
to work at Abu Ghraib, raped a male juvenile prisoner:
"They covered all the doors with sheets. I heard the screaming. ...and the
female soldier was taking pictures." 
Included in this photo-montage of Operation Iraqi Freedom is a picture of
a badly beaten corpse.
"In most of the pictures," Dan Rather reports, "the Americans are
laughing, posing, pointing, or giving the camera a thumbs-up."
This is how we're "liberating" Iraq.
Last month, 17 American soldiers, including the brigadier general in
charge of all detention facilities in occupied Iraq, Brig. Gen. Janis
Karpinski, were relieved of their duties: 6 face charges. The sickening
details were kept secret, by journalists as well as the U.S. military,
until the photos began to circulate independently of both. When CBS
finally stopped sitting on this story, they spun it so that it was framed
in terms of an apologia, as articulated by Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy
director of coalition operations in Iraq, who avers:
"So what would I tell the people of Iraq? This is wrong. This is
reprehensible. But this is not representative of the 150,000 soldiers that
are over here. I'd say the same thing to the American people... Don't
judge your army based on the actions of a few." 
We're supposed to believe that these are just a few rotten apples, that
the overwhelming majority of U.S. occupation troops are regular Boy
Scouts, busy building schools and helping little old ladies cross streets.
To which one can only reply: Baloney!
Two competing narratives about the American occupiers are now vying for
attention. One the one hand, we have Pat Tillman, the football hero who
enlisted shortly after 9/11, with his square clean visage, almost a
caricature of idealized American manhood, a selfless martyr who gave his
all for a righteous cause. And on the other hand we have the grinning
leering perverts of Abu Ghraib. Which is the real face of the American
occupiers: John Wayne in "Flying Leathernecks" or John Holmes in "Freaky
Leatherboys"? 
Just ask the Iraqis, who, according to the latest Gallup poll, see their
American occupiers as "uncaring, dangerous and lacking in respect for the
country's people, religion and traditions." USA Today reports:
"Only a third of the Iraqi people now believe that the American-led
occupation of their country is doing more good than harm, and a solid
majority support an immediate military pullout even though they fear that
could put them in greater danger, according to a new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup
Poll."
And that was before the Abu Ghraib outrage….
The CBS News piece is in many ways almost as outrageous as the events it
describes. To begin with, the entire story is framed by General Kimmitt's
apologia: it also gives a lot of time to the craven excuses of one of the
accused soldiers, who blames his disgusting behavior on a lack of
"training." Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Chip Frederick is so typically
contemporary American in his whining refusal to take responsibility that
it would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic:
"We had no support, no training whatsoever. And I kept asking my chain of
command for certain things...like rules and regulations. And it just
wasn't happening." 
We'll have to take Frederick at his word that he required "training" in
order to be restrained from acting like a mad dog. What a surprise that,
in "real" life, he's a prison guard in Virginia, described by his boss as
"one of the best." One supposes that's why he needs "rules and
regulations" to prevent him from literally f*cking over his charges.
As contemptible as he is, Frederick is performing a great service in
exposing the responsibility of his superiors, and demonstrating that this
wasn't the exception that proves the rule of American beneficence.
Frederick's testimony shows that his actions amounted to the
implementation of an informal policy:
"Frederick says Americans came into the prison: 'We had military
intelligence, we had all kinds of other government agencies, FBI, CIA ...
All those that I didn't even know or recognize.' Frederick's letters and
email messages home also offer clues to problems at the prison. He wrote
that he was helping the interrogators: 
"'Military intelligence has encouraged and told us 'Great job.' They
usually don't allow others to watch them interrogate. But since they like
the way I run the prison, they have made an exception. We help getting
them to talk with the way we handle them. ... We've had a very high rate
with our style of getting them to break. They usually end up breaking
within hours.'"
The CBS report adds:
"The Army found that interrogators asked reservists working in the prison
to prepare the Iraqi detainees, physically and mentally, for questioning. "
Will any of these interrogators, who are civilians and supposedly not
subject to military authority, face charges? Gen. Kimmitt says he hopes
so, but that remains to be seen. However, whatever action is taken, or not
taken, the conclusion that we are dealing here with the results of a
deliberate policy, and not an exceptional case, is inescapable. 
The role played by CBS in all this is far from admirable. True, they
exposed it, and broadcast a very few of the horrific photos. They also
covered it up for at least a month, and might have done so indefinitely if
not for the fact that the story was beginning to leak out:
"Two weeks ago, 60 Minutes II received an appeal from the Defense
Department, and eventually from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
Gen. Richard Myers, to delay this broadcast – given the danger and tension
on the ground in Iraq."
One wonders if the "danger and tension on the ground in Iraq" was the
Defense Department's main concern: after all, the Iraqis surely know what
is happening to them. Abused detainees have families, and friends, and
word travels fast. More likely it is the "danger and tension" on the
ground in this country, the growing outcry on the home front against a
futile and increasingly ugly war, that worries not only the Pentagon
bureaucrats but their bosses in the White House. If they succeed in riding
out the storm, it will be with the invaluable help of the American media:
"60 Minutes II decided to honor that request, while pressing for the
Defense Department to add its perspective to the incidents at Abu Ghraib
prison. This week, with the photos beginning to circulate elsewhere, and
with other journalists about to publish their versions of the story, the
Defense Department agreed to cooperate in our report."
If the truth was going to come out anyway, then better it should be as
seen through the prism of the American commander, a whiney spineless
automaton who needs "rules and regulations" to tell him how to act like a
human being, and Frederick's lawyer, one Gary Myers, who declares:
"The elixir of power, the elixir of believing that you're helping the CIA,
for God's sake, when you're from a small town in Virginia, that's
intoxicating. And so, good guys sometimes do things believing that they
are being of assistance and helping a just cause. ... And helping people
they view as important."
Okay, let's see if I get this straight: the inhabitants of small towns in
Virginia are entirely bereft of any moral sensibility. Rural life, we are
supposed to believe, leads to a blatant disregard for human dignity and
decency. Such rubes as Sgt. Frederick are so easily intoxicated by power,
or proximity to it, that they cannot contain their inherent animality, and
cannot be held responsible for their actions – any more than a cougar can
be accused of murder for hunting its prey.
Them city slicker lawyers, what'll they think of next? It's an interesting
theory, not because it's clever but because it is profoundly and
offensively stupid. I doubt it will hold up in a court of law – especially
not an Iraqi one. You can bet your bottom dollar, however, that the Iraqis
will never be allowed to sit in judgement of Sgt. Frederick and his fellow
sadists. Not even when they are handed back their "sovereignty" on June 30.
Mr. Myers has a point about "the elixir of power," however, although not
in the way he intended. This poisonous brew is what we have quaffed in
Iraq, a potent mixture of high-sounding hubris and militant megalomania.
Is it any wonder that its effects are to inspire a kind of madness?
Our policy of perpetual war is not so much a foreign policy as a form of
collective insanity.
We went in to "liberate" the people of Iraq, and wound up torturing them.
If supporters of this disastrous war have some kind of explanation for
that, I'd love to hear it. Meanwhile, a note to the "mainstream" media:
let's start interviewing the victims, rather than the perpetrators, of
these heinous acts, to get some idea of what really happened. It is also
necessary to start naming names. Unless we want to encourage more such
incidents in the future, public shaming can act as a deterrent. 
– Justin Raimondo
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prison is emblematic of our crazed foreign policy
Gia' dal titolo si capisce che e' una ca***ta.
-Stefano

 
Ma quell'articolo è una porcata sensazionalistica e basta. Non puoi 
giudicare un intero esercito o una intera nazione in base alle 
brutte azioni di pochi e trarne conclusioni generali; questo credo 
non sia difficile da capire.
Ciao.
-- 
- Andy 'Andyphone' <andy...@FCTbigfoot.com> Toscana - Italy -
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 Dovrei leggere delle ca***te per quale motivo scusa? 
se lo dici tu...
