Sadly, this sort of thing does not come as a surprise anymore. The American military has so far killed about a hundred people in its custody. In a recent article, Scott Horton reports how some military people have finally come clean. In Guantanamo in 2006 (yes, that late), three prisoners were tortured to death, and these murders were dressed up as suicides. The military had the gall to call it “an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us”. Here is how Horton describes it:
“According to the NCIS documents, each prisoner had fashioned a noose from torn sheets and T-shirts and tied it to the top of his cell’s eight-foot-high steel-mesh wall. Each prisoner was able somehow to bind his own hands, and, in at least one case, his own feet, then stuff more rags deep down into his own throat. We are then asked to believe that each prisoner, even as he was choking on those rags, climbed up on his washbasin, slipped his head through the noose, tightened it, and leapt from the washbasin to hang until he asphyxiated. The NCIS report also proposes that the three prisoners, who were held in non-adjoining cells, carried out each of these actions almost simultaneously.”
The military went to great lengths to conceal these murders. Dubbing the deaths suicide by hanging, they surgically removed the victim’s neck organs, “that would have been essential to determining whether death occurred from hanging, from strangulation, or from choking”. The military personnel were under strict instructions to keep quiet.
A fourth prisoner lived to tell the tale. Here is what he went through:
“On June 9th, 2006, [Aamer] was beaten for two and a half hours straight. Seven naval military police participated in his beating. Mr. Aamer stated he had refused to provide a retina scan and fingerprints. He reported to me that he was strapped to a chair, fully restrained at the head, arms and legs. The MPs inflicted so much pain, Mr. Aamer said he thought he was going to die. The MPs pressed on pressure points all over his body: his temples, just under his jawline, in the hollow beneath his ears. They choked him. They bent his nose repeatedly so hard to the side he thought it would break. They pinched his thighs and feet constantly. They gouged his eyes. They held his eyes open and shined a mag-lite in them for minutes on end, generating intense heat. They bent his fingers until he screamed. When he screamed, they cut off his airway, then put a mask on him so he could not cry out.”
This happened a few years ago, long after the torture revelations came out in public. The military covered it up. The Bush administration put in place the policies that led to these deaths. They still defend these policies. The Obama administration remains complicit in the cover up. The American media refused to touch it, and still will not touch it. Only the foreign media is giving it any play. What kind of society turns a blind eye to these abuses? What kind of society is more offended by attempts to provide subsidized healthcare than in torturing people to death? And where are the moral voices of the bishops on this issue?
Oh, but our boys would never do such a thing.
These news sources are not credible.
How dare you accuse the u.s. military of intentionally killing people?
The American media refused to touch it, and still will not touch it.
Dahlia Lithwick has just posted a piece in Slate titled Too Terrible To Be True?
Why aren’t we talking about the new accusations of murder at Gitmo? In fairness, there was an AP story about the Scott Horton article that appeared in a number of places, including the Washington Post. And Harper’s certainly qualifies as “American media.” Also, Scott Horton was interviewed by Keith Olbermann. But I suppose that’s quibbling. The question is, why isn’t this causing sensation, why aren’t other journalists digging into it, and who (if anyone) in government is going to push for an investigation or something like a special prosecutor?
Even when Obama said he wanted to look toward the future, not look at the past, he said that if there were crimes committed, they would be investigated.
The closing code for the link belongs after “murder at Gitmo?”
How dare you accuse the u.s. military of intentionally killing people?
The story is credible, but I would accuse the military personnel who killed the prisoners of killing people, and the military (although not the entire military) of covering it up.
If “our boys” did this routinely, and nobody really cared, there would be no need for a cover-up.
Cover-up is the homage which vice pays to virtue, to paraphrase La Rochefoucauld.
David – I’m not sure why you think routine behavior cannot be continually covered up. You do recall the situation of the sexual behavior of not a small number of Catholic priests and the subsequent cover up, right?
You do recall the situation of the sexual behavior of not a small number of Catholic priests and the subsequent cover up, right?
Michael,
I would not say priests routinely molest boys, and I would not say members of the military routinely murder civilians. I would not say the Catholic Church molests boys, and I would not say the U.S. military kills civilians. Cover-ups happen often enough in both the Catholic Church and the military for me not to object if someone says the Catholic Church covers up sex abuse or the military covers up murders.
While the abuse rate among Catholic priests is shockingly high — I have seen figures as high as 7 percent of priests being abusers in some areas — by far the majority of priests have never molested anyone, and by far the majority of men in our military have never murdered anyone, or so I believe.
It seems as unfair to me to speak as if all men (and women) in uniform were murderers as it would to speak as if all priests were sexual predators.
What kind of society is more offended by attempts to provide subsidized healthcare than in torturing people to death?
One of these two things really can be closely associated with Communism, but guess which one most loudly is.
The abuse by Catholic priests was routine enough that we can call it a systemic problem. Same with soldiers who are murderers. But I have never said that all soldiers are murderers, nor have I said that all Catholic priests are molesters.
I think you guys are splitting hairs. The real issue for Vox Nova is “why doesn’t anyone seem to care.” I do not think the MSM is lax, but I do think they go where they think the story is and they think that this is a non-starter. No one cares and printing it makes people uncomfortable.
The subsidized healthcare vs. suicide angle is a good point to make. Why are we more threatened by something like that than we are the undermining of certain principles?
Though the individual soldiers are surely responsible for their actions and the President (both of them) are surely responsible for approving the kind of torture that leads to this type of action, we can not let go of our responsibility. Over the long course of the debate over the Iraq war and the torture that followed and was included in it (there was never any real debate over the Afghanistan war). The one thing most people forget is that the people of our country overwhelmingly supported this war. So did the Democrats in congress. Carl Levin from Michigan is one notable exception.
This type of action is a predictable outcome of war. It has happened in all wars and by all sides in all wars. This is why war is to be avoided at all cost. We did choose the Iraq war. Even if we felt Saddam was a real threat to the US, there were still other options left. Senator Levin (no pacifist himself) made just this point in is opposition to the war.
Maybe no one cares, because, just maybe, everyone feels a little guilty.
I believe the Obama Justice Dept. has reviewed investigations of this and found there was no reason to substantiate these claims. Any reason this administration is covering for the previous administration?
Murder and torture have been American specialties for a long time. Since 1950 the USA has been the chief administrator of suffering and cruelty to the human race.
With all deference to Spirit of Vatican II,
“Since 1950 the USA has been the chief administrator of suffering and cruelty to the human race.”
You must not get out too much or read the newspaper.
I only wish that the USA had been the worst in the world for the past 60 years, because that would mean that the world was much more peaceful and just than it really was. I am the first to admit that servicemen and women are not innocent babes in the meadow, but compared to some of the monsters that have turned up the past three score years, the world should give thanks to the US each day for it’s gentle hand in dealing with foreign countries and citizens. Most countries that have such tremendous power tend to use much more stick and much less carrot.
The writer of this posting has a warped mind when it comes to history.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance193.html