Torture Reports, Compiled
July 2004 through August 2005

**Rendering**:

A "60 Minutes" investigation discovers the scope of the extraordinary rendition
program.  Well over 100 people have disappeared; all witnesses tell the same
story.  Masked men in unmarked jets sieze their target, cut off their clothes,
put them in an orange jumpsuit, blindfold and drug them, and fly them away to
countries that use extensive torture, such as "waterboarding" (in which
prisoners are strapped to wooden boards and then held underwater until they
nearly drown).  Many of the victims were later released as innocent or
"mistaken identity"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/04/60minutes/printable678155.shtml

The New Yorker's Jane Mayer, reporting on 'The secret history of America's
"extraordinary rendition" program,' -- an estimated 150 people have been sent
abroad to be tortured since 9/11 -- calls rendition "just one element of the
Administration's New Paradigm."
http://www.newyorker.com/printable/?fact/050214fa_fact6

Maher Arar: A canadian, returning home from Tunisia, was taken while changing
planes at Kennedy Airport, surrepticiously flown out of the US to Jordan and
then driven to Syria.  He was kept like a nocturan animal in an unlit,
underground rat-infested cell the size of a grave, and routinely tortured.
After signing whatever confessions they wanted him to sign, they eventually
determined that he wasn't involved in anything and released him six months
later. (interview)
http://nytimes.com/2005/02/25/opinion/25herbert.html?pagewanted=print&position=

While Bush was Time's "Person of the Year", Arar was the Canadian edition of
Time's "Person of the Year".  He discusses his treatment further.
http://www.counterpunch.org/arar11062003.html
http://www.counterpunch.com/stclair04092005.html

"Ahmed Abu Ali, a 23-year-old Northern Virginia man, is being held without
charges in Saudi Arabia. Arrested in June 2003, he has spent 18 months in
custody but has yet to see a lawyer ...  an eyewitness informed them that
Ahmed's hands were in such pain that he was unable to pick up a pen ... But
perhaps more shocking than what Abu Ali's parents learned about their son's
treatment, was what they discovered about its causes. A U.S. district court
ruling issued last week cites evidence suggesting that U.S. officials initiated
their son's arrest, that the U.S. government is behind their son's continued
detention, and that the reason the U.S. is keeping their son in Saudi Arabia
is to avoid the scrutiny of the federal courts."
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/20805

A guantanamo detainee filed a petition to half the US from returning him to
Egypt, where he says he was previously "rendered" for six months of torture
and "hung by his arms from hooks"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51726-2005Jan5?language=printer

On that subject, the LA times reports more details, and quotes a recently
retired CIA officer as saying "we rendered a lot of people to Egypt, Jordan
and the Saudis in particular ... Ultimately, the agency just wants these
people to disappear forever."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-habib13jan13,0,2731025,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Discussion of the Gulfstream V turbojet used to carry U.S. detainees out of the
country to be tortured elsewhere.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27826-2004Dec26.html

**Guantanmo**:

The "vigorous and detailed dissents" lodged by senior military lawyers
against White House authorization of torture at Guantanamo Bay are spelled
out in newly declassified memos from early 2003.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/28/politics/28abuse.html?ei=5094&en=8298c419c6a6f889&hp=&ex=1122609600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2005/07/jag-memos-on-military-interrogation.html

Reuters reports on an article charging that medical professionals at
Guantanamo are required to provide health information on detainees to
interrogators, contradicting Pentagon statements that there's a separation
between intelligence-gathering and patient care. And 'Interrogators cite
doctors' aid.'
http://www.alertnet.org/printable.htm?URL=/thenews/newsdesk/N2393331.htm
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/NEJMp058145
http://nytimes.com/2005/06/24/politics/24gitmo.html?ei=5094&en=0bb87618febc3438&hp=&ex=1119585600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

To sum up the below: "The top five Gitmo falsehoods"
http://mediamatters.org/items/200506230006

In a Mother Jones interview, Erik Saar, a former Arabic linguist at
Guantanamo Bay, and co-author of the book "Inside the Wire," describes Gitmo
as "a horribly-run facility" where "weekly" suicide attempts were regarded
as "self-injurious manipulative behavior."
http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2005/05/saar.html
http://www.penguinputnam.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,0_1594200661,00.html

The ACLU says that newly-released FBI documents show that the bureau was
told in 2002 that guards at Guantanamo Bay had flushed a Qu'ran down the
toilet.
http://www.aclu.org/news/NewsPrint.cfm?ID=18320&c=206

In what the AP calls "a development the Bush administration had hoped to
avoid, the stories of about 60 detainees imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay Naval
Base have spilled out in court papers."
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&u=/ap/20050409/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/guantanamo_detainees_stories&printer=1
http://wid.ap.org/documents/detainees/list.html

AP reporter Paisley Dodds, who broke the story about allegations that female
interrogators were sexually taunting Guantanamo prisoners, details the findings
of a report by U.S. military investigators who reviewed videotapes involving
"Immediate Reaction Forces" at Guantanamo, including one that showed an
all-female squad "traumatizing some Muslim prisoners."
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&u=/ap/20050128/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guantanamo_sex_vs_faith&printer=1
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050201/D87VU0702.html

The Washington Post's report on a Pentagon inquiry confirming allegations that
female interrogators at Guantanamo "repeatedly used sexually suggestive tactics,"
rings the globe.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12431-2005Feb9.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/27/national/main669845.shtml

The New York Daily News reports that senior Pentagon officials ignored repeated
attempts by military judge advocates at Guantanamo Bay to stop inhumane
interrogations
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/10889627.htm

A detainee is blinded at Guantanamo after having his eyes held open and pepper
spray sprayed into them.
http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/16680139?source=PA
http://talkleft.com/new_archives/009760.html#009760

Witness(es) report "strangulation, beatings, placement of lit cigarettes into
the detainees ear openings and unauthorized interrogations
http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/FBI.121504.4910_4912.pdf

ACLU releases more FOIA FBI documents.  When discussing the "militarys interview
plan" (with a note "you won't believe it!"), they cover 26 reported observations
of abuse, 17 of which the DoD approved of and the FBI just let slide.
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=17273&c=206

Reporting on recently released FBI documents, newsweek concurs that many of the
stories of abuse and torture reported by Guantanamo detainees likely happened.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6803421/site/newsweek/

An attorney describes the conditions which the prisoners at Guantanamo are held
at: "Compared to these men, Charles Manson is living in a palace, and these men
have been convicted of nothing."
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/politics/10684506.htm

Female interrogators tried to break Muslim detainees .. by sexual touching,
wearing a miniskirt, and smearing a Saudi man's face with fake menstrual blood,
according to a US army sergeant who worked as a translator at Guananamo.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&u=/ap/20050128/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guantanamo_sex_vs_faith&printer=1
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/30/opinion/30dowd.html?hp=&oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&u=/ap/20050128/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guantanamo_sex_vs_faith&printer=1

A Guantanamo detainee, earlier, recounted the same and more after being freed.
He was sent back to Britain after being held for two years, where he was cleared
of all charges within 24 hours.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/content_objectid=14042696_method=full_siteid=50143_headline=-MY-HELL-IN-CAMP-X-RAY-name_page.html

The US government admits in court that military panels are using evidence gained
by torture against detainees in Gutanamo bay.  They also assert that detainees
have no constitutional rights, even if they aided terrorists unintentionally and
never fought the United States.
http://www.news-leader.com/today/1203-Evidencega-240874.html

Documents obtained by AP show that the FBI complained in 2002 about the abuse of
detainees at Guananamo.  An FBI official was told by the commanding general that
"the beureau has its own way of doing things, and the D.O.D. has their marching
orders from SecDef."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/national/07gitmo.html?pagewanted=print&position=
http://usatoday.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=USATODAY.com+-+FBI+letter+complains+of+aggressive+interrogation+at+Guantanamo+in+2002&expire=&urlID=12505487&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2F2004-12-06-gitmo-fbi-abu
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/print?id=301947

The Washington Post reveals the existence of a secret CIA detention facility at
Guantanamo Bay, where detainees are held under "separate rules and far greater
secrecy ... and without revealing the rules for their treatment."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5918-2004Dec16.html

The Los Angeles Times reports that documents made public by the ACLU, including
FBI e-mail, say that Pentagon interrogators impersonated FBI agents at
Guantanamo Bay, that detainees were wrapped in Israeli flags to humiliate them
and that an executive order from President Bush authorized the use of "inhumane
interrogation methods."
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=17216&c=206
http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/latimes464.html

At least 10 current and former Guantanamo detainees have lodged allegations of
abuse similar to incidents described by FBI agents in recently released
documents, according to their attorneys, with one telling the Washington Post
that "When we first got involved in this case, I wondered whether this could all
be true ... now there's no question these guys have been tortured."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25962-2004Dec25.html
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=17216&c=206

A memo leaked from the Red Cross - normally low-key, even internally - charges
the US military with abuse "tantamount to torture" in Guantamo
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/30/politics/30gitmo.html?ei=5006&en=bba26d61a8097932&ex=1102395600&partner=ALTAVISTA1&pagewanted=print&position=

The deputy commander of Guantanamo tells the Financial Times that most of the
500 alleged al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters being held in Guantanamo Bay will
either be released or returned to their own countries, and that "Most of these
guys weren't fighting. They were running."
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/192851d2-163b-11d9-b835-00000e2511c8.html

Three British detainees released from Guantanamo detail their experience in a
new dossier, claiming they were "repeatedly beaten, shackled in painful
positions during interrogations and subjected to sleep deprivation." They also
claim they were "photographed naked and subjected to anal searches unnecessarily."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guantanamo/story/0,13743,1275560,00.html

According to the Los Angeles Times, investigators who charge in a new military
report that the CIA played a large role in the abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib
prison were "blocked from pursuing allegations against CIA employees."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-intel26aug26,1,5652568,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines

As the U.S. releases four French nationals from Guantanamo, the Independent
reports that four British detainees will now have windows and be allowed to take
daily exercise. A father of one of them said the British government "hadn't
bothered mentioning" that his son "was being locked away in the dark."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/27/uguan.xml&site=5
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/story.jsp?story=545093

**Iraq**:

Citing classified documents, the Washington Post reports that an Iraqi
general, previously said by military sources to have died of "natural
causes" after "complaining of feeling sick," was actually handed over to the
Scorpions (he was severely beaten before being wrapped in electrical cord and
stuffed in a sleeping bag).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/02/AR2005080201941_pf.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/02/AR2005080201579_pf.html

Soldiers allowed dogs to bite Abu Ghraib prisoners as they competed to see
who could scare detainees into urinating on themselves, according to
testimony during a preliminary hearing for two soldiers. Plus: 'Abu Ghraib
dog tactics came from Guantanamo.'
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050726/ap_on_re_us/prisoner_abuse_dogs
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/26/AR2005072601792.html

Members of the California National Guard are reportedly under investigation
for mistreating prisoners in Iraq and extorting shopkeepers there. They
allegedly took tens of thousands of dollars from Iraqis to protect them from
insurgents and used stun guns on detainees. Gov. Schwarzenegger just named a
new chief for the state's scandal-plagued Guard.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-guard27jul27,0,291062,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/07/26/BAGVNDTEBB1.DTL&type=printable

The U.S. government has refused to release photos and videos relating to
prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, filing court papers on the day it was supposed
to show the exhibits to a judge presiding over the case.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--detaineerecords0722jul22,0,780913,print.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
http://www.aclu.org/news/NewsPrint.cfm?ID=18811&c=206
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/reports/report.asp?ObjID=imOUU2rj8m&Content=608

As the Pentagon appoints a former lawyer for the ACLU to head the defense
team representing Guantanamo detainees, a 'Legal battle erupts over new Abu
Ghraib photos.'
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=29634

A new report by military investigators is said to offer "the strongest
indication yet that the abusive practices seen in photographs at Abu Ghraib
were not the invention of a small group of thrill-seeking military police
officers," but were approved in advance by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld for
use at Guantanamo.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/13/AR2005071302380_pf.html

In a Star Tribune profile of Dr. Steven Miles, who was denounced by the
Pentagon for a Lancet article in which he accused U.S. Army doctors at Abu
Ghraib of falsifying medical records, Miles says the medical system "became
one of the professional arms of a torturing society."
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m12832&l=i&size=1&hd=0
http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/articles/milesSteven.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1287158,00.html

Yet more abuse comes out, this time involving forcing a prisoner to dig his
own "grave", and then firing shots in his direction, as well as numerous
severe beatings of unresisting prisoners that were released shortly afterwards.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050519/wl_mideast_afp/usiraqprisoners

"Army intelligence officials in Iraq developed and circulated "wish lists"
of harsh interrogation techniques they hoped to use on detainees in August
2003, including tactics such as low-voltage electrocution, blows with phone
books and using dogs and snakes".  Interrogators discuss the need for the
"gloves to [come] off" because of mounting casualties, and the memo was
cited in relation to several cases of abuse, including one death.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64409-2005Apr18.html

As a note on a gate leads to accusations that U.S. forces in Iraq seized
female hostages and used them as bargaining chips to induce male relatives
to surrender, an Amnesty International spokesperson says, "I do not think it
is the first time."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5167765-103550,00.html

A listing of ACLU-attained (3/25/05) FOIA documents related to torture on Iraq. 
Antiwar.com offers up some choice exerpts, such as reports of brutal
beatings, "exercise until exhaustion", and sworn statements that soldiers
were told to "beat the f**k out of" detainees to soften them up for
interrogations.  A quick read over the documentation reveals everything from
electricution with an M34 blasting device to storing a prisoner's body in a
"reefer van" for five days after he died after being abused to stealing
money from detainees to a host of other disturbing incidents.  An awful, but
essential, read of documents from our own government.
http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/032505/index.html
http://www.antiwar.com/ips/fisher.php?articleid=5415

Newly released government documents: US troops systematically tortured Iraqis
in a prison at Mosul, killed prisoners in Afghanistan, and will not try 17
GIs implicated in prisoner deaths
http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8005978
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/nation/3103702
http://nytimes.com/2005/03/26/politics/26abuse.html?ei=5094&en=8313799397cbbde3&hp=&ex=1111813200&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print&position=

At least 26 inmate deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan are either confirmed or
suspected homicide; there have been 108 such deaths, most of them violent.
http://nytimes.com/2005/03/16/politics/16abuse.html?ei=5094&en=9d093028237bd5fa&hp=&ex=1110949200&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all&position=
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/16/terror/printable680658.shtml

Newly released Army documents suggest that soldiers at a
makeshift Iraqi detention camp suspected that detainees were being
mistreated by a Navy SEAL team whose members were photographed posing with
bloodied prisoners.  Some of the prisoners brought in by the SEALs "appeared
to be very severely beaten," an unnamed Army staff sergeant told
investigators last year.
http://www.woai.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=5AAFAE58-2F53-436F-9698-79DC14BDE22D

According to the Washington Post, a "memorandum of understanding" was signed
by top military officials and the CIA to "establish procedures" for holding
ghost detainees at Abu Ghraib prison. The ACLU released newly-obtained
documents pointing to the agreement. Plus: Maj Gen Wodjakowsk says, "I don't
care if we're holding 15,000 innocent civilians. We're winning the war."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25239-2005Mar10?language=printer
http://www.aclu.org/news/NewsPrint.cfm?ID=17692&c=206
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4339511.stm

The Palm Beach Post obtained a video shot by National Guard soldiers from
Florida, which shows them kicking a wounded prisoner in the face and waving
a corpse's hand to "make him say 'Hi.'"
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&u=/nm/20050308/ts_nm/iraq_usa_abuse_dc&printer=1
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/epaper/2005/03/06/m16a_videoscene_0305.html

Authors of a New York Times op-ed describe "surreal" medical care under
"hellish" conditions, from medically approved leashing, to "a surgical service
without surgeons," in which "a dentist did heart surgery.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/04/opinion/04bloche.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=

In 'The Abu Ghraib scandal you don't know,' Time reports on a New England
Journal of Medicine article, whose authors last week charged that "the Army all
but abdicated its responsibility to provide care to the thousands of people it
kept in custody."
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1025139,00.html
http://trots.blogspot.com/2005/01/more-bad-apples.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/04/opinion/04bloche.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=

A "Palestinian hanging" revealed in Iraq
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&u=/ap/20050217/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/iraqi_prisoner_s_death_2&printer=1

An American legal team interviewing men and women formerly held in US-run
prisons throughout Iraq says new cases of abuse and torture have continued
to stream in since an initial fact-finding mission to the country in August.
Expects to have at least 300 after tabulating the results of the interviews;
already up to over 100.
http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/1359

The New England Journal of Medicine finds "probable cause for suspecting" that
army doctors "participated in torture" in both Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51032-2005Jan5.html

As prosecutors at the trial of Charles Graner presented what a Reuters report
calls "shocking new videos and photos from Abu Ghraib prison, including forced
group masturbation," Graner's attorney, referring to piles of naked prisoners,
said, "Don't cheerleaders all over America form pyramids six to eight times a
year? Is that torture?"
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1896&u=/nm/20050110/us_nm/iraq_abuse_dc_5&printer=1

A former inmate at Abu Ghraib testified at the court martial trial of reservist
Charles Graner, that "They were torturing us as though it was theater for them
... I was extremely emotional because (even) Saddam didn't do this to us."
http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7300542

A new report by Human Rights Watch charges that "systematic torture and other
abuses against people in detention" are being committed by Iraqi security
forces"
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/01/26/iraq10053.htm

The latest wave of documents released by the ACLU discloses multiple cases of
horrific abuse at Adhamiya Palace, where US guards allegedly sodomized a
disabled man and killed his brother, whose dying body was tossed into a cell,
atop his sister.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-abuse25jan25,0,382075,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines
http://www.aclu.org/news/NewsPrint.cfm?ID=17350&c=206

A confidential report gave Army generals an early warning of "unacceptable"
mistreatment of detainees throughout Iraq, and quoted an officer who complained
that prisoners taken by Special Ops/CIA Task Force 121 were being beaten as
saying, "Everyone knows about it."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A23372-2004Nov30?language=printer

Newly surfaced photos "appear to show Navy SEALS in Iraq sitting on hooded and
handcuffed detainees, and ... bloodied prisoners, one with a gun to his head."
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041203/D86OEJ7G0.html

Defense Intelligence Agency personnel who witnessed prisoners being abused in Iraq
were threatened by U.S. special forces, had their e-mails monitored, and were
ordered "not to talk to anyone in the U.S." about what they saw, according to
documents obtained by the ACLU.
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=17156&c=206
http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/

The White House fought vigorously to keep those documents from public view.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45373-2004Dec7.html

A national guard sergeant who told his captain he had witnessed five incidents
of torture was "given about thirty seconds to change his mind and retract his
allegations", and, after refusing, was "strapped to a gurney and flown out of
Iraq".  No senior official, civilian or military, has been held accountable.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1514&u=/afp/20050308/wl_mideast_afp/usiraqprisoners&printer=1
http://www.aclu.org/news/NewsPrint.cfm?ID=17656&c=206
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/09/1516228
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/12/08/coverup/index_np.html
http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=658

Newly unveiled documents show "marines in Iraq conducted mock executions of
juvenile prisoners last year, burned and tortured other detainees with
electrical shocks, and warned a Navy corpsman they would kill him if he
treated any injured Iraqis"
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-abuse15dec15,0,7796830,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines
http://www.aclu.org/International/International.cfm?ID=13962&c=36

New documents "undermine the Pentagon's past insistence that the abuse occurred
largely during a few months at [Abu Ghraib] prison, and that it mostly involved
detainee humiliation or intimidation rather than the deliberate infliction of
pain."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17883-2004Dec21.html
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=17224&c=206

The Washington Post reports that "the highest-ranking intelligence officer tied
to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal" has been praised by her superior, who believes
she ought to be put in command of the Army's intelligence school.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A33568-2004Oct14?language=printer

Annexes 25 and 26 cover interviews revealing the "ghost detainees"
http://www.publicintegrity.org/docs/AbuGhraib/Abu11.pdf

The first allegations of routine torture arise in Mosul:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1304042,00.html

An Iraqi woman who was held in solitary confinement and abused at Abu Ghraib
prison describes her ordeal in the Guardian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1308346,00.html

The New Standard reports that American legal investigators, led by Michigan
attorney Mohammed Alomari, say there are "tons of acts of torture, abuse, rape"
at some 25 U.S.-run detention centers throughout Iraq, "most of them so far not
publicly mentioned as being embroiled in the Iraq torture scandal."
http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=1029&printmode=true

A military investigator tells a court that U.S. troops abused Iraqi prisoners
"just for fun," and Rolling Stone obtains the 106 "annexes" that the Defense
Department withheld from the Taguba report last spring, with detailed reports
implicating American soldiers and translators in rape and sodomy of Iraqi
prisoners.
http://www.underthesamesun.org/content/2004/08/index.html#000135
http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5862818
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story?id=6388256&pageid

In Pfc. Lynndie R. England's preliminary hearing, a military police soldier
testified that intelligence officials ordered him to hide detainees from the Red
Cross during its Abu Ghraib visits.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A39796-2004Aug4?language=printer

An intelligence analyst testified in Pfc. Lynndie R. England's preliminary
hearing that he was invited by another military intelligence officer to watch
"something cool," the abuse of naked Iraqi detainees.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/dbb71fe2-e73a-11d8-aff8-00000e2511c8.html

The Oregonian reports an incident in which Oregon Army National Guard soldiers
who rescued dozens of abused Iraqi detainees were furious after being ordered to
"return the prisoners to their abusers and immediately withdraw." The incident
occurred on "Iraq's first full day as a sovereign nation."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2001999719&zsection_id=268448413&slug=iraqprisoners08&date=20040808
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000604123
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000604284

AP summarizes a report in The Lancet, excerpted by Under the Same Sun, which
charges that U.S. military doctors were active collaborators in the abuse at Abu
Ghraib prison, covering up homicides and reviving an unconscious detainee for
further torture.
http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-hstort0820,0,6803189,print.story?coll=ny-top-headlines
http://www.underthesamesun.org/content/2004/08/index.html#000154

Body and Soul reviews some of the evidence the Pentagon says it doesn't have
with regard to charges that military doctors facilitated abuse of prisoners at
Abu Ghraib.
http://bodyandsoul.typepad.com/blog/2004/08/doctors_at_abu_.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1287158,00.html

The New Standard reports that interviews conducted by Michigan-based lawyer
Shereef Akeel have turned up fresh evidence of ongoing torture and abuse of
Iraqi prisoners by U.S. personnel, including a 15-year old Iraqi boy who says
he was raped last month at an American facility.
http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=911&printmode=true

The Telegraph reports that in an interview with a Santa Clarita newspaper, Brig
Gen Janis Karpinski, who ran the military police unit at Abu Ghraib, "said that
documents yet to be released by the Pentagon would show that Mr Rumsfeld
personally approved the introduction of harsher conditions of detention in Iraq.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2004%2F07%2F04%2Fwtort04.xml&sSheet=%2Fnews%2F2004%2F07%2F04%2Fixnewstop.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=9866
http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/signal/iraq/sg070404.htm

One article mentions Mark Benjamin's UPI report on another whistleblower, Julian
Goodrum, who says he was locked in a psychiatric ward as punishment for speaking
out against the Army. He was released in early March, when Benjamin reported
Goodrum's allegation that Fort Knox refused to treat him last fall after he
spoke out about poor care at the base, helping to spark Congressional hearings.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040525-111343-1697r
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040301-050521-5978r

Karpinski also told the BBC that she met an Israeli interrogator in Iraq. A
Reuters report quotes her as saying, "My initial reaction was to laugh because I
thought maybe he was joking, and I realized he was serious."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3863235.stm
http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5580912

Sadly, No! has the story of a German TV report, also covered by Der Spiegel, alleging abuse and detention of children in Iraqi prisons by U.S. soldiers.
http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/000732.html
http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=53

A U.S. News review of 5,000 pages of classified files of annexes to the Taguba
Report, found that "military intelligence officers -- dispatched to Abu Ghraib
by the top commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez -- were intimately
involved in some of the interrogation tactics widely viewed as abusive."
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/usinfo/press/prison.htm
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/040719/usnews/19prison.htm
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/040719/usnews/19prison.b.htm

An Oregonian profile of Lt. Col. Nate Sassaman, who spoke at a local church
about his Iraq experiences, sharing "The Christian Warrior Ethos," neglected to
mention his reprimand for impeding the investigation of soldiers who since have
been charged in the drowning of an Iraqi detainee who was pushed off a bridge.
http://www.oregonlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/sports/108911516024351.xml
http://www.portlandchristiancenter.com/july4.shtml
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/public_editor/index.ssf?/base/editorial/10894609493820.xml
http://www.oregonlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/front_page/108920213946160.xml

The Independent reports that in a speech to the American Civil Liberties Union,
Seymour Hersh said that the U.S. government has videotapes of guards sodomizing
teenage male prisoners at Abu Ghraib, "and the worst part is the
soundtrack, of the boys shrieking. And this is your government at war."
http://stream.realimpact.net/?file=clients/aclu/conf2004/20040707_aclu_AmericaAtACrossroads_300.rm
http://radio.weblogs.com/0107946/2004/07/14.html#a1922
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=541472

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez authorized the use of dogs for interrogations at Abu
Ghraib, according to classified documents obtained by USA Today, which the
paper says undercut "claims by the Pentagon and field commanders that the
mistreatment was solely the work of guards who abused their authority."
http://usatoday.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=USATODAY.com+-+Top+commanders+in+Iraq+allowed+dogs+to+be+used&expire=&urlID=11045463&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Firaq%2F2004-07-19-iraq-dogs_x.htm&partnerID=1660

The Sydney Morning Herald's Paul McGeough, who broke the story alleging that
Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a
Baghdad prison, reports -- from Amman, Jordan -- that the Red Cross had urged
an investigation into the treatment of prisoners there six months before the
killings were said to have taken place
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/22/1090464803942.html?oneclick=true

In a video deposition for a lawsuit filed against two Abu Ghraib contractors,
an Iraqi man says that Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski witnessed him being tortured.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/07/27/abu.ghraib.lawsuit/
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/209/wash/Iraqi_says_U_S_general_witnessP.shtml

**Afghanistan**:

According to a newly leaked confidential US army report, US soldiers carried
outwidespread abuse of detainees at the US-run Bagram prison camp in
Afghanistan, including graphic accounts of torturing widely-considered innocent
detainees to death.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1488919,00.html

U.S. troops in Afghanistan destroyed photos of prisoner abuse "taken in fun"
after photos from Abu Ghraib were made public, according to new documents
released by the ACLU.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-abuse18feb18,0,1406526,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=17515&c=206

A young Afghan is chained naked to a concrete floor and left to freeze to death
at a secret CIA prison; the CIA officer in charge is promoted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A2576-2005Mar2?language=printer

US troops in Afghanistan ordered to take fewer prisoners, to head off more
complaints about abuses "after at least eight prisoners died in custory"
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/01/04/us_said_to_seek_fewer_prisoners?mode=PF

Another detainee dies at Camp Bucca
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-462633.php

After questions are raised by the LA times, Army investigators have opened a new
probe into allegations of murder, torture and possible cover-up by U.S. Special
Forces in Afghanistan.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-detain21sep21,1,3184070,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Scotland's Sunday Herald reports on 'Kabul's Colonel Kurtz,' bounty hunter and
former Green Beret, Jonathan Keith Idema, who was arrested last week by Afghan
authorities for running a private prison in a house.
http://www.sundayherald.com/43285
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/international/asia/11afgh.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040708/481/xms10107081552

**Misc**:

The Washington Post reports on the White House's efforts to block
legislation supported by Republican senators that includes barring the U.S.
military from engaging in "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of
detainees. Plus: 'Torture and Lies: Who is Accountable?'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/22/AR2005072201727_pf.html
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?bid=7&pid=8174

Washington has, for the first time, acknowledged to the United Nations that
prisoners have been tortured at US detention centres in Guantanamo Bay, as
well as Afghanistan and Iraq, a UN source said. 
http://www.forbes.com/work/feeds/afx/2005/06/24/afx2110388.html

Amnesty International's latest report took harsh shots at the United States,
condemining Washington for creating new politically correct terms for widespread
use of torture ("environmental manipulation", "stress positions", and "sensory
manipulation").  In addition to its discussion of the detention system, it
mentioned that the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan has made little change in
the lives of women in most parts of Afghanistan, citing, among other things,
women setting fire to themselves to escape home violence and forced marriages,
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/05/25/international/i030419D56.DTL

A Human Rights Watch report details the case of 'U.S. Citizens Tortured,
Held Illegally' in Pakistan for eight months, where the FBI interrogated two
brothers "on at least six occasions" and threatened to send them to
Guantanamo Bay, in what one brother called "a very coordinated carrot and
stick operation."
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/05/24/pakist11005_txt.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/24/AR2005052401356.html

The New York Times previews the findings of an upcoming military
investigation into the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo, prompted by FBI
e-mails made public by the ACLU, and Physicians for Human Rights releases a
report claiming that "psychological torture was systematic and central to
the interrogation process of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/national/nationalspecial3/01gitmo.html?pagewanted=all&position=
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/28/60minutes/main691602.shtml
http://www.aclu.org/news/NewsPrint.cfm?ID=13962&c=36
http://www.phrusa.org/research/torture/news_2005-05-01.html

The Times also reports on the Bush administration's post-9/11 cozying up to
Uzbekistan, citing "growing evidence" that the U.S. has sent terror suspects
there for detention and interrogation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/international/01renditions.html?pagewanted=all&position=
http://www.thememoryhole.org/pol/us-and-uz.htm

A new manual of "Human Intelligence Collector Operations," which bans many
practices formerly approved by top commanders, is said to teach Army
interrogators "how to walk right up to the line between legal and illegal
interrogations" and to prohibit the C.I.A. from holding "ghost detainees" at
Army camps.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/28/politics/28abuse.html?ei=5094&en=34802f0ae1c086a8&hp=&ex=1114660800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all&position=
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35612-2004Jun11.html
http://www.gnn.tv/headlines/2199/Detainees_What_Detainees

The Wall Street Journal reports that archives from postwar military
tribunals in Japan reveal that the U.S. government considered many of the
same practices approved and practiced on detainees at Guantanamo Bay to be
war crimes, for which senior officials were held accountable.
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/article_print/0,,SB111282904090900187-IZjgoNhlaB4mpuva3mGcayAm4,00.html
http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/0,,SB111265049560497616-97N3rooXpx45nXSvn9BEa6VAeS8_20050507,00.html
http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/0,,SB111265072445397621-EO4W8x_HZi_kq9kfSqe0d0Q7HRU_20050507,00.html

U.S. Justice Department puts $372,999 price tag on Freedom of Information
Request by People For the American Way, regarding the decision to seal the
records of immigrants detained in the wake of the 9-11 attacks.
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=17777

The state department's annual report (2004) on human rights details torture,
rape, illegal detentions, and other abuses by the US-installed Iraqi interim
government, but did not addres incidents in Iraq in which Americans were
involved, like the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/index.htm
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&u=/ap/20050301/ap_on_re_mi_ea/human_rights&printer=1

The justice department releases a new memo broadening its definition of torture:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&u=/ap/20041231/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/justice_torture_memo&printer=1

Alberto Gonzalez's involvement in an older justice department memo seeking to
broaden the defination of torture:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/05/politics/05gonzales.html?ei=5094&en=ffaa199669f32a7e&hp=&ex=1104987600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all&position=

The US weighs the "Salvadoran Option" for Iraq - the use of death squads against
those who support the insurgents even if they're not part of the insurgency.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6802629/site/newsweek/

After the Senate votes 96-2 to impose "new restrictions on the use of extreme
interrogation methods", the White House prevails on congressional leaders to
delete them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/13/politics/13intel.html?pagewanted=print&position=

A recently disclosed FBI memo indicates that "marching orders" to abandon
traditional interrogation methods came from Defense Secretary Rumsfeld himself
http://www.aclu.org/International/International.cfm?ID=13962&c=36

Proposals to authorize torture were circulating even before there was anyone
to torture.
http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2004/12/21/news/edpfaff.html

"At least 11 al-Qaida suspects have 'disappeared' in U.S. custody, and some may
have been tortured," according to a new Human Rights Watch backgrounder on the
fate of the CIA's long-term "ghost detainees."
http://hrw.org/backgrounder/usa/us1004/index.htm
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&u=/ap/disappeared_suspects&printer=1

Haaretz reports that the CIA has established a top-secret interrogation facility
in Jordan, where al-Qaeda higher-ups, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, are
being held. The story notes that a new briefing paper from Human Rights Watch
mentioned a location "so secret that U.S. President George Bush asked the CIA
heads not to report it to him" and that prisoners were subjected to "severe
torture."

Karpinski also told the BBC that she met an Israeli interrogator in Iraq. A
Reuters report quotes her as saying, "My initial reaction was to laugh because I
thought maybe he was joking, and I realized he was serious."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/488039.html
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/10/12/usint9463.htm

The Independent reports that Britain has withdrawn its ambassador to Uzbekistan
after the diplomat wrote a "furious memo" in which he denounced the use of
information passed on to MI6 by the CIA but "originally obtained in Uzbek
torture cells."
http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=572349&host=3&dir=71

The Washington Post reports that lawmakers at a Senate hearing were stunned to
learn from an Army general that the CIA hid up to 100 "ghost detainees" from
the Red Cross and continues to withhold related documents from investigators.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A8946-2004Sep9?language=printer

Senior military and national security officials in the Bush administration were
repeatedly warned by subordinates in 2002 and 2003 that prisoners in military
custody were being abused.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/12/international/middleeast/12abuse.html?pagewanted=print&position=

The Denver Post investigates the routine military practice of allowing troops
accused of abuse and human rights violations to avoid trial by simply dismissing
them from the service, even in cases involving prisoner death.
http://www.denverpost.com/cda/article/print/0,1674,36%257E6439%257E2350815,00.html

"For two years, global monitors such as Amnesty International and Human Rights
Watch repeatedly warned of mistreatment of detainees" in Afghanistan and at
Guantanamo, reports the American Journalism Review, which asks: "why did it take
so long for the news media to uncover the scandal?"
http://www.ajr.org/article_printable.asp?id=3716