Helen BranswellCanadian PressMay 21, 2005
TORONTO (CP) - The World Health Organization urged countries to make full haste with pandemic influenza preparations Wednesday as it released a report outlining disturbing changes to the H5N1 virus circulating in Asia.
The report raises concerns that molecular and disease pattern evidence may indicate the virus is becoming more adept at infecting people. It also reveals some strains of the H5N1 virus may be developing resistance to oseltamivir, the drug wealthy nations are flocking to stockpile as fears of a pandemic mount.
An influenza expert who helped draft the report said it's meant to convey the message that the level of anxiety regarding the virus has risen.
"I think it's fair to say that the report signifies a definite step up in concern," said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, a flu specialist from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control who is being seconded to WHO's global influenza program.
The report concedes the authors had limited scientific evidence on which to determine whether H5N1 is becoming an even graver risk to mankind. [...]Full story Signs Of The Times
Oh, ha, ha!! What a great joke this was. And the funniest part is the prisoner was in on it. Well, who knew until now?? What a HOOT this has been. Thu May 12, 2005By Debbie Stevenson
FORT HOOD, Texas (Reuters) - A U.S. Army reservist accused of attaching wires to a hooded Iraqi prisoner did so in a joke shared with the prisoner, her lawyer said at the start of a court-martial on Thursday.
Spc. Sabrina Harman, who pleaded innocent to charges of conspiracy, dereliction of duty and maltreatment of subordinates, also photographed abuses because she wanted to document what she felt was wrongful behavior, attorney Frank Spinner said.
"She was upset as early as 20 October, 2003, at some of the things she was seeing. She was offended by what she saw and she hoped at some point that she could prove it," Spinner told a military jury at the start of her trial.
The former pizza restaurant worker, who joined the Army reserves after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is linked to several of the most notorious Iraqi prisoner abuse photos.
She appears in a photo near naked Iraqi prisoners and is charged with photographing as they were forced to masturbate. She is also charged with placing wires on a detainee dubbed Gilligan and telling him he would be electrocuted if he stepped off a box in a picture seen worldwide.
"This was a joke. Gilligan understood it to be a joke. It was all part of their relationship," Spinner said. "It was a relationship beyond what the pictures showed."Full Story at Signs Of The Times
This should keep the heat off of Rumsfeld- master of torture.
Former Abu Ghraib prision commander demoted.AFPFri May 6, 3:27 AM ET WASHINGTON - President George W Bush ordered the demotion of Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, the former commander of the Abu Ghraib prison, after an army investigation found her guilty of dereliction of duty and shoplifting, the army said.
The action made Karpinski, an army reservist, the highest ranking officer to be punished in the wake of the prisoner abuse scandal at the Iraqi prison.
"Today, the president approved a recommendation to vacate the promotion of Brigadier General Karpinski from her rank of brigadier general," the army said in a statement. "This decision reduces her to the rank of colonel in the US Army Reserve."
Karpinski was arrested for shoplifting at a US air force base in the United States but failed to report it to her superiors or on official forms that asked if she had ever been arrested, an official familiar with the investigation said.
The army's inspector general also substantiated allegations against her of dereliction of duty, the army said, citing leadership failures rather than specific actions that contributed to the abuse at the prison.
"Though Brigadier General Karpinski's performance of duty was found to be seriously lacking, the investigation determined that no action or lack of action on her part contributed specifically to the abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib," the army said.
Karpinski commanded the Abu Ghraib prison during the period in late 2003 and early 2004 when military guards were photographed abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners.
She has said she had no knowledge of the abuse and insisted she was being made a scapegoat to protect higher-ups and the role in the abuse of military intelligence. Full Story Signs Of The Times
And this from The Observer
Paul Harris in New YorkSunday May 8, 2005
Saar arrived at Guantánamo Bay in December 2002, and worked there until June 2003. He first worked as a translator in the prisoners' cages. He was then transferred to the interrogation teams, acting as a translator.
Saar's book, Inside the Wire, provides the first fully detailed look inside Guantánamo Bay's role as a prison for detainees the White House has insisted are the 'worst of the worst' among Islamic militants. His tale describes his gradual disillusionment, from arriving as a soldier keen to do his duty to eventually leaving believing the regime to be a breach of human rights and a disaster for the war on terror.
Among the most shocking abuses Saar recalls is the use of sex in interrogation sessions. Some female interrogators stripped down to their underwear and rubbed themselves against their prisoners. Pornographic magazines and videos were also used as rewards for confessing.
In one session a female interrogator took off some of her clothes and smeared fake blood on a prisoner after telling him she was menstruating. 'That's a big deal. It is a major insult to one of the world's biggest religions where we are trying to win hearts and minds,' Saar said.
Saar also describes the 'snatch teams', known as the Initial Reaction Force (IRF), who remove unco-operative prisoners from their cells. He describes one such snatch where a prisoner's arm was broken. In a training session for an IRF team, one US soldier posing as a prisoner was beaten so badly that he suffered brain damage. It is believed the IRF team had not been told the 'detainee' was a soldier
Full Story
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