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Feingold: 'Citizens United' corrupts

ACLU: ‘Unjustified homicides’ go unpunished at military prisons

By Daniel Tencer
Sunday, January 23, 2011 12:44 EST
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The American Civil Liberties Union has said it identified 25 to 30 cases of “unjustified homicide” in US-run prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.

After filing a Freedom of Information request in 2009, the civil rights group last week obtained 2,624 pages of documents from the US military detailing investigations into 190 deaths in custody at prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the detention center in Guantanamo Bay.

The Defense Department says many of those deaths were due to illness, natural causes or inmate-on-inmate violence, but the ACLU alleges it has identified more than two dozen deaths it sees as being unjustified.

“So far, the documents released by the government raise more questions than they answer, but they do confirm one troubling fact: that no senior officials have been held to account for the widespread abuse of detainees,” the ACLU said in a statement, as quoted at CNN. “Without real accountability for these abuses, we risk inviting more abuse in the future.”

The ACLU noted that heart problems accounted for more than 25 percent of deaths, an unusually high number that “could potentially raise serious questions about the conditions of confinement or interrogation of the detainees.”

The civil rights group says that while many of the deaths were previously known, some had never been revealed publicly. CNN reports:

In one such case, a detainee was killed by an unnamed sergeant who walked into a room where the detainee was lying wounded “and assaulted him … then shot him twice thus killing him,” one of the investigating documents says. The sergeant than instructed the other soldiers present to lie about the incident. Later, the document says an unnamed corporal then shot the deceased detainee in the head after finding his corpse.

In another example, documents note a soldier “committed the offense of murder when he shot and killed an unarmed Afghan male.” But, according to the ACLU, the individual was found not guilty of murder by general court-martial.

The Defense Department defended its record, saying that the very existence of the thousands of pages of documents shows it takes in-custody deaths seriously. Army spokesman Lt. Col. David H. Patterson said that of the 190 deaths, 43 had US soldiers or personnel as suspects, resulting in 13 findings of probable cause for murder, and 19 separate convictions.

The ACLU’s document release came the same week as the Obama administration let it be known it plans to resume the use of military commissions to try terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, a move the ACLU described “strik[ing] a major blow to any efforts to restore the rule of law.”

“The decision to proceed with commissions … raises serious questions about whether commissions are being used as a forum to hide the use of torture and base convictions on evidence that would be too untrustworthy to be admitted in any real court,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project.

“Unlike federal courts, which have well-established rules of procedure and evidence, the military commissions rules do not comply with US and international law,” Shamsi added.

Daniel Tencer
Daniel Tencer
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  • Johnny Warbucks

    No doubt they hate ‘us’ for our freedoms.

  • Johnny Warbucks

    No doubt they hate ‘us’ for our freedoms.

  • Anonymous

    As this report was in the pipeline to be released, our President was chastising China’s Hu for his country’s lack of progress vis-’a-vis human rights. What the fuck???

  • Anonymous

    As this report was in the pipeline to be released, our President was chastising China’s Hu for his country’s lack of progress vis-’a-vis human rights. What the fuck???

  • http://topsy.com/www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/aclu-unjustified-homicides-prisons/?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L2 Tweets that mention ACLU: ‘Unjustified homicides’ go unpunished at military prisons | Raw Story — Topsy.com

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tom, WorldNewsRecord and james conway, United States Agenda. United States Agenda said: ACLU: ‘Unjustified homicides’ go unpunished at military prisons: The American Civil Liberties Union has said it … http://bit.ly/hEKNkf [...]

  • Jaimie11

    Unleashed cruelty is becoming so acceptable in Amerika – and these guys will be civilians again some day, ready to explode at a moment’s notice for no obvious reason.

  • Jaimie11

    Unleashed cruelty is becoming so acceptable in Amerika – and these guys will be civilians again some day, ready to explode at a moment’s notice for no obvious reason.

  • Anonymous

    Americas gulags…still the “greatest” country in world…? take off your rose-colored glasses..America has become a right-wing fascist country…citizens are being “good” Germans…the difference is that at first the Nazis brought prosperity…then they brought unimaginable horror…the only difference..?the U.S. is skipping the “prosperity” first part, and going straight to “horror”

  • Anonymous

    Americas gulags…still the “greatest” country in world…? take off your rose-colored glasses..America has become a right-wing fascist country…citizens are being “good” Germans…the difference is that at first the Nazis brought prosperity…then they brought unimaginable horror…the only difference..?the U.S. is skipping the “prosperity” first part, and going straight to “horror”

  • Anonymous

    We know what Bush and Chaney did. What’s going on now?

  • Anonymous

    They will be on a police force near you.

  • Anonymous

    I couldn’t agree more with you. Hu could have cooly said “And when are you closing Guantanamo?” in response.

  • Anonymous

    Who was it that said: “They are just frat boys blowing off steam” ??

  • Anonymous

    Well, its different when WE do it.

  • Anonymous

    They need to just do as we SAY, not as we do.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bob-Zentrails/100001475536421 Bob Zentrails

    The same people are doing exactly the same thing. Power has shifted, exactly like Sy Hersch says. Obama is the only hope we have left.

  • Ma’at

    America is a terrorist nation. But they hate us for our Freedoms, right?

  • Anonymous

    The Neocons, want a militarized society, so they can intimidate and shutdown, all opposition to their American empire. The military justice model, will soon be imposed on US citizens. The greatest failing and disappointment of the Obama administration, is its failure to roll this effort back, and strengthen and affirm due process. 2012 is the end of individual rights and freedom, and the beginning of prison planet. The mentally ill conservatives, do not consider human cost, in any of their actions, only the cost to their wealth and comfort. Human death and misery, are only collateral damage, to the mentally ill conservative mind.

  • Anonymous

    .

    It’s not TORTURE when the USA does it…
    It’s not WAR CRIMES when the USA does it…

    .

  • Jaimie11

    They already are, ron, all over the country.

  • Anonymous

    NO it is not torture when U.S. does it.
    Only when it is one of our enemies or countries not in favor with us.
    Then we hunt them down for many decades.

  • Anonymous

    Obama is not only following their policies, but threaten others which say they will prosecute them.

  • Anonymous

    Well, the constitution is basically a set of laws that protect the rich man’s shit and slaves, protects slavery, tells you that a brown skin person is not completely a human being, women can’t own property, kids are owned by their parents til a certain age and if you join the military you cut all cords off of being a civilian and become cannon fodder……sign here please…

  • http://magic155384.lovein.tw/wordpress/?p=41847 ACLU: 'Unjustified homicides' go unpunished at military prisons … | diablo – 暗黑破壞神

    [...] See the original post here: ACLU: 'Unjustified homicides' go unpunished at military prisons … [...]

  • Anonymous

    You haven’t been paying attention to Obama, have you?

  • Anonymous

    The US military: “We take these murders seriously. We write them down!”
    There’s something very wrong with the US military.

  • Anonymous

    Thank you ACLU !
    I know the neo cons hate you but someone has to keep some sort of checks and balance on this war mongering govt.

  • Anonymous

    Well, their only m.o. is to protect a countries natural resources for the rich,
    and kill the poor.
    That is not very humanitarian like.

  • Anonymous

    There are unjustified homicides every month in nearly every federal prison in America caused by deliberate neglect of health issues or actual abuse.

  • John Kessler

    growing up in the 50s and 60s I read a lot of WWII stories that described in detail the atrocities committed by the evil Germans and Japs. I thought it was wonderful to be living in a society that doesn’t condone or do those types of things. I was proud to be an American.

    It appears I was naive.

  • http://www.worldspinner.us/military World Spinner

    ACLU: 'Unjustified homicides' go unpunished at military prisons ……

    Here at World Spinner we are debating the same thing……

  • Anonymous

    The Nazis also kept records. They kept meticulous records of the people they detained, tortured and murdered. And some of those records were later used as evidence against them at their trials for war crimes. Unfortunately, the deliberate destruction of records by the US government under the orders of its president makes this difficult in prosecuting our America’s own wrong-doing.

  • Anonymous

    The Nazis also kept records. They kept meticulous records of the people they detained, tortured and murdered. And some of those records were later used as evidence against them at their trials for war crimes. Unfortunately, the deliberate destruction of records by the US government under the orders of its president makes this difficult in prosecuting our America’s own wrong-doing.