May 15, 2004
George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Re: Inhumane treatment of prisoners producesblowbacks and backlashes
Dear Mr. President:
The reported widespread abuse of prisoners by yourAdministration adds another condition that reflects on your failureof leadership. Anticipation and prevention of such tragedies shouldhave been routine by the top officials whom you command. How can youimagine winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people? You areexpanding what the intelligence agencies call "blowbacks"--expandingthe networking of stateless terrorists against the United States. Inaddition, your Administration's actions put US soldiers and civiliansin Iraq at increased risk from the backlash to the abuse of Iraqiprisoners, most of whom the press reports were charged with nowrongdoing when imprisoned.
With the publication of photos from Abu Ghraibprison the truth is beginning to come out. In recent years newspaperarticles, human rights reports and expressions of concern from theInternational Red Cross, Red Crescent and other human servicesagencies have claimed that torture, degradation and inhuman treatmenthad become the mode of operation under your Administration inAfghanistan Guantanamo Bay, and Iraq. This has included repeatedreports in the media of deaths and suicides of people being held inUS military custody.
General Antonio Taguba, who wrote the Pentagon'sreport looking into the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, testified on May11 before the Senate Armed Services Committee describing systemicproblems with the prison. He testified that what happened was theresult of a rampant failure of leadership "from the brigade commanderon down, lack of discipline, no training whatsoever and nosupervision."
The International Committee of the Red Crossissued a report concerning prisoner abuse based on private interviewswith prisoners of war and civilian internees during the 29 visitsICRC staff conducted in 14 places of detention across Iraq betweenMarch 31 and October 2, 2003. The report said that as far back aslast May, the Red Cross reported to the military about 200allegations of abuse, and that in July it complained about 50allegations of abuse at a detention site called CampCropper--including one case of treatment that included being deprivedof sleep, kicked repeatedly and injured and having a baseball tiedinto the prisoner's mouth. On May 10 the Red Cross stated that theorganization's president, Jakob Kellenberger, complained about theprison abuses directly to top administration officials during atwo-day visit to Washington in mid-January when he met with Secretaryof State Colin Powell, national security advisor Condoleezza Rice andDeputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.
You cannot claim that you were unaware of theseallegations. You are briefed daily. In addition to these allegationsbeing reported in the media, human rights groups have specificallywritten to your Administration about them. In July 2003, AmnestyInternational sent your administration a Memorandum on ConcernsRelating to Law and Order in Iraq. The Memorandum includedallegations of torture and ill-treatment of Iraqi detainees by US andCoalition forces.
A May 7, 2004 letter signed by nine leading humanrights organizations states: "For over a year, the undersignedorganizations and others have repeatedly asked you and seniorofficials in your Administration to act promptly and forcefully topublicly repudiate the statements of intelligence officials and toassure that the treatment of detainees is consistent withinternational humanitarian law." Amnesty International also allegedtorture and degradation in the treatment of prisoners and detaineesresulting from the war in Afghanistan held in that country as well asGuantanamo Bay, Cuba. And, the Washington Post has reported that yourState Department and Department of Defense had conflicts over thetreatment of prisoners. As commander-in-chief, certainly you were orshould have been aware of these assertions--often repeated in themedia, by various organizations--and of the conflicts within your ownAdministration.
Now that the photographs are beginning to maketheir way into the media, the public is seeing that US treatment ofdetainees, prisoners and people held in enemy combatant statusincludes acts abhorred by the American people. Sadly, there will bemore--more photos, videos, testimony--where more of the facts willcome out.
Human rights groups wrote you on May 7 saying:"Extraordinary action on your part is now required to begin to repairthis damage and, at long last, bring an end to this pattern oftorture and cruel treatment."
You and your aides have a disquieting habit of notresponding at all to such letters going back to the pre-invasion ofIraq early last year, when 13 groups representing millions ofAmericans (e.g., religious, veterans, business, labor, retiredintelligence) wrote you requesting a meeting. They did not evenreceive the courtesy of a reply.
In order to restore public confidence around theworld an independent international investigation is needed. TheDepartment of Defense investigating itself, or investigation byRepublican controlled congressional committees in a presidentialelection year, will not be sufficient to restore the confidence ofthe world.
The following steps are needed:
1) Get the truth out through an impartial,international commission. This should include people of unquestionedintegrity from within the United States and around the world. Youshould state that you or anyone in your Administration will testifyin public before this fact-finding Commission. This should includeinvolvement of the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commissionprovided for by Article 90 of Additional Protocol II of the GenevaConventions to look into the allegations of abuse and related USinvestigations. The US should agree to pay restitutions to allindividuals whose rights were violated.
2) Renounce interrogation techniques thatdestroy basic human dignity and the very purpose of elicitingvaluable information. Remove those in the chain of command who inanyway countenanced or ordered such activity. Direct the Departmentof Defense and US intelligence agencies not to engage in anypractices that are inconsistent with the US Constitution forbiddingcruel and unusual punishment, the Geneva Convention, and theConvention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or DegradingTreatment or Punishment. This includes banning "stress and duress"techniques, incommunicado detentions and transfer of prisoners tocountries that use torture techniques. Strong and clear penaltiesshould be announced for anyone who uses such interrogationtechniques. Adequate funding should be provided to allow forinvestigation of allegations of abuse.
3) Ban the use of private civilian corporatecontractors in interrogation and any direct contacts with prisonersor detainees held by the United States. These are essentialgovernmental functions under established rules of military, domesticand international law. You would do well to examine the corporatecontracts in Iraq for waste, corruption, non-performance andfavoritism &endash; before the media gets there.
4) Allow access to all prisons, prisoners,detainees and people held in non-combatant status to the Red Cross,Red Crescent and UN International Humanitarian Fact-FindingCommission. This should include private interviews of prisoners aswell as visits by medical personnel.
The photos showing abusive treatment are serious.They come on top of reports of US military actions that took thelives of hundreds civilians--including women and children--inFallujah, as well as reports of over 10,000 Iraqi civilians beingkilled in the US war and occupation of Iraq. It comes at a time whenit is evident that under your leadership as commander-in-chief therehas been inadequate planning for post-war Iraq and moving thatcountry to independence from US military and corporate occupation.Further, it has now become evident that the reasons you gave for theinvasion and occupation of Iraq were fabrications and deceptions. Intruth the United States and the stronger countries surrounding Iraqwere never threatened by a tottering dictator with a dilapidatedmilitary having no command and control over his troops. RichardClarke, former White House Terrorism Advisor has argued that the IraqWar and occupation diverted us from preventing stateless terrorismand has been counterproductive to making the United States safer.Gen. William Odom who served as director of the National SecurityAgency under President Reagan, has called for withdrawal from Iraqsaying: "I don't think that the war serves U.S. interests. I thinkOsama bin Laden's interests and the Iranian interests are very muchserved by it, and it's becoming a huge drain on our resources bothmaterial and political."
The combination of these actions under yourleadership as commander-in-chief amounts to an accumulating failure.You are clearly not able to win the hearts and minds of mainstreamIraqis. You are making the United States less safe by producing morestateless terrorist recruiting, as leading security specialists havepointed out in the media.
Your attempt to restore our relations with theinternational community and involve them in winning the peace in Iraqis too little and too late. Polls report that the majority of Iraqisnow want the US to leave immediately--a sharp turnaround by desperatepeople who wanted Saddam Hussein out.
You need to make major adjustments by giving theIraqi people truthful expectations--no puppet government (See YochiDreazen and Christopher Cooper, "Behind the Scenes, US Tightens Gripon Iraq's Future," Wall Street Journal, May 13, 2004, page 1, 8) aresponsible withdrawal of both US military and corporateoccupations--to protect our troops by bringing them home--andinternationally supervised elections with international peacekeepersfrom neutral countries. This withdrawal from Iraq is consistent withthe recommendations of General Odom who explained in an interview onNightline:
"[T]o say you can't fail at that now, isto fail to realize that you've already failed. Now, when I say getout, I don't mean just pull out and walk out today. I would gothrough the procedures of going to the United Nations and encouraginga United Nations resolution to approve some U.N. force there. And Iwould be quite prepared to participate in that for a while, if wecould get allies and others to come in. But then I would make itclear that I am slowly moving that responsibility to this force andwithdrawing the U.S. over six months or so."
Perhaps you now see the wisdom of meeting withsome of the thirteen groups of Americans--including those composed ofretired military officers and intelligence officials, business,church and labor--who asked to meet with you before you declared yourunconstitutional war. They could have cautioned you about the Iraqiquagmire.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
Copyright 2004 West-Art, Prometheus 92/2004