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* Torture * Context * Rumsfeld

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CLIFF KINDY
Kindy is quoted in “Chain of Command,” the latest article by Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker. Kindy has spent two five-month stints over the last year and a half in Iraq with the Christian Peacemaker Team, which released a document entitled “Report and Recommendations on Iraqi Detainees” in January, available at the above CPT web page. Kindy has had substantial contact with Iraqi detainees and their families and with U.S. soldiers and higher-ups. He said today: “The problems are clearly not isolated. From our work with detainees and their families, the temporary facilities are in many ways worse than Abu Ghraib.”
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SHEILA PROVENCHER
Provencher is currently in Baghdad with other members of the Christian Peacemaker Team. She said today: “CPT has been documenting abuses within the detention system for nearly a year, and these photos, tragically, were not a surprise to me. For months now, we have communicated grave concerns about the detention system in several meetings with U.S. military and Coalition Provisional Authority officials in Iraq, and with representatives in Congress.”

GENE STOLTZFUS, MAXINE NASH
Stoltzfus is director of the Christian Peacemaker Team and is in daily contact with the team members currently in Baghdad. Stoltzfus is currently in Chicago. Team member Nash will be going to Iraq later this week.

PRATAP CHATTERJEE
Program director for CorpWatch, Chatterjee is the author of the recent article “Private Contractors and Torture at Abu Ghraib, Iraq,” which focuses on the role of CACI International and Titan.
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WAYNE MADSEN
Madsen just wrote the article “The Israeli Torture Template: Rape, Feces and Urine-Dipped Cloth Sacks,” about the alleged involvement of Israelis in the interrogation of Iraqi prisoners. A former intelligence officer for the U.S. National Security Agency, Madsen is author of the forthcoming book Jaded Tasks: Big Oil, Black Ops, and Brass Plates.
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MARJORIE COHN
Professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, executive vice president of the National Lawyers Guild, and the U.S. representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists, Cohn wrote the article “Torturing Hearts and Minds” and can comment on a number of legal aspects, including Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s claim that “My impression is that what has been charged thus far is abuse, which I believe, technically, is different from torture.”
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WILLIAM HARTUNG
Hartung is director of the Arms Trade Resource Center at the World Policy Institute. He said today: “Whether it was leading the charge of the neo-cons in making the false case about Iraq’s alleged massive stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, or throwing tens of billions of dollars at an untested, unworkable, and unnecessary missile defense system at a time when the biggest threat to our nation is a global terror network that uses mostly low-tech methods, Rumsfeld has repeatedly diverted energy, resources, and attention away from the genuine threats.” Hartung is author of How Much Are You Making on the War, Daddy? — A Quick and Dirty Guide to War Profiteering in the Bush Administration.

See: “Rumsfeld: Star Wars Booster”
www.accuracy.org/press_releases/PR122900.htm

Some of Rumsfeld’s misleading statements on Iraq are at:
www.bushoniraq.com/rumsfeld1.html

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For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020