Part Seven
I heard Tony Blair say: "The remains of 400,000 human beings have been found in mass graves." And I saw his words repeated in a US government pamphlet, Iraq's Legacy of Terror: Mass Graves, and on a US government website, which said this represents "a crime against humanity surpassed only by the Rwandan genocide of 1994, Pol Pot's Cambodian killing fields in the 1970s, and the Nazi Holocaust of World War II."
I heard the President say: "Today, on bended knee, I thank the good Lord for protecting those of our troops overseas, and our coalition troops and innocent Iraqis who suffer at the hands of some of these senseless killings by people who are trying to shake our will."
I heard that this was the first American President in wartime who had never attended a funeral for a dead soldier. I heard that photographs of the flag-draped coffins returning home were banned. I heard that the Pentagon had renamed "body bags" as "transfer tubes."
I heard a tearful George Bush Sr., speaking at the annual convention of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, say that it was "deeply offensive and contemptible" the way "elites and intellectuals" were dismissing "the sowing of the seeds of basic freedom in that troubled part of the world." I heard him say: "It hurts an awful lot more when it's your son that is being criticized."
I heard the President's mother say: "Why should we hear about body bags, and deaths? Why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"
I heard that seven percent of all American military deaths in Iraq were suicides, that ten percent of the soldiers evacuated to the Army hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, had been sent for "psychiatric or behavioral health issues," and that twenty percent of the military was expected to suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder.
I heard Brigadier General Kimmitt deny that civilians were being killed: "We run extremely precise operations."
I heard Donald Rumsfeld say that the fighting was just the work of "thugs, gangs, and terrorists." I heard General Richard Myers say: "It's not a Shi' ite uprising. Moktada al-Sadr has a very small following." I heard that an unnamed "intelligence official" said: "Hatred of the American occupation has spread rapidly among Shi'is, and is now so large that Mr. Sadr and his forces represent just one element. Destroying his Mahdi Army might be possible only by destroying Sadr City." Sadr City is the most populated part of Baghdad. I heard that, among the Sunnis, former Baath party leaders and Saddam loyalists had been joined by Sunni tribal chiefs.
I heard that there were now thirty separate militias in the country. I heard the television news reporters routinely refer to them as "anti-Iraqi forces."
I heard that Paul Bremer closed down a popular newspaper, Al Hawza, because of "inaccurate reporting."
As Shi'is in Sadr City lined up to donate blood for Sunnis in Fallujah, I heard a man say: "We should thank Paul Bremer. He has finally united Iraq-against him."
I heard the President say: "I wouldn't be happy if I were occupied either."
I heard Tony Blair say: "Before people crow about the absence of weapons of mass destruction, I suggest they wait a bit."
I heard General Myers say: "Given time, given the number of prisoners now that we're interrogating, I'm confident that we're going to find weapons of mass destruction."
I heard the President say: "Prisoners are being taken, and intelligence is being gathered. Our decisive actions will continue until these enemies of democracy are dealt with."
I heard a soldier describe what they called "bitch in a box": "That was the normal procedure for them when they wanted to soften up a prisoner: stuff them in the trunk for a while and drive them around. The hoods I can understand, and to have them cuffed with the plastic things-that I could see. But the trunk episode-I thought it was kind of unusual. It was like a sweatbox, let's face it. In Iraq, in August, it's hitting 120 degrees, and you can imagine what it was like in a trunk of a black Mercedes." I heard a National Guardsman from Florida say: "We had a sledgehammer that we would bang against the wall, and that would create an echo that sounds like an explosion that scared the hell out of them. If that didn't work we would load a 9mm pistol, and pretend to be charging it near their head, and make them think we were going to shoot them. Once you did that, they did whatever you wanted them to do basically. The way we treated these men was hard even for the soldiers, especially after realizing that many of these 'combatants' were no more than shepherds."
I heard a Marine at Camp Whitehorse say: "The 50/10 technique was used to break down EPWs and make it easier for the HET member to get information from them." The 50/10 technique was to make prisoners stand for fifty minutes of the hour for ten hours with a hood over their heads in the heat. EPWs were "enemy prisoners of war." HETs were "human exploitation teams."
I heard Captain Donald Reese, a prison warden, say: "It was not uncommon to see people without clothing. I was told the 'whole nudity thing' was an interrogation procedure used by military intelligence, and never thought much about it."
I heard Donald Rumsfeld say: "I have not seen anything thus far that says that the people abused were abused in the process of interrogating them or for interrogation purposes."
I heard Private Lynndie England, who was photographed in Abu Ghraib holding a prisoner on a leash, and photographed smiling, pointing to the genitals of another, naked and hooded, say: "I was instructed by persons in higher rank to stand there, hold this leash, look at the camera, and they took pictures for PsyOps [Psychological Operations]. I didn't really, I mean, want to be in any pictures. I thought it was kind of weird."
Detainees 27, 30, and 31 were stripped of their clothing, handcuffed together nude, placed on the ground, and forced to lie on each other and simulate sex while photographs were taken. Detainee 8 had his food thrown in the toilet and was then ordered to eat it. Detainee 7 was ordered to bark like a dog while MP's spat and urinated on him; he was sodomized with a police stick as two female MP's watched. Detainee 3 was sodomized with a broom by a female soldier. Detainee 15 was photographed standing on a box with a hood on his head and simulated electrical wires attached to his hands and penis. Detainees 1, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, and 26 were placed in a pile and forced to masturbate while photographs were taken. An unidentified detainee was photographed covered in feces with a banana inserted in his anus. Detainee 5 watched Civilian 1 rape an unidentified fifteen-year-old male detainee while a female soldier took photographs. Detainees 5 and 7 were stripped of their clothing and forced to wear women's underwear on their heads. Detainee 28, handcuffed with his hands behind his back in a shower stall, was declared dead when an MP removed the sandbag from his head and checked his pulse.
I heard Donald Rumsfeld say: "If you are in Washington, DC, you can't know what's going on in the midnight shift in one of those many prisons around the world."
I heard that the Red Cross had to close its offices because it was too dangerous. I heard that General Electric and the Siemens Corporation had to close their offices. I heard that Doctors Without Borders had to leave, and that journalists rarely left their hotels. I heard that, after their headquarters was bombed, most of the United Nations staff had gone. I heard that life insurance policies for the few remaining Western businessmen was $10,000 a week.
I heard Tom Foley, Director of Iraq Private-Sector Development, say: "The security risks are not as bad as they appear on TV. Western civilians are not the targets themselves. These are acceptable risks."
I heard the spokesman for Paul Bremer say: "We have isolated pockets where we are encountering problems." I heard that, no longer able to rely on the military for help, private security firms had banded together to form the largest private army in the world, with its own rescue teams and intelligence. I heard that there were some 20,000 mercenary soldiers, now called "private contractors," in Iraq, earning as much as $2,000 a day, and not subject to US military or Iraqi law.
I heard that 50,000 Iraqi civilians were dead.
I heard that, on a day when a car bomb killed three Americans, Paul Bremer's last act as director of the Coalition Provisional Authority was to issue laws making it illegal to drive with only one hand on the steering wheel or to honk a horn when there is no emergency. I heard that the unemployment rate was now eighty percent, that less than one percent of the workforce was engaged in reconstruction, and that the US had spent only two percent of the $18.4 billion approved by Congress for reconstruction. I heard that an official audit could not account for $8.8 billion of Iraqi oil money given to Iraqi ministries by the Coalition Provisional Authority.
I heard the President say: "Our coalition is standing with responsible Iraqi leaders as they establish growing authority in their country."
I heard that, a few days before he became Prime Minister, Ayad Allawi visited a Baghdad police station where six suspected insurgents, blindfolded and handcuffed, were lined up against a wall. I heard that, as four Americans and a dozen Iraqi policemen watched, Allawi pulled out a pistol and shot each prisoner in the head. I heard that he said that this is how we must deal with insurgents. I heard that this story was and not true, and then I heard that even if it weren't true, it was believable.
On June 28, 2004, with the establishment of an interim government, I heard the Vice President say: "After decades of rule by a brutal dictator, Iraq has been returned to its rightful owners, the people of Iraq."
This was the military summary for an ordinary day, July 22, 2004, a day that produced no headlines: "Two roadside bombs exploded next to a van and a Mercedes in separate areas of Baghdad, killing four civilians. A gunman in a Toyota opened fire on a police checkpoint and escaped. Police wounded three gunmen at a checkpoint and arrested four men suspected of attempted murder. Seven more roadside bombs exploded in Baghdad and gunmen twice attacked US troops. Police dismantled a car bomb in Mosul and gunmen attacked the Western driver of a gravel truck at Tell Afar. There were three roadside bombings and a rocket attack on US troops in Mosul and another gun attack on US forces near Tell Afar. At Taji, a civilian vehicle collided with a US military vehicle, killing six civilians and injuring seven others. At Bayji, a US vehicle hit a landmine. Gunmen murdered a dentist at the Ad Dwar hospital. There were 17 roadside bomb explosions against US forces in Taji, Baquba, Baqua, Jalula, Tikrit, Paliwoda, Balad, Samarra and Duluiyeh, with attacks by gunmen on US troops in Tikrit and Balad. A headless body in an orange jump-suit was found in the Tigris; believed to be Bulgarian hostage, Ivalyo Kepov. Kirkuk air base attacked. Five roadside bombs on US forces in Rutbah, Kalso and Ramadi. Gunmen attacked Americans in Fallujah and Ramadi. The police chief of Najaf was abducted. Two civilian contractors were attacked by gunmen at Haswah. A roadside bomb exploded near Kerbala and Hillah. International forces were attacked by gunmen at Al Qurnah." |
