Read This Mr. Bush

In an effort not to become a self-absorbed blogger; I am going to occasionally attempt to blog about meaningful issues. But first for anyone who is insterest in the truth about this great nation we live in you can check out the Progress Report at the Center for American Progress and truthout.

Today my husband emailed me an article from the NYTimes which I am going to insert into this post. But first I want to insert a section from the REFERENCE GUIDE TO THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS which I think Mr. Bush should read and insist his cronies abide by.

...rape

Parties to a conflict must respect children, provide them with any care or aid they require, and protect them from any form of indecent assault (Protocol I, Art. 77, Sec. 1).

Female civilians in an occupied territory, internees and refugees must be protected against any attack on their honor, including rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of indecent assault. (Convention IV, Art. 27 and Protocol I, Art. 76, Sec. 1)

Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault is prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever, whether committed by civilians or military personnel. (Protocol I, Art. 75)

These protections also apply in cases of internal conflict. (Protocol II, Art. 4, Sec. 2e)

Here's the article:

January 30, 2005
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Torture Chicks Gone Wild
By MAUREEN DOWD

WASHINGTON

By the time House Republicans were finished with him, Bill Clinton must
have thought of a thong as a torture device.

For the Bush administration, it actually is.

A former American Army sergeant who worked as an Arabic interpreter at
Gitmo has written a book pulling back the veil on the astounding ways
female interrogators used a toxic combination of sex and religion to try to
break Muslim detainees at the U.S. prison camp in Cuba. It's not merely
disgusting. It's beyond belief.

The Bush administration never worries about anything. But these
missionaries and zealous protectors of values should be worried about the
American soul. The president never mentions Osama, but he continues to use
9/11 as an excuse for American policies that bend the rules and play to our
worst instincts.

"I have really struggled with this because the detainees, their families
and much of the world will think this is a religious war based on some of
the techniques used, even though it is not the case," the former sergeant,
Erik R. Saar, 29, told The Associated Press. The A.P. got a manuscript of
his book, deemed classified pending a Pentagon review.

What good is it for President Bush to speak respectfully of Islam and claim
Iraq is not a religious war if the Pentagon denigrates Islamic law -
allowing its female interrogators to try to make Muslim men talk in
late-night sessions featuring sexual touching, displays of fake menstrual
blood, and parading in miniskirt, tight T-shirt, bra and thong underwear?

It's like a bad porn movie, "The Geneva Monologues." All S and no M.

The A.P. noted that "some Guantánamo prisoners who have been released say
they were tormented by 'prostitutes.' "

Mr. Saar writes about what he calls "disturbing" practices during his time
in Gitmo from December 2002 to June 2003, including this anecdote related
by Paisley Dodds, an A.P. reporter:

A female military interrogator who wanted to turn up the heat on a
21-year-old Saudi detainee who allegedly had taken flying lessons in
Arizona before 9/11 removed her uniform top to expose a snug T-shirt. She
began belittling the prisoner - who was praying with his eyes closed - as
she touched her breasts, rubbed them against the Saudi's back and commented
on his apparent erection.

After the prisoner spat in her face, she left the room to ask a Muslim
linguist how she could break the prisoner's reliance on God. The linguist
suggested she tell the prisoner that she was menstruating, touch him, and
then shut off the water in his cell so he couldn't wash.

"The concept was to make the detainee feel that after talking to her he was
unclean and was unable to go before his God in prayer and gain strength,"
Mr. Saar recounted, adding: "She then started to place her hands in her
pants as she walked behind the detainee. As she circled around him he could
see that she was taking her hand out of her pants. When it became visible
the detainee saw what appeared to be red blood on her hand. She said, 'Who
sent you to Arizona?' He then glared at her with a piercing look of hatred.
She then wiped the red ink on his face. He shouted at the top of his lungs,
spat at her and lunged forward," breaking out of an ankle shackle.

"He began to cry like a baby," the author wrote, adding that the
interrogator's parting shot was: "Have a fun night in your cell without any
water to clean yourself."

A female civilian contractor kept her "uniform" - a thong and miniskirt -
on the back of the door of an interrogation room, the author says.

Who are these women? Who allows this to happen? Why don't the officers who
allow it get into trouble? Why do Rummy and Paul Wolfowitz still have their
jobs?

The military did not deny the specifics, but said the prisoners were
treated "humanely" and in a way consistent "with legal obligations
prohibiting torture." However the Bush White House is redefining torture
these days, the point is this: Such behavior degrades the women who are
doing it, the men they are doing it to, and the country they are doing it for.

There's nothing wrong with trying to squeeze information out of detainees.
But isn't it simply more effective to throw them in isolation and try to
build some sort of relationship?

I doubt that the thong tease works as well on inmates at Gitmo as it did on
Bill Clinton in the Oval Office.

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