The New York-based organization Human Rights First has done consistently excellent work of fact-finding, analyzing, and seeking official accountability regarding the US government’s use of torture since 9/11.
I see that they have been “doggedly” following the trial of Abu Ghraib dog handler Sgt. Santos Cardona. Their coverage of this trial even includes a fascinating and informative blog about being kept about it by HRF staff attorney Hina Shamsi, who has been observing it inside the coutroom.
For example, last Friday Shamsi wrote,
- Capt. [Carolyn] Wood is one of the “Where’s Waldos” of the abuse puzzle; she was posted to both Afghanistan and Iraq, and some of the worst abuses that have yet come to light appear to have been committed under her watch. In late 2002, Capt. Wood was in charge of the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion in Afghanistan.Soldiers under her command were implicated in the deaths by torture of two Afghan detainees, Habibullah and Dilawar… Capt. Wood and members of her battalion were then transferred to Iraq, where, in July 2003, they were assigned to Abu Ghraib…
And in last Thursday’s post, Shamsi wrote about the appearance at the trial– as a defense witness!– of the infamous Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, former Commander of the Guantanamo prison who later became head of all “detention operations” in Iraq.
The whole blog makes fascinating reading. Shamsi has put lots of links to relevant documents right into the posts. And the side-bar contains many very useful links. Including one simply tagged Torture Facts, and one tagged Where are they now?
In “Torture Facts” you can learn this:
- * Over 15,000 people are currently in U.S. detention in just Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. As of February 16, 2006, in Iraq, there were 14,389 detainees in U.S. custody; as of December 2005, the U.S. was holding approximately 500 detainees in Afghanistan; as of February 10, 2006 there are approximately 490 detainees held at Guantanamo Bay and one enemy combatants held in the U.S.;
* 36 prisoners are believed to be held in unknown locations;
* At least 376 foreign fighters detained in Iraq to whom the Administration has asserted the Geneva Conventions do not apply;
* There were up to 100 ghost detainees in Iraq;
* The U.S. transferred at least one dozen prisoners out of Iraq for further interrogation in violation of the Geneva Conventions;
* 8 percent of 517 Guantanamo detainees were considered al Qaeda fighters by the U.S. Government. Of the remaining detainees, 40% have no definitive connection to al Qaeda or Taliban.
* 5 percent of the 517 detainees held at Guantanamo were captured by the United States and the majority of those currently in custody were turned over by other parties during a time when the United States was offering large sums for captured prisoners.
These facts– for which footnotes are supplied on that HRF web-page– are even more shocking than I thought. (And several of them relate directly to the post I just put up here a short while ago.)
While I’m on the topic of human rights things, here is a version of the report that the UN Committee against Torture recently released about Bush administration’s many infractions of the Convention Against Torture, thanks to the BBC.