How
the Press & the CIA
Killed Gary Webb's Career
Today's
Stories
January 20,
2005
CounterPunch
Staff
Voices
from Abu Ghraib: the Injured Party
January 19,
2005
Marta Russell
Social
Security Privatization & Disability: 8 Million at Risk
Mike Ferner
Marines
Stretching Movement: Protesting Urban Warfare in Toledo
Nancy Oden
The
Nuremberg Principles, Iraq and Torture
Tony Paterson
A Catalogue of British Abuses in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Divide-and-Conquer Plan to Destroy Social Security
Doug Giebel
BS and CBS: When 60 Minutes Helped Promote WMD Fantasies
Alexander Cockburn
Will
Bush Quit Iraq?
January 18,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
How
Americans Were Seduced by War: Empire and Militant Christianity
Jennifer Van
Bergen
Federal
Judge: Abu Ghraib Abuses Result of Decision to Ignore Geneva
Conventions
Douglas Lummis
It's a No Brainer; Send Graner: a Rap for Our Time
Ron Jacobs
Syria Back in the Crosshairs?
Seth DeLong
Enter the Dragon: Will Washington Tolerate a Venezuelan-Chinese
Oil Pact?
Lance Selfa
Stolen Election?: Most Democrats Didn't Even Bother to Inquire
Paul D. Johnson
Mystery Meat: a Right-to-Know About Food Origins
Elisa Salasin
An Open Letter to Jenna Bush, Future Teacher
January 17,
2005
Heather Gray
Misconceptions
About King's Methods for Social Change
Robert Fisk
Hotel Room Journalism: the US Press in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
What the NYT Death Chart Omitted: Civilians Slaughtered by US
Military
Jason Leopold
Sam Bodman's Smokestacks: Bush's Choice for Energy Czar is One
of Texas's Worst Polluters
Gary Leupp
A Message from the Iraqi Resistance
Douglas Valentine
An Act of State? the Execution of Martin Luther King
Harvey Arden
Welcome to Leavenworth: My First Encounter with Leonard Peltier
Greg Moses
King
and the Christian Left: Where Lip Service is Not an Option
January 15
/ 16, 2005
James Petras
The
Kidnapping of a Revolutionary
Robert Fisk
Flying Carpet Airlines: My Return to Baghdad
Ron Jacobs
Unfit for Military Service
Brian Cloughley
Smack Daddies of the Hindu Kush: Afghanistan's Drug Bonanza
Fred Gardner
The Allowable-Quantity Expert
Dr. Susan Block
The Counter-Inaugural Ball: Eros Day, 2005
John Ross
Zapatista Literary Llife
Suzan Mazur
Unspooking Frank Carlucci
M. Shahid Alam
America's New Civilizing Mission
Frederick B. Hudson
Jack Johnson's Real Opponent: "That I Was a Man"
Mike Whitney
Bush's Grand Plan: Incite Civil War in Iraq
Tom Crumpacker
A Constitutional Right to Travel to Cuba
Bob Burton
The Other Armstrong Williams Scandal
John Callender
La Conchita and the Indomitable 82-Year Old
Lila Rajiva
Christian Zionism
Saul Landau
An Imperial Portrait: a Visit to Hearst's Castle
Doug Soderstrom
A Touch of Evil: the Morality of Neoconservatism
Poets' Basement
Davies, Louise, Landau, Albert, Collins and Laymon
January 14,
2005
Robert Fisk
"The
Tent of Occupation"
Lee Sustar
Bush's Social Security Con Job
José
M. Tirado
The Christians I Know
Dave Zirin
The Legacy of Jack Johnson
Sheldon Rampton
Calling John Rendon: a True Tale of "Military Intelligence"
Tracy McLellan
Under the Influence
Yves Engler
The Dictatorship of Debt: the World Bank and Haiti
Tom Barry
Robert
Zoellick: a Bush Family Man
Website of
the Day
Ryan for the Nobel Prize?
January 13,
2005
Mark Chmiel
/ Andrew Wimmer
Hearts
and Minds, Revisited
Joe DeRaymond
The Salvador Option: Terror,
Elections and Democracy
Greg Moses
Every Hero a Killer?...Not
Dave Lindorff
The Great WMD Fraud: Time for an Accounting
Jorge Mariscal
Dr. Galarza v. Alberto Gonzales: Which Way for Latinos?
Christopher Brauchli
Gonzales and the Death Penalty: the Executioner Never Sleeps
Gary Leupp
"Fighting
for the Work of the Lord": Christian Fascism in America
January 12,
2005
Robert Fisk
Fear
Stalks Baghdad
Josh Frank
The
Farce of the DNC Contest
Jack Random
Casualties
of War: the Untold Stories
John Roosa
Aceh's Dual Disasters: the Tsunami and Military Rule
Carol Norris
In the Wake of the Tsunami
Mike Whitney
Pink Slips at CBS
Alan Farago
Can
the Everglades be Saved?
Paul Craig
Roberts
What's
Our Biggest Problem in Iraq...the Insurgency or Bush?
January 11,
2005
Tom Barry
The
US isn't "Stingy"; It's Strategic: Aid as a Weapon
of Foreign Policy
James Hodge
and Linda Cooper
Voice
of the Voiceless: Father Roy Bourgeois and the School of the
the Americas
Linda S. Heard
Farah Radio Break Down: Joseph Farah's Messages of Hate and Homophobia
Derrick O'Keefe
Electoral Gigolo?: Richard Gere and the Occupied Vote
Gila Svirsky
A Tale of Two Elections
Harry Browne
Irish
"Peace Process", RIP
January 10,
2005
Ramzy Baroud
Faith-Based
Disasters: Tsunami Aid and War Costs
Talli Nauman
Killing
Journalists: Mexico's War on a Free Press
Uri Avnery
Sharon's Monologue
Dave Lindorff
Tucker
Carlson's Idiot Wind
Dave Zirin
Randy
Moss's Moondance
Dave Silver
Left Illusions About the Democratic Party
Charles Demers
Plan Salvador for Iraq: Death Squads Come in Waves
William A.
Cook
Causes
and Consequences: Bush, Osama and Israel
January 8 /
9, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Say,
Waiter, Where's the Blood in My Margarita Glass?
John H. Summers
Chomsky
and Academic History
Greg Moses
Getting Real About the Draft
Walter A. Davis
Bible Says: the Psychology of Christian Fundamentalism
Victor Kattan
The EU and Middle East Peace
John Bolender
The Plight of Iraq's Mandeans
Robert Fisk
The Politics of Lebanon
Fred Gardner
Situation NORML
Joe Bageant
The Politics of the Comfort Zone
Mickey Z.
I Want My DDT: Little Nicky Kristof Bugs Out
Ben Tripp
CounterClockwise Evolution
Ron Jacobs
Elvis and His Truck: Out on Highway 61
Saul Landau
Sex
and the Country
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
Time to End the Blackout
Ellen Cantarow
NPR's Distortions on Palestine
Richard Oxman
Bageantry Continued
Poets' Basement
Gaffney, Landau, Albert, Collins
January 7,
2005
Omar Barghouti
Slave
Sovereignty: Elections Under Occupation
Kent Paterson
The Framing of Felipe Arreaga: Another Mexican Environmentalist
Arrested
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Old
Vijay Merchant and the Tsunami
David Krieger
Cancel the Inauguration Parties
Gideon Levy
New Year, Old Story
Dave Lindorff
Ohio Protest: First Shot Fired by Congressional Progressives
Christopher
Brauchli
Privatizing the IRS
Roger Burbach
/ Paul Cantor
Bush,
the Pentagon and the Tsunami
January 6,
2005
Brian J. Foley
Gonzales:
Supporting Torture is not His Greatest Sin
Greg Moses
Boot
Up America!: Gen. Helmly's Memo Leaks New Bush Deal
Petras / Chomsky
An
Open Letter to Hugo Chavez
Alan Maass
The Decline of the Dollar
Dave Lindorff
Colin Powell's Selective Sense of Horror
Jenna Orkin
The EPA and a Dirty Bomb: 9/11's Disastrous Precedent
P. Sainath
The
Tsunami and India's Coastal Poor
January 5,
2005
Alan Farago
2004:
An Environmental Retrospective
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Oversight
Detected?: Sen. McCain and the Boeing Tanker Scam
Jean-Guy Allard
Gary Webb: a Cuban Perspective
Fred Gardner
Strutting, Smirking, As If The Mad Plan Was Working
David Swanson
Albert Parsons on the Gallows
Richard Oxman
The Joe Bageant Interview
Bruce Jackson
Death
on the Living Room Floor
January 4,
2005
Michael Ortiz
Hill
Mainlining
Apocalypse
Elaine Cassel
They
Say They Can Lock You Up for Life Without a Trial
Yoram Gat
The
Year in Torture
Martin Khor
Tragic
Tales and Urgent Tasks from the Tsunami Disaster
Gary Leupp
Death
and Life in the Andaman Islands
January 3,
2005
Ron Jacobs
The
War Hits Home
Dave Lindorff
Is
There a Single Senator Who Will Stand Up for Black Voters?
Mike Whitney
The Guantanamo Gulag
Joshua Frank
Greens and Republicans: Strange Bedfellows
Maria Tomchick
Playing Politics with Disaster Aid
Rhoda and Mark
Berenson
Our Daughter Lori: Another Year of Grave Injustice
David Swanson
The Media and the Ohio Recount
Kathleen Christison
Patronizing
the Palestinians
January 1 /
2, 2005
Gary Leupp
Earthquakes
and End Times, Past and Present
Rev. William
E. Alberts
On "Moral Values": Code Words for Emerging Authoritarian
Tendencies
M. Shahid Alam
Testing Free Speech in America
Stan Goff
A Period for Pedagogy
Brian Cloughley
Bush and the Tsunami: the Petty and the Petulant
Sylvia Tiwon
/ Ben Terrall
The Aftermath in Aceh
Ben Tripp
Requiem for 2004
Greg Moses
A Visible Future?
Steven Sherman
The 2004 Said Awards: Books Against Empire
Sean Donahue
The Erotics of Nonviolence
James T. Phillips
The Beast's Belly
David Krieger
When Will We Ever Learn
Poets' Basement
Soderstrom, Hamod, Louise and Albert
December 23,
2004
Chad Nagle
Report
from Kiev: Yushchenko's Not Quite Ready for Sainthood
David Smith-Ferri
The
Real UN Disgrace in Iraq
Bill Quigley
Death
Watch for Human Rights in Haiti
Mickey Z.
Crumbs
from Our Table
Christopher Brauchli
Merck's Merry X-mas
Greg Moses
When
No Law Means No Law
Alan Singer
An
Encounter with Sen. Schumer: a Very Dangerous Democrat
David Price
Social
Security Pump and Dump
Website of the Day
Gabbo Gets Laid
December 22,
2004
James Petras
An
Open Letter to Saramago: Nobel Laureate Suffers from a Bizarre
Historical Amnesia
Omar Barghouti
The Case for Boycotting Israel
Patrick Cockburn / Jeremy Redmond
They Were Waiting on Chicken Tenders When the Rounds Hit
Harry Browne
Northern Ireland: No Postcards from the Edge
Richard Oxman
On the Seventh Column
Kathleen Christison
Imagining
Palestine
Website of the Day
FBI Torture Memos
December 21,
2004
Greg Moses
The
New Zeus on the Block: Unplugging Al-Manar TV
Dave Lindorff
Losing
It in America: Bunker of the Skittish
Chad Nagle
The View from Donetsk
Dragon Pierces
Truth*
Concrete
Colossus vs. the River Dragon: Dislocation and Three Gorges Dam
Patrick Cockburn
"Things Always Get Worse"
Seth DeLong
Aiding Oppression in Haiti
Ahmad Faruqui
Pakistan and the 9/11 Commission's Report
Paul Craig
Roberts
America
Locked Up: a System of Injustice
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
January 20, 2005
Voices from Abu Ghraib
The
Injured Party
By
COUNTERPUNCH STAFF
On January 11, 2005, some of the detainees
from Abu-Ghraib prison who have been unknown but for the digital
photos the world has seen gave their account of events in Iraq
from the autumn of 2003. The following is excerpted testimony
from a videotaped deposition of Hussein Mutar, entered into evidence
by the prosecution in the court martial of Spc. Charles Graner,
convened at Ford Hood, Texas. Mr. Mutar was an Iraqi prisoner
arrested on suspicion of theft before the US invasion of Iraq
and held in the encampment section of Abu-Ghraib in November
2003, when the events he describes occurred. The following excerpt
was taken down in longhand by an observer at the trial. Official
transcripts are not available. Government attorneys began the
questioning, followed by defense counsel's cross-examination.
Q: How did you get [from the
encampment] to the Abu-Ghraib cells?
A: You mean when they sent
us to be tortured?
Q: Yes.
A: They took us one by one
and grabbed me by the collar and threw me to the ground. They
threw us one on top of another. I heard someone run and dive
on me and put his elbow into my shoulder.
Q: Were you afraid?
A: Yes.
Q: Were you crying?
A: Yes.
Q: Were other men around you
crying?
A: Yes.
Q: Were there screams from
the other men?
A: Yes.
Q: What were the soldiers saying?
A: They were screaming and
laughing.
Q: What happened to you next?
A: They took us one by one;
they cut the ties from our hands, took the masks off our heads
and undressed us.
Q: After they took the hood
off, what happened to you?
A: They took us one by one,
and whoever could take their clothes off quick enough was able
to take their clothes off; otherwise, they ripped our clothes
off with a knife.
Q: What happened next?
A: They took our clothes off
and faced us to the wall naked, with our faces to the wall.
Q: At any time were you ever
punched?
A: They started to take every
person one at a time, twisting their arms behind their backs.
When my turn came, they twisted my hand behind my back and punched
my chest.
Q: How hard were you punched?
A: He hit me in the center
of my chest. I fell down and said I was sick. They brought a
doctor to check me. I told them I was sick. I demonstrated with
my hand that I needed an inhaler
I was afraid of getting beaten up and I wanted to see who was
hitting me.
Q: And did you see who hit
you?
A: I didn't see who hit me
because a bag was over my face, but I did see two people.
Q: What happened next?
A: I was put to the wall and
set by the wall but from the side of my eye I could see my friend
was being forced to masturbate over another one of us.
Q: Were you forced to masturbate?
A: Yes.
Q: Did they make you masturbate
over another of your friends?
A: Yes.
Q: Mr. Mutar, how did this
make you feel at the time?
A: I couldn't imagine it in
the beginning that this could happen. But I wished for my death,
that I could kill myself, because no one over there would stop
what was going on.
They took us and placed us
on the floor two by two. They put me on top and one fellow hit
my ears simultaneously [claps], a smack at the same time.
[Prosecution shows him a
photo of the human pyramid]
Q: Do you recognize this photograph?
A: Yes.
Q: Do you recognize yourself
in this photograph?
A: Yes.
Q: How do you recognize yourself?
A: I have a scar on my left
hip. I have another mark on my arm.
Q: Is that you on the top of
the stack of individuals?
A: Yes.
[Prosecution shows him another
photo of the human pyramid]
Q: Mr. Mutar, do you recognize
yourself in this photo as well?
A: Yes.
Q: You mentioned you had a
mark on your arm. And do you recognize the mark on this photo?
A: Yes.
Q: Again, is that you on the
top of this pile of individuals?
A: Yes.
Q: And you were naked on top
of your other friends?
A: Yes.
Q: And were the other soldiers
watching this?
A: I don't know; there was
a bag over my head.
Q: Did you hear soldiers?
A: Yes, I could hear their
screaming and laughing.
Q: And were there women soldiers
as well?
A: Yes.
Q: Do you know if they were
taking photographs?
A: I didn't know then. There
was a bag over my head.
Q: Did you see flashes through
the bag?
A: There was a bag over my
head.
Q: What happened next?
A: They took us to the cell
one by one, and lifted our arms. Each cell had been flooded with
water and soaked.
Q: Was it cold at this point?
A: Yes.
Q: Was there anything to cover
you?
A: No, there was nothing. We
were sleeping on water.
Defense cross-examination:
Q: After you were in the prison
cells, you were taken to the encampment again, correct?
A: After the torture?
Q: After the incident you describe,
you were brought back to the encampment, right?
A: No, we stayed in the cells
for 25 days.
Q: Where were you in the cells?
Were you in Wing 1, Alpha?
A: What?
Q: What area of the cells did
you stay in for 25 days?
A: In the isolated cells, for
25 days. After completing 25 days, I was taken back to the encampments.
Q: Do you know the names of
the people who made you masturbate?
A: No, I don't.
Q: Do you know the names of
the people who stacked you on top of your friends?
A: There was a bag over my
head. I don't know the names.
Q: Do you know the name of
the person who ran and dived on top of you?
A: No, I don't.
Q: Do you know the name of
the person who made your friend masturbate?
A: I don't know. There was
a bag over my head.
Q: During this time how many
American soldiers were around you? How many people were around
you?
A: When they removed the bag
over my head I saw two persons immediately. They put a bag over
my head [again], and I didn't see anything else. I saw one person
with prescription glasses and a tattoo on his arm and another
with a tattoo on his neck.
Q: Who put the bag on your
head? Do you know which person?
A: They put it on from behind
[gesturing]. I didn't see it.
Q: Do you know how many people
ran and dived on top of you?
A: I don't know.
Q: So you don't know if an
American soldier ran and dived on you, is that correct?
A: You could tell he was an
American from his voice, and from his laughter.
When they punched me, I saw
only two people. I saw one person with prescription glasses and
a tattoo on his arm and another with a tattoo on his neck.
Q: How were you positioned
when you saw the people you saw?
A: The first thingthey lifted
the bag from my head and a female doctor came and gave me an
inhaler, and then they faced me to the wall.
Q: But you don't know who punched
youbecause you had a bag over your head.
And you also didn't see the
person who ripped off your clothes with a knife.
A: It wasn't me whose clothes
were ripped off with a knife; it was my friend. I took my clothes
off and they put a bag back on my head quickly.
Q: And you didn't see the person
who forced your friend to masturbate.
A: When I was facing the wall?
Q: You said you didn't see
the person who forced your friend to masturbate, correct?
A: The person with the prescription
glasses.
Q: But you said you had a bag
over your head.
A: I could see from the side
of my eyes, my friend being forced to masturbate.
Q: Which happened first: you
being piled on top of your friends, or you being forced to masturbate?
A: They forced me to masturbate;
then they put me in the pyramid. If they had killed us all at
that time no one would have been able to question them. Because
when they tortured us, no one stopped them. And when they tortured
us, it was like theater for them. This changed the perspective
on all Americans, and anything they were doing, no one could
question them.
Q: OK, sir, how long were you
in the pyramid?
A: You mean one on top of the
other?
Q: That's correct.
A: I don't remember.
Q: How long between the time
a soldier ran and dived on you, and when you were hit in the
head?
A: I don't remember.
Q: Do you remember how long
you were forced to masturbate?
A: I don't remember.
Q: Is it safe to assume you
were pretty upset that night?
A: Yes.
Q: And that you had trouble
thinking clearly that night.
A: Yes, I remember-because
this had never happened to me before.
Q: Is it correct to say that
your sense of time and the passage of time was different that
night? Because of your emotional state you could not tell the
length of time you spent doing these things and the order in
which they occurred.
A: The length of time I don't
remember because I was extremely emotional. Saddam didn't do
this to us.
Mr. Mutar's videotaped deposition
was entered into evidence by the prosecution a second time, as
testimony in the sentencing phase of the trial, on January 15,
after Graner had been found guilty of assault, dereliction of
duty, indecent acts, conspiracy, battery and maltreatment of
subordinates. The prosecution began the questioning:
Q: Mr. Mutar, when you were
brought to the hard site, did you think this was going to happen
to you?
A: No.
Q: Why not?
A: Because the Americans came
to free the Iraqi people from Saddam. I didn't
Q: Do you think Americans are
generally good?
A: When they came in and took
Saddam out of power, it appeared they were good. But this incident
changed the entire picture of what Americans look like.
Q: How did it change the picture?
A: With these incidents of
torture that happened.
Q: Did soldiers seem to enjoy
what was happening?
A: Yes, because they made us
a theater in front of them, and [they were] laughing.
Q: When you look at the photographs
how do you feel?
A: What do you think our feelings
are? This has never happened to us before. I think I'm going
to have an emotional breakdown. I want to kill myself because
my friends, my family, all people in my neighborhood knew about
this incident. When I get released how would I go and see these
people? What's ironic is that the Americans are taking my rights.
How would I go out right now and face the public with myself?
Defense cross-examination:
Q: Mr. Mutar, you're currently
living at home, correct?
A: No, I am in prison.
Q: Which prison are you in
currently?
A: What exactly?
Q: Are you in an American prison
or an Iraqi prison?
A: Iraqi.
Q: And when were you transferred
to this Iraqi prison?
A: In December 2003. After
the torture they took me to this location.
Q: And the guards there are
Iraqi, right?
A: And the people responsible
for them, the CPA [Coalition Provisional Authority].
Q: It's the Iraqi government
that's kept you in prison since December 2003, correct?
A: At that time there was no
government.
Q: Let's say currently the
Iraqi government is keeping you in prison, correct?
A: Yes.
Q: OK. Have you been able to
see your family while in prison?
A: How am I going to see my
family?
Q: Do they come to visit you?
A: No they don't. Under what
face do they come to see me? How would they come?
Q: Does anyone come and visit
you at the prison-friends, anyone?
A: No.
Q: Mr. Mutar, are you angry
because you were placed in prison?
A: How am I not angry?
Q: Do you believe you were
placed in prison unjustly?
A: Yes, because I'm innocent
of everything.
Q: Sir, are you angry at the
Americans who put you in Abu-Ghraib prison?
A: No.
Q: How do you feel about the
Americans who worked in the hard site on the night that you talked
about?
A: You mean the people who
tortured me?
Q: The people in the incidents
you describe, yes.
A: It's not my choice to have
any emotion right now, because Americans were in control at that
time and still are.
Q: Are you afraid that if you
say something bad about the Americans something bad will happen
to you? If you express how you feel about the Americans at the
hard site that night that other Americans will take action against
you?
A: Of course I'm afraid.
Q: Thank you, Mr. Mutar.
|