#abughraib
Today in Labor History May 12, 1940: Edgar Lion, a 20-year-old Austrian Jewish student at the University of Edinburgh, was arrested by British police and shipped off to the Isle of Man with thousands of other Jewish detainees. The British government locked them all up in hotels surrounded by barbed wire. He was later deported to Canada, where he was interned with 2,300 other Jewish refugees in camps alongside German Nazis and forced to perform brutal physical labor for virtually no pay. “There were real Nazis interned with us! They were Nazis who happened to be caught by the war in Great Britain. They were bragging, and they kept telling us, ‘wait till Hitler wins the war, we’ll cut all your throats!’”
As appalling as the Trump administration is, with its arrests, deportations, and use of brutal concentration camps for innocent immigrants, as well as many legal residents and citizens, it is a misrepresentation of history to suggest that this sort of behavior is similar only to that of the Nazis, and is somehow extraordinary for modern democracies like the U.S., Britain and Canada. Concentration Camps, with forced labor, brutal living conditions, and sometimes torture and violence against inmates were operated by numerous so-called democratic Western nations throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and even today. Australia used them during both World Wars, and currently runs some for refugees on Nauru and Manus Islands. During both World Wars, Canada imprisoned 8,579 male "aliens of enemy nationality" in concentration camps with forced labor, including thousands of Jews. They also interned Japanese residents. Denmark, Sweden and Finland also had concentration camps. French concentration camps, along with the torture and starvation inflicted on their inmates, and the casualties from its war of conquest in Algeria, resulted in up to 1 million deaths. And then there were thousands of Jews who were imprisoned in concentration camps under the Vichy government, most ultimately deported to Germany, where they were executed. Even Germany’s legacy of concentration camps predates Hitler, with deadly camps utilized during the Herero and Namaqua genocide they committed in Africa (1904-1908). In addition to their internment of Jews during World War II, Britain also ran offshore and land-based gulags in Ireland in the 1920s, which housed over 500 men, under brutal conditions, without charge or trial. They also ran concentration camps on the Isle of Man during both world wars.
The U.S., in particular, has a long, sordid history of using concentration camps that precede the ones they used during World War II to imprison Japanese-Americans. The first document U.S. concentration camps used for a specific ethnic group occurred in 1838, when President Van Buren imprisoned Cherokee in camps at Ross's Landing (Chattanooga, Tennessee), Fort Payne, Alabama, and Fort Cass (Charleston, Tennessee). Many died in these camps from disease and hunger. In 1862, Minnesota executed 38 Dakota warriors in the largest single-day mass execution in U.S. history. President Lincoln pardoned another 361, but placed them in a concentration camp. And in the following winter, another 1600 Dakota men, women and children were forced into other concentration camps. Up to 300 died from disease in these camps. Thousands of other indigenous people were forced into U.S. concentration camps throughout the 1800s and early 1900s. The U.S. also operated brutal concentration camps for prisoners and civilians during its war on the Philippines in 1901. During the 1950s-1960s, the U.S. maintained concentration camps for political dissidents, primarily communists, but officially never used them. More recently, there are the examples of Abu Ghraib, in Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Under Reagan, there were plans to imprison thousands of Central American Solidarity activists in concentration camps. And today, Trump continues to talk about sending “homegrowns” to offshore gulags in El Salvador, Guantanamo Bay, and Africa.
@SeanCasten
Same with most who worked in his first admin: #ambition wins over unethical alliances.
For the rest of us, Abu Ghraib was a wake-up call as to how insignificant an individual is to those in power. #AbuGhraib
My Lai Massacre
@davetroy #JulianAssange was just a hired ‘middle man’ when #AbuGhraib torture, #DemocraticParty nomination rigging, and other ‘classified’ information was published by #Wikileaks.
Since #ElonMusk is the middle man in the #DOGE heist, there is no reason for Assange to be involved. I suspect #Russia to broadcast some info on #RT but keep other information secret for its own most ‘effective’ and nefarious uses.
#Resist to #SaveAmerica.
#DoNotCollaborateWithFascists in #USpol
>> #Trump's nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Defense, Pete #Hegseth: "We don't need burdensome rules."
Two decades after #GeorgeWBush, a #DefenseSecretary nominee is dismissing laws incorporating #GenevaConvention even before he's confirmed.
#Bush at least blurted out a word salad on national TV about #disgraceful conduct. Trump won't even deign to do that.
#DonaldRumsfeld #PeteHegseth #HumanRights #AbuGhraib
https://www.hrw.org/report/2004/06/09/road-abu-ghraib
#israel #palestine : #war / #gaza / #warcrimes / #internationallaw / #icc / #arrestwarrants / #guantanamo / #abughraib
„Arrest warrants issued against Israeli leaders are putting international law to the test. Do Western states only support UN courts when it serves their interests? Can the "principle of universal jurisdiction" save international criminal justice?”
https://qantara.de/en/article/what-the-Netanyahu-warrant-teaches-us-about-international-law
From Center for Constitutional Rights ;
Abu Ghraib Verdict: Iraqi Torture Survivors Win Landmark Case as Jury Holds Private Contractor CACI Liable
First of its kind to make it to trial, lawsuit delivers rare accountability for U.S post-9/11 torture
https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/abu-ghraib-verdict-iraqi-torture-survivors-win-landmark-case-jury
US military contractor CACI to face retrial over allegations of torture at #Iraq prison
Tyler Li | U. Ottawa Faculty of Law, CA
June 15, 2024
"The case against #CACI is one of many legal actions against private military contractors accused of detainee abuse, including those against #TitanCorporation (later known as L-3 Services) and CACI for their roles in alleged abuse at #AbuGhraib, as well as against #Blackwater for incidents like the #NisourSquare massacre in #Baghdad. Many of these cases faced similar legal challenges, specifically dismissals based on national security concerns and the complexities of applying US law to actions taken in war zones."
#Iraqis Tortured at #AbuGhraib Win $42 Million Judgment Against U.S. Military Contractor #CACI
#DemocracyNow
November 14, 2024
"A federal jury in Virginia has ordered the U.S. military contractor CACI Premier Technology to pay a total of $42 million to three Iraqi men who were tortured at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. The landmark verdict comes after 16 years of litigation and marks the first time a civilian contractor has been found legally responsible for the gruesome abuses at Abu Ghraib. We discuss the case and its significance for #HumanRights with Baher Azmy, the legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represented the Abu Ghraib survivors. 'This lawsuit has been about justice and accountability for three Iraqi men — our clients, Salah, Suhail and Asa’ad — who exhibited just awe-inspiring courage and resilience,' he says."
Watch (full transcript available later today):
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/11/14/baher_azmy_caci_guantanamo_lawsuit_torture
Nach 20 Jahren des Kampfes um Gerechtigkeit haben drei ehemalige Häftlinge von Abu Ghraib eine Millionenentschädigung erhalten! 
Die Jury sprach jedem Kläger 3 Millionen Dollar plus 11 Millionen Dollar Strafschadenersatz zu. Ein wichtiger Schritt für Rechenschaft und Menschenrechte! 
#AbuGhraib #Menschenrechte #Gerechtigkeit
Diese Bilder & die Taten hätten niemals stattfinden dürfen.
Millionenentschädigung für drei Folteropfer aus Abu-Ghraib-Gefängnis
Fotos von gefolterten Häftlingen im Gefängnis Abu Ghraib im Irak sorgten vor rund 20 Jahren für Entsetzen. Elf US-Soldaten wurden seitdem verurteilt. Jetzt wurde drei früheren Häftlingen eine Millionenentschädigung zugesprochen.
Jury says defense contractor must pay $42 million over Abu Ghraib abuses - The Washington Post
https://archive.ph/tY1aM
This article is another example of how sometimes the title of a piece alone communicates precisely everything you need to know about an issue, in this case the reality that Israel is running illegal torture camps for Palestinian prisoners right out in the open - even if the Pig Empire media is curiously disinterested in talking about it:
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israel-prison-torture
Where Is the Mass Outrage Over Israel’s Abu Ghraib?
"In recent days, it has become all too clear that something comparable to Abu Ghraib—and very possibly worse—has been taking place in Israeli prisons since October 7 when the war on Gaza broke out.
This week, appalling leaked video footage captured Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee, just as a report from the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem highlighted the state’s policy of systematic prisoner abuse and torture since the start of the war.
The report, based on interviews with 55 Palestinians detained since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, is distressing to read. It provides evidence of degrading treatment, arbitrary beatings, and sleep deprivation, as well as the “repeated use of sexual violence, in varying degrees of severity.”
As I've mentioned before while pursuing my own writing and research, I personally find the lack of mainstream reporting on Israeli atrocities against Palestinian prisoners (particularly at the notorious Sde Teiman prison) absolutely dumbfounding unless one simply accepts that it's clear evidence of the Pig Empire establishment's *active* attempts to cover up the crimes involved here on behalf of a MENA region ally; something that objectively runs counter to everything journalism is supposed to be about. What I hadn't considered however, was how much clearer the picture of an intentional cover up becomes when you compare the media response to these stories, and their reaction to the exposure of Iraq War-era abuses by American military personnel at the equally notorious Abu Ghraib prison just over two decades ago. In that context, the author's use of the term "omerta" to describe the intentional blanket of silence being placed over this story (and numerous other stories of Israeli human rights abuses just like it) is more than apt, and taken together makes it clear that the entire Pig Empire establishment, at both the state level and in for-profit media organizations, is actively complicit in those crimes in a very real, legally-defined sense of the word.
Now with global media focussing on the aerial bombardment of #Beirut and the #assassination of Ismail Hanniye in #Tehran, nobody talks about #SdeTeiman anymore. The Israeli detention centre judged more atrocious than #AbuGhraib even by Israeli institutions was the site of a rare confrontation with the ugly truth about the Israeli military (and society) only a couple of days ago, when military police arrested ten soldiers for gang raping Palestinian prisoners and the base being subsequently stormed by the extreme right.
So please, read about #SdeTeiman. You could start here: https://www.haaretz.com/search-results?q=Sde+teiman, https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Sde+teiman&as_sitesearch=www.theguardian.com
Folterskandal - Dokumente der Erniedrigung aus Abu Ghraib
Vor 20 Jahren tauchten Fotos auf, die zeigen, wie US- Soldaten im Irak Häftlinge quälen und misshandeln .Es war ein Skandal, doch Urteile gab es nur wenige.#AbuGhraib #IRAN #Iran-Krieg #FOLTER
Abu-Ghraib-Folterskandal: Dokumente der Erniedrigung
in
Iraq: ‘Correct a black mark in US history’: former prisoners of Abu Ghraib get day in court against the US #interrogation contractor CACI https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2024/apr/14/abu-ghraib-iraq-torture-abuse #TORTURE #AbuGhraib #iraq
The #CPPCG did not prevent #genocide in #Rwanda. The #GenevaConventions did not stop the Vietnamese from torturing American #PrisonersOfWar, did not prevent Americans at #AbuGhraib from torturing Iraqi #POWs, & do not prevent Russians from torturing Ukrainian POWs today. Signatories of the #UDHR include known violators of human rights, among them #China, #Cuba, #Iran, & #Venezuela. The #UN Commission on #HumanRights deteriorated into parody long ago.