70 Year Old Vietnam Veteran Tortured and Murdered

VIETNAM WAR VETERAN TORTURED, MURDERED BY COUPLE CAUGHT FLEEING TO EL SALVADOR, POLICE SAY
Newsweek
BY BENJAMIN FEARNOW
4/17/18

A couple in California has been charged with first-degree murder after allegedly torturing and killing a Vietnam War veteran in pursuit of his financial information, police said in a press conference Monday.

Jose and Stacie Mendoza allegedly restrained, beat and suffocated Kenneth Coyle, 70, at his home in Hanford, California, on April 5 or 6, while interrogating him about his finances, according to police. The coroner's office has yet to announce Coyle's cause of death, but police said they suspect blunt force trauma and suffocation.
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Four people charged with kidnapping and torturing soldier

Four charged with kidnapping JBLM soldier for “snitch” money
STACIA GLENN
Staff writer
Published July 31, 2012

A Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier was kidnapped and tortured last week by four people who sold him drugs and then demanded money because they thought he was a snitch, Pierce County prosecutors allege.

The 23-year-old soldier was tied up with electrical cord, Tased, shot with a pellet gun more than 100 times and repeatedly punched while being held in a mobile home in the 14600 block of Union Avenue Southwest, prosecutors said.

On Monday, prosecutors charged Frederick Clifford, 34; Melissa Parr, 33; Krista James, 30; and Jacques Gerber, 33, with first-degree kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment.

Gerber and Parr also face charges of unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and unlawful use of a building for drug purposes.

A bench warrant has been issued for Jacques Gerber’s arrest. The other defendants are in custody and pleaded not guilty at their arraignments Monday.

The victim reported the incident July 25 after persuading Clifford to take him to the JBLM gate so he could get cash from a bank on post, prosecutors said. Instead, he asked a clerk at the gate to call Lakewood police. Clifford was arrested and the others later taken into custody.
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Judge allows veteran to sue Rumsfeld over his torture

Judge allows American to sue Rumsfeld over torture
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press – 1 day ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld can be sued personally for damages by a former U.S. military contractor who says he was tortured during a nine-month imprisonment in Iraq.

The lawsuit lays out a dramatic tale of the disappearance of the then-civilian contractor, an Army veteran in his 50s whose identity is being withheld from court filings for fear of retaliation.

Attorneys for the man, who speaks five languages and worked as a translator for Marines collecting intelligence in Iraq, say he was preparing to come home to the United States on annual leave when he was abducted by the U.S. military and held without justification while his family knew nothing about his whereabouts or even whether he was still alive.

The government says he was suspected of helping pass classified information to the enemy and helping anti-coalition forces get into Iraq. But he was never charged with a crime, and he says he never broke the law and was risking his life to help his country.

Court papers filed on his behalf say he was repeatedly abused while being held at Camp Cropper, a U.S. military facility near the Baghdad airport dedicated to holding "high-value" detainees, then suddenly released without explanation in August 2006.
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Judge allows American to sue Rumsfeld over torture

Retired 4-stars repudiate Cheney on torture

Retired 4-stars repudiate Cheney on torture

Staff report
Posted : Saturday Sep 12, 2009 13:03:29 EDT

Former Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Charles C. Krulak and former commander of Central Command Gen. Joseph P. Hoar have spoken out against former Vice President Dick Cheney and his support for “enhanced interrogation techniques” in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Eight years after the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S., the retired generals stepped forward in an editorial in “The Miami Herald” to denounce the interrogation techniques, which they called torture, as well as Cheney’s “scare tactics” on the matter.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/09/ap_miami_herald_editorial_091209/

Col. Janis Karpinski 'vindicated' by Senate report

April 22, 2009
Army officer 'vindicated' by Senate report


WASHINGTON (AP) - An Army Reserve colonel demoted from brigadier general because of prisoner abuses at the Abu Ghraib facility in Iraq said Wednesday a new Senate report supports her contention that uniformed military people were made scapegoats for Bush administration policies.

Col. Janis Karpinski said that "from the beginning, I've been saying these soldiers did not design these techniques on their own."

Karpinski said she felt vindicated and said she thought it had taken "far too long" for the information about the history of the interrogation policy to surface publicly.

Eleven U.S. soldiers have been convicted and five officers, including Karpinski, have been disciplined in the Abu Ghraib scandal. Karpinski was demoted to colonel for alleged dereliction of duty - a charge she has vehemently denied. The only soldier still imprisoned for Abu Ghraib is former Cpl. Charles Graner Jr., who received a 10-year sentence for assault, battery, conspiracy, maltreatment, indecent acts and dereliction of duty.

Army documents released in May 2005 substantiated Karpinski's assertions that she was innocent of two principal allegations lodged against her by officer who initially investigated abuses at Abu Ghraib.

The 232-page Senate report released late Tuesday found that the brutal treatment of terror detainees and prisoners by members of the U.S. military, both at Abu Ghraib and the Guantanamo prison facility, wasn't simply the work of "a few bad apples"
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Army officer 'vindicated' by Senate report

Policy of torture killed US Forces in Iraq

I've heard all the arguments in support of torture. The one that beats them all is "well they do it" but this one makes no sense at all. They play by their own rules and we used to do the same. That's what made us different. We were also smart enough to know that you cannot convert people into thinking your way by showing them why they should not. That's what torture does.

During the Salem Witchcraft Trials, we saw what this practice does. It gets innocent people to say they are guilty and that's just about it. When you torture someone, you get them to say anything you want them to say because they want you to stop. Innocent people were tortured and killed. No one got the truth out of them. Isn't getting the truth the point of interrogation?

What we managed to do is support all the claims the Al-Qaeda thugs made against the US. Outside people wanted revenge and they got it but they got it by killing our troops. How many would have lived if the administration did not decide that they had the right to do this? Read this and then try to answer that question.

I'm Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq - washingtonpost.com
Until we renounce the sorts of abuses that have stained our national honor, al- Qaeda will be winning.

By Matthew Alexander
Sunday, November 30, 2008; Page B01

I should have felt triumphant when I returned from Iraq in August 2006. Instead, I was worried and exhausted. My team of interrogators had successfully hunted down one of the most notorious mass murderers of our generation, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and the mastermind of the campaign of suicide bombings that had helped plunge Iraq into civil war. But instead of celebrating our success, my mind was consumed with the unfinished business of our mission: fixing the deeply flawed, ineffective and un-American way the U.S. military conducts interrogations in Iraq. I'm still alarmed about that today.

I'm not some ivory-tower type; I served for 14 years in the U.S. Air Force, began my career as a Special Operations pilot flying helicopters, saw combat in Bosnia and Kosovo, became an Air Force counterintelligence agent, then volunteered to go to Iraq to work as a senior interrogator. What I saw in Iraq still rattles me -- both because it betrays our traditions and because it just doesn't work.

Violence was at its peak during my five-month tour in Iraq. In February 2006, the month before I arrived, Zarqawi's forces (members of Iraq's Sunni minority) blew up the golden-domed Askariya mosque in Samarra, a shrine revered by Iraq's majority Shiites, and unleashed a wave of sectarian bloodshed. Reprisal killings became a daily occurrence, and suicide bombings were as common as car accidents. It felt as if the whole country was being blown to bits.

I know the counter-argument well -- that we need the rough stuff for the truly hard cases, such as battle-hardened core leaders of al-Qaeda, not just run-of-the-mill Iraqi insurgents. But that's not always true: We turned several hard cases, including some foreign fighters, by using our new techniques. A few of them never abandoned the jihadist cause but still gave up critical information. One actually told me, "I thought you would torture me, and when you didn't, I decided that everything I was told about Americans was wrong. That's why I decided to cooperate."

Torture and abuse are against my moral fabric. The cliche still bears repeating: Such outrages are inconsistent with American principles. And then there's the pragmatic side: Torture and abuse cost American lives.

I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The large majority of suicide bombings in Iraq are still carried out by these foreigners. They are also involved in most of the attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. It's no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse. The number of U.S. soldiers who have died because of our torture policy will never be definitively known, but it is fair to say that it is close to the number of lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. How anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me -- unless you don't count American soldiers as Americans. click link above for more

McCain Was Not Tortured, POW Guard Claims

McCain Was Not Tortured, POW Guard Claims

By John Hooper, The Guardian. Posted October 15, 2008.



An interview with the chief prison guard of the North Vietnamese jail in which McCain was held claims, "We never tortured McCain."

The Republican US presidential candidate John McCain was not tortured during his captivity in North Vietnam, the chief prison guard of the jail in which he was held has claimed.

In an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Nguyen Tien Tran acknowledged that conditions in the prison were "tough, though not inhuman". But, he added: "We never tortured McCain. On the contrary, we saved his life, curing him with extremely valuable medicines that at times were not available to our own wounded."

McCain, who fell into enemy hands after his plane was shot down in 1967, has frequently referred to being tortured and has cited his experiences as a reason for vigorously opposing the endorsement by the Bush administration of the use of techniques such as "water-boarding" on terrorist suspects.

Shortly after his release in 1973 McCain told US News & World Report that his prison guards had beaten him "from pillar to post". After being worked over at intervals for four days, he said, he had become suicidal and agreed to sign a "confession" admitting to war crimes.

In his 1999 autobiography, Faith of My Fathers, he described how after his capture he was subjected to inhuman treatment in an effort to force him to disclose his ship's name, squadron number and the target of his final mission. He was threatened with the withdrawal of medical assistance and, while still suffering from his crash injuries, his guards "knocked me around a little".

For his service in Vietnam and his actions as a POW, McCain was awarded the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, the Navy Commendation Medal and the Purple Heart.

Tran, now 75, said McCain reached Hanoi with the worst injuries he had seen in a downed pilot. But he denied torturing him, saying it was his mission to ensure that McCain survived. As the son of the US naval commander in Vietnam, he offered a potential valuable propaganda weapon.
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Americans want to know about McCain's mental health

This was posted on CNN IReport with a video. The topic of McCain and PTSD are all over the net and is a question that has to be answered. Statistically people who have been tortured have PTSD. The question is, how badly was McCain affected by his years as a POW and how has he been treated? Is he still in treatment? Is he on medications and is he being monitored? Normally this topic should be personal and talked about only if he wants to but McCain wants to be the president of this nation and with all seriousness, these questions need to be answered for us to know if he is even capable of making rational decisions, controlling outburst of anger, dealing with short term memory loss and flashbacks.

WHEN MIGHT A MAN [A WAR HERO A POW SURIVOR) have a PTSD EVENT...A flashback?
A outburst of anger?}

P.T.S.D. is no joking matter.This is an illness that is profound and and can be lifelong. usually requiring medications to keep under control!

ARE THE PEOPLES nominated for Leadership of this Nation required to disclose any Prescription MEDICATIONS or other medications They are taking?

I NEED TO KNOW THIS Answer?

I believe we all know drugs can alter mood anxiety,,,and if not taken can, CAUSE very unpleasant episodes. I would not want anyone in this position to have rely on these types of medications for optimal performance, because without them they become less efficient and think in a different manner!

My reason! I know that all medications can stop working for any number of reasons and before a replacement can be found the person in question may not be in there right mind as we know it!

Senator McCain, I feel does his best to keep it under control, It is also my understanding he has released Medical information which is required for a Presidential nominee. His Psychiatric History is also required which I feel is justifiable as a Psych nurse. The way he clenched hid jaw so often when debating Obama, his inability to look at him with respect in his face I feel has a deeper significance then just trying to win. I feel that was the only way he could maintain control of his emotions.

PSTD manifests itself in many ways, uncontrollable anger and many other ways and has many different features
More info on PSTD, best source I am aware of: (the DSM VI American VERSION)

In addition to all of this there's his nasty sense of humor aimed as
hurtful humor that jokes of rape, bigotry or prejudice or the fact that
that McCain twice attempted suicide as he reported to his doctors in
his recently disclosed medical reports. All of this really begs more
questions about whether McCain is really mentally fit and rational
enough to be president. This is a difficult question that voters need
to seriously answer and the McCain Campaign should be more forthcoming
with any mental health records as this information is just as important
if not more so, than the health records they have so far released.

The U.S. needs a president who seriously weighs when to actually use military power only when necessary and not one who sings a song parody of a Beach Boys song, "Bomb, Bomb Iran" when asked a question about the Iranian nuclear program. The U.S. has the most powerful military and nuclear arsenal in the world.

Voters need to be darn sure that the person with their finger on the "red" button has good mental health and anger management. how DO WE KNOW HE WON'T HAVE A POST TRAUMATIC EVENT AT THIS VERY MOMENT IN TIME! a FLASHBACK TO THE ATROCITIES HE LIVED THROUGH?
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http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-104742

Military interrogator testifies about Iraq abuses

Military interrogator testifies about Iraq abuses
By PAMELA HESS Associated Press
Sept. 25, 2008, 12:45PM

WASHINGTON — A military interrogation expert, Air Force Col. Steven Kleinman, told Congress today that prior to the abuses at Abu Ghraib, he witnessed interrogations of Iraqi detainees that he considers violations of the Geneva Conventions.

One of those interrogations was conducted by an Air Force civilian and a contractor employed by the same organization, the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, which had sent a small team to Iraq in September 2003 to help a special forces task force make its interrogations of stubborn prisoners more effective.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/6022272.html

House Allows Gulf War POWs to Sue Iraq Over Torture

This is how it started

RETURNED PRISONERS OF WAR
FROM GULF WAR I --1991


NAME SERVICE DATE OF CAPTURE CARRIED AS RELEASE DATE
Acree, Clifford M. USMC Jan.18, 1991 POW 03/05/91
Andrews, William USAF -- MIA 03/05/91
Berryman, Michael C. USMC -- MIA 03/05/91
Cornum, Rhonda USA -- * 03/05/91
Dunlap, Troy USA -- * 03/05/91
Eberly, David W. USAF Jan. 17, 1991 POW 03/05/91
Fox, Jeffrey USAF Feb. 19, 1991 POW 03/05/91
Griffith, Thomas E. Jr. USAF Jan. 17, 1991 POW 03/04/91
Hunter, Guy L. Jr. USMC Jan. 18, 1991 POW 03/05/91
Lockett, David USA Jan. 20, 1991 MIA 03/04/91
Roberts, Harry M. USAF Jan. - 1991 POW 03/05/91
Rathbun-Nealy, Melissa USA Jan. 30, 1991 MIA 03/04/91
Slade, Lawrence R. USN Jan. 21, 19915,3 POW 03/04/91
Small, Joseph USMC Feb. 25, 1991 MIA 03/05/91
Sanborn, Russell A.C. USMC Feb. 09, 1991 MIA 03/05/91
Stamaris, Daniel USA -- * 03/05/91
Storr, Richard Dale USAF -- MIA 03/05/91
Sweet, Robert J. USAF Feb. - , 1991 MIA 03/05/91
Tice, Jeffrey Scott USAF Jan. -, 1991 POW 03/05/91
Wetzel, Robert USN Jan. 17, 1991 MIA 03/04/91
Zaun, Jeffrey Norton USN Jan. 17, 1991 POW 03/04/91


http://www.nationalalliance.org/gulf/returnees.htm

Archive for Tuesday, February 15, 2005
White House Turns Tables on Former American POWs
By David G. Savage
February 15, 2005 in print edition A-1

The latest chapter in the legal history of torture is being written by American pilots who were beaten and abused by Iraqis during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. And it has taken a strange twist.

The Bush administration is fighting the former prisoners of war in court, trying to prevent them from collecting nearly $1 billion from Iraq that a federal judge awarded them as compensation for their torture at the hands of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

The rationale: Today’s Iraqis are good guys, and they need the money.

The case abounds with ironies. It pits the U.S. government squarely against its own war heroes and the Geneva Convention.

Many of the pilots were tortured in the same Iraqi prison, Abu Ghraib, where American soldiers abused Iraqis 15 months ago. Those Iraqi victims, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said, deserve compensation from the United States.

But the American victims of Iraqi torturers are not entitled to similar payments from Iraq, the U.S. government says.

“It seems so strange to have our own country fighting us on this,” said retired Air Force Col. David W. Eberly, the senior officer among the former POWs.

The case, now being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, tests whether “state sponsors of terrorism” can be sued in the U.S. courts for torture, murder or hostage-taking. The court is expected to decide in the next two months whether to hear the appeal.

Congress opened the door to such claims in 1996, when it lifted the shield of sovereign immunity – which basically prohibits lawsuits against foreign governments – for any nation that supports terrorism. At that time, Iraq was one of seven nations identified by the State Department as sponsoring terrorist activity. The 17 Gulf War POWs looked to have a very strong case when they first filed suit in 2002. They had been undeniably tortured by a tyrannical regime, one that had $1.7 billion of its assets frozen by the U.S. government.

The picture changed, however, when the United States invaded Iraq and toppled Hussein from power nearly two years ago. On July 21, 2003, two weeks after the Gulf War POWs won their court case in U.S. District Court, the Bush administration intervened to argue that their claims should be dismissed.

“No amount of money can truly compensate these brave men and women for the suffering that they went through at the hands of this very brutal regime and at the hands of Saddam Hussein,” White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters when asked about the case in November 2003.

Government lawyers have insisted, literally, on “no amount of money” going to the Gulf War POWs. “These resources are required for the urgent national security needs of rebuilding Iraq,” McClellan said.

The case also tests a key provision of the Geneva Convention, the international law that governs the treatment of prisoners of war. The United States and other signers pledged never to “absolve” a state of “any liability” for the torture of POWs.

Former military lawyers and a bipartisan group of lawmakers have been among those who have urged the Supreme Court to take up the case and to strengthen the law against torturers and tyrannical regimes.

“Our government is on the wrong side of this issue,” said Jeffrey F. Addicott, a former Army lawyer and director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. “A lot of Americans would scratch their heads and ask why is our government taking the side of Iraq against our POWs.”

The POWs’ journey through the court system began with the events of Jan. 17, 1991 – the first day of the Gulf War. In response to Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait five months earlier, the United States, as head of a United Nations coalition, launched an air attack on Iraq, determined to drive Iraqi forces from the oil-rich Gulf state. On the first day of the fighting, a jet piloted by Marine Corps Lt. Col. Clifford Acree was downed over Iraq by a surface-to-air missile. He suffered a neck injury ejecting from the plane and was soon taken prisoner by the Iraqis.

Blindfolded and handcuffed, he was beaten until he lost consciousness. His nose was broken, his skull was fractured, and he was threatened with having his fingers cut off. He lost 30 pounds during his 47 days of captivity.

Eberly was shot down two days later and lost 45 pounds during his ordeal. He and several other U.S. service members were near starvation when they were freed. Other POWs had their eardrums ruptured and were urinated on during their captivity at Abu Ghraib.

All the while, their families thought they were dead because the Iraqis did not notify the U.S. government of their capture.

In April 2002, the Washington law firm of Steptoe & Johnson filed suit on behalf of the 17 former POWs and 37 of their family members. The suit, Acree vs. Republic of Iraq, sought monetary damages for the “acts of torture committed against them and for pain, suffering and severe mental distress of their families.”

Usually, foreign states have a sovereign immunity that shields them from being sued. But in the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1996, Congress authorized U.S. courts to award “money damages

This provision was “designed to hold terrorist nations accountable for the torture of Americans and to deter rogue nations from engaging in such actions in the future,” Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and George Allen (R-Va.) said last year in a letter to Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft that urged him to support the POWs’ claim.

The case came before U.S. District Judge Richard W. Roberts. There was no trial; Hussein’s regime ignored the suit, and the U.S. State Department chose to take no part in the case.

On July 7, 2003, the judge handed down a long opinion that described the abuse suffered by the Gulf War POWs, and he awarded them $653 million in compensatory damages. He also assessed $306 million in punitive damages against Iraq. Lawyers for the POWs asked him to put a hold on some of Iraq’s frozen assets.

No sooner had the POWs celebrated their victory than they came up against a new roadblock: Bush administration lawyers argued that the case should be thrown out of court on the grounds that Bush had voided any such claims against Iraq, which was now under U.S. occupation. The administration lawyers based their argument on language in an emergency bill, passed shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, approving the expenditure of $80 billion for military operations and reconstruction efforts. One clause in the legislation authorized the president to suspend the sanctions against Iraq that had been imposed as punishment for the invasion of Kuwait more than a decade earlier.

The president’s lawyers said this clause also allowed Bush to remove Iraq from the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism and to set aside pending monetary judgments against Iraq.

When the POWs’ case went before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit,, the three-judge panel ruled unanimously for the Bush administration and threw out the lawsuit.

“The United States possesses weighty foreign policy interests that are clearly threatened by the entry of judgment for [the POWs] in this case,” the appeals court said.

The administration also succeeding in killing a congressional resolution supporting the POWs’ suit. “U.S. courts no longer have jurisdiction to hear cases such as those filed by the Gulf War POWs,” then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage said in a letter to lawmakers. “Moreover, the president has ordered the vesting of blocked Iraqi assets for use by the Iraqi people and for reconstruction.”

Already frustrated by the turn of events, the former POWs were startled when Rumsfeld said he favored awarding compensation to the Iraqi prisoners who were abused by the U.S. military at Abu Ghraib.

“I am seeking a way to provide appropriate compensation to those detainees who suffered grievous and brutal abuse and cruelty at the hands of a few members of the U.S. military. It is the right thing to do,” Rumsfeld told a Senate committee last year.

By contrast, the government’s lawyers have refused to even discuss a settlement in the POWs’ case, say lawyers for the Gulf War veterans. “They were willing to settle this for pennies on the dollar,” said Addicott, the former Army lawyer.

The last hope for the POWs rests with the Supreme Court. Their lawyers petitioned the high court last month to hear the case. Significantly, it has been renamed Acree vs. Iraq and the United States.

The POWs say the justices should decide the “important and recurring question [of] whether U.S. citizens who are victims of state-sponsored terrorism [may] seek redress against terrorist states in federal court.”

This week, Justice Department lawyers are expected to file a brief urging the court to turn away the appeal.
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/feb/15/nation/na-pow15

This is what happened today

House Allows Gulf War POWs to Sue Iraq Over Torture
Tuesday, September 16, 2008



WASHINGTON — Former POWs and civilians who were tortured or held hostage during the 1991 Gulf War could pursue lawsuits against Iraq under legislation the House has approved.

The White House, saying the bill would threaten economic and political progress in Iraq, threatened to veto the measure if it reaches the president's desk. It still has to clear the Senate.

The legislation, passed by voice vote late Monday, could affect some 17 prisoners of war — all but one pilots of aircraft downed over Iraq or Kuwait — and more than 200 American civilians working in Iraq and Kuwait and held as "human shields" after then-President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, would take away the president's authority to exempt Iraq from lawsuits brought by Americans tortured by state sponsors of terrorism. The president could still grant immunity if he certifies that Iraq has adequately settled, or is making good-faith efforts to settle, claims against it from pending court cases.

A House Republican, Rep. Darrell Issa of California, was behind the compromise language in the new bill, but the White House said the certification provisions were inadequate to allow the president's waiver rights to continue.
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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,423241,00.html

You would think that if Bush and the rest of the GOP had really cared about the troops, especially the veterans and especially these veterans of the Gulf War, they would have allowed the suit to go ahead years ago. But then you would also have to think that in this country, this country especially, no veteran would ever have to fight for the justice, service, care and treatment they earned by being willing to serve this nation.

House Bill will allow Gulf War Vets to sue Iraq over torture

House gives go-ahead to sue Iraq over torture
By JIM ABRAMS – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former POWs and civilians who were tortured or held hostage during the 1991 Gulf War could pursue lawsuits against Iraq under legislation the House has approved.

The White House, saying the bill would threaten economic and political progress in Iraq, threatened to veto the measure if it reaches the president's desk. It still has to clear the Senate.

The legislation, passed by voice vote late Monday, could affect some 17 prisoners of war — all but one pilots of aircraft downed over Iraq or Kuwait — and more than 200 American civilians working in Iraq and Kuwait and held as "human shields" after then-President Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, would take away the president's authority to exempt Iraq from lawsuits brought by Americans tortured by state sponsors of terrorism. The president could still grant immunity if he certifies that Iraq has adequately settled, or is making good-faith efforts to settle, claims against it from pending court cases.

Bush in December 2007 vetoed a defense policy bill because it contained a similar provision. He later signed the bill after reaching an agreement with Congress granting him waiver authority, which he exercised in January 2008.

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Baghdad mosque turned into torture chamber

Chain wrapped around 'old man's body' found in mosque
Story Highlights
Iraqi authorities discover 27 bodies at mosque and find torture room

"Here is a chain we found tied to an old man's body," official says

Dad of 25-year-old: "His hands, legs were amputated and his head was decapitated"

Residents say militia has left mosque, but still intimidates them


By Arwa Damon
CNN


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- "There are the bloodstains on the wall, and here it is dried on the floor," Abu Muhanad said as he walked through a torture chamber in a Baghdad mosque where more than two dozen bodies have been found.

"And here, a woman's shoes. She was a victim of the militia. We found her corpse in the grave."
Chunks of hair waft lazily across the floor in the hot Baghdad breeze.

"This was the torture room," said Muhanad, the leader of a U.S.-backed armed group that now controls the mosque.

"This is what they used for hanging," he said, pointing to a cord dangling from the ceiling. "Here is a chain we found tied to an old man's body." Go inside the mosque's torture chamber »

The horrific scene at this southwestern Baghdad mosque is what officials say was the work of a Shiite militia known as the Mehdi Army. Residents who live near the mosque say they could hear the victims' screams.

The militia had been in control of the mosque, called Adib al-Jumaili, from at least January 2007 until May of this year. Residents say coalition forces weren't in the region and the torture and killings went unchecked.

Some of the victims were accused of being spies for U.S. forces. Other family members don't know why their loved ones disappeared. The family members at the mosque who spoke to CNN were all Shiite, the same branch of Islam as the Mehdi militia. But, they say, some of the victims were Sunni as well. Watch mosque atrocities uncovered »
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/08/19/iraq.mosque/index.html

Torture Strains US Image and Endangers Soldiers

Torture 'stains US image, endangers soldiers'
THE use by the United States of harsh interrogation methods against suspected terrorists has stained the country's image and is putting US soldiers' lives at risk, experts say.

100% rate for people who have been tortured. Look back at history and see what torture does to a person and what it does not gain. Torture gets them to tell you whatever it takes to make them stop. That is what Senator John McCain said when it was done to him during the Vietnam War. As for information, they will say anything to make it stop. There is no reason to torture unless you just want them to say what you want to hear. See Salem Witch Trials and understand what this is all really about.

Veterans demand answers on use of torture

Veterans for Common Sense
Post Office Box 15514
Washington, DC 20003
Phone (202) 558-4553
www.VeteransForCommonSense.org


Veterans Demand Independent Prosecutor to Investigate U.S. Government Approval and Use of Torture

For Immediate Release: April 18, 2008
Contact: Paul Sullivan
paul@veteransforcommonsense.org

Washington, DC – Veterans for Common Sense, a non-profit advocacy organization, today called upon the Justice Department to name an independent prosecutor to investigate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s public admission she personally approved the use of torture, a blatant violation of our Constitution, the War Crimes Act, the Anti-Torture Act, and other laws against harming prisoners of war.

According to a recent ABC News broadcast, starting in 2002, top aides to President George W. Bush met repeatedly in secret at the White House and approved the brutal and violent torture of enemy prisoners of war, including waterboarding, a form of torture simulating drowning.

“Torture is wrong. The Administration’s use of torture against anyone anywhere is a slap in the face of millions of our Nation’s veterans who fought and died for our Constitution,” said Paul Sullivan, a Gulf War veteran and Executive Director of VCS.

Those involved in the approval of waterboarding and other torture methods included Rice, Vice President Richard Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General John Ashcroft, and Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet – all have left the Administration except Cheney and Rice. The President knew about the secret meetings among his aides and the on-going torture of enemy prisoners. On Friday, April 11, 2008, President Bush told ABC News, “Yes, I'm aware our national security team met on this issue and I approved.”
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/LawPolitics/Story?id=4635175&page=1

After dozens of shocking pictures depicting illegal torture at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were revealed in 2004, the Administration claimed the brutality was carried out by a few “bad apples” – almost always low-ranking soldiers. “New facts revealed that high-level government officials approved and ordered torture. They must be investigated held accountable for their public admissions of egregious war crimes. Torture is wrong. The use of torture does not produce reliable information. The use of torture increases the risk our soldiers will be tortured if they are captured. And the use of torture betrays the Constitution we swore to protect and defend,” Sullivan said.

VCS, a non-partisan non-profit organization with more than 12,000 members, was formed in 2002 by Gulf War veterans. VCS provides information and advocacy on policies related to veterans’ healthcare, veterans’ disability benefits, national security, and civil liberties. VCS is a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Veterans for Peace, and the Center for Constitutional Rights demanding the release of torture-related documents from the Administration.
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/torture/torturefoia.html

McCain needs a Native American sweat lodge

Native American Veterans Support John McCain for President but Not His Party
Mike Graham
March 17, 2008
Native American veterans will join with active duty servicemen and women in addition to other veterans groups around the country to elect John McCain as our next president. Native American veterans have no cause to support Republican Party candidates running for state and federal office due to the parties' anti-native platform on issues and bills concerning the Native American community.

John McCain, during his time in the U.S. Senate has been at the forefront of making the American dream possible for millions of Native Americans. McCain serves on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and has made it his policy to stand up to fellow republicans wanting to slash funding of Native Americans programs. As president, John McCain would be the eight hundred-pound political gorilla against anti Native American groups.

During President Bush's two terms in office he has fully supported republican representatives in blocking bills that would bring about much needed change in the Native American communities. This action is proven with Bush's statement that he would veto a bill that would reinstate the Native Hawaiian government that was illegally over thrown by the U.S. Government.

For years republican representatives have used their committees like the Republican Steering Committee to hold-up funding on bills covering wide spread health, education and poverty issues within the American Indian and Native Hawaiian communities. Oklahoma's two senate republican representatives Tom Coburn and James Inhofe are at the top of the list of non-support of Native American issues. Oklahoma is in dire need of two new senators that will represent all of their constituents.

The American people should be aware of a national anti Native American group based in Oklahoma going by the name of "One Nation United." This group is supported and financed by many corporate companies around our country. One Nation United offers campaign support to state and federal candidates they feel will support their views against Native Americans.
go here for the rest
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/9601

This just made me cringe. One of the facts that I was not aware of in Chaplain training with IFOC was that 100% of people who have been tortured have PTSD. Considering McCain was held and tortured by the VC in Vietnam, that one is a given. The Native American's know full well the price paid by the spirit and have held cleansing ceremonies, put troubled spirits into sweat lodges to cleanse them for centuries. If anyone in this nation should understand what PTSD is, it is them.

Given the fact McCain has been called "Senator Hothead" along with reports of his outbursts, the last thing this nation needs is someone more stubborn and arrogant than Bush. McCain had many chances to stand up and fight for the wounded, fight for the troops and take a stand against torture, but he has not. I will never forget the YouTube video of McCain being asked about PTSD from a Vietnam veteran suffering from it and he was annoyed by the question so much so that he turned away from the veteran and made a speech instead of listening to the veteran. How the Native Americans can support McCain is really baffling.

My issues with McCain is that he did not stand up for veterans as a senator and one of them but wants to run as a combat veteran instead of addressing his poor record on veteran's issues. Knowing the problems PTSD can cause, none of them should prevent him from being a public servant but all of them should prevent him from being in charge of the nation. Being a veteran does not entitle him to a free ride when it comes to his record on veterans issues. He needs to be held accountable just like everyone else. Had he not been a veteran, I doubt he would be where he is today. People would be looking at his record more than remembering he was a POW.

100% torture victims develop PTSD

Detainee's Suit Says Abuse was Videotaped
Lawyers for a detainee held at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., allege in court papers to be filed today that their client was systematically abused and that he was told there were cabinets full of videotapes depicting his treatment at the hands of the FBI and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Editorial Column: NO MORE: No Torture. No Exceptons.
The unifying message of the articles that follow is, simply, Stop. In the wake of September 11, the United States became a nation that practiced torture.

One of the facts learned while I was in training is that 100% of torture victims will develop PTSD according to the IFOC. We put people on trial for torture and now there are some in this country thinking it's ok to torture. It is never ok.

There has been a lot of talk about needing answers right away to save lives. A scenario has been raised that if you know an attack is coming, you need to know when and where to prevent it. Given the fact that the person being tortured is either hell bent on attack being carried out, or has no real information, they want the torture to stop. They will say anything to make it stop. How do you know they are telling the truth? McCain said he lied while being tortured to make it stop. Others have said they said anything they thought would work and stop the torture. Most experts agree that torture does not work. Aside from that, when was it suddenly thought of as being a tool this nation would use against anyone when we used to put people who did it in trial?

First Gulf War POW's push for reparations

Gulf War POWs push for Iraqi reparations

By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jan 25, 2008 14:30:59 EST

U.S. veterans of the 1991 Gulf War who were captured and tortured by Iraqi forces are renewing their efforts to get President Bush to relent and allow them to pursue damages against the Iraqi government that were awarded by a federal court in 2003.

Bush vetoed the 2008 defense authorization bill Dec. 28 over a provision that, in essence, would allow former prisoners of war to sue Iraq for damages for their torture while in captivity. Bush claimed that enacting the provision would, among other things, “allow plaintiffs’ lawyers to tie up billions of dollars in Iraqi funds for reconstruction that our troops in the field depend on to maintain security gains.”

According to a Dec. 28 report in Congressional Quarterly, Bush issued his veto after lawyers for the Iraqi government threatened to withdraw $25 billion worth of assets from U.S. banks if the provision was allowed to become law.

The American POWs were granted damages by a U.S. federal district court in July 2003. But earlier that year, after signing a bill that allowed Americans to collect court-ordered damages from the frozen assets of terrorist states — a list that included Iraq at that time — Bush had confiscated what was then $1.7 billion in Iraqi assets held in private banks. He allowed the payment of two judgments, including one for so-called “human shield” hostages held by Iraq in 1990, but none for the Americans taken prisoner in the 1991 Gulf War.
go here for the rest
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/military_gulfwar_pows_080125w/

Bush and Rumsfeld refused to honor these men from the Gulf War. Was it because what was done to them is still being done to those held by them? Or is it because Bush never cared about those he sent to risk their lives or those sent by his father? Why would he refuse to honor these men who suffered at the hands of Saddam?
This is just one of their stories

Time as POW in Iraq haunts veteran

Report of captives revives Racine man's memories
By MEG JONES
mjones@journalsentinel.com
Posted: March 24, 2003
Joseph Small III was watching television Sunday morning in his Racine home when the first reports of American POWs flashed on the news.

He had nightmares, sometimes quite vivid ones, in the years after his release. Often when he was awake, he would get flashbacks. For the most part, Small said, he no longer has flashbacks or nightmares.

But he couldn't help but relive his experience when he saw reports Sunday of the American POWs.

"It brought back the fear I was feeling 12 years ago. I try to keep that experience in a compartment of my brain, and I dust it off every now and then. This did that for me," as he gazed at a television broadcasting war news.

Even though Small, like most soldiers, went through survival training, it didn't prepare him for a group of Iraqi soldiers pointing their guns at him. It didn't prepare him for a truck full of soldiers attempting to run the vehicle he was being transported in off the road so they could kill him. Or beatings from his captors, who tried to break his eardrums.

"The emotions and fear you get cannot be duplicated" in training, Small said.

What helped him get through his ordeal was thinking of images, such as a high school football game, that reminded him of home. Before he was shot down, he had read accounts of soldiers who were imprisoned in World War II and Vietnam. He found strength from their stories.

Small's oldest son is an Air Force captain whose unit has not been called to the Middle East yet. If his son goes to fight in Iraq like the sons and daughters who are already there, Small said, it's for a just reason. He does not doubt Saddam Hussein would use weapons of mass destruction if he has them.

"I believe in the cause of what we're trying to do, which is to rid the world of a sadistic regime," he said.

Small hopes and prays the American POWs will soon be returned to their families. They will face difficulties, Small knows, and they will need the help of their friends, spouses and parents to cope with the loss of their liberty.

"There's nothing like freedom. Once it's taken from you, you greatly appreciate getting it back," he said.


While a nation held its breath and the families of the prisoners waited for word of their loved ones, Small felt a different kind of fear.

Small, 51, is one of a handful of Americans who know what it's like to be held captive by the Iraqi military.

"They're probably in a state of shock. I can tell you they're terrified," Small said of the American prisoners of war. "I'm sure they're in an extreme state of terror."

Small now pilots DC-9s for Midwest Airlines, but during the Persian Gulf War, he flew OV-10 Bronco reconnaissance planes. His aircraft was shot down in Kuwait on Feb. 25, 1991, the second day of the ground war against Iraq, and Small spent nine days in captivity until he was released along with other captives.

He injured his leg and shoulder when he parachuted out of his stricken plane and landed 50 feet from Iraqi soldiers. They tore his rotator cuff as they wrenched his shoulder. His shoulder still hurts.

Small and the other American POWs were fed contaminated food, beaten, whipped and imprisoned in areas the Iraqi military knew were bombing targets - all violations of the Geneva Convention, designed to protect prisoners of war.

The Geneva Convention protections mean "everything to American and British soldiers. They mean nothing to the Iraqi military," Small said.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/mar03/127995.asp

Still Fighting
Senator Pushes Bush To Release Money To POWs From 1st Gulf War

Nov. 20, 2003

CBS) During the first Gulf War against Iraq in 1991, a number of American soldiers who were captured and became prisoners of war were brutally, brutally tortured by the Iraqis.

Eventually, though, the POWs came home, put the pieces of their lives back together - and largely remained out of the public eye. But today, a different battle is being fought by some of those American POWs, all these years after they returned. Correspondent Mike Wallace reports.

It was back in 1991 that the POWs came home from Iraq to a hero's welcome and were greeted by the then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell, and then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney.

"Your country is opening its arms to greet you," said Cheney.

Many of the POWs had suffered wounds both physical and psychological. Some of them suffer to this day, more than a decade after they were captured and appeared on Iraqi TV.

“They had broken my nose many times. And I was just getting used,” says Col. Cliff Acree. “You just, kind of, get used to it.”

Acree was shot down during the second day of the war. He said his interrogations always began the same way: “They would have these six or eight people just beat you for 10, 15, 20 minutes. Just no questions asked, bring you into the room, and beat you with fists, feet, clubs, whatever.”

“Hearing Cliff talk about it, we never really talked like this before, in such detail,” says Dale Storr, now in the National Guard, who was shot down by Iraqi ground fire. “But it brings back memories. It's almost like I'm back in my cell again.”

Jeff Tice, now retired from the military, was captured after his F-16 was hit by a surface-to-air missile. He was tortured with a device he calls "the Talkman."

“They wrapped a wire around one ear, one underneath my chin, wrapped it around another ear and hooked it up to some electrical device. Asked a question. I wasn't interested in answering,” recalls Tice.

“They would turn on the juice. And what that does is it, it creates a ball of lightning in your mind or in your head. Drives all your muscles simultaneously together and it drives your jaw and everything together. And, of course, I'm chained to a chair. I can't move freely. So everything is jerking into a little ball. And your teeth are being forced together with such force. I'm breaking pieces and parts off.”

Tice’s jaw was dislocated so many times that he says he was lucky to be able to put it back into place.

Jeff Fox, also retired from the military, was shot down over southern Iraq. “Same type of experience where they would beat you and blindfold you, handcuff you, drag you around,” he says.

Some of the POWs endured mock executions, threatened castration, were urinated on, and had to survive on a starvation diet.

The torturers fractured Acree’s skull. “After 16 years in the Marine Corps, you develop a certain hardness. That hardness really helped me in captivity. But the people that treated us so terribly, right early on, made me so angry that it only stiffened my resolve,” he says.

“It only made me resist more. Because, in the back of my mind, I just know, it is so, what they were doing was so completely out, out of any Geneva Accord.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/20/60minutes/main584810.shtml

Capt. Larry "Rat" Slade retired in Norfolk on Thursday after 22 years in the Navy. u.s. navy


Slade spent 43 days as a prisoner of war during the Gulf War, above.



NORFOLK

CAPT. LARRY "RAT" SLADE served 22 years in the Navy, flying in the backseat of a Tomcat fighter over four combat zones, graduating from Top Gun school and winning the naval flight officer of the year award.

But one moment of Slade's career, honored this week at a retirement ceremony, fails to fold neatly into a shadow box with a flag, ribbons and medals.

On Jan. 21, 1991, a cloudy, damp night over Baghdad, an Iraqi anti-aircraft missile blew the tail off his Oceana-based jet at 25,000 feet.

Slade and the pilot, Lt. Devon "Boots" Jones, ejected safely and floated into the enemy's desert a mile apart.

Jones was rescued. Slade was captured.

For the next 43 days, Slade endured interrogation, torture and starvation at the hands of Iraqis. The military code burned in his mind: "I will evade answering further questions to the utmost of my ability."

It still smolders: Did he resist to the utmost of his ability?

"I struggle with that question today," he said.

Slade retired on Thursday as perhaps the final prisoner of war in the active Navy ranks. At a Norfolk Naval Station ceremony, fellow sailors praised Slade, 42, for a no-nonsense career as a top aviator, skilled leader and aggressive advocate for new technology.

According to Slade, who stays in touch with other POWs, his retirement marks the first time in a century the Navy has not had a former POW in its active-duty ranks. A spokesman for the Naval Historical Center said researchers there do not track such information.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/1855130/post