How come the US Media haven't mentioned a word about US troops abusing children in Iraq, in their prisons and on Cuba? It's all over Europe - but inside the US the subject is never mentioned.
So much for the "Land of Freedom" (for War Criminals!)
How Come The US Media is Silent?
by Kent 37 Replies latest social current
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StinkyPantz
Because everything American is (insert negative trait here). Once everyone realizes that, things like this won't be surprising.
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Kent
Internal UNICEF report: USA intern children for an indefinite time without legal process
According to inquiries undertaken by the ARD political magazine REPORT MAINZ, indications increase that, within Iraqi prisons, US soldiers even mistreated children and youngsters. Two different sources independently recorded the inhuman treatment of imprisoned minors within the premises of the scandalous prison Abu Ghreib, according to REPORT MAINZ.
Samuel Provance, sergeant of the military secret service, and who was stationed at Abu Ghreib, in an exclusive interview with REPORT MAINZ reported that US interrogation specialists importuned a girl inside her cell. Military police did not intervene until the 15 to 16 year odl girl was half naked.
According to Provance, a 16 year old boy was showered with water and then driven through the cold (night). Afterwards they ?smeared? the boy ?with mud? and presented him to his father who was prisoned as well. ?After he saw his son in such condition his heart broke?, says Provance. ?He cried and promised to tell everything he knew?.
A reporter with the Arab TV station Al-Jazeera, Suhaib Badr-Addin Al-Baz, himself prisoned for 74 days at Abu Ghreib, told REPORT MAINZ, how a 12 year old girl was knocked around by US soldiers. The Journalist was the first to inform about a prison camp for children. ?When they brought me from the cell into the camp, there was an independent camp for children, young, below puberty. For sure there were hundreds of children in that camp.?
The United Nations Children?s Fund (UNICEF) acknowleged the imprisonment of Iraqi children through foreign military personnell. REPORT MAINZ has available an internal report of the Children?s Fund, from which it becomes apparent that the occupation forces hold Iraqi children as prisoners of war in internment custody. Verbatim it says in the yet undisclosed report, dated June 2004: ?Children, which were arrested for reasons of alleged activities against the occupation forces in Basra and Kerbala, were routinely handed over to an internment custody in Um Quasr, according to reports. The categorisation of such children as ?internments?is alarming, as it means indetermined custody without contact to the family, the prospect of a process or trial.?
Additionally the UNICEF document mentiones a new established prison camp for children in Baghdad. In July 2003 UNICEF applied for a visit of this installation. However, UNICEF was barred from entering. Says the report: ?Insufficient security within the premises of this prison camp? has banned independent observers ?since December 2003?.
Also the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirms the internment of children and youngsters through the coalition forces; among others in the infamous torture prison of Abu Ghreib. Florian Westphal, speaker of the ICRC in Geneva, tild REPORT MAINZ: ?Between January and May this year we registered 107 children, and this in the wake of 19 visits on six different prison premises. Here it needs to be emphasised that these are prison compounds who really are controlled by the coalition forces.? The number of prisoned children may well be higher than this.
According to the internal UNICEF report the Children?s Fund ?via a variety of channels? tries to find out more in regard to the internment conditions of childrens, and ?to ensure that their rights do not get infringed?.
The British Ministry of Defence informed REPORT MAINZ not to keep any imprisoned children in Iraq at this time. The US Ministry of Defence until now did not show any reaction towards a submitted request.
The Human Rights Organisation Amnesty International in REPORT MAINZ demands clarification about internments of children. Barbara Lochbihler, general secretary of the German section, declared: ?The US government has to reply to this report. It has to provide precise information: How old are the children, what are the reasons for internment, what were the circumstances of them being taken prisoners, and whether children were subjected to torture and mistreatment.?
Barbara Lochbihler further: ?The report is dated June 2004 and what is infuriating is that those US persons in charge and the governments seem not to have taken it up in earnest to throw light on such incidents. (...) And here we even do not know the names of the children, how many children we talk about. Independent inspections are unwanted. This is scandalous.?
Also the internal UNICEF document displays severe criticism towards the practice of internment by the occupation forces. Verbatim it says: ?The perceived unjustified internment of male Iraqis, including minors, on suspicion of activities against the occupation forces, has become a major reason for the growing frustration among male youngsters and a potential for radicalisation among this part of the population.?
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Simon
I think people would probably expect some links or references to clarify what sort of abuse it is.
I know some minors were being held at guantanamo bay and, as far as I know, still are.
I've seen news reports where Iraqi's claim that their children have been shot during house raids and many have been killed in air strikes. Of course, the army refuses to keep statistics or track such deaths.
oops ... crossed post.
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Satanus
During the invasion, advancing american forces found a prison w kids in it. It was another media plug showing how bad saddam was. They let them go, of course. Now, american forces are putting iraqi kids back in jail
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talesin
:: ?The perceived unjustified internment of male Iraqis, including minors, on suspicion of activities against the occupation forces, has become a major reason for the growing frustration among male youngsters and a potential for radicalisation among this part of the population.?
Backfire!
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Mulan
Tragic. I haven't heard this anywhere here, but don't doubt its accuracy. Some things that this country does, and approves of, just breaks my heart.
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Double Edge
Thanks for all of the links and credible proof...... of course this is ALL true, and even if it isn't, we sure need something to shake our fingers at those d*mn Americans.
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Yerusalyim
Kent,
How Come The US Media is Silent?
Perhaps it's because we require as proof more than an allegation by an obviously leftist magazine.
Which is worse, that the US would hold children as POW's or that the enemy would engage children in terrorist activities....aside from a lack of documentation I also notice a lack of comdemnation for children being given weapons with which to kill soldiers.
Simon,
You keep suprising me...you're quite fair and balanced about this...my hat is off to you sir.
know some minors were being held at guantanamo bay and, as far as I know, still are.
There were three teens being held, they've all three been released about six months ago. (Around 28 January they were returned to Afghanistan) http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/01/29/gitmo.teens/ They were held in a seperate area from the rest of the prisoners.
The tortures they were forced to endure included attending high school classes and learning some english and playing video games.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/central/08/23/afghan.juveniles/
The youths are 13 to 15 years of age and were "taken from the battlefield" in Afghanistan and transferred to the Guantanamo facility in February, Hart said on Saturday.
She said regulations do not allow her to reveal the names or home countries of detainees, but other officials indicated they are native to Afghanistan or Pakistan.
"They definitely demonstrated a willingness to harm U.S. and allied" troops when they were captured in Afghanistan, she said.
She said that during interrogations, it was learned that the three had been "kidnapped and forced into terrorist acts."
Unlike others held in the facility, the three receive counseling, they study daily and exercise with soldiers, Hart said. One senior enlisted soldier assigned to the young detainees "is an eighth-grade teacher back home," Hart said.
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metatron
Perhaps because the US public intuitively understands the breathtaking foolishness of the European position.
You can argue that the invasion of Iraq was un-necessary - that's fine.
but "you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs". The idea that a war can be prosecuted with no effect on the innocent
or violation of some "law" is absurd. The current publicized troubles are NOTHING compared to what BOTH sides did in
World War 2. Nether are they ANYTHING compared to the institutionized torture and ethnic cleansing that exists thruout
Africa and Arab cultures. A commentator on Al-Jeezera wondered if lack of coverage in the Arab world was to prevent
regimes there from being embarrassed by attention to their own record on human rights.
These sort of sensationalized accounts are dooming millions of people in the third world to hopeless lives of misery
and death by preventing any sort of rational military intervention to relieve their plight. Countless people mobbed American
representatives in both Liberia and the Sudan - likely because they pray for some kind of intervention. What are the chances
of repairing Zimbabwe after years of misrule - and possible future ethnic cleansing of whites - while South Africa praises its
dictator and intones piously about Iraq? It's all nonsense. I stopped contributing to the idiots at Amnesty International because
of this foolishness. Think a letter writing campaign would have stopped Hitler? They ought to be ENCOURAGING MORE MILITARY
INTERVENTION!
After years as a Witness, I know these things beyond all dispute:
Not everything that claims to be merciful is really kind
and not everything that claims to be honest is really truthful.
metatron