A good and honest American writer [b]Tara McKelvey[/b] has publiched a book detailing how Americans have been torturing and abusing Muslims:

This is her book:
[b]"Monstering: Inside Americas Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War."[/b]

I hope Allah burns them in Hell all those who tortured Muslims.

No wonder they are losing in Iraq.

Quote:

[b]Abu Ghraib abuse just tip of the iceberg: author [/b]

AFP - by Fanny Carrier - Sun Aug 19, 3:28 PM ET

Those people truely to blame for the degrading treatment of Iraqi prisoners in Baghdad's infamous Abu Ghraib jail remain in the shadows, while such abuses continue unchecked and unseen.

That's the view of American author Tara McKelvey, who sought to uncover the truth behind the 2004 scandal in her book "Monstering: Inside Americas Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War."

Asked who was really responsible ahead of the trial of the only US military officer charged with tormenting Iraqis at the jail, McKelvey replied: "That's the million dollar question. That's what everyone wants to know."

Lieutenant Colonel Steven Jordan, 51, goes on trial on Monday on charges which include cruelty and mistreatment of detainees, making false statements, obstruction of justice and disobeying orders.

McKelvey hopes the hearing will provide some answers as to why US soldiers forced their Iraqi prisoners to strip, form naked human pyramids, parade on all fours with leashes chains on their necks, and threatened them with dogs.

"These court-martials have been very useful in the sense that they allow people to ask questions. And they forced people to account for their behavior when they were at the prison," she told AFP.

"They are one of the few venues where things things are out in the open."

So far attempts to the blame the affair on US President George W. Bush, who ordered the invasion of the Iraq in March 2003, his Vice President Dick Cheney or former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the main architects of the war, have come to nothing.

"People try to blame Bush, they blame Cheney, they blame Rumsfeld. But chasing that chain of command is difficult, partly because so much of these documents and the photographs have been withheld from the public," said McKelvey.

She added the "smoking gun" in the scandal could lead to John C. Yoo, who was a lawyer in the office of legal counsel at the Justice Department, and was one of the authors of a key departmental memo.

"In that memo, he defines torture to allow all sorts of abuse and techniques, and that was one of the key points in this entire debate," McKelvey said.

"People say often: torture and abuse have taken place in every war. And it's true, if you look at My Lai or some of the incidents in Vietnam that were horrific.

"But the difference now is that this is codified. There have been allowances made for these things to occur."

The Abu Ghraib scandal first came to light in 2004 when photographs the grinning soldiers had taken of themselves dishing out the abuse to their prisoners shot round the world.

But McKelvey believes the abuse was more widespread than was ever revealed and is probably still continuing in other places and situations.

"It's true you can say the scandal exists because of the photographs, but what you saw on the pictures was really only a fraction of the abuse that was taking place. And certainly not the worst of it," she said.

"There is no question in my mind that the extent was far greater than it was acknowledged at that time. In December 2003, there was something like 12,000 detainees in Iraq," she said.

But there were thousands who were never registered and held in short-term facilities such as schools or police stations, she added.

"Today, polls show that a sizable number of soldiers think that torture is OK in certain conditions, that they won't report abuse if it takes place.

"And I think the sad truth is that these things are still taking place but the difference between now and April-May 2004 is that people aren't taking pictures."

[b]US military officer goes on trial for Abu Ghraib abuse [/b]

Lieutenant Colonel Steven Jordan, the only military officer charged in the prisoner abuse scandal at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail, goes before a court martial Monday in Fort Meade, Maryland.

More than three years after snapshots of Iraqi prisoners humiliated by their prison guards shocked the world, only a handful of US soldiers have been convicted, but none of their military or civilian superiors.

The pictures showed naked prisoners piled in pyramids, tied to each other with electric wire, threatened by dogs, wearing women's undergarments on their heads and forced to parade naked before female guards.

The graphic abuse cut short the widespread feeling of sympathy the September 11, 2001 attacks had generated for the United States, In 2006, US President George W. [b]Bush admitted the Abu Ghraib scandal was the biggest mistake[/b] his government made in Iraq.

Donald Rumsfeld, the controversial defense secretary at the time, said he had twice tended his resignation over the scandal, which he blamed on just "a few bad apples" out of hundreds of thousands of US servicemen.

Only 11 soldiers have been convicted so far in the scandal. They have received sentences from a few hours of community work to 10 years behind bars. Most said they were simply following orders.

Among the higher ranks, former general Janis Karpinski, prison commander in Iraq at the time of the scandal, was sanctioned with a demotion, but was never put on trial.

After shedding her uniform, Karpinsky said in a book published in late 2005 that the Abu Ghraib abuses "were the result of conflicting orders and confused standards extending from the military commanders in Iraq all the way to the summit of civilian leadership in Washington."

US author Tara McKelvey, who wrote a book about Abu Ghraib, hopes the hearing will provide some answers as to why US soldiers forced their Iraqi prisoners to strip, form naked human pyramids, parade on all fours with leashes chains on their necks, and threatened them with dogs.

"These court-martials have been very useful in the sense that they allow people to ask questions. And they forced people to account for their behavior when they were at the prison," she told AFP.

According to different Pentagon reports, Jordan, 51, was part of the confusion.

At Abu Ghraib he was officially responsible for the interrogation center, but due to his lack of experience he devoted his time to trying to improve conditions for the soldiers posted in the prison who felt they had been abandoned as cannon fodder.

The army reservist who specialised in analysing intelligence, not gathering it, did not supervise interrogations, allowing the abuse to flourish among his badly-stretched staff who were under constant pressure to produce results.

He is accused of forcing prisoners one night to strip naked, before threatening them with attack dogs and of lying to investigators that he had not witnessed any abuse or naked inmates at the prison.

He is charged with obstructing justice, failing in his duties, lying to investigators and of conduct unbecoming an officer. He faces a maximum of 16 and a half years in prison. The court martial is expected to last two weeks.

Jordan's case has drawn little attention by US media, which in just a few articles describe him as a scapegoat in the scandal. Only 20 reporters have signed on to cover his court martial.

Even civil rights groups are keeping a low profile.