No Blood, No Foul - The Black Room

If there was any doubt that the U.S. is THE number one terrorist in the world, it's time to discard any such misconceptions. We have seen torture pictures from Abu Ghraib, supposedly due to close in three months. Out of sight out of mind. The prisoners at Guantanamo are being force fed. We'd much rather torture people to death than let them die of starvation. One suicide note from Gitmo has been declassified. How many haven't? We are currently "holding" over 14,000 Iraqis with no charges or trials in miscellaneous prisons in Iraq and elsewhere. Our numbed troops, with only each other to rely upon, have been USED by Rumsfeld's "elite" special ops monsters to inflict horrors on prisoners in the name of protecting each other from IEDs and attacks and capturing Abu Musab Zarqawi. Zarqawi's picture is flashed on Cable Gnus every time the Neocons want to ramp up the fear of terrorists under every bed. Rumsfeld brought in Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller from Guantanamo to make Abu Ghraib hell on earth for Iraqis, to interrogate naked prisoners, and other fun techniques that don't work for obtaining information. If it was good enough for the prisoners at Gitmo it was good enough for prisoners held in Iraq. And now we're hearing of worse horrors. Task Force 6-26
Before and After Abu Ghraib, a U.S. Unit Abused Detainees
ERIC SCHMITT and CAROLYN MARSHALL, NYTimes
March 19, 2006

As the Iraqi insurgency intensified in early 2004, an elite Special Operations forces unit converted one of Saddam Hussein's former military bases near Baghdad into a top-secret detention center. There, American soldiers made one of the former Iraqi government's torture chambers into their own interrogation cell. They named it the Black Room.

In the windowless, jet-black garage-size room, some soldiers beat prisoners with rifle butts, yelled and spit in their faces and, in a nearby area, used detainees for target practice in a game of jailer paintball. Their intention was to extract information to help hunt down Iraq's most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to Defense Department personnel who served with the unit or were briefed on its operations.
The Black Room was part of a temporary detention site at Camp Nama, the secret headquarters of a shadowy military unit known as Task Force 6-26. Located at Baghdad International Airport, the camp was the first stop for many insurgents on their way to the Abu Ghraib prison a few miles away.

Placards posted by soldiers at the detention area advised, "NO BLOOD, NO FOUL." The slogan, as one Defense Department official explained, reflected an adage adopted by Task Force 6-26: "If you don't make them bleed, they can't prosecute for it." According to Pentagon specialists who worked with the unit, prisoners at Camp Nama often disappeared into a detention black hole, barred from access to lawyers or relatives, and confined for weeks without charges. "The reality is, there were no rules there," another Pentagon official said.
...(NY Times link)
Camp Nama

(Click to enlarge)
Our "leadership" of lying Chickenhawks who have never seen a day of combat (or misery) in their lives and who are such bastards they inflict pain and suffering on innocent people should all be in prison for war crimes.That includes all their accomplices in the media who have sold this propaganda to America. Shit rolls downhill. The military leaders who know what's happening need to mutiny against the unelected felons who call the shots with impunity and shame the military and the nation. Jack Murtha said today that Rumsfeld and Cheney should resign. That would be a start. It's time for this nightmare to end.

In June 2004, Stephen A. Cambone, a top Pentagon official, ordered his deputy, Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, to look into allegations of detainee abuse at Camp Nama.

"We don't know."-Dick Cheney when pressed on whether there was a link between Iraq and 11 September during a TV interview, September 2003.
"We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the 11 September attacks"-Bush, September 2003