(articles describe torture and crimes)
includes :
Inside Bechtel's spin machine
How the controversial construction giant manipulates media
Iraqi Recounts Hours of Abuse by U.S. Troops
ÂÂ"The truth is we were not terrorists," he said. "We were not insurgents. We were just ordinary people. And American intelligence knew this."
Laborers Claim U.S. Held Them Captive on Base
'Cooks and Drivers Were Working as Interrogators'
"Many of the prisoners abused at the Abu Ghraib prison were innocent Iraqis picked up at random by US troops, and incarcerated by under-qualified intelligence officers, a former US interrogator from the notorious jail told the Guardian."
Pentagon Approved Tougher Interrogations Â:the Defense Department approved interrogation techniques for use at the Guantanamo Bay prison that permit reversing the normal sleep patterns of detainees and exposing them to heat, cold and "sensory assault," including loud music and bright lights, according to defense officials."
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Brain Data Reveal Why Psychotherapy Works Eve Bender "Data from some well-regarded studies of psychotherapy are proving its efficacy in certain illnesses, though rigid adherence to one type of psychotherapy may be unwise. Mounting evidence on psychotherapy shows that it is effective and can even alter the brain's chemistry. This was the message delivered by researchers and educators at the daylong seminar "Scholarly Activity in Psychotherapy Training," which was held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training (AADPRT) in New Orleans in March." ""Zaretsky presented evidence that different forms of psychotherapy can alter the brain's processes for patients with different types of psychiatric disorders in much the same way that antidepressants do." ""He cited research by Lewis Baxter Jr., M.D., and Jeffrey Schwartz, M.D., who took positron emission tomography (PET) scans of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) before and after they received two months of behavioral therapy and in another group of patients before and after treatment with fluoxetine. The scans show decreases in glucose metabolic activity in the orbitofrontal cortex and right caudate after both the therapy sessions and the medication treatment." Psychiatric News May 7, 2004 Volume 39 Number 9 American Psychiatric Association p. 34 Education & Training http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/39/9/34?etoc
http://www.sfbg.com/38/32/news_bechtel.html
Inside Bechtel's spin machine
How the controversial construction giant manipulates media By A.C. Thompson
The Bechtel Group, the massive San Francisco-based construction and engineering firm, has played a leading role in some of the most controversial construction projects in modern history: California's San Onofre nuclear reactor, Boston's budget-busting "Big Dig," the failed attempt to rebuild and privatize Bolivia's water system, the ongoing corporate takeover of London's subway system â and now a large chunk of the reconstruction job in Iraq.
The bad public relations from just one these projects could sink a lesser firm, but somehow the well-connected, privately held corporation always seems to emerge unscathed and ready to score more big-ticket public works jobs.
So how does Bechtel do it?
Though any corporation of Bechtel's size â it boasted $16.3 billion in revenue for 2003 â works hard to control spin, Bechtel seems to have taken the concept of media manipulation to new heights. Judging from a raft of high-level internal memos and e-mails obtained by public interest group CorpWatch, it seems Bechtel has a three-point P.R. strategy: trashing journalists who report critically on the company, spinning financial institutions who lend the company money, and bending the truth.
The documents, which include several e-mails to and from chief executive officer Riley P. Bechtel, are fascinating because they offer rare insight into the mind-set of one of the most secretive corporations in the United States, one that has been handed more than $1 billion by the federal government to rebuild Iraq's pulverized infrastructure.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/050604C.shtml
Iraqi Recounts Hours of Abuse by U.S. Troops
ÂÂÂÂBy Ian Fisher
ÂÂÂÂNew York Times
ÂÂÂÂWednesday 05 May 2004
ÂÂÂÂThe shame is so deep that Hayder Sabbar Abd says he feels that he cannot move back to his old neighborhood. He would prefer not even to stay in Iraq. But now the entire world has seen the pictures, which Mr. Abd looked at yet again on Tuesday, pointing out the key figures, starting with three American soldiers wearing big smiles for the camera....
ÂÂÂÂMr. Abd, 34, is at the center of an explosive scandal over American mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners, but he remained calm in a detailed, two-hour account of his time at the fearsome Abu Ghraib prison. He claimed that he was never interrogated, and never charged with a crime. Officials at the prison said Tuesday that they could not comment on his case. ÂÂÂÂIn November, when the abuse took place, few Shiite Muslims like Mr. Abd were carrying out attacks against United States forces. Nearly all the attacks were attributed to forces loyal to Saddam Hussein, mostly Sunni Muslims, and fighters from other Muslim countries. ÂÂÂÂ"The truth is we were not terrorists," he said. "We were not insurgents. We were just ordinary people. And American intelligence knew this."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/050704E.shtml
Laborers Claim U.S. Held Them Captive on Base
ÂThe Associated Press
ÂÂWednesday 05 May 2004
....
ÂÂCochin, India - Four Indians who claimed to have escaped from a U.S. army camp in Iraq have returned to southern India, telling harrowing tales of their nine-month stay. The U.S. Embassy said it was investigating reports that the men were held against their will.
ÂÂThe four are from the village of Velichakala, some 150 kilometres south of Cochin, the commercial capital of southern Kerala state. They said a recruitment agency had signed them up in August 2003 as kitchen assistants for a catering company in Kuwait.
ÂÂAliyarkunj Faisal, Abdul Aziz Shahjehan, Haniffa Mansool and Hameed Abdul Hafiz - all Muslims - said upon reaching Kuwait that they were taken by bus to a U.S. army base near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/050904I.shtml
'Cooks and Drivers Were Working as Interrogators'
ÂÂBy Julian Borger ÂThe Guardian U.K. ÂÂFriday 07 May 2004
Witness: private contractor lifts the lid on systematic failures at Abu Ghraib jail.
ÂÂMany of the prisoners abused at the Abu Ghraib prison were innocent Iraqis picked up at random by US troops, and incarcerated by under-qualified intelligence officers, a former US interrogator from the notorious jail told the Guardian.
ÂÂTorin Nelson, who served as a military intelligence officer at Guantanamo Bay before moving to Abu Ghraib as a private contractor last year, blamed the abuses on a failure of command in US military intelligence and an over-reliance on private firms. He alleged that those companies were so anxious to meet the demand for their services that they sent "cooks and truck drivers" to work as interrogators.
ÂÂ"Military intelligence operations need to drastically change in order for something like this not to happen again," Mr Nelson said. He spoke to the Guardian in a series of interviews by phone and email.
ÂÂHe claimed that "many of the detainees at the prison are actually innocent of any acts against the coalition and are being held until the bureaucracy there can go through their cases and verify their need to be released."
ÂÂ"One case in point is a detainee whom I recommended for release and months later was still sitting in the same tent with no change in his status."
ÂÂMr Nelson said that the same systemic problems were also responsible for large numbers of Afghans being mistakenly swept into Guantanamo Bay. He estimated that "30-40%" of the inmates at the controversial prison camp had no connection to terrorism.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/051004E.shtml
Pentagon Approved Tougher Interrogations ÂÂBy Dana Priest and Joe Stephens
ÂÂThe Washington Post
ÂÂSunday 09 May 2004
ÂÂIn April 2003, the Defense Department approved interrogation techniques for use at the Guantanamo Bay prison that permit reversing the normal sleep patterns of detainees and exposing them to heat, cold and "sensory assault," including loud music and bright lights, according to defense officials.
ÂÂThe classified list of about 20 techniques was approved at the highest levels of the Pentagon and the Justice Department, and represents the first publicly known documentation of an official policy permitting interrogators to use physically and psychologically stressful methods during questioning.
