http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/ Current events happening around the world and in Australia. en Sun, 19 May 2013 12:17:32 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/images/aria/misc/rss.png http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/ http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54937-ADF-pressured-to-mistreat-Afghans-held-at-Tarin-Kowt-Read-more-http-www-theage&goto=newpost Fri, 17 May 2013 14:33:12 GMT ADF 'pressured' to mistreat Afghans held at Tarin Kowt

Military police at Australia's detention centre in Afghanistan were pressured to make prisoners more ''pliable'' by gagging them, depriving them of sleep and denying them exercise, Fairfax Media has been told.

Sources with first-hand knowledge of the detention centre at Tarin Kowt said senior officers from Australia's special forces as well as the ''force exploitation team'' - defence intelligence - pressed the detention management team to ''condition'' suspected insurgents ahead of interrogation.

The account given by various sources is among claims that contrast with Defence Minister Stephen Smith's assurances this week that Australia approached its responsibility for treating detainees ''with dignity and respect with the utmost seriousness''.
Other claims included:


■A young male detainee, deaf and mute and possibly intellectually disabled, was held in the centre because of pressure from the Special Operations Task Group despite concerns he was not fit to be detained.

■A senior Afghan intelligence officer, a Colonel Hanif, complained vigorously that detainees were being transferred from Australian to Afghan custody on scant evidence that they were actually insurgents.

■The ADF denied a teenage boy access to his dying father, a suspected insurgent who had been shot during a battle with Australians. The boy was allegedly turned over to US interrogators, although the ADF denies this.

The claims relate to 2010 and 2011, after Australia took over responsibility for managing detainees in Oruzgan province from the withdrawn Dutch troops.

Mr Smith gave a detailed statement to Parliament on Thursday in which he said...1898 suspects had been detained between August 2010 and May 15 this year. Over the same period, there had been 198 allegations of mistreatment by the ADF...

...But Fairfax Media has been told that in the first year Australia was running the detention system, tensions flared between the military police who managed the detainees and the forces who captured and interrogated them.

One source said: ''We had two very conflicting sets of guidelines: one was to treat them humanely but the other was the pressure from the SOTG and intelligence guys who wanted us to condition them in such a way as to make them more pliable … so their state of mind was conducive to interrogation. They wanted us to gag and hood the detainees to stop them from talking to each other.''

He said the detention centre's commanding officer had fought that, saying: ''If we gag and hood these guys, someone will die.''...

http://www.theage.com.au/national/ad...517-2js6m.html ]]> In The Media falah http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54937-ADF-pressured-to-mistreat-Afghans-held-at-Tarin-Kowt-Read-more-http-www-theage http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54928-Whitewash-of-Diggers-Killing-Afghans&goto=newpost Thu, 16 May 2013 09:18:44 GMT Labor's shame: pointless occupation of Afghanistan coupled with war crimes:

Smith defends ADF after Afghan deaths inquiry

Defence Minister Stephen Smith has told Parliament that in inquiry into an incident in 2011 that led to the death of an Afghan boy and an Afghan man has found Australian troops acted lawfully.

A defence inquiry has also found no case to answer in regard to allegations about mishandling of remains of Australian soldiers and Afghan insurgents...

...Documents released under Freedom of Information have also revealed several complaints about detainee management.

The allegations were contained in a series of ministerial cables and detail how one detainee had suffered a black eye, bruising and a bloody nose...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-1...deaths/4693874 ]]> In The Media falah http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54928-Whitewash-of-Diggers-Killing-Afghans http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54922-Sex-Assaults-On-Afghan-Prisoners&goto=newpost Wed, 15 May 2013 14:23:16 GMT Shame Gillard, shame. Disgusting woman.

Afghan detainees 'humiliated in jail'




Afghan detainees captured by Australian soldiers and held at a US military prison near Bagram complained to Australian government officials that they were forced to accept humiliatingly public ''groin and buttocks'' searches, previously secret Defence documents reveal.

The papers also reveal that the warmest blankets were kept as a reward for the best-behaved prisoners on freezing winter nights.

There were also complaints about food, overcrowding, water quality, lack of progress in having cases reviewed, medical problems and long waiting lists for dental treatment....

..The heavily censored reports were obtained under freedom-of-information laws by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Sydney, and deal with allegations of mistreatment of detainees captured or ''apprehended'' by Australian forces in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2012.

The Australian Defence Force has a secure facility for ''screening'' prisoners but then transfers those deemed a security risk to an Afghan jail or the prison at Parwan, near Bagram. Australia remains legally responsible for the welfare of detainees it transfers to these other facilities.

The briefing papers highlight keen political sensitivity on the issue, with a ministerial briefing note from September 2010 pointing out that ''detainee management issues … attract significant domestic and international media scrutiny and public attention''.

Defence used every possible exemption under the FOI Act to blank out crucial detail in the latest batch of documents released to the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. Many of the monitoring team's reports have been censored in their entirety, despite Mr Smith's pledges of transparency.

The centre's chief executive, Edward Santow, said it was ''unfortunate that these documents have been so heavily redacted. When allegations of mistreatment are raised, we need to know that they are thoroughly investigated.''

Transparency about detainee complaints and investigations was ''crucial to maintaining public confidence in the Australian military'' he said.

Despite the veiling of much of the material, enough emerges to point to systemic issues at Parwan, a jail that until this year was US-run but is passing to Afghan control. In February last year, the Australian monitoring team reported from Kabul that Parwan detainees had raised ''serious concerns'' about searches of ''groin and buttocks areas'' being carried out in open view.

''The US advised that, in accordance with US policy, these searches were not invasive enough to be conducted in private by medical personnel'' the cable says. ''As such they would continue to be conducted in public by the guardforce.''

Mr Santow said international law required Australia to protect prisoners from ''humiliating and degrading treatment'' even after their transfer to an ally.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/af...515-2jmtp.html ]]> In The Media falah http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54922-Sex-Assaults-On-Afghan-Prisoners http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54919-put-it-on-ABC-now&goto=newpost Wed, 15 May 2013 11:31:26 GMT there's the doco with Sonya Abbas , sister of Roger Abbas rahimahullah ]]> In The Media fatima_43 http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54919-put-it-on-ABC-now http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54913-Syrian-civil-war-comes-to-Melbourne-streets&goto=newpost Tue, 14 May 2013 11:50:25 GMT Alawi are attacking Muslims even in Melbourne: *Syrian civil war comes to Melbourne streets* THE Syrian conflict is spilling on to the streets of Melbourne with police investigating attacks by alleged supporters of the regime. Roxburgh Park woman Sonya El-Abbas, who has travelled to Syria... Alawi are attacking Muslims even in Melbourne:

Syrian civil war comes to Melbourne streets

THE Syrian conflict is spilling on to the streets of Melbourne with police investigating attacks by alleged supporters of the regime.

Roxburgh Park woman Sonya El-Abbas, who has travelled to Syria twice on humanitarian missions, said her family had been subjected to threats and attacks, including a foiled drive-by shooting.

"My husband was getting threats saying, 'we're going to kill you', and 'we're going to take your wife and daughter'," she said.

Her younger brother, Roger Abbas, was reportedly killed in crossfire between Syrian government and rebel forces near the Turkish-Syrian border in October while he was doing aid work...

...Mrs El-Abbas said nothing would deter her from supporting the victims of the civil war.

"If anything, I can't wait to go over again. It's just a great feeling knowing that you can help in some way," she said.

She said her husband Khalil Soubjaki's Coburg car yard had been set alight on two occasions in December and someone had attempted to shoot at their Roxburgh Park home in August because of her husband's political views.

Victoria Police spokeswoman Melissa Seach said police were investigating...

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news...-1226642363318 ]]> In The Media falah http://www.aussiemuslims.com/forums/showthread.php?54913-Syrian-civil-war-comes-to-Melbourne-streets