Brian Cloughley: What Has Happened to the US Army in Iraq?: "Conditions in US jails in Iraq are quite as awful as they were under the previous horrible regime, and, exactly as under that fascist domination, ordinary citizens have disappeared, their place of detention unknown to their families. The Geneva and Hague Conventions have been totally ignored by the occupying power in a fashion that is not just despicable but completely at odds with the declaration by Bush that 'democracy is being restored to Iraq'. Democracy? Is it within the Bush definition of democracy that, as recorded by Amnesty International, and reported from first-hand by Associated Press, that a civilian detainee 'was bound and blindfolded, kicked, forced to stare at a strobe light [presumably after removal of the blindfold] and blasted with 'very loud rubbish music'.' (He was released without charge.)
In the interests of democracy (or so one must presume) the occupying power shut down the newspaper Al-Mustaqilla (The Independent) for undisclosed reasons. On 21 July tanks blocked off the approaches to its building, then soldiers and Iraqi policemen broke into the premises where 'They turned everything upside down, confiscated the newspaper's safe (with 1.5 millions ID in it), the computers and personal documents of the chairman, Mr. Abdul-Sattar Alshalan. They arrested Mr. Alshalan, who is currently imprisoned at an unknown location.' It is flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions to refuse to provide details of the whereabouts of prisoners to next of kin. Mr Alshalan and thousands of others are being kept in confinement by the US Army without any notification of their location or physical condition being made available to relatives or the International Red Cross. "
- posted by geoff @ #