Torturing Children (in Iraq, US press ignores the story..WR Pitt)

[mom cat]

Torturing Children
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Tuesday 20 July 2004

The biggest story of the Iraq war is not about missing weapons of mass destruction, or about deep-cover CIA officers getting their covers blown by vengeful White House agents, or even about 896 dead American soldiers. These have been covered to one degree or another, and then summarily dismissed, by the American mainstream news media. The biggest story of the Iraq war has not enjoyed any coverage in America, though it has been exploding across the international news media for several weeks now.

The biggest story of the Iraq war is about the torture of Iraqi children.

A German TV magazine called 'Report Mainz' recently aired accusations from the International Red Cross, to the effect that over 100 children are imprisoned in U.S.- controlled detention centers, including Abu Ghraib. "Between January and May of this year, we've registered 107 children, during 19 visits in 6 different detention locations," said Red Cross representative Florian Westphal in the report.

The report also outlined eyewitness testimony of the abuse of these children. Staff Sergeant Samuel Provance, who was stationed at Abu Ghraib, said that interrogating officers had gotten their hands on a 15 or 16 year old girl. Military police only stopped the interrogation when the girl was half undressed. A separate incident described a 16 year old being soaked with water, driven through the cold, smeared with mud, and then presented before his weeping father, who was also a prisoner.

Seymour Hersh, the New Yorker reporter who first broke the story of torture at Abu Ghraib, recently spoke at an ACLU convention. He has seen the pictures and the videotapes the American media has not yet shown. "The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling, and the worst part is the soundtrack, of the boys shrieking," said Hersh. "And this is your government at war."





http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/072004A.shtml

[NMDemDist2]

1. oh Will, I sure hope the press starts to pick this up

and the fact that American business people are having a difficult time overseas. Thanks to Bush US companies no longer have a level playing field with foreigners

and the children prisoners story is ill making :puke:

[joanne]

2. This is SICKENING and AWFUL beyond belief

AND TOTALLY IGNORED BY THE US MEDIA!!! What is wrong with them??????

Can you imagine Clinton getting away with 1/1000th of what Chimpy has????

What can be done?? :cry: :cry:

[Sliverofhope]

3. Thanks for covering this

For sure nobody else is. Especially not that sickening CNN.

[AtTheEndOfTheDay]

4. Our collective beautiful minds

must be protected from ugly reality lest we question our leaders.

[joanne]

5. Kick

Everyone needs to read this!