Donald The Torturer Rumsfeld

US Defense Secretary approved stripping of prisoners and threatening with dogs

Are there any depths below which this Bush regime can sink, or does the shock and awe of its policy of winning hearts and minds and spreading freedom and democracy continue to spiral downwards with every day that passes as new revelations reveal more lies, more murders, more details of a White House controlled it would seem by the cohorts of Satan?

According to the Bush regime, stripping defenceless prisoners naked, forcibly shaving them, suffocating them and setting dogs upon them is not torture, neither is sleep deprivation or continuous interrogation. It is simply "aggressive interrogation techniques".

However, according to the Geneva Convention, which the Bush regime has broken on numerous occasions, along with many other international treaties, the Bush regime in general and Ronald Rumsfeld in particular are guilty of war crimes.

The Geneva Convention relating to the Treatment of prisoners of War, Part 1, Article 3.1 condemns: "(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds,  (b) mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;" and (c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;"

According to secret papers released by the White House, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld signed documents drawing up guidelines for the treatment of prisoners of war held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, which are curiously reflected in the horrific scenes of torture meted out by US guards at Abu Ghraib prison, Baghdad.

Although the White House denies that Rumsfeld condoned torture, a closer look at the documentation reads like the writings of a psycopathic Medieval prison guard or what would be expected in a diary written by Himmler or Mengele.

Donald Rumsfeld signed documents whose provisions came into force in December 2002. These documents permitted US personnel to strip defenceless prisoners naked, force them into "stress positions", set dogs upon them, force them to stand for hours on end, hold them in the darkness, interrogate them aggressively for up to 20 hours non-stop, forcibly shave them, enact "sleep adjustment" (depriving them of sleep) "changing the diet of a detainee" (urinate in the food?) and "water boarding", where water and towels make the prisoner feel he is suffocating.

Donald Rumsfeld may not call this torture. The Bush regime may not call this torture. However, the Geneva Convention classifies such treatment as torture and so does world public opinion, wholly and unanimously against this evil regime which is responsible for the deaths of thirteen thousand innocent people, the mutilation of many tens of thousands of others, for dropping cluster bombs into residential areas, for targeting civilian infra-structures by precision weaponry, for killing children, for placing human life at risk, for leaving swathes of territory with dangerously high radiation levels, for rape, for illegal imprisonment, for torture. The list just goes on and on and on.

There is a vast humantarian deficit in this regime which the people of the USA can redress democratically next November, closing the growing chasm between Washington and the international community and bringing the United States of America back into the hearts and minds of the rest of humanity.