Free the Captives: Witness Against Illegal Detention and Torture

The other day we quoted US Iraq commander General George Casey passing on mindless banalities about the occupation. Casey has now been elbowed aside in the inanity department by his boss, Gen Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: While repeating Casey's profound insight that, "anything can happen," Pace insisted on a Sunday TV news show that things were basically just fine, Iraq-wise: "I wouldn't put a great big smiley face on it," Pace opined, evidently with a straight face, "but I would say they're going very, very well from everything you look at."

US Rep. John Murtha called Pace out on this load of baloney, noting that Iraq has 60 percent unemployment, oil production below prewar levels, and water service to only 30 percent of the population.

Murtha added: "The rhetoric is so frustrating - when they keep making statements which are very optimistic, and then it turns out to be the opposite. ... And the public has caught on to that, and they're very pessimistic about the outcome."

No smiley face for you, Murtha. Nor for the premier human rights monitor: a new Amnesty International report, for instance, shows that Iraqi jail torture by US-trained security forces is 'increasing.' Check out the link for some gruesome details.

Then there's another doleful tally: In 2005, hundreds of Iraqi academics have been singled out and killed , most murdered in targeted assassination style. Many were vocal opponents of the US occupation and its new post-Saddam government.

Says: Haifa Zangana, an Iraqi-born novelist of this record, "Like many Iraqis, I believe these killings are politically motivated and connected to the occupying forces’ failure to gain any significant social support in the country. For the occupation’s aims to be fulfilled, independent minds have to be eradicated. We feel that we are witnessing a deliberate attempt to destroy intellectual life in Iraq.


On the other hand, Sunday seemed to be relatively quiet in Iraq; only 10 or so killings were reported.

And again, there was no news on Sunday of the four CPT captives. However, a vigil in Toronto Sunday night marked 100 days since two Canadian peaeceworkers, James Loney and Harmeet Sooden, along with American Tom Fox and Briton Norman Kember, were taken captive in Iraq. We appeal once more to their captives: "Let them go, safely and immediately. No good purpose is served by holding them.