From: Jei (jei@cc.hut.fi)
Date: Thu May 06 2004 - 15:55:27 MDT
On Thu, 6 May 2004, Joe Dees wrote:
> The US guards didn't even shock the guy in the picture; they just taped
> the wires to him, stood him on the box, and told him he would be shocked
> if he stepped off. The wires led nowhere.
I heard that that isn't the only case... Electricity torture is nice in
the way that it's easy to do so that it doesn't leave any permanent marks
if done right, and it's impossible to prove conclusively afterwards.
Perfect deniability, just like the CIA and all secret services want it.
> As to 'just a few thousand killed", well...
>
> http://www.detnews.com/2003/nation/0312/07/a04-343731.htm
>
> 300,000 feared buried in mass graves in Iraq
Yeah, hopefully we will see exactly when we get that report.
There have been plenty of people dying in Iraq, that's for sure.
As to the reasons, there's been plenty of causes especially for
children to die for the past 15 years:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6081.htm
Burying Genocide - The UN "Oil For Food" Programme
Half a million dead Iraqi children are deemed irrelevant in coverage of
allegations of UN oil for food' programme corruption
[...]
As for other torture victims claims, all these need to be cleared up:
(
Or is it that we don't trust them lying rag-head arab dogs? Frankly,
I don't trust American sources any more than I trust arab sources. And
the US has the spy- and war-budgets the size of 5 times it's nearest
NATO rivals combined...
Paranoid view: I wouldn't put it past if Joe was one of those ex-military
"patriots" hired to bash people critical of US occupation in cyberspace.
Certainly a practice and activity that the "Zionists" seem to do a lot,
especially in the US political arena, considering how pro-Israel all
their government is, and how it's political suicide to be even mildly
critical of Israel. - America is a country 0wn3d, if I ever saw one.
)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6144.htm
Telltale Signs of Torture Lead Family to Demand Answers
Wife, Daughters Tell of Iraqi Man Discharged from U.S. Custody in Coma
by Dahr Jamail
"New Standard" -- Baghdad , May 4 - Not all evidence of military personnel
mistreating Iraqis held in US custody come from leaks within the American-
and British-run detention facilities. In many cases, such as that of Sadiq
Zoman, 57, who last year entered US custody healthy but left in a
vegetative state, the story originates with family members desperate to
share their loved one's story with anyone willing to listen.
American soldiers detained Zoman at his residence in Kirkuk on July 21,
2003 when they raided the Zoman family home in search of weapons and,
apparently, to arrest Zoman himself.
More than a month later, on August 23, US soldiers dropped Zoman off,
already comatose, at a hospital in Tikrit. Although he was unable to
recount his story, his body bore telltale signs of torture: what appear to
be point burns on his skin, bludgeon marks on the back of his head, a
badly broken thumb, electrical burns on the soles of his feet.
Additionally, family members say they found whip marks across his back and
more electrical burns on his genitalia.
The NewStandard has obtained photographs taken by staff at the Salahadeen
Hospital in Tikrit, footage shot by an Al Jazeera camera crew shortly
after Zoman's arrival there, as well as documents tracing some of the
Iraqi man's journey through his captivity and then through the civilian
medical establishment.
According to the Army paperwork, the only identifying information provided
to Iraqi medical personnel upon Zoman's transfer from US military to Iraqi
civilian care was an incorrect name.A transfer form signed by Colonel
Donald M. Campbell, Jr., 4th Infantry Division (4th ID) chief of
staff.states that Zoman, considered a "security detainee," was to be
transferred to a Combat Support Hospital, and then be returned to 4th ID
custody "if he recovers."
The form provided no information as to where he had been picked up, no
address and no other personally identifying information. His family
claimed that when Zoman was initially detained, American soldiers had
taken all of his personal papers and identification.
US Army documentation and interviews obtained so far also lack details of
what happened to Zoman while in US Army custody for interrogation.
The Zoman family has been able to reconstruct a rough story of Sadiq's
incarceration from eyewitness accounts related by neighbors who were
detained at the same time. They say Zoman was first held at the Kirkuk
Airport Detention Center, then transferred still healthy to Al-Ka'ad, a
school the Army had converted into a detention facility. On August 6,
witnesses said, he was moved to a base in Tikrit where they say he was
beaten.
Major Josslyn Aberle, Public Affairs Officer at the 4th Infantry Division,
said that Zoman's injuries were not inflicted by soldiers from the 4th ID
or other Army units involved in capturing and holding Zoman. While not
immediately able to trace Zoman's full history while in US custody, she
said the types of injuries described by Zoman's family, doctors and
photographs "just absolutely would not be tolerated" by the military.
Aberle continued, "Throughout our task force, the few incidents of
detainee mistreatment were investigated immediately and those soldiers
involved were punished underneath the uniform code of military justice. In
one case that [led to] a soldier being court martialed. When we found out
about any types of mistreatment of detainees or Iraqi citizens, any
allegations were treated seriously and investigated immediately because
that type of behavior was not tolerated." Aberle said none of those cases
of detainee mistreatment was related to the Zoman case, nor did they
involve beatings.
According to further US military documentation, on August 11, Mr. Zoman
was transferred to the 28th Combat Support Hospital, where he was treated
by Lieutentant Colonel Michael C. Hodges, M.D.
Lt. Col. Hodges' medical report listed the primary diagnoses of Zoman's
condition as hypoxic brain injury (brain damage caused by lack of oxygen)
"with persistent vegetative state," myocardial infarction (heart attack),
and heat stroke. The same medical report did not mention any bruises, lash
marks, head injury, burn marks or other signs Iraqi doctors said they
found on Zoman's body upon his arrival at Tikrit hospital nearly two weeks
later.
The report said previous care providers had verbally stated, upon
transferring Zoman to the Combat Support Hospital, that Zoman had been
conscious enough to complain of "chest pain that radiated into his arm"
earlier that day. At that point, the report says, Zoman was treated with a
nitroglycerine tablet and intravenous fluids before being "returned to the
prison population," only to be brought back to medics later, "shaking and
unresponsive."
Asked to comment on the treatment described in the medical report,
physician Jules Marsh of Takoma, WA pointed out numerous concerns with the
treatment Zoman received in military custody. "The fact that they
administered nitroglycerine indicates that they were at least suspicious
his chest pain was of cardiac origin," Dr. Marsh said. "The fact that it
responded to the nitroglycerine certainly raises that suspicion. With the
possible exception that the patient has a history of stable angina, which
isn't indicated in the report, this should have prompted a further workup
on an emergency basis."
Regarding medical treatment afforded Iraqi detainees in custody, Major
Aberle said, "There's no difference in the care that a detainee receives
than the care a US soldier receives."
The medical report of Lt. Col. Hodges concluded with a statement that was
later upheld by Iraqi doctors in Baghdad: "This patient will need
extensive rehabilitation and physical therapy but he, unfortunately, has
less than 1% chance of any meaningful neurological recovery at this time."
According to documentation, on August 23, after two weeks of care at the
Combat Support Hospital, the Army transferred Zoman from the Combat
Support Hospital to the civilian Salahadeen Hospital in Tikrit.
Zoman has nine daughters; the oldest is 32 and the youngest 15. He was the
assistant manager of a hospital in Kirkuk. Zoman appears to have been a
member of the Ba'ath party. Under the Saddam Hussein regime, government
administration jobs were only available to people who joined the Ba'ath
party.
Rheem Zoman, the 19 year-old daughter of Sadiq, spoke frankly about her
father and his condition. "I was horrified," she said of his bittersweet
return to his worried family. "He had whip marks all across his back and
electrical burn marks all over his body."
The alleged mistreatment of Sadiq Zoman while in US custody came as no
surprise to his friends and neighbors. Some of them had returned after
having been abducted by US forces with their own stories of terrifying and
heartbreaking ordeals.
And after a year of occupation, stories like Zoman's may come as no
surprise to the American public, now that evidence of torture presently
receives mainstream attention in the wake of revelations by CBS, The
Mirror and The New Yorker of widespread abuses taking place inside US- and
British-run Iraqi prisons.
But with untold thousands of prisoners held at least temporarily at
military bases throughout Iraq, cases like that of Sadiq Zoman suggest the
problem may extend beyond the major holding facilities to more remote
stations. There unit commanders and military counter-intelligence
personnel hold and interrogate Iraqis even before many of the detainees
reach prison facilities like the now-infamous Abu Ghraib prison.
Zoman's family said he was in perfect health before US soldiers took him
away. They further insist no firearms, bombs, or other incriminating
evidence was ever found by the search that accompanied Zoman's capture by
US troops. They said that when US soldiers entered their home to detain
Zoman the front door was smashed in, furniture broken and torn apart, and
money, gold and jewelry looted by the troops.
The Army has so far offered no explanation of why the Zoman home was
raided or the reason for Zoman's capture.
Sadiq Zoman remains completely unresponsive. His family cares for him in a
stark home nearly devoid of furnishings, situated in the Al-Dora
neighborhood of Baghdad. The family moved there from Kirkuk last fall in
order to facilitate better care and conditions for Zoman. The family has
sold nearly everything that remained after the Army raid to purchase food
and medical supplies. Entire rooms in their new Baghdad home are
completely empty since nearly all their furnishings have been sold off.
None of the Zoman daughters has work, owing to the skyrocketed post-war
unemployment situation. Sadiq Zoman himself has no pension, since he was a
government employee.
Hashimi Zoman, Sadiq's wife, standing over her comatose husband with a
paper fan to cool him, remarked, "We make his food with a blender because
it must be liquid. But with no electricity there is no blender, so no food
for him at times." The family keeps electrical fans over Sadiq's bed, but
when the power cuts, they switch to laborious manual cooling to fend off
the mid-day heat.
Daughter Rheem said, "You see our situation. We often don't have
electricity, only six hours per day, so we take turns fanning him to keep
him cool."
The family of Sadiq Zoman says they have received no explanation, nor any
compensation for his situation from either the US military or the US-run
Coalition Provisional Authority.
Major Aberle said the 4th Infantry Division, now back at Fort Hood, Texas,
maintained that Iraqi detainees are treated well because of the need to
establish credibility among the Iraqi people. "Building the trust,
building the relationships between the Iraqis and coalition forces -- that
is so critical. When you have an instance of a detainee being allegedly
abused or treated improperly, that makes us no different than the former
regime."
Daughter Rheem stated, "My father is a good man who helped so many people
in our community. Why have they done this to him? Can you tell me?
Everyone who knows him can say that he did so many good things to help
people."
With tears in her eyes, Hashima Zoman added, "Is it fair for any man's
family to be made to suffer like this? Is it right that his daughters must
see him like this? Our lives will never be the same again, no matter what
happens."
Brian Dominick (bio) contributed to this item.
© 2004 The NewStandard http://newstandardnews.net/
--- To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Thu May 06 2004 - 15:56:17 MDT