True justice is said to be blind - being no respecter of power or position. Poetic justice occurs when acts perpetrated by an aggressor against a victim later on come to befall the very aggressor, thereby manifesting a form of 'what goes around, comes around'. Though concerted efforts continue by those in authority to cover up war crimes and atrocities committed overseas in the ongoing 'war on terror', through a combination of denials and the 'fig leaf' of national security, aided and abetted by a totally lethargic press corps, the truth of such inhuman acts continues to leach out, drip by abominable drip. Rape, torture and coldblooded murder for no reason but a lust for brutality have been an inescapable part of their daily existence for ordinary civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan for most of the last decade.
Featured in the video is the tragic story of a brave young soldier whose life was first ruined and then lost when he refused to turn a blind eye to atrocities perpetrated by buddies in his unit. Attempts at 'whistleblowing' were met with resistance from his superiors and ostracism from fellow soldiers. The story of his shortened life - not due to enemy fire but retribution from his own side for speaking out, has become all too common in a culture that steadfastly refuses to admit any wrongdoing on its part.
The next phase of this unwinnable war on a tactic that is vilified when used by opponents yet openly practiced against civilians by the 'good guys', was kicked off this past week with the signing into law of a Bill that allows for any civilian anywhere in the world to be detained indefinitely without charge, on the mere suspicion of being a threat. This means that not only whistleblowers, but dissenters - or indeed anyone who is seen as having the wrong beliefs can now be disappeared - legally and forever!
Take a long, hard look at the raw brutality visited upon all finding themselves on the wrong side of a brutal and powerful war machine. Yesterday those were Iraqis, Afghans and others (mostly Muslims). Tomorrow, as Army Ranger John Needham found out, the victims will be a whole lot closer to home!
Rape of Iraqi Women by US Forces as Weapon of War: Photos and Data Emerge (Warning Graphic)
(ASIAN TRIBUNE) In March 2006 four US soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division gang raped a 14 year old Iraqi girl and murdered her and her family —including a 5 year old child. An additional soldier was involved in the cover-up.One of the killers, Steven Green, was found guilty on May 07, 2009 in the US District Court of Paducah and is now awaiting sentencing.The leaked Public Affairs Guidance put the 101st media team into a “passive posture” — withholding information where possible. It conceals presence of both child victims, and describes the rape victim, who had just turned 14, as “a young woman”.The US Army’s Criminal Investigation Division did not begin its investigation until three and a half months after the crime, news reports at that time commented.This is not the only grim picture coming out of Iraq U.S. forces being accused of using rape as a war weapon.The release, by CBS News, of the photographs showing the heinous sexual abuse and torture of Iraqi POW’s at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison opened a Pandora’s Box for the Bush regime wrote Ernesto Cienfuegos in La Voz de Aztlan on May 2, 2004.Journalist Cienfuegos further states “Apparently, the suspended US commander of the prison where the worst abuses took place, Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, has refused to take the fall by herself and has implicated the CIA, Military Intelligence and private US government contractors in the torturing of POW’s and in the raping of Iraqi women detainees as well.”Brigadier General Karpinski, who commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade, described a high-pressure Military Intelligence and CIA command that prized successful interrogations. A month before the alleged abuses and rapes occurred, she said, a team of CIA, Military Intelligence officers and private consultants under the employ of the US government came to Abu Ghraib. “Their main and specific mission was to give the interrogators new techniques to get more information from detainees,” she said.At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.Allegations of rape and abuse were included in his 2004 report but the fact there were photographs was never revealed. He later confirmed their existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph in May 2009.The London newspaper further noted “graphic nature of some of the images may explain the US President Obama’s attempts to block the release of an estimated 2,000 photographs from prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan despite an earlier promise to allow them to be published.”Maj. Gen. Taguba, who retired in January 2007, said he supported the President’s decision, adding: “These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.“The mere description of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for it.”In April, Mr. Obama’s administration said the photographs would be released and it would be “pointless to appeal” against a court judgment in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).But after lobbying from senior military figures, Mr. Obama changed his mind saying they could put the safety of troops at risk.In May, he said: “The most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to inflame anti-American public opinion and to put our troops in greater danger.”In April 2004, new photographs were sent to La Voz de Aztlan from confidential sources depicting the shocking rapes of two Iraqi women by what are purported to be US Military Intelligence personnel and private US mercenaries in military fatigues. It is now known, Cienfuegos wrote in May 2004, that hundreds of these photographs had been in circulation among the troops in Iraq. The graphic photos were being swapped between the soldiers like baseball cards.Asian Tribune carries here three of the ‘Rape’ photographs which have brought criticism that the U.S. forces in Iraq have used rape as a weapon of war.- Asian Tribune -
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