--- "Peter Schurman, MoveOn.org" <moveon-help@list.moveon.org> wrote ( http://www.moveon.org/news/torture.html ):

> Dear MoveOn member,
>
> Recently released photos of American soldiers
> abusing and torturing Iraqi prisoners have shocked
> the world, provoking a global backlash against our
> country.

1 - NO, the backlash is not against "our country" unless you believe the whole of the USA are torturers and occupying mercenary soldiers. THE BACKLASH IS AGAINST TORTURE.

>Now more reports are coming out, and Amnesty
>International and other groups report that torture
>and human rights abuses of Iraqi detainees may be
>occurring routinely.  We all hope that these reports
>are untrue -- that this was indeed the isolated work
>of a few depraved individuals.

2 - What is your hope based on? Was it not Martin Luther King, Jr. who said "My country . . . the greatest purveyor of violence in the world" 40 years ago? Anyone who claims to be in opposition to torture and human rights abuses has to work to prevent it. The history of the CIA tells you that wherever the CIA goes, torture happens. The School of the Americas is an American school for training of torturers. In fact, we, the human rights community, know that American interrogators and the other colonialists always torture the people of the third world. This case is only different because since 9/11 Rumsfeld and co. announced that torture IS fine and will be used and they went ahead and took pictures.

You should say, "We, the real American people who are not torturers, are outraged by the behaviour of our government in the Middle East," not that you are worried about your own "reputation". So if pictures were not taken and everything was in secret and AMERICA's reputation were not in danger, you couldn't care less?

>But in the face of an escalating scandal in which our
>image is being deeply damaged

LET ME ASSURE YOU THAT THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT (we separate government form people) DOES NOT HAVE A GOOD REPUTATION WITH THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD!!!!  WE DO NOT FORGET THE CIA COUPS, SETTING UP OF TORTURE HOUSES SUCH AS SAVAK, AND THE KILLING OF ALLENDE, LUMUMBA, CHE, AND MILLIONS OF OUR children, BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN VIETNAM, IRAQ, El Salvador, ....

> President Bush and Tony Blair need to demonstrate
> that they're going to clean house. Narrow military
> investigations don't cut it -- to the rest of the
> world, the current response looks like damage
> control and little more.

> If we hope to win the battle for the "hearts and
> minds" of the citizens of the Middle East,

THE ONLY WAY IS TO END THE OCCUPATION THIS MOMENT.  END THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, and Guantanamo, Cuba, and end the military occupation of "bases" in Kuwait, the PHILLIPPINES, Indonesia, Korea and the rest of the world. And end the U. S. financial, military, political and emotional support for the occupation of PALESTINE.

YOU NEED TO STOP YOUR GOVERNMENT FROM BEING THE TORTURERS AROUND THE WORLD TO SAVE THE SOULS OF YOUR OWN CHILDREN, SUCH AS A 21-YEAR-OLD FEMALE ENJOYING TORTURE OF IRAQI MEN.  WE FROM THE MIDDLE EAST ARE NOT OCCUPIERS AND SETTLERS AND COLONIALISTS.  So it is justice that has already won our hearts and minds.

>...it's imperative that we respond to these charges
>head on. Join the call from Amnesty International and
>other groups for an independent, impartial and public
>investigation into all allegations of torture,

These ARE NOT MERE "ALLEGATIONS"!!! You need to demand that all prisoners at American prisons in Guantanamo, Afghanistan and Iraq be freed today. YOUR MILITARY HAS ROUNDED UP INNOCENT PEOPLE TO GET CONFESSIONS UNDER TORTURE FROM THEM. IF YOUR GOVERNMENT HAD ROUNDED UP A GROUP OF AMERICANS HERE WHO WERE PROTESTING AND HELD AND TORTURED THEM WOULD YOU JUST ASK FOR AN INVESTIGATION?  Or would you demand that they be freed?

FIRST OUR CHILDREN MUST BE FREED. THE US EMPIRE HAS OCCUPIED IRAQ, AND HAS BUILT FENCES AROUND VILLAGES, AND HAS SEARCHED CITIZENS. YOUR SOLDIERS WITH MACHINE GUNS SEARCH WOMEN AND CHILDREN.  YOUR GOVERNMENT CONTINUES DOING THIS AND ALL YOU ARE ASKING FOR IS AN INVESTIGATION of HOW the occupation is conducted?

Simin Royanian

This is a version of http://women4peace.org/torture.html .

SR/wjw 2004-05-09