Pentagon Spells Out Anti-Abuse Prisoner Guidelines

[cal04]

The Pentagon is preparing new guidelines for the proper handling of people captured during wartime, including an explicit ban on inhumane treatment.The guidelines, which are not yet final, are the Pentagon’s attempt to establish clearer and more complete rules and lines of authority in hopes of avoiding the discipline and leadership failures that led to detainee abuse by some military members in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Investigations have found that some of the worst abuse occurred at what the military calls the “point of capture”, where enemy fighters or suspected terrorists are captured in the heat of battle. Others were abused at detention centres or, in some cases, during interrogations. “All persons detained by US armed forces during the course of military operations shall be given humanitarian care and treatment from the moment they fall into the hands of US forces until release,” the March 23 draft document said.

It is titled “Joint Doctrine for Detainee Operations”.
Noting that inhumane treatment is banned by international law and Pentagon policy, the document adds that even “military necessity” is no excuse for improper treatment of a detainee. “Accordingly, neither the stress of combat operations, the need for actionable information, nor the provocations by captured/detained personnel justify deviation from this obligation,” it said. On the other hand, the document says in a separate passage that the requirement for humane treatment of an “enemy combatant” – as opposed to a prisoner of war – is ”subject to military necessity” – suggesting there could be circumstances in which the requirement did not apply.

Human Rights Watch, which has been highly critical of the military’s detainee policies, sent a letter to defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld saying the proposed new guidelines amounted to an assertion that prisoner protections under the Geneva Conventions did not have the force of law. “Human Rights Watch urgently objects to a proposed joint military policy that would formalise as US military policy the category of ‘enemy combatant’ as detainees who are not entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions,” Kenneth Roth, the group’s executive director, wrote.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4373594

[saigon68]

1. I wonder if you can still Ram a Flashlight up the Prisoner's RECTUM ?

Or have a Lynndie Clone tape a USED KOTEX PAD on the prisoner's face?

[Voltaire99]

2. Exactly

These guidelines are for public consumption, but in practice they'll do little to curb sadism and torture.

In the photos from Abu Ghraib, it was not the savagery itself that was so frightening.

It was the glee on the faces of American torturers.

No guidelines, especially those disgorged from the bowels of the Pentagon, will change that.

[saigon68]

3. The pointing by Lynndie and the smirk by Graner

were all I could handle. They are all Beasts.

Anyone volunteering to do this shit is over the top and insane.

[Matriot]

4. You can't tell me though

that the leadership didn't support it, otherwise it wouldn't have happened.

[saigon68]

5. Oh, the leadership approved of it Alright

What better way to show the Sub humanoid Dark People, who is boss in the New World Order.

Torture and murder a few.

Tie nasty used menstrual pads on the faces of the "insurgents".

Anally rape and abuse a whole generation of towel heads.

Debase and degrade women, put them in Abu Ghraib.

Humble and humiliate these Anti-Christian followers of a dogmatic evil religion.

These orders came right from the TOP.

[Roland99]

6. Took a whole year to come up with a ban on inhumane treatment?

sad

[struggle4progress]

7. Take a deep breath. Now repeat: "Jen-ee-va. Jen-ee-va." eom

[DulceDecorum]

8. The breakdown of moral order within the U.S. military - in Iraq.

DELGADO: The worst incident that I was privy to was in late November. The prisoners (at Abu Ghraib) were protesting nightly because of their living conditions. They protested the cold, the lack of clothing, the rotting food that was causing dysentery. And they wanted cigarettes. They tore up pieces of clothing, made banners and signs. One demonstration became intense and got unruly. The prisoners picked up stones, pieces of wood, and threw them at the guards. One of my buddies got hit in the face. He got a bloody nose. But he wasn’t hurt. The guards asked permission to use lethal force. They got it. They opened fire on the prisoners with the machine guns. They shot twelve and killed three. I know because I talked to the guy who did the killing. He showed me these grisly photographs, and he bragged about the results. “Oh,” he said, “I shot this guy in the face. See, his head is split open.” He talked like the Terminator. ‘I shot this guy in the groin, he took three days to bleed to death.” I was shocked. This was the nicest guy you would ever want to meet. He was a family man, a really courteous guy, a devout Christian. I was stunned and said to him: “You shot an unarmed man behind barbed wire for throwing a stone.” He said, “Well, I knelt down. I said a prayer, stood up and gunned them all down.” There was a complete disconnect between what he had done and his own morality.

Q: Commanders permitted use of lethal force against unarmed detainees. What was their response to the carnage?

DELGADO: Our Command took the grisly photos and posted them up in the headquarters. It was a big, macho thing for our company to shoot more prisoners than any other unit.
http://www.blackcommentator.com/133/133_think_racism_military.html