More and more evidence of the abuse of detainees continues to filter out. The human rights organization Physicians For Human Rights released a report yesterday after conducting medical evaluations of the detainees from Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo.  The 130 page report entitled Broken Laws, Broken Lives can be downloaded here.

The Boston Globe relates portions of the report.

"A subject named "Amir," an Iraqi in his late 20s held in Abu Ghraib prison from August 2003 to January 2005, "showed signs of rectal tearing that are highly consistent with his report of having been sodomized with a broomstick," the report found.

"Yasser," another Abu Ghraib detainee in his mid-40s, had scars on his thumbs and irregularities in the contours of his tongue, according to the report. The medical team concluded that the damage supports his contention that his American captors subjected him to electric shocks.

The report quotes directly from Yasser's interview with the study team: "When they shock you with electricity it feels like your eyes will explode.

Three of the Iraqi detainees and one former Guantanamo inmate reported that they were examined by a medical professional during an episode of torture or physical abuse, but that the abuse continued, the report states."

An earlier report, a collaborative effort of Physicians For Human Rights and Human Rights First released in August 2007, Leave No Marks, explains the War Crimes Act enacted  in 1997 in conjunction with the Military Commission Act enacted in 2006.

"The War Crimes Act (WCA) provides U.S. courts with jurisdiction to try individuals for certain violations of the laws of war, including abuses of individuals detained by the United States in an armed conflict. From 1997, when the War Crimes Act was enacted, to 2006, any violation of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions was a crime under U.S. domestic law. In September 2006, Congress passed the Military Commission Act (MCA)which amended the WCA by narrowing the scope of war crimes over which U.S. courts would have jurisdiction.

The WCA now criminalizes only specifically enumerated war crimes that the legislation refers to as “grave breaches” of Common Article 3, including the war crimes of “torture” and “cruel or inhuman treatment.”  After the MCA, the WCA continues to apply to acts committed “inside or outside the United States” in any circumstance “where the person committing such war crime or the victim of such war crime is a member of the Armed Forces of the United States or a national of the United States.”300 No individual has yet been prosecuted under the War Crimes Act."

It continues:  The United States is bound by its full obligations under Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. The amendments to the War Crimes Act contained in the MCA, which narrowed the scope of conduct that constitutes a felony war crime under domestic law, do not change the United States legal obligations. The legislative history of the MCA makes clear, in fact, that all violations of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions continue to be prohibited, even if they are not prosecutable as “grave breaches” under the WCA.

Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions expressly applies to all detainees in a non-international armed conflict, and international tribunals have held it to be the minimum standard for treatment in the context of all armed conflict.330 Conduct prohibited by Common Article 3 includes “torture,” “cruel treatment” and “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading (Report Leave No Marks.)

Maj. Gen Antonio Taguba authored a report in 2004 regarding the treatment of the detainees.  Truthout.org details:

"In 2004, Taguba released a classified report detailing abuses committed at Abu Ghraib Prison. The "Taguba Report" urged Pentagon officials to follow up on its findings by enforcing adherence to the Geneva Conventions in interrogations.

Taguba retired in January 2007, later alleging that Pentagon officials had ordered him to retire for being "overzealous" in his criticisms of the military.

Maj. Gen. Taguba has written the preface for the Broken Laws, Broken Lives report.  An excerpt:

" In order for these individuals to suffer the wanton cruelty to which they were subjected, a government policy was promulgated to the field whereby the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice were disregarded. The UN Convention Against Torture was indiscriminately ignored. And the healing professions, including physicians and psychologists, became complicit in the willful infliction of harm against those the Hippocratic Oath demands they protect.

    After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes."

How does a whole group of people write up memos, law arguments and hold meetings to consider such degenerate actions.  Some called Eichmann a "desk murder" what will we call these felons?