Thousands held without trial in Iraq, says Amnesty

[imported_RUDO]

Thousands held without trial in Iraq, says Amnesty
By Steve Negus, Iraq Correspondent
Published: March 6 2006 02:00 | Last updated: March 6 2006 02:00

Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been detained for months if not years without trial by US-led multinational forces since the 2003 invasion, Amnesty International said in a report on Monday.


The London-based rights group called for an end to the indefinite internment of thousands of detainees in Iraq by the multinational forces, as it launched a report titled "Beyond Abu Ghraib: Detention and Torture in Iraq".

Approximately 14,000 prisoners were being held without charge in breach of international law, the organisation said, while others had been released "without explanation or apology or reparation after months of detention, victims of a system that is arbitrary and a recipe for abuse."

Iraqis, particularly Sunni Arabs, frequently complain that they are arrested in cases of mistaken identity or for comparatively minor reasons such as weapons possession, only to become lost in the system for months.

One Iraqi national cited in the report, Jawad M, says that he was detained in August 2004 while working on a US military base. In October he received a document informing him that his case was coming under review that included the accusation: "Gathering of information on interpreters and employees with theMultinational Force."

"Until now I don't know why they sent me to the prison and why I was released and whose decision that was," he told Amnesty after his release in early 2005.

Between August 2004 and November 2005 alone, the report said, a joint multinational-Iraqi board reviewed the files of some 22,000 detainees, recommending 12,000 for release and 10,000 for further detention.

However, by the end of November 2005, the Central Criminal Court of Iraq - the body in charge of trying those accused of security-related crimes - had tried only 1,301 alleged insurgents. Nearly 4,000 detainees had been held for more than a year without charge or trial, and more than 200 for more than two years, Amnesty said.

The report also cited cases of alleged torture and ill-treatment at the hands of the Iraqi security forces.

It called on countries contributing to the US- and UK-led multinational forces to end indefinite internment, to ensure detainees knew the reasons for their detention and to be sure they were promptly released or charged with a criminal offence.

[imported_RUDO]

Where is the democracy?

Where is the democracy?

[imported_RUDO]

In The Rich's Hands

I think it is in the rich's hands.

[imported_Sardarapat]

Where is the democracy?

There's no such thing as democracy. The democracy people are fooled into thinking exists is in reality the Establishment's false democracy in which the illusion of a People's government is bolstered by a controlled system of "choices" that all invariably lead to the same end.

[imported_RUDO]

There's no such thing as democracy. The democracy people are fooled into thinking exists is in reality the Establishment's false democracy in which the illusion of a People's government is bolstered by a controlled system of "choices" that all invariably lead to the same end.

But there must be a key to happy days for all people.(not a few nations).But I know it is impossible.But at least we can dream.

[imported_RUDO]

US to hand over notorious Abu Ghraib prison

The U.S. military says it will begin moving thousands of prisoners out of Abu Ghraib prison to a new lockup near Baghdad's airport within three months and hand the notorious facility over to Iraqi authorities as soon as possible.

Abu Ghraib has become perhaps the most infamous prison in the world, known as the site where U.S. soldiers abused some Iraqi detainees and, earlier, for its torture chambers during Saddam Hussein's rule.

The sprawling facility on the western outskirts of Baghdad will be turned over to Iraqi authorities once the prisoner transfer to Camp Cropper and other U.S. military prisons in the country is finished. The process will take several months, said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.

Abu Ghraib currently houses 4,537 out of the 14,589 detainees held by the U.S. military in the country. Iraqi authorities also hold prisoners at Abu Ghraib, though it is not known how many.

The U.S. government initially spoke of tearing down Abu Ghraib after it became a symbol of the scandal. Widely publicized photographs of prisoner abuse by American military guards and interrogators led to intense global criticism of the U.S. war in Iraq and helped fuel the Sunni Arab insurgency.

But Abu Ghraib was kept in service after the Iraqi government objected. Planning for the new facility at Camp Cropper began in 2004, Johnson said.

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday the U.S. wants to turn Abu Ghraib over to the Iraqis as fast as possible.

"There are facilities being built so that the U.S. can pull out of Abu Ghraib. Then it will be up to the Iraqi government to decide what they want to do. I do not know that the Iraqi government had decided. It's an Iraqi decision, I just don't know that they've made that decision."

But the Iraqis were all but certain to use Abu Ghraib as a jail for some time at least, because they do not have the money to build new ones.

The Iraqi Cabinet announced Thursday that it hanged 13 insurgents, the first executions of militants since the ouster of Saddam.

The announcement listed the name of only one of those hanged, Shukair Farid, a former policeman in the northern city of Mosul, who allegedly confessed that he had worked with Syrian foreign fighters to enlist fellow Iraqis to kill police and civilians.

[Kharpert]

A democracy is a government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives. In of itself, a democracy is highly inefficient and almost impossible. The United States is not a democracy, it is a republic.

First of all, this news article claims that the Iraqis in question were not in breach of international law. But ever since the Congress of Vienna, international laws were made to be broken. The United States basically told the United Nations to go xxxx itself over a dozen times during the Bush administration. Sadly, it is obvious that Bush has no respect for the international community and is not daunted by the opinions of foreign governments or organzations. This arrogance on the part of the Bush administration has severely damaged America.

These prisons are just a reaction. Obviously, the war on Iraq is going down the tubes and the administration is absolutely desparate to get information out of anyone they can capture. George Bush isn't concerned with saving lives or money; all he wants to do is win the war, and he'll do anything to get that objective completed.

Not only are these prisons a hearless assault on the dignity of the United States, they aren't even worth anything. Torture and intimidation rarely begets useful information, as POWs from Vietnam have commented on repeatedly. Abu Ghirab, Camp X-Ray, and other such "secret" prisons that can be found in Eastern Europe or whatever are just another spillover from the bungling of foreign affairs and the huge mistake that was the war on Iraq.