“Iraqi lawyer Sahar Yasiri, representing the Federation of Prisoners and Political Prisoners, said in a published interview there are more than 400,000 detainees in Iraq being held in 36 prisons and camps and that 95 percent of the 10,000 women among them have been raped. Children, he said, ‘suffer from torture, rape, (and) starvation” and do not know why they have been arrested. He added the children have been victims of ‘random’ arrests ‘not based on any legal text.'”
“Former prisoner Thaar Salman Dawod in a witness statement said, ‘(I saw) two boys naked and they were cuffed together face to face and (a US soldier) was beating them and a group of guards were watching and taking pictures and there was three female soldiers laughing at the prisoners.'”
This is a hard question. What does President Obama do once he takes the oath here? Such abuse isn’t just happening in Iraq, but Gitmo too, according to the source of that quote. Of course, we knew it was. Does he need to make some pre-oath speech? Should we just do what I think will become the meme’, forgive and forget? Will that accomplish anything? If he waits, while post oath Bush and company sniff the air and smell something coming, then head elsewhere… some place like those new digs W has purchased in South America, for example… should we leave him alone; or treat him like the Bush administration claimed they were going to treat terrorists: go in and get him regardless of what that nation thought? Tell me what you think should happen, will happen, or both, after reading this report.
What should happen, of course, is that Bush, Cheney, Rummy, David Addington, John Yoo and any others who promoted or authorized torture would be arrested and sent to the International Court in The Hague to stand trial for war crimes as defined by the Nuremberg Tribunals of 1945-46 and the UN charter forbidding torture or degradation of detainees.
But that’s not likely to happen. Probably Bush, Cheney, et al, will all hop on jets out of the country right after Obama is inaugurated, bound for places like Dubai, Ecuador and Paraguay that won’t extradite them for war crimes. (Of course, Bush will pardon them all in advance, including himself, whether it’s legal or not.) A dirty shame.
I agree. Of course if we are to follow the very precedent set by these fascistic bozos, a President Barack could order troops to go get them. I’d love to see it: sweet turnaround… but living in that type of society? I never wanted that to begin with.
Yes, I guess he has the enhanced executive powers to declare them ‘terrorists’ and use the military to capture them. The irony would be for the Bush Gang to end up in Gitmo, but Obama’s closing that monstrosity first thing after taking the oath of office.