THE US, THE UN AND THE IRAQIS THEMSELVES, V. 7.0

More Than 100 Die in U.S. Custody in Iraq

Wednesday March 16, 2005 7:31 PM


By JOHN J. LUMPKIN

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - At least 108 people have died in U.S. custody in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and roughly a quarter of the cases have been investigated as possible U.S. abuse, according to government data provided to The Associated Press.

The figure, far higher than any previously disclosed, includes cases investigated by the Army, Navy, Central Intelligence Agency and Justice Department. Some 65,000 prisoners have been taken during the U.S.-led wars, most later freed.

The Pentagon has never provided comprehensive information on how many prisoners taken during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have died. The 108 figure, based on information supplied by Army, Navy and other government officials, includes deaths attributed to natural causes.

To human rights groups, the deaths form a clear pattern.

``Despite the military's own reports of deaths and abuses of detainees in U.S. custody, it is astonishing that our government can still pretend that what is happening is the work of a few rogue soldiers,'' said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. ``No one at the highest levels of our government has yet been held accountable for the torture and abuse, and that is unacceptable.''

To the Pentagon, each death is a distinct case, meriting an investigation but not attributable to any single faulty military policy. Pentagon officials point to military investigations that have found that no policy condoned abuse.

Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. John Skinner said the military has taken steps to reduce the chance of violent uprisings at its prisons and the use of excessive force by soldiers, and also has improved the health care available to prisoners.

``The military has dramatically improved detention operations, everything from increased oversight and improved facilities to expanded training and the availability of state-of-the-art medical care,'' he said in a statement.

Some death investigations have resulted in courts-martial and convictions, others in reprimands. Many are still open. In some cases, during riots and escape attempts, soldiers were found to have used deadly force properly.

The most serious sentence handed out in the completed cases is three years imprisonment, which was given to two soldiers in separate cases.

Pfc. Edward Richmond was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for shooting Muhamad Husain Kadir, an Iraqi cowherd, in the back of the head on Feb. 28, 2004; Richmond said he saw Kadir lunge for another soldier.

Staff Sgt. Johnny M. Horne pleaded guilty to killing a critically wounded Iraqi teenager in Sadr City, Iraq, on Aug. 18, 2004. Horne described it as a mercy killing.

In Iraq, the military is currently holding around 8,900 people at its two largest prisons, Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca.

At least two prisoners died during interrogation, in incidents that raise the question of torture. Human rights groups say there are others:

- Manadel al-Jamadi, a suspect in the bombing of a Red Cross facility in Baghdad, died Nov. 4, 2003, while hanging by his wrists in a shower room at Abu Ghraib prison. Nine SEALs and one sailor have been accused of abusing al-Jamadi and others in Iraq. The CIA and Justice Department are also investigating the death.

- Four Fort Carson, Colo., soldiers, including three in military intelligence, are charged with murder for the death of an Iraqi major general who died in November 2003. The CIA has also acknowledged that one of its officers may have been involved and referred the case to the Justice Department for investigation.

Of the prisoner deaths:

- At least 26 have been investigated as criminal homicides involving possible abuse.

- At least 29 are attributed to suspected natural causes or accident.

- 22 died during an insurgent mortar attack on April 6, 2004, on Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

- At least 21 are attributed to ``justifiable homicide,'' when U.S. troops used deadly force against rioting, escaping or threatening prisoners and investigations found the troops acted appropriately.

The majority of the death investigations were conducted by the Army's Criminal Investigation Division, as most prisoners are held in Army-run facilities.

In many of the cases, resolution has not been swift. Military officials have attributed this in part to the difficulties of conducting investigations in war zones, and they say accuracy is more important than speed.

``Our special agents have literally been mortared and shot at while going about investigative duties,'' said Army spokesman Christopher Grey.

Grey said Army investigators have looked into 79 deaths in 68 incidents. Most were in Iraq. No prisoners have died at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the third major site for prisoners since the Sept. 11 attacks.

A Navy official said the Navy Criminal Investigative Service has investigated eight deaths. One of those, of al-Jamadi, has also been investigated by the Army and is counted among their numbers, officials said.

The CIA and Justice Department have looked into four deaths that may have involved agency personnel or contractors. One CIA contractor has been charged with assault in connection with a third death investigation in Afghanistan. The fourth death was attributed to hypothermia, not mistreatment.

In Vietnam we backed a stooge, Ngo Dinh Diem, who thwarted the democratic process in 1956 by reneging the terms of the 1954 Geneva Conference which called for a countrywide general election in 1956.
I think your understanding of the history of the Vietnam War and its aftermath needs augmenting.

First of all the US came to the aid of the South Vietnamese Government at their request to prevent the Viet Cong and their ally, North Vietnam, from invading South Vietnam.

Second, we fled South Vietnam when, according to recent statements by two North Vietnamese Generals, we had won the ground battle in the Tet offensive but had lost the public opinion war in the US.

Quote:

www.britannica.com (boldface emphasis added by me)
After the mid-19th century, Vietnam was divided by the French into Tonkin in the north, Annam in the centre, and Cochinchina in the south. The Vietnamese themselves have long made a distinction between the northern region, with Hanoi as its cultural centre; the central region, with the traditional royal capital of Hue; and the southern region, with Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) as its urban centre.
...
Emigration also has been considerable since reunification. Between 1975 and 1990 hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese left the country, both legally and illegally, and an unknown number died at sea. Many have remained in refugee camps in Thailand and other countries, but a large number have emigrated, especially to the United States.
...
These factors, combined with poor management of state-run programs, precipitated a severe economic crisis. Food production and per capita income dropped, and consumer goods were shoddy, expensive, and in short supply. The government responded with minor reforms in 1979 and more basic changes beginning in 1986. Vietnam began to move away from a state-controlled, centrally planned, subsidized economy toward one that utilized market forces and incentives and tolerated private enterprise—albeit under continuing government control. In response, the quality and variety of food and of various consumer goods increased, as did exports.
...
Between 1954 and 1975 a cosmopolitan literature stressing creativity and individual freedom flourished in the south, while a state-sponsored literature of Socialist Realism was promoted in the north. After 1975 Socialist Realism became a national orthodoxy, although in the 1980s literature became more lively and diverse in content.
...
Following the communist victory, Vietnam remained theoretically divided until July 2, 1976, when the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was officially proclaimed, with its capital at Hanoi. Vietnam at peace faced formidable problems. In the south alone, millions of people had been made homeless by the war, and more than one-seventh of the population had been killed or wounded; the costs in the north were probably as high or higher. Plans to reconstruct the country called for the expansion of industry in the north and of agriculture in the south. Within two years of the communist victory, however, it became clear that Vietnam would face major difficulties in realizing its goals.
...
The government encountered considerable resistance to its policies, particularly in the huge metropolis of Saigon (renamed Ho Chi Minh City in 1976), where members of the commercial sector—many of whom were ethnic Chinese—sought to avoid cooperating in the new socialist economic measures and resisted assignment to “new economic zones” in the countryside. During the late 1970s the country also suffered major floods and drought that severely reduced food production. When the regime suddenly announced a program calling for the socialization of industry and agriculture in the south in early 1978, hundreds of thousands of people (mainly ethnic Chinese) fled the country on foot or by boat.

It was largely held that the majority of the people, Eisenhower himself believed 80 percent, were going to vote for the communist candidate Ho Chi Minh who was wildly popular among Vietnamese.
Largely held? Who alleges that?

The current Vietnamese nation was established in July 1976, after a period of prolonged warfare and after being partitioned (1954–75) first militarily and later politically into the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, better known as North Vietnam, and the Republic of Vietnam, usually called South Vietnam.

After Diem became increasingly unpopular among Vietnamese, the US government organized a coup to remove him and installed another stooge, Nguyen Van Thieu. In 1967 he was elected president in the South Vietnamese presidential election.

ican711nm wrote:

... The question is not can we cut and run? The question is should we cut and run?

I say we shouldn't. What say you?

Hm, trying to remember... who started the attack? ...

already answered that q ican, and I'm sure your remember my answer.

sorry, I didn't see a name attached to your post. I am easily confused.

World > Global Issues
from the March 17, 2005 edition

Why graft thrives in postconflict zones
A report issued Wednesday said Iraq could become 'the biggest corruption scandal in history.'
By Mark Rice-Oxley | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
LONDON - Five Polish peacekeepers are arrested for allegedly taking $90,000 worth of bribes in Iraq. Several Sri Lankan officials are suspended for mishandling tsunami aid. US audits show large financial discrepancies in Iraq. Reports of aid abuse taunt Indonesia.

Two of the world's biggest-ever reconstruction projects - Iraq and post-tsunami Asia - are facing major tests of credibility, as billions of dollars of aid and reconstruction money pour in.


And according to a major report released Wednesday by Transparency International (TI), an international organization that focuses on issues of corruption, the omens are not good.

From Iraq and Afghanistan to Cambodia and Bosnia, from the wrecked coasts of Asia to the kleptocratic carve-up in some African countries, crisis zones are proving to be fertile soil for corruption, the report argues.

"Many postconflict countries figure among the most corrupt in the world," says Philippe le Billon of the University of British Columbia, Canada, in the TI report. "Corruption often predates hostilities and in many cases it features among the factors that triggered political unrest or facilitated conflict escalation."

The report cites weak government, haphazard law and order, armed factions that need appeasing, and a scramble for rich resources as factors that render a country prone to corruption.

Nations that face security threats are even more vulnerable, since they require protection money and may not be able to keep monitors safe.

Bosnia is a good example. During the breakdown of communism in the late 1980s, factions scrambled for assets by plundering state companies, a situation exacerbated by the 1992-1995 war.

Wartime sanctioned nefarious activity. Criminal gangs became cherished paramilitary groups; black markets flourished; underworld players became rich and powerful. After peace was declared in 1995, the world community was wary of upsetting the status quo. It's still unclear how much of the $5 billion spent on aid after the war ended up in the pockets of shady characters.

"These elements were either part of the ruling political parties, or criminal elements that were financing the ruling political parties," says James Lyon, an analyst in Belgrade with the International Crisis Group.

In Iraq, allegations range from petty bribery to large-scale embezzlement, expropriation, profiteering and nepotism. The TI report says it could become "the biggest corruption scandal in history."

"I can see all sorts of levels of corruption in Iraq," says report contributor Reinoud Leenders, "starting from petty officials asking for bribes to process a passport, way up to contractors delivering shoddy work and the kind of high-level corruption involving ministers and high officials handing out contracts to their friends and clients."

The recent elections may help, he adds, but already he notes a tendency for political bargaining indicative of "dividing up the cake of state resources."

But it is not just about Iraqis dividing up the cake. US audits of its own spending have found repeated shortcomings, including a lack of competitive bidding for contracts worth billions of dollars, payment of contracts without adequate certification that work had been done, and in some cases, outright theft.

A report on the disbursement of Iraqi oil revenues to ministries by the Coalition Provisional Authority, which governed Iraq until last July found a $340 million contract awarded by the electricity ministry without a public tender.

A January report by special inspector Stuart Bowen found that $8.8 billion dollars had been disbursed from Iraqi oil revenue by US administrators to Iraqi ministries without proper accounting.

And earlier this week, it emerged that the Pentagon's auditing agency found that Halliburton, the Houston oil services giant formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney, overcharged by more than $108 million on a contract.

A Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown and Root, faces a number of investigations for overcharging, including one case where it charged the Army more than $27 million dollars to transport $82,000 worth of fuel from Kuwait to Iraq, according to excerpts of the report released this week by Rep. Henry Waxman (D) of California.

In a written statement. Halliburton defended the cost, explaining that delivering the fuel was "fraught with danger."

Analysts also point to an entrenched culture of graft in the Iraqi government.

It doesn't help that much of Iraq needs physical rebuilding, which involves the sector more vulnerable to corruption than any other: construction.

"Public works and construction are singled out by one survey after another as the sector most prone to corruption - in both the developing and the developed world," says TI chairman Peter Eigen.

Construction is considered prone to sleaze for several reasons: the fierce competition for "make or break" contracts; permits and approvals that are open to requests for backhanders; opportunities for delays and overruns; and the physical cover-up opportunity presented by plaster and concrete.

With whole swaths of Southeast Asia requiring rebuilding after the tsunami, experts worry that construction corruption could take a deadly toll.

"The cost will be lives lost," said Eigen, noting that cheap materials and corner-cutting can prove lethal in earthquake-prone parts of the world.

So how to battle corruption? Good governance is clearly the No. 1 priority, but TI identifies several other initiatives that can help improve probity.

These include vetting contractors and blacklisting those with shady records, ensuring competitive bidding for deals and assuring independent auditing and multilayered monitoring involving local communities, rotating staff in sensitive positions, and encouraging donors to disburse funds in a timely fashion to reduce pressure on local officials and prevent accounting trickery.

"We are simply making the case that a series of norms should be applied which make it much more feasible to avoid the kind factors driving corruption," says Lawrence Cockcroft, chairman of TI UK.

• Dan Murphy in Baghdad, Beth Kampschror in Sarajevo, and Peter Ford in Paris contributed to this report.

dyslexia wrote:

sorry, I didn't see a name attached to your post. I am easily confused.

Ok! Now if I'm not confused on this point, we have a quorem.

ican, You belong on the "other side."