Rumsfeld involved in Abu Ghraib torture

Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/163683.html

Governmental documents indicate that former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, among other US officials, played a role in the torture policies in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

In his new autobiography, Rumsfeld says Abu Ghraib's prisoner abuse was perpetrated by rogue soldiers, despite governmental documents hinting at pro-torture policies issued by senior US officials, such as Rumsfeld, himself.

"There were decisions made by Secretary Rumsfeld, himself, and by other members of the Bush cabinet to endorse torture to allow the use of interrogation methods that in the past, the United States had regarded as war crimes," Hameel Jaffer told Press TV's US Desk in an interview.

As a result of these policies, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and other worldwide US-run detention facilities have used severe torture techniques, previously regarded as war crimes in the United States.

Since 2004, numerous accounts of “systematic and illegal abuses of detainees” have been reported. Cases including rape, torture, and murder have been among those reported.

An estimated 1,300,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed, while about 4.7 million have been displaced since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.

During these seven years, 4,436 US troops have been reported as being killed.

Ex-US defense secy. accused of torture

Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/160063.html


A US rights group has filed a lawsuit charging former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with involvement in torturing former prisoners in American prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) catapulted the torture case into prominence on Thursday after it lodged an appeal to a court in the District of Columbia, alleging that Rumsfeld and some senior US military officials were quite aware of a torture case involving nine detainees between 2002 and 2004 in American prisons in the two countries, AFP reported.

The case initially was brought forth in December 2006, but later on was withdrawn by a federal court in March 2007 on the grounds that the ex-defense secretary and other top American military officials were immune from prosecution.

The US-based human rights group stated that under the Constitution and international law, torture is strictly prohibited and commanders are obliged to act when they know or should have known of such abuses.

The ACLU argued that the 78-year-old Rumsfeld and other military officials were repeatedly notified of abuse and torture at detention facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan by the International Red Cross and other reports as well as complaints by human rights organizations, thus they are directly responsible for the abuses.

The group further touched upon a case involving a prisoner identified as Ali.V, adding that prisoners, who were later released without charge, “were beaten, tortured, and sexually abused.”

Meanwhile, three judges at an appeals court in the District of Columbia said the case has a little chance to succeed.

The remarks came as a group of activists, each wearing black hoods and orange jumpsuits representing the prisoners at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay staged a rally in front of the court room on Thursday to protest against negligence over the torture case.

Rumsfeld is currently putting finishing touches on the release of his memoire book titled “Known and unknown”, which is due to hit bookshelves in the US on 8 February.

US Judge upholds case implicating Rumsfeld

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=120279&sectionid=3510203


A US federal judge has refrained from accepting a government motion asking for dropping a civil law suit that charges the former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was involved in torturing two former American contractors in Iraq.

The former contractors Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel were given the go ahead on Friday by District Judge Wayne R. Andersen to follow the civil case on torture, the Associated Press reported on Saturday.

Vance and Ertel who were employed in Iraq by Shield Group Security (SGS), alleged in 2006, one year after their arrival in Iraq, that their employer bribed Iraqi Sheiks and trafficked in weapons, activities they worried were illegal.

Upon reporting to authorities in the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and officials at the US embassy in Baghdad, they were denied their identification cards and hence from entering to the Green Zone by SGS, and were finally arrested by the "United States forces" and ended up in US "Getmo-ized" detention facility near Baghdad.

The two men claim that while in solitary confinement, they were subjected to sleep deprivation, long hours of interrogation, blasting music, threats, hunger and a practice known as "walling," in which subjects are blindfolded and walked into walls, all "tantamount to torture" according to the suit.

Ertel was released after a month and Vance after two months, the suit said.

"This is the first time where a court has recognized that the facts were sufficient to potentially hold a secretary of defense personally liable for authorizing torture," said Mike Kanovitz, a Chicago attorney who represents the plaintiffs.

District Judge Andersen said his decision "represents a recognition that federal officials may not strip citizens of well settled constitutional protections against mistreatment simply because they are located in a tumultuous foreign setting."

"The allegations, if true, would substantiate plaintiffs' claim that Rumsfeld was aware of the direct impact that his newly-approved treatment methods were having on detainees in Iraq," Andersen wrote . He went on to add that "a court might plausibly determine that the conditions of confinement were torturous."

The two men are seeking unspecified damages. The next hearing is set for March 25.

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