Sunday, June 19, 2005
GULAGS OF OUR TIMES
Hey, Amnesty! The New York Times has got your gulags right here:
Marines on an operation to eliminate insurgents that began Friday broke through the outside wall of a building in this small rural village to find a torture center equipped with electric wires, a noose, handcuffs, a 574-page jihad manual - and four beaten and shackled Iraqis.
The American military has found torture houses after invading towns heavily populated by insurgents - like Falluja, where the anti-insurgent assault last fall uncovered almost 20 such sites. But rarely have they come across victims who have lived to tell the tale.
The men said they told the marines, from Company K, Third Marines, Second Division, that they had been tortured with shocks and flogged with a strip of rubber for more than two weeks, unseen behind the windows of black glass. One of them, Ahmed Isa Fathil, 19, a former member of the new Iraqi Army, said he had been held and tortured there for 22 days. All the while, he said, his face was almost entirely taped over and his hands were cuffed ...
The manual recovered - a fat, well-thumbed Arabic paperback - listed itself as the 2005 First Edition of “The Principles of Jihadist Philosophy,” by Abdel Rahman al-Ali. Its chapters included “How to Select the Best Hostage,” and “The Legitimacy of Cutting the Infidels’ Heads.”
At least they didn’t find any mishandled Korans. The Sunday Times reports a series of terror-related arrests throughout Spain, Germany, France and Holland:
Of 16 people arrested in Spain last week, 11 are said to be linked to the Iraqi branch of Al-Qaeda run by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The other five are alleged to be members of the group behind the March 2004 Madrid train bombings.
These five, in turn, are closely linked to Mohamed Achraf, an Algerian awaiting extradition from Switzerland. Achraf is known to have been planning a lorry bomb attack on the National Court in Madrid. The aim was to punish Spain, kill the investigating judges and destroy terrorism records in a single action.
Telephone records prove a link between Achraf and Mohammed Bouyeri, the alleged killer of Theo van Gogh, the Dutch film maker.
Interestingly, the ABC persists in describing our conflict with these people as the so-called war on terror. How many more torture zones and bombings before they drop the “so-called”?
UPDATE. In other torture developments, here’s Mark Steyn on Dick “We Be Nazis” Durbin:
Throughout the last campaign season, senior Democrats had a standard line in their speeches, usually delivered with righteous anger, about how “nobody has a right to question my patriotism!” Given that nobody was questioning their patriotism, it seemed an odd thing to harp on about. But, aware of their touchiness on the subject, I hasten to add that in what follows I am not questioning Dick Durbin’s patriotism, at least not for the first couple of paragraphs. Instead, I’ll begin by questioning his sanity.