ISRAELI TORTURE and U.S. COMPLICITY THEN AND NOW [Archive]

Ewe n0 who

May 7th 04, 12:44 AM

MORRIS434

May 8th 04, 10:07 AM

TORTUREGATE

TORTURE INTERCONNECTIONS - The U.S. and Israel

ISRAELI TORTURE and U.S. COMPLICITY THEN AND NOW

Mid-East Realities - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - 6 May 2004:

The U.S. and Israel have been torture interconnected in the Middle East for
quite a long time. Those now infamous hoods -- finally infamous because of the
dramatic pictures from a U.S.-run prison in Iraq -- have long been used by the
Israelis in prisons where Palestinians are treated far worse but the world has
looked the other way for decades now. Indeed Israeli 'training' of Americans to
'deal with the Arabs' may well be the secret so-far untold aspect of today's
'torture scandal' now dominating today's headlines. TortureGate now dominates
Washington and has the potential to threaten the Bush Presidency as the Monica
scandal affected Clinton's.
The top Pentagon civilian officials -- Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith -- both
Jewish and both known for their extremely close relationships with top
officials in Israel and the Zionist movement, are believed to have personally
authorized clandestine Mossad officials to be in Iraq working closely with U.S.
military intelligence. Something similar is believed to have been secretly
authorized by the head of the CIA, George Tenet. Many in Washington find it
hard to believe that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfled did not know and
approve; even if the information was not provided to the President who many
believe at the time would not have cared or understood the implications anyway.

As of today TortureGate is at the least further erupting into a profound
earthquake-like public relations catastrophy for the U.S. American credibility
has been shredded to pieces. The President himself is unusually personally
involved in attempting damage-control. Talk of Donald Rumseld being forced to
take the fall this time is beginning to be heard above whispers.

As for the U.S. and Israeli torture connection it has grown considerable in
recent years and certainly needs to be investigated -- but just as certainly
not by the American Congress which is itself quite complicitous despite all the
loud protestations otherwise.

Even as far back as a decade before the first Palestinian Intifada began in
1987, the U.S. government was already very much aware and complicitous in, the
'systematic torture' of Palestinians by Israel.

In 1979 U.S. Foreign Service officers serving in the Jerusalem Consulate -- an
unofficial Embassy responsible for dealing with the Palestinians in the
'Occupied Territories' -- did their job and provided the political leaders in
Washington detailed and conclusive information about the ongoing torture of
Palestinians. When top officials in Washington did nothing and in fact ordered
everything covered up classified State Department cables were leaked from
persons inside the State Department and published by Mark Bruzonsky who at the
time was Forum Editor of The Middle East Magazine in London. Bruzonsky is now
the Publisher of Mid-East Realities (MiddleEast.Org). In a major censorship
story never publicly told the classified torture documents were first made
available by Bruzonsky for exclusive publication in a New York newspaper. But
severe pressure from the U.S. government and persons associated with the
Israeli-Jewish lobby forced the story to be spiked at the last minute even
after the front-page banner-headline had been set in type and personally
approved by the editor and publisher. This is the story of the once secret
"Torture Cables" as published in the April 1979 issue of The Middle East
Magazine.

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/05/287679.shtml

MOSSAD AGENTS INVOLVED IN IRAQ PRISON ABUSE

author: Mauricio Dolce

Mossad agents are behind the Iraq prison scandale

General Taguba's report about the Iraq prison abuse, strongly implicate John
Israel, Steven Stephanowicz and Adel L. Nakhla; describes them as interrogators
contract employees for Titan and CACI corporation.

Both Corporation has indicated that these individuals work for a sub contractor
that they refused to name, the truth is that John Israel, Steven Stephanowicz
and Adel L. Nakhla works for the Mossad, Arabic speakers and has been sent to
train CIA, DIA and MI in interrogation techniques already used in Palestinians.

What has not been reported yet is that women and minors has been sodomized,
pictures and video tapes has been withheld by the media to avoid further
emparrasing the Army.

http://www.nowarforisrael.com

http://www.nogw.com/warforisrael.html

Israeli lessons for the US in Iraq

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C182D988-28E3-4D48-ADFC-F15D6509B0EC.htm

By Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank

Friday 07 May 2004, 2:48 Makka Time, 23:48 GMT

The torturing of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghuraib prison by US occupying
forces has shocked the world - but for most Palestinians they come as no
surprise.

In fact, tens of thousands of Palestinians who have served time in Israeli
prisons and detention centres see striking similarities between Israeli
treatment of Palestinian prisoners and American treatment of Iraqi detainees.

In some cases, the torture technique or form of mistreatment is almost
identical, some former Palestinian prisoners told Aljazeera.net.

Hisham Abd al-Razzaq is a Palestinian Authority minister in charge of
overseeing and catering for more than 7000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel,
many of them interned without charge or trial.

He believes that what the Americans are doing to the Iraqis amounts to a
"carbon copy" of what the Israelis have been doing to the Palestinians.

"I am inclined to think that the Americans copied the Israeli techniques. I
canâ€™t prove it in an objective manner, but the striking similarities are
overwhelming."

Abd al-Razzaq, who himself experienced many forms of torture during his lengthy
imprisonment in an Israeli jail prior to the Oslo Accords in 1993, described
physical and psychological torture as the "modus operandi" of Israeli treatment
of Palestinian detainees.

Torture techniques

He said that the so-called hooding technique - whereby the detainee's head is
covered with a rancid-smelling sack for weeks or months - was always "the first
order of business" in Israeli interrogation centres.

"The hooding itself is not an interrogation method. Its purpose is not to
extract confessions from the suspect, but rather to demoralise him and destroy
his mental balance."

"The hooding itself is not an interrogation method. Its purpose is not to
extract confessions from the suspect, but rather to demoralise him and destroy
his mental balance"

Hisham Abd al-Razzaq,
Palestinian Authority minister

Abd al-Razzaq said that the filthy sack that he too was forced to wear was made
up of three or four layers to make sure that the suspect "breathes the least
possible amount of oxygen, enough to keep him or her alive".

In addition to the hooding, Israel, according to consistent reports by
international human rights groups as well as testimonies by Palestinian
detainees, continues to use harsh means of torture, both for extracting
confessions and as a punishment for opposing the Israeli occupation.

These include, inter alia, brutal beating, (taltul) or violent shaking,
forced-stripping, sleep deprivation (by playing extremely loud music inside a
detaineeâ€™s cell), cold baths in winter, actual or threatened sexual abuse, as
well as the notorious shabh technique whereby a suspect is tied tightly tied to
a small chair, with his hands tied to his back, for weeks.

Similarity denied

Ofer Yisler, spokesman for the Israeli Prison Authority, vehemently denies any
"similarity between our treatment of the Palestinians and what we have seen in
Iraq".

"There is no comparison whatsoever, what the Americans did in Iraq is something
entirely different."

Palestinians say the US learned
its torture tactics from Israel

But Yisler refused to comment on accusations that the hooding technique, the
shabh, sleep deprivation and forced stripping were still being used by Israel.
Yisler ended the interview and refused to answer further questions, insisting
that written questions be submitted to his office.

Yislerâ€™s reluctance to speak, however, seems to underscore Israelâ€™s desire
to stay away from the international outcry over what happened in Iraq.

But Israeli-Arab Knesset member Talab al-Sanai says Israel is indirectly but
heavily involved in "the systematic mistreatment of Iraqi people at the hands
of the American occupation troops".

Israeli experts

"It is not secret at all, there are many Israeli experts on torture in Iraq who
are transferring to the Americans their accumulative experience of thirty seven
years of torturing and mistreating Palestinians," al-Sanai told Aljazeera.net.

He said that American officers joined Israeli army units in Jenin several
months ago for the purpose of learning Israeli methods and techniques of
repressing civilians, which the Americans, he said, later applied in Iraq.

"It took Israel 37 years to develop and perfect these barbaric methods of
repression and humiliation. Surprisingly, the Americans surpassed and
outmatched the Israelis in their savagery in less than two years."

Al-Sanai condemned American behaviour in Iraq as "manifestly criminal",
dismissing claims by the Bush administration that the torture incidents were
isolated.

"Here in Israel, it is an ugly occupation, and Israel doesnâ€™t make any
pretensions about it. But in Iraq, the United States is murdering, humiliating,
torturing and raping the Iraqis under the rubric of freedom and democracyâ€¦

"Perhaps this is what they really mean when they talk about freedom and
democracy â€¦ namely, liberating the Iraqis from their dignity."

Israeli Connection with Abu Ghuraib Torture?

Many readers have written to suggest that there is an Israeli connection of
some sort to the Abu Ghuraib prison scandal, because the techniques used seem
so similar to what Palestinians report. One noted that Joe Ryan, the Abu
Ghuraib blogger, had some training with Israeli specialists on such matters.

Khalid Amayrah summarizes the case for.

Talab al-Sana'i, an Arab member of the Israeli Knesset, is one of Amayrah's key
sources, and it seems likely to me that he knows whereof he speaks:

' But Israeli-Arab Knesset member Talab al-Sanai says Israel is indirectly but
heavily involved in "the systematic mistreatment of Iraqi people at the hands
of the American occupation troops". "It is not secret at all, there are many
Israeli experts on torture in Iraq who are transferring to the Americans their
accumulative experience of thirty seven years of torturing and mistreating
Palestinians," al-Sanai told Aljazeera.net. He said that American officers
joined Israeli army units in Jenin several months ago for the purpose of
learning Israeli methods and techniques of repressing civilians, which the
Americans, he said, later applied in Iraq. '

On the other hand, one Muslim-American reader wrote in to suggest that for
decades Israel helped spoil America's image in the Middle East by its
determined colonization of Palestinian land since 1967 and by the brutality
with which it often treated Palestinians under its Occupation. But now, in view
of the events of the past year and especially the Abu Ghuraib photos. it may
well be Israel's association with the United States that hurts Israel's image
in the region.
http://www.juancole.com/

TORTURE INTERCONNECTIONS - The U.S. and Israel:

http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=15093

Sen. Hollings: The US went to war for Israel:

http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=15100

Head of Sept 11 Commission Said Iraq War for Israel:

http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=14329

Brahimi versus Chalabi: The daggers are drawn:

http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=15055