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More Photos; More War Crimes
By Mike Whitney
02/16/06 "ICH" -- -- SBS Dateline has broadcast 60 previously
unpublished photographs of the victims of American abuse at Abu Ghraib prison. Many of the disturbing pictures have already
appeared on the internet; exposing the underlying principle of
American foreign policy, domination through force.
The photographs illustrate in excruciating detail the commitment
to physical coercion that the Bush administration has vigorously
defended in its legal memoranda and justified in terms of its
war on terrorism. The battered faces and hooded victims of
American brutality attest to the shocking inhumanity of the
present campaign.
This is the real face of the Bush’s global democratic crusade.
The rest is just gibberish.
How can anyone look at these appalling photographs and fail to
grasp the brutality and cynicism that animates the policy?
How can anyone listen to the glib palavering of the
torturer-and-chief as he pontificates on a "culture of life"
that protects the unborn, but leaves others naked and bound, in
a pool of blood?
The hypocrisy is nearly as offensive as the savagery.
The photographs have emerged just as the United Nations is
preparing to release a report on Guantanamo Bay. The report
assails the Bush administration for its clear violations to
human rights and international law. "It says that the US
committed acts amounting to torture" and that, "the apparent
attempts by the US administration to reinterpret certain
interrogation techniques as 'not reaching the threshold of
torture’ in the framework of the struggle against terrorism are
of utmost concern".
The findings of the UN commission are significant in that they
provide the foundation for future "war crimes and crimes against
humanity" tribunals.
The report confirms the relevance of the United Nations as a
legitimate moral authority in judging the aberrant behavior of
the member states. While no one expects that punitive action
will be taken against the Bush administration, the next logical
step is for the group to press for censure at the UN Security
Council, thus drawing international attention to the grave issue
of human rights abuse.
We can only hope that the atrocious photographs of victims at
Abu Ghraib will embolden the UN group to take whatever action is
needed to deter the supporters of torture and abuse from
continuing their monstrous behavior.
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