Bradley Manning headed to prison, those who authorized torture go free

Former secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld shares a laugh with former president George W. Bush and former vice president Dick Cheney during his farewell parade at the Pentagon.

By: Matt Sledge, The Huffington Post

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/08/22/319865/manning-goes-to-jail-higherups-go-free/

Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Wednesday for releasing 700,000 documents about the United States' worldwide diplomacy and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Manning was a 25-year-old Army private first class at the time of his arrest. He saw himself as an idealist acting to end the wars, and said in online chats with hacker Adrian Lamo that he was particularly concerned about the abuse of detainees in Iraq. No political or military higher-ups have ever been prosecuted for detainee abuse or torture in Iraq, Afghanistan or at Guantanamo Bay.

"One of the serious problems with Manning's case is that it sets a chilling precedent, that people who leak information ... can be prosecuted this aggressively as a deterrent to that conduct," said Andrea Prasow, senior counterterrorism counsel and advocate in Human Rights Watch's U.S. Program. "Shouldn't we be deterring people who commit torture?"

Here are some of the individuals who have been involved since 9/11 in detainee abuse and torture, and potential war crimes, and have never been prosecuted.

George W. Bush

George W. Bush was president when the U.S. invaded Iraq based on faulty intelligence, tortured terror prisoners and conducted extraordinary renditions around the world.

"Enhanced interrogation," a Bush administration euphemism for torture, was approved at the highest level. A "principals committee" composed of Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft signed off on the methods.

"There are solid grounds to investigate Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Tenet for authorizing torture and war crimes," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, when the group released a report called "Getting Away With Torture" in 2011.

Dick Cheney

As Bush's vice president, Cheney pushed the nation over to the "dark side," as he called it, in the war on terror.

The U.S. used extraordinary renditions to swoop up terror suspects and send them to repressive regimes for torture. Cheney was the key driver in producing the faulty intelligence that led the U.S. into war in Iraq. And he steadfastly defended the CIA's use of water-boarding and other torture tactics on U.S. prisoners.

Cheney "fears being tried as a war criminal," according to Colin Powell's former chief of staff Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, but he never has been.

Donald Rumsfeld

One of the planners of the Iraq War, Rumsfeld steadfastly maintained while Defense Secretary under Bush that U.S. soldiers did not have an obligation to stop torture being used by their Iraqi counterparts. He also approved of "stripping prisoners naked, hooding them, exposing prisoners to extremes of heat and cold, and slamming them up against walls" at Guantanamo.

While deployed to Iraq, Manning discovered that Iraqi soldiers had arrested members of a political group for producing a pamphlet called "Where Did the Money Go?" decrying corruption in the cabinet of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

"‘I immediately took that information and *ran* to the officer to explain what was going on," Manning wrote in the chat logs. "He didn’t want to hear any of it … he told me to shut up and explain how we could assist the FPs in finding *MORE* detainees."

George Tenet and CIA torturers

Tenet was the CIA chief who told Bush that the case for war with Iraq was a "slam dunk." Under his watch, the CIA waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Further down the chain of command at the spy agency, lower-level officers have escaped prosecution for killing a prisoner in Iraq and one in Afghanistan in CIA custody. Attorney General Eric Holder in 2012 ruled out prosecuting anyone responsible for those deaths.

In sharp contrast, former CIA agent John Kiriakou is currently serving a 30-month sentence for revealing to reporters the names of interrogators involved in detainee abuse.

Abu Ghraib higher-ups

Although low-level soldiers like former Army Reserve Specialist Lynndie England were court-martialed for their role in detainee abuse at this notorious prison in Iraq, graphically illustrated in photos, the only officer prosecuted in the case had his conviction tossed out.

A 2009 Senate Armed Services Committee report found that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were not the result of a few unmonitored bad apples but rather the direct result of "enhanced interrogation" practices approved of by officials much higher up in the Bush administration.

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Update: 11:55 am

 

Bradley Manning In His Own Words After Being Sentenced to 35 Years

Video Source: The Real News

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMtClazlfCc

 

Manning's attorney David Coombs reads American Hero Bradley Manning's statement after he is imprisoned for 35 years in a Military Prison.

 

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Bradley Manning sentenced to 35 years in prison

 

 

US Army Private First Class Bradley Manning arrives alongside military officials at a US military court facility to hear his sentence in his trial at Fort Meade, Maryland on August 21, 2013. (AFP Photo / Saul Loeb)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/usa/manning-sentence-years-jail-785/

A US military judge has sentenced Army Pfc. Bradley Manning to 35 years in prison. Manning faced up to 90 years behind bars, while prosecutors sought to put the whistleblower away for a minimum of six decades.

Manning will be credited with the 1,294 days he spent in pre-trial confinement plus an additional 112 days. He was also dishonorably discharged, saw his rank reduced to private from private first class and was forced to forfeit all pay and benefits. No additional fine, however, was levied against him. Manning will have to serve a third of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.

Col. Denise Lind, who on Tuesday began her deliberations in the court-martial case, announced the sentence shortly after 10am local time (14:00 GMT). Lind read out the sentence succinctly and provided no other statement as a gaggle of journalist’s waited in anticipation. Flanked by his lawyers, Manning, 25, stood at attention and appeared not to react when Lind announced the punishment, AP reports. He further made no statement after his fate was announced

Immediately after sentencing, Amnesty International called on President Barack Obama to commute Manning’s sentence to time already served to allow his immediate release.

"Instead of fighting tooth and nail to lock him up for decades, the US government should turn its attention to investigating and delivering justice for the serious human rights abuses committed by its officials in the name of countering terror,” said Widney Brown, Senior Director of International Law and Policy at Amnesty International.

The American Civil Liberties Union was also quick to excoriate the decision.
“When a soldier who shared information with the press and public is punished far more harshly than others who tortured prisoners and killed civilians, something is seriously wrong with our justice system,” said Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project.

Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, decried the sentence as "unprecedented"in its magnitude.

"It's more than 17 times the next longest sentence ever served" for providing secret material to the media, said Goitein. "It is in line with sentences for paid espionage for the enemy."

Manning's lawyer David E. Coombs had asked the judge for leniency, requesting a sentence that did not “rob him of his youth." Coombs argued that Manning's leaks had not endangered the US.

The prosecution had sought a 60-year sentence, arguing the stiff term would deter others from leaking classified information.

"There's value in deterrence," prosecutor Capt. Joe Morrow said in his closing argument on Monday

 

Protesters with the Bradley Manning Support Network hold a vigil while waiting to hear Manning's sentence on August 21, 2013 outside the gate of Fort George G. Meade, Maryland. (AFP Photo / T.J. Kirkpatrick)

Last week the 25-year-old Manning apologized for the “unintended consequences”of his actions, saying he believed he was “going to help people, not hurt people."

He told the court at Fort Meade, Maryland, that "the last three years have been a learning experience for me."

WikiLeaks responded to Manning’s mea culpa, saying “the only currency this military court will take is Bradley Manning’s humiliation.” The anti-secrecy group continued that Manning’s “forced” apology was done in the hopes of “shaving a decade or more off his sentence.”

The soldier was convicted last month of 20 charges including espionage, theft and violating computer regulations. Manning was found not guilty, however, of the most serious charge – aiding the enemy – which entailed a potential sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

Manning faced up to 90 years in prison for passing on more than 700,000 Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports and State Department diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq in 2010. He was later arrested in Iraq in May of that year.

He also leaked video of ‘Collateral Murder’ video, which shows a US helicopter attack in Baghdad in which at least nine non-combatants were killed, including a Reuters news photographer and his driver.

Manning is entitled to appeal against any verdict handed to him by the court-martial in the Army Court of Criminal Appeal within six months.

Collateral Murder Bradley Manning Leaked Video Clip

Video Source:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0I6S8mva-s

 

Manning's sentence unjustifiably harsh, crimes he exposed remain unpunished – Moscow

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/manning-russia-tough-sentence-799/

Moscow has slammed the “harsh” sentence for US Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, saying it was apparently meant to scare away other whistleblowers, and was not in accordance with human rights standards.

“When the USA’s interests are at stake, the American judicial system, as in the case of Bradley Manning, takes unjustifiably harsh decisions based on the principle of 'let’s teach them so that it doesn’t become a habit' – and without any glance at the human rights aspects,” Russian Foreign Ministry’s special representative for human rights, Konstantin Dolgov told reporters on Wednesday.

Calling Manning’s case an example of US “double standards in regard with the supremacy of law and human rights,” Dolgov argued it showed that America’s claims for leadership in those respects are “groundless.”

The Foreign Ministry official then cited international human rights groups – including those in based in the US – who believe Manning has revealed “widespread abuses on the part of the US Army during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the deaths of civilian, the torture of prisoners, as well as the other grave abuses of the international human rights law. ”

Despite all the efforts of rights groups and the UN Human Rights Council, no one in the US was held accountable for these crimes, Dolgov added

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FREE Bradley Manning!!! Jail US Military for War Crimes in Iraq and US Government for their Aggressive war on the sovereign nation of Iraq!

 

 

 

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International Law and "The Responsibility to Protect"

Video Source: The Real News

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywYIL1ZYmjU

In the final segment (Part 4 of 4) of Paul Jay's interview with Vijay Prashad on Reality Asserts Itself, the subject is the undermining of international law and military interventions in the name of human rights.

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Iraq signs contract for 18 F-16 fighter jets

 

An F-16 fighter jet (file photo)

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/19/267545/iraq-signs-deal-for-usmade-f16-jets/

Iraq has signed a contract to purchase 18 F-16 multirole fighter jets in line with plans to beef up its air force.

Acting Iraqi Defense Minister Sadun Farhan al-Dulaymi said on Thursday that the deal is part of an initial agreement to purchase 36 of the US-made jets to revamp Iraq’s aerial capabilities.

“The United States is still arms supplier number one to Iraq and the Ministry of Defense. We also agreed to buy another 18 F-16 fighter jets and they (the Americans) will speed up the delivery of the first 18 (F-16) fighters as soon as possible. There will also be a demand for the purchase of air defense systems and Apache helicopters,” Dulaymi told reporters.

He also stated that the contract is “no different from the first contract in terms of the technical and financial details. This handover will be finished in 2018.”

Iraq has also concluded military contracts with Russia and the Czech Republic this month as it seeks to build up its air force.

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Horrors of war US UK munitions cause birth defects in Iraq

 

Iraqi women wait with their sick children at a Baghdad hospital.(AFP Photo / Karim Sahib)

Source: Russia Today

http://rt.com/news/birth-defects-iraq-report-385/

US and UK weapons ammunition were linked to heart defects, brain dysfunctions and malformed limbs, according to a recent study. The report revealed a shocking rise in birth defects in Iraqi children conceived after the US invasion.

Titled ‘Metal Contamination and the Epidemic of Congenital Birth Defects in Iraqi Cities,’ the study was published by the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. It revealed a connection between military activity in the country and increased numbers of birth defects and miscarriages.

The report, which can be found here, also contains graphic images of Iraqi children born with birth defects. (The images were not published on RT due to their disturbing content.) It documents 56 families in Fallujah, which was invaded by US troops in 2004, and examines births in Basrah in southern Iraq, which was attacked by British forces in 2003.

The study concluded that US and UK ammunition is responsible for high rates of miscarriages, toxic levels of lead and mercury contamination and spiraling numbers of birth defects, which ranged from congenital heart defects to brain dysfunctions and malformed limbs.

Fallujah, around 40 miles west of Baghdad, was at the epicenter of these various health risks. The city was first invaded by US Marines in the spring of 2004, and then again 7 months later. Some of the heaviest artillery in the US arsenal was deployed during the attack, including phosphorus shells.

A round lights up the night-sky before a U.S. bombardment over the Iraqi city of Falluja at the beginning, November 8, 2004.(Reuters / Eliana Aponte)

Shocking findings

Between 2007 and 2010 in Fallujah, more than half of all babies surveyed were born with birth defects. Before the war, this figure was around one in 10. Also, over 45 percent of all pregnancies surveyed ended in miscarriage in 2005 and 2006, compared to only 10 percent before the invasion.

In Basrah’s Maternity Hospital, more than 20 babies out of 1,000 were born with defects in 2003, 17 times higher than the figure recorded in the previous decade.

Overall, the study found that the number of babies in the region born with birth defects increased by more than 60 percent (37 out of every 1,000 are now born with defects) in the past seven years. This rise was linked to an increased exposure to metals released by the bombs and bullets used over the past decade.

Hair samples of the population of Fallujah revealed levels of lead in children with birth defects five times higher than in other children, and mercury levels six times higher. Basrah children with birth defects had three times more lead in their teeth than children living in areas not struck by the artillery.

The intense fighting in Iraq led by the US and UK is not the only thing that harmed children in cities like Fallujah and Basrah – a new study revealed a shocking rise in birth defects in children conceived after the invasion. (AFP Photo / Odd Andersen)

The study found a "footprint of metal in the population,” Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, one of the lead authors of the report said. Savabieasfahani is an environmental toxicologist at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health.

"In utero exposure to pollutants can drastically change the outcome of an otherwise normal pregnancy. The metal levels we see in the Fallujah children with birth defects clearly indicates that metals were involved in manifestation of birth defects in these children," she said.

The study's preliminary findings, released in 2010, led to an in-depth inquiry on Fallujah by the World Health Organization (WHO), the results of which will be released next month. The inquiry is expected to show an increase in birth defects following the Iraq War.

According to the WHO, a pregnant woman can be exposed to lead or mercury through the air, water and soil. The woman can then pass the exposure to her unborn child through her bones, and high levels of toxins can damage kidneys and brains, and cause blindness, seizures, muteness, lack of coordination and even death.

US and UK 'unaware' of rise in birth defects

US Defense Department responded to the report by claiming that there are no official reports indicating a connection between military action and birth defects in Iraq.

"We are not aware of any official reports indicating an increase in birth defects in Al Basrah or Fallujah that may be related to exposure to the metals contained in munitions used by the US or coalition partners,” a US Defense Department spokesperson told the Independent. “We always take very seriously public health concerns about any population now living in a combat theatre. Unexploded ordnance, including improvised explosive devises, are a recognized hazard.”

An UK government spokesperson also said there was no "reliable scientific or medical evidence to confirm a link between conventional ammunition and birth defects in Basrah. All ammunition used by UK armed forces falls within international humanitarian law and is consistent with the Geneva Convention."

 

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American Special Forces deployed to Iraq: US general

 

US re-deploy's its military forces in Iraq.

Source: Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/09/29/264108/us-special-forces-deployed-to-iraq/

The American military has recently deployed a unit of US Army Special Operations soldiers to Iraq in what the US claims is an effort to offer advice on counterterrorism and intelligence.

The United States is again pushing for an agreement with the Iraqi government to redeploy small units of American soldiers to Iraq on military training missions and also to accelerate weapon sales to the country in a move to secure the oil-rich Persian Gulf nation as an ally, said the American commander in charge of the effort, Lt. Gen. Robert L. Caslen, the New York Timesreported this week.

According to Caslen, the United States is encountering difficulties in the delivery of weapons desired by Iraq, particularly anti-aircraft systems, so that it can prevent Baghdad from seeking required arms from other countries, including Russia.

Iraq, according to the report, is negotiating with Russia to purchase air defense systems that could be delivered much faster than those acquired from the United States.

Meanwhile, Washington is reportedly providing Baghdad with refurbished anti-aircraft guns, which would not be delivered until June.

The US military pulled out of Iraq at the end of 2011 after intense talks to maintain American troop presence in the country collapsed since the Iraqis refused to agree to provide legal immunities for the occupying forces.

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