U.N. Finds 'Systematic' Torture in Afghanistan

U.N. Finds 'Systematic' Torture in Afghanistan

www.nytimes.co m

KABUL, Afghanistan — Suspects are hung by their hands, beaten with cables and in some cases their genitals are twisted until they lose consciousness in detention facilities run by the Afghan intelligence service and the Afghan national police, according to a study released Monday by the United Nations here.

(visit the link for the full news article)

It was unclear from the report whether any information extracted under torture was used by either the Afghan government or its foreign military allies.

Of course they had to be as ambiguous as could be allowed when they wrote this sentence.

One interrogater said:

“You should confess what you have done in the past as Taliban — even stones confess here.”

Apparently they were only after confessions, no surprise there. I guess everyone is aware by now, that torture is instrisically unreliable when seeking true confessions of true crimes.

Here's a direct link to the report, for those interested.

U.N. Report

www.nytimes.co m
(visit the link for the full news article)

I'm still waiting for Code Pink to start calling Obama a Nazi and a terrorist. Still waiting......

Not surprising in the least.

Did you guys know that it is considered to be a war crime to hand detainees over to a national force that has policy of torturing detainees? Canadian forces have been in crap for this before because we are subject to the ICC.

The Operation in Afghanistan is just that. An operation. Not a war, so it is pretty hard to try anyone for war crimes. Nice loop-hole right? ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) is a NATO security operation. Like the OP states the Afghan Military and Intelligence Agencies are performing these types of interrogations on their own people. Who are we to stand in their way? The Afghan military is taking it easy on them compared to the techniques the Northern Alliance Commanders were using on captured Taliban fighters in the past. Afghan people massacre each other and people come on the internet worrying about slapping somebody with ropes or hanging somebody upside down. They are lucky they aren’t dead or being killed slowly and painfully somewhere. I often wonder how many people on this forum would believe the stories wholeheartedly of the mistreatment of U.S. convicted serial murderers in prison and care like they do about the insurgents being held at the detention facilities throughout Afghanistan. Many of them are murders and attempted murders. They coerce kids into wearing suicide vests and killing themselves, men, women and children. Nobody is being held without evidence and there is a judicial system in place much more sophisticated then you would imagine. If the Afghans want to beat them so be it. Maybe they will get their country together as a nation and everyone involved with ISAF can go home and be with their families instead of wasting trying to play world police for a country that won’t appreciate it. Afghanistan is the country where empires go to fall.

reply to post by smoke screen


It doesn't matter if they torture more nicely now than before. It's still torture and we (ISAF/NATO) fully condone it as long as we aren't held liable. What kind of democracy is the Afghanistan that we shed blood for when nothing has changed? It is just more evidence that nobody cares about Afghan democracy.