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Today's Top News
US Under Pressure on WikiLeaks Allegations
"If there's enough truth early on enough then perhaps we won't see these kind of wars."
LONDON -- Washington on Sunday came under increasing pressure to investigate allegations in the leaked Iraq war documents published by WikiLeaks, which Britain's deputy premier called "shocking".
Newspapers headlining WikiLeaks story are seen on sale at a newsagent in Wimbledon, southwest London, Saturday, Oct. 23, 2010. WikiLeaks the online whistle-blower web site are to release some U.S. secret documents on the war in Iraq. (AP Photo/Sang Tan) Governments and human rights organisations alike put the focus on answers to the allegations made against US, allied and Iraqi troops as the whistleblowing website released 400,000 classified US military documents.
The flood of material from 2004 to 2009 offers a grim snapshot of the conflict, especially of the abuse of Iraqi civilians by Iraqi security forces.
The heavily redacted logs appear to show that the US military turned a blind eye to evidence of torture and abuse of civilians by the Iraqi authorities.
WikiLeaks claim the documents reveal around 15,000 more civilian deaths than were previously known about.
British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg called the allegations "extremely serious" and said people would be wanting to hear "what the answer is".
"We can bemoan how these leaks occurred but I think the nature of the allegations made are extraordinarily serious. They are distressing to read about," he told BBC television.
"I'm assuming the US administration will want to provide its own answer.
"Anything that suggests that basic rules of war and conflict and of engagement have been broken or that torture has in any way been condoned are extremely serious and need to be looked at.
"People will want to hear what the answer is to what are very, very serious allegations of a nature which I think everybody will find quite shocking."
Australia joined Iraq war allies Britain and the United States in saying that the leaks could put troops' lives at risk.
Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith vowed a "painstaking" review of the documents.
Denmark's military also said it would study the documents amid reports that the classified files reveal wrongdoings by Danish soldiers.
"We want to see the documents for ourselves and compare them to our own information," Danish Defence Command spokesman Torben Kjedsen told AFP.
According to Danish media, the documents reveal how Danish troops had handed over 62 prisoners to Iraqi authorities, despite warnings they would likely face abusive treatment.
The files published Friday contain graphic accounts of torture, civilian killings and Iran's hand in the Iraq war, documenting years of bloodshed and suffering following the 2003 US-led invasion to oust dictator Saddam Hussein.
Other reports describe Iraqis beating prisoners and women being killed at US military checkpoints.
The files also show Iran waging a shadow war with US troops in Iraq, allegedly using militias to kill and kidnap US soldiers.
Human Rights Watch said Iraq should investigate reports that its forces systematically tortured and abused detainees.
"The US government should also investigate whether its forces breached international law by transferring thousands of Iraqi detainees from US to Iraqi custody despite the clear risk of torture," it said.
Amnesty International called on Washington to investigate how much US officials knew about the alleged abuse.
Spokesman Malcolm Smart said the leaks fuelled concerns that US authorities "committed a serious breach of international law when they summarily handed over thousands of detainees to Iraqi security forces who, they knew, were continuing to torture and abuse detainees on a truly shocking scale."
The rights ministry in Baghdad said the logs "did not contain any surprises".
Supporters of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the release was a plot to undermine his bid to stay in power following March elections.
"It is a media campaign against the state and the political process carried out by several groups like the Baathists, regional forces and the new political order," said lawmaker Hassan al-Sinaid, who is close to Maliki.
WikiLeaks held a news conference in London on Saturday, at which the website's founder Julian Assange defended the unauthorised release, saying it was intended to reveal the "truth" about the conflict.
"Most wars that are started by democracies involve lying," he said.
"If there's enough truth early on enough then perhaps we won't see these kind of wars."
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69 Comments so far
Show All"people would be wanting to hear 'what the answer is'."
the answer is: LOOK AHEAD!
Who drafted FRAGO 242?
issued june 04.
my guess would be that scum rumsfeld,
or some shit like yoo.
(yoo - not you)
Washington is under pressure to investigate?! Wouldn't that be akin to asking a weasel to investigate a case of missing chickens? Maybe Israel could be asked to provide an "impartial" jury.
Exactly what my first thought was, too.
Yes, RV.
You state, "Washington is under pressure to investigate" ---- but investigate what?
What's to investigate?
The answer is self-evident.
The US is not a democracy in any real sense --- we all know that.
But the crystal clear answer to any international "pressure" to investigate is readily apparent and staring us in the face, isn't it?
The US is not a normal nation-state, but has morphed into a ruling-elite global corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE, which merely controls the former nation-state by hiding behind the facade of its fully bought, paid, and 'owned' Two-Party Vichy sham of faux democratic government -- aided, of course, by its corporatist propaganda media machine.
This global Empire, which while nominally headquartered in the former US includes the equally zombie Israel state, the UK, and many others, is entirely free, by law and media allowance, to slaughter anyone anywhere in the pursuit of imperial loot --- in the form of natural, market, intellectual, or financial riches.
What's to investigate?
The global fascist/corporatist EMPIRE is just being an Empire!
As Boston RedSox fans used to say about the harmless quirks of a well known player, "It's just Manny being Manny"
Its just that this is not harmless --- but will bring existential death to us, our children, our country, and entire environment, and our species.
"Its just a global Empire being Empire" --- what's to investigate? the proof is already there in black and white, and blood-red pictures.
Not pretty --- but realistically, just an Empire being an Empire in all its militarist, viscous, rapacious, tyrannous, fascist, financially oppressive, vainglorious, deceitful, cancerous, world-destroying ugliness --- for all to see.
What's to investigate?
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Excellent post Alan!
I haven't seen you around these parts in quite a while......
Peace,
rita
Great post Alan. You nailed it.
I'm not sure what kind of "pressure" any country can bring against the US. The US is like SCOTUS, bove the law, it can make any illegal act legal, or simply ignore those that protest against it.
refreshing...
thank you for not pretending...it makes it so much easier to breathe...
let's get ready to pull the plug on Global Start Date: September 22, 2012...
http://www.davenjulieboles.com
It amazes me that people still seem to think that voting in the USA is above board and can bring a change and an end to all the madness.
It's a rigged game and has been for some time.
The best message to send is not to vote at all.
Could you imagine that there'd be empty voting stations everywhere devoid of voters and yet the media would loudly proclaim huge voter turnouts and numbers of votes returned? - Wouldn't that show things up for the farce that it is?
I then could also easily imagine manufactured media events such as reporters showing packed voting stations and dynamic computer graphic displays showing nail-biting finishes deployed as entertainment and diversion.
By all means vote if you think it soothes your consciences and keeps up the pretence that you have some power in voting.......but that's about all that it'll do.
Seems like you care enough about this country to blog about it, but don't care enough to vote or work for a candidate you believe in. Seems like a paradox.
It is not a paradox at all. If the system is broken, and it is, then what is the point of participating in it? Better start a new system, which means not voting for the corporate-elected candidates, but upending the corrupt system. I don´t see that anything but revolution will work.
Dear OldBeforeHisTime:
If you live in California, please go to vote and make that a NO and a NO on 23 and 26! If you don't live in California, then there must be some propositions in your state that need to be voted on too.
U.S. media needs to produce "answers" as to why they have not been investigating over past years. It's what they're supposed to do rather than getting themselves "embedded" with the military.
PS: Allegations" are not the same as leaked documents.
You might read Glenn Greenwald's current essay at salon.com for some insight.
It is actually rather amazing to see all of Washington's most erstwhile allies taking a completely different tack than the U.S. on this case. Rather than absurdly insist that the release of these documents "put lives at risk," or go after the media organizations that report on the story, these NATO allies like Britain and Denmark are actually demanding answers?!
Compare British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg calling the allegations "extremely serious" to the U.S. official reaction, it's like night and day. The only refrain you hear from the U.S. is that WikiLeaks is putting lives at risk, or sometimes that Assange has "blood on his hands."
It seems to all be falling apart for the U.S. war criminals. They don't seem to have a friend left in the world... well, except Israel.
Yes, the international contrasts are quite striking. See, for example, the U.K. Observer article here entitled 'A Moral Catastrophe' which seems to assume some moral context for assessing the revelations. In fact, it's the moral context itself that appears open to differing global perspectives.
All roads lead back to 9/11.
Amen.
I wonder if you really believe that our use of rendition, torture and inhumane treatment began with the events of 9/11? Ever here of The School of the Americas? Ever read history and note the number of puppet govts. we install to "help" our corporations make large profits, puppets such as the military junta we installed in Guatemala that has been torturing and murdering for over fifty six years and counting?
To say all the injustice and inhumanity this nation perpetuates world wide began with 9/11 is to be far too dismissive of the real problems besetting our nation.
Exactly!
9/11 may have (most likely) been a "New Pearl Harbor" engineered by the Cheney Crazies, but the U.S. has had a brutal, colonial, imperialist domestic and foreign policy since the beginning.
The "Indian Wars" [genocide, actually); slavery; the Monroe Doctrine; Manifest Destiny; stealing the Southwest from Mexico; stealing Hawaii; the false-flag of "Remember the Maine" to support the Spanish-American War; the brutal crushing of Filipinos' desires for independence; the propaganda to sell World War I; the Red Scare and Palmer Raids; the Depression; the deals with Nazi Germany; the bombing of cities in Europe and Japan and Italy during World War II [culminating in the two atomic bombings); the war crimes we committed against Koreans in the Korean War; the more than three million Vietnamese we killed in that war along with Laotians and Cambodians; the brutal, murderous proxy wars we funded in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Angola; the murder of thousands of Panamanians in Panama City to capture Noriega; the many coups (Mossadegh in Iran, Arbenz in Guatemala, Allende in Chile) leading to U.S.-friendly dictatorships which brutalized their own people for decades; the Bush I and Bill Clinton war crimes against the Iraqi people; the funding and support for decades of Israeli brutality against Palestinians; CIA operations worldwide: all happened before 9/11.
I cannot believe that this reminder was necessary!! Where have folks been?
I agree that many, far too many, havent a clue, dont care to acquire one and react with testosterone instead of brain cells. Why else have we fallen so far?
It is becoming excruciatingly obvious that a good majority of Americans couldn't care less about these leaks and what they show. I have mentioned these damning documents in conversations, and either people are completely oblivious to them whatsoever, or if they are actually aware of them, they choose to ignore the implications and parrot the official line of "Wikileaks = Bad."
They only care about their football team or what the latest celebrity is doing.
In fairness, the intrusion of unpleasant realities is never popular no matter whose nationalistic mythologies are thereby exposed and destroyed. It does often appear, however, that Americans are among the most resistant, perhaps a tribute to the myth-makers and their long captivating endurance.
Hell, with a little "cultural" export assistance from Hollywood et al, they even managed to persuade quite a few dumb foreigners for quite a while, and still do to some extent.
I've had the same experience. Most of our fellow citizens are perfectly willing to swallow the government's line, which actually makes no sense: The leaks contain nothing new, but they're endangering the troops. And these people are walking among us!
Then they claim that Assange has blood on his hands! It's a good thing we ousted the brutal dictator Saddam so our new puppets can torture, kill and rape their own citizens.
I think most are simply oblivious to what is going on in these evil wars. Partly because they are so distracted by trying to put food on the table and partly because the infotainment complex in Amerikkka only tells them what the corporations want them to know.
smoke and mirrors. [redacted]
DU ?
Criminality and accountability
Both our wars were started based on lies. One WMD. One 9/11. As our homeland was not attacked both wars are illegal.
From Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman to billions of un accounted for cash missing to murder for sport and display of body parts to torture rape and wanton dead the US military under the UN has been the devils tools. Unless you are brain dead you know what the military has done is most despicable.
Where is the accountability?
From the Bush and Obama admin. down through the generals to the foot soldiers and mercenaries all but the whistle-blowers are caught up in criminal behavior.
Where is the accountability?
Bankers steal 5 trillion of our savings and pensions and 13 trillion in the value of our homes. The government steals our tax money to bail them out (against our wishes). Now Bof A and other banks are trying to steal homes that they can not prove they own by creating fraudulent paper work, a fraud, and presenting it to courts, also a fraud.
Where is the accountability?
Someone exploded a bunch of buildings on 9/11 and it was not done with box cutters. Someone got anthrax from a military base and killed and terrorized Americans.
Where is the accountability?
I am sure any law that you and I break we will be held accountable for. You know that. To allow these acts from the upper crust to continue is to invite your own destruction.
Can you as a citizen, in whose name these criminal acts were done and to whom these criminal acts have and are continuing to happen, do nothing?
Give the generic brand a try. I'll be stocking up.
"Most wars that have been started by the United States
involve serious lying by both parties."
Perhaps the Two Party system is only an illusion.
Thank you. Excellent comment and I entirely agree.
Encouraging Iraqi and Afghan police to abuse their fellow countrymen is a key policy instrument in the administration's crusade.
The occupier wants the occupied tired, hungry and phychologically defeated. A healthy people will organize vigorous resistance against an occupier... not exactly what you want when your strategy is to occupy people for years and years for the sole purpose of stealing their shit.
The Iraqi police are torturing their countrymen on explicit orders from Washington, given to the police leadership. In return, police get to feed their families in a place where millions are starving because of us.
2X
Yes, divide and sow chaos and murder in order to reign and plunder the wealth of the occupied territories!
Gosh, the level of detail and perfect record keeping of the American corporatist Empire almost matches that of the Nazi fascist Empire's detailed record keeping.
Oh, that's right ---- a corporatist Empire IS a fascist Empire. That's why Benito Mussolini himself said that fascism should really be called corporatism.
Rumor has it that the chain gun camera video from the earlier Wikileaks release is going to be used in an up-coming FOX video game.
As Chris Hedges compellingly notes in his books, including his newest and incomparable "Death of the Liberal Class", imperialist wars for profit are beyond the pale and can never be justified by supposedly humanitarian rational for violence ---- wars which the gutless and totally complicit 'Liberal Class' and particularly the Democratic Party, NYT, etc. etc. have been WELL PAID by the ruling elite corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE to justify to us even more smoothly than overt fascists like Bush could..
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
This documents are just more evidence that we weren't and still aren't in Iraq to help the Iraqi's. Just like we aren't Afghanistan to help the Afghans.
*US Under Pressure on WikiLeaks Allegations...........* [sic]
oh yeah, really ?
lets see......
the "international communities" are piling on china .
*The country now has the world's second largest economy; ... China's new status must entail increased responsibility. *
http://tinyurl.com/2ex9w8o
Havel and Tutu urge China to free Nobel winner
http://tinyurl.com/2czd3oh
while the world's largest economy cum "oldest democracy" is busy dissing out "justice" as usual
http://tinyurl.com/2ebdovq
http://tinyurl.com/2foerta
but uncle sham is the one "under pressure" ?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/iraq-war-logs
has more details on the iraq war logs.
I read this and see a dishonest spin of the Iraqis doing the crimes and the USA only being guilty of ignoring the Iraqis torture practices.
We concur. The way this is 'spun' is the Americans are simply innocent bystanders. The whole effort here is 'back door' exoneration, by creating a scenario which can sustain plausible denial. It also explicitly plays into racist tropes about Muslim culture about being inherently cruel, as if torture was just a normal extension of their culture.
Yes, and the Persians are behind the insurgency.
I noticed that one, too.
As though, if the Iranians would simply butt out, the U.S. would get all those flowers and chocolates it counted on.
LOL
Very pertinent points.
The US 'investigating' itself is OFF THE TABLE. That's what the Hague and ICC and the United Nations is for. The US must recuse itself from the UNSC of course. Meanwhile, this is a good time to dis-invest in the US in the hope of bringing it to it's senses.
"The rights ministry in Baghdad said the logs 'did not contain any surprises.'
"Supporters of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the release was a plot to undermine his bid to stay in power following March elections."
Ya think?! Well, if Nuri, Barry and the rest of the psychopathic maniacs running this fiasco knew of the torture and did nothing they should be undermined. Better still, they should be under the jail.
so far, at least three prepared ways of spin have quickly emerged:
1) the Iraqis are the real criminals and the US is a bystander.
2) the private contractors were the out-of-control ones.
3) Iran has been behind the violence.
more to come. stay tuned. notice who the spinners are.
I await Sibel Edmonds take on this matter. She has in the past attempted to contact Mr. Assange and never received a reply. In the meantime she has interviewed Mr. John Young. I hope that anyone who takes an interest in the Wikileaks case takes the time listen to this interview.
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2010/03/13/podcast-show-25/