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Barack Obama has abandoned a commitment to veto a new security law that allows the military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay.
Watch video
Barack Obama has abandoned a commitment to veto a new security law that allows the military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay.
Watch video
While this week marks the one-year anniversary since the US formally ended military operations in Iraq, a diplomatic cable exposed by WikiLeaks unearths a gruesome incident in which Americans handcuffed and executed children during a 2006 raid.
An uncensored diplomatic cable released through WikIleaks last week shows that not only did US troops brutally execute 11 Iraqis during an incident in March of 2006, but they then ordered in an airstrike to destroy the evidence of their wrongdoing.
Up until now, officials have either downplayed or denied the event, but the latest release courtesy of Julian Assange’s whistleblower site confirms what Iraqis have accused Americans of all along.
According to the newly released cable, American troops approached a house in Ishaqi, around 80 miles outside of Baghdad, and were met with gunfire. Once the firestorm subsided, however, the soldiers entered the home and handcuffed all of the residents, including several women and children. Once bound, the US troops then shot the civilians in the head and called in an air raid.
Allegations that the incident occurred have existed ever since the event, which was dated to have happened on March 15, 2006. The recent file released in a document dump from WikiLeaks finally confirms it by way of a United Nations investigator, who questioned the incident days later.
The newly-released cable documents correspondence between Phillip Alston, the UN’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and American officials only 12 days after the raid occurred. According to the cable, Alston reached out to US officials after Iraqi civilians cried foul play and asked for a formal investigation into the matter. At the time, US officials denied they had done anything. McClatchy Newspapers reports that US military officials in Iraq dismissed allegation from the townspeople at the time, saying that their supposed eye-witness accounts were highly likely to be false and that an investigation was not necessary.
In Alston’s letter, however, the UN official states that American forces entered the house after firing at it — with support from an armed helicopter — and then executed 11 people in all. Three vehicles and the family’s animals were also destroyed.
Alston’s correspondence with US officials and analyses of the autopsy remained unpublished until WikiLeaks exposed the information last week.
Though the incident occurred over five years ago, the US has remained mostly mum on the issue. Speaking to McClatchy today, Alston says, “The tragedy is that this elaborate system of communications is in place but the (UN) Human Rights Council does nothing to follow up when states ignore issues raised with them."
The cable shows that the UN official was able to receive information from the autopsy of those killed, which revealed that each person in the house during the raid was handcuffed and shot in the head, including five children under the age of 5 years old and four women, one in her 70s.
Early on in the investigation, spokespeople for the US military said that an al-Qaeda-linked insurgent was located in the house and that American troops seized him from a first-floor room after a gun battle. The cables exposed by WikiLeaks, however, suggests that troops entered the house after 25 minutes of a shootout, handcuffing and shooting the residents once the coast was clear.
The cable was signed off by Col. Fadhil Muhammed Khalaf, assistant chief of the Joint Coordination Center, and cites autopsies performed at the morgue of the Tikrit Hospital. The Join Coordination Center was based in Tikrit, hometown of Saddam Hussein, and served as a security center that was founded by US military personnel and staffed by Iraqi police officers that were trained by Americans.
An uncensored diplomatic cable released through WikIleaks last week shows that not only did US troops brutally execute 11 Iraqis during an incident in March of 2006, but they then ordered in an airstrike to destroy the evidence of their wrongdoing.
Up until now, officials have either downplayed or denied the event, but the latest release courtesy of Julian Assange’s whistleblower site confirms what Iraqis have accused Americans of all along.
According to the newly released cable, American troops approached a house in Ishaqi, around 80 miles outside of Baghdad, and were met with gunfire. Once the firestorm subsided, however, the soldiers entered the home and handcuffed all of the residents, including several women and children. Once bound, the US troops then shot the civilians in the head and called in an air raid.
Allegations that the incident occurred have existed ever since the event, which was dated to have happened on March 15, 2006. The recent file released in a document dump from WikiLeaks finally confirms it by way of a United Nations investigator, who questioned the incident days later.
The newly-released cable documents correspondence between Phillip Alston, the UN’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and American officials only 12 days after the raid occurred. According to the cable, Alston reached out to US officials after Iraqi civilians cried foul play and asked for a formal investigation into the matter. At the time, US officials denied they had done anything. McClatchy Newspapers reports that US military officials in Iraq dismissed allegation from the townspeople at the time, saying that their supposed eye-witness accounts were highly likely to be false and that an investigation was not necessary.
In Alston’s letter, however, the UN official states that American forces entered the house after firing at it — with support from an armed helicopter — and then executed 11 people in all. Three vehicles and the family’s animals were also destroyed.
Alston’s correspondence with US officials and analyses of the autopsy remained unpublished until WikiLeaks exposed the information last week.
Though the incident occurred over five years ago, the US has remained mostly mum on the issue. Speaking to McClatchy today, Alston says, “The tragedy is that this elaborate system of communications is in place but the (UN) Human Rights Council does nothing to follow up when states ignore issues raised with them."
The cable shows that the UN official was able to receive information from the autopsy of those killed, which revealed that each person in the house during the raid was handcuffed and shot in the head, including five children under the age of 5 years old and four women, one in her 70s.
Early on in the investigation, spokespeople for the US military said that an al-Qaeda-linked insurgent was located in the house and that American troops seized him from a first-floor room after a gun battle. The cables exposed by WikiLeaks, however, suggests that troops entered the house after 25 minutes of a shootout, handcuffing and shooting the residents once the coast was clear.
The cable was signed off by Col. Fadhil Muhammed Khalaf, assistant chief of the Joint Coordination Center, and cites autopsies performed at the morgue of the Tikrit Hospital. The Join Coordination Center was based in Tikrit, hometown of Saddam Hussein, and served as a security center that was founded by US military personnel and staffed by Iraqi police officers that were trained by Americans.
Engineers who participated in the design of the World Trade Center have stated, since the attack, that the Towers were designed to withstand jetliner collisions. For example, Leslie Robertson, who is featured on many documentaries about the attack, said he "designed it for a (Boeing) 707 to hit it." Statements and documents predating the attack indicate that engineers considered the effects of not only of jetliner impacts, but also of ensuing fires.
John Skilling was the head structural engineer for the World Trade Center. In a 1993 interview, Skilling stated that the Towers were designed to withstand the impact and fires resulting from the collision of a large jetliner such as Boeing 707 or Douglas DC-8.
"Our analysis indicated the biggest problem would be the fact that all the fuel (from the airplane) would dump into the building. There would be a horrendous fire. A lot of people would be killed, ... The building structure would still be there."
A white paper released on February 3, 1964 states that the Towers could have withstood impacts of jetliners travelling 600 mph -- a speed greater than the impact speed of either jetliner used on 9/11/01.
"The buildings have been investigated and found to be safe in an assumed collision with a large jet airliner (Boeing 707—DC 8) traveling at 600 miles per hour. Analysis indicates that such collision would result in only local damage which could not cause collapse or substantial damage to the building and would not endanger the lives and safety of occupants not in the immediate area of impact."
Frank A. Demartini, on-site construction manager for the World Trade Center, spoke of the resilience of the towers in an interview recorded on January 25, 2001.
"The building was designed to have a fully loaded 707 crash into it. That was the largest plane at the time. I believe that the building probably could sustain multiple impacts of jetliners because this structure is like the mosquito netting on your screen door -- this intense grid -- and the jet plane is just a pencil puncturing that screen netting. It really does nothing to the screen netting."
Demartini, who had an office on the 88th floor of the North Tower, has been missing since the 9/11/01 attack, having remained in the North Tower to assist in the evacuation. 6 Demartini had first worked at World Trade Center when Leslie E. Robertson Associates hired him to assess damage from the truck bombing in 1993.
One aspect of engineering that is not widely understood is that structures are over-engineered as a matter of standard practice. Steel structures like bridges and buildings are typically designed to withstand five times anticipated static loads and 3 times anticipated dynamic loads. The anticipated loads are the largest ones expected during the life of the structure, like the worst hurricane or earthquake occurring while the floors are packed with standing-room-only crowds. Given that September 11th was not a windy day, and that there were not throngs of people in the upper floors, the critical load ratio was probably well over 10, meaning that more than nine-tenths of the columns at the same level would have to fail before the weight of the top could have overcome the support capacity of the remaining columns.
There is evidence that the Twin Towers were designed with an even greater measure of reserve strength than typical large buildings. According to the 1964 white paper cited above, a Tower would still be able to withstand a 100-mile-per-hour wind after all the perimeter columns on one face and some of the columns on each adjacent face had been cut. Also, John Skilling is cited by the Engineering News Record for the claim that "live loads on these [perimeter] columns can be increased more than 2000% before failure occurs."
And yet they fell, in a manner entirely consistent with buildings brought down by controlled demolition. And Building 7, of an entirely different structural framework and which suffered no structural damage, fell in exactly the same manner after Silverstein is on film describing his desire that they "pull it" too.
Imagine that.
John Skilling was the head structural engineer for the World Trade Center. In a 1993 interview, Skilling stated that the Towers were designed to withstand the impact and fires resulting from the collision of a large jetliner such as Boeing 707 or Douglas DC-8.
"Our analysis indicated the biggest problem would be the fact that all the fuel (from the airplane) would dump into the building. There would be a horrendous fire. A lot of people would be killed, ... The building structure would still be there."
A white paper released on February 3, 1964 states that the Towers could have withstood impacts of jetliners travelling 600 mph -- a speed greater than the impact speed of either jetliner used on 9/11/01.
"The buildings have been investigated and found to be safe in an assumed collision with a large jet airliner (Boeing 707—DC 8) traveling at 600 miles per hour. Analysis indicates that such collision would result in only local damage which could not cause collapse or substantial damage to the building and would not endanger the lives and safety of occupants not in the immediate area of impact."
Frank A. Demartini, on-site construction manager for the World Trade Center, spoke of the resilience of the towers in an interview recorded on January 25, 2001.
"The building was designed to have a fully loaded 707 crash into it. That was the largest plane at the time. I believe that the building probably could sustain multiple impacts of jetliners because this structure is like the mosquito netting on your screen door -- this intense grid -- and the jet plane is just a pencil puncturing that screen netting. It really does nothing to the screen netting."
Demartini, who had an office on the 88th floor of the North Tower, has been missing since the 9/11/01 attack, having remained in the North Tower to assist in the evacuation. 6 Demartini had first worked at World Trade Center when Leslie E. Robertson Associates hired him to assess damage from the truck bombing in 1993.
One aspect of engineering that is not widely understood is that structures are over-engineered as a matter of standard practice. Steel structures like bridges and buildings are typically designed to withstand five times anticipated static loads and 3 times anticipated dynamic loads. The anticipated loads are the largest ones expected during the life of the structure, like the worst hurricane or earthquake occurring while the floors are packed with standing-room-only crowds. Given that September 11th was not a windy day, and that there were not throngs of people in the upper floors, the critical load ratio was probably well over 10, meaning that more than nine-tenths of the columns at the same level would have to fail before the weight of the top could have overcome the support capacity of the remaining columns.
There is evidence that the Twin Towers were designed with an even greater measure of reserve strength than typical large buildings. According to the 1964 white paper cited above, a Tower would still be able to withstand a 100-mile-per-hour wind after all the perimeter columns on one face and some of the columns on each adjacent face had been cut. Also, John Skilling is cited by the Engineering News Record for the claim that "live loads on these [perimeter] columns can be increased more than 2000% before failure occurs."
And yet they fell, in a manner entirely consistent with buildings brought down by controlled demolition. And Building 7, of an entirely different structural framework and which suffered no structural damage, fell in exactly the same manner after Silverstein is on film describing his desire that they "pull it" too.
Imagine that.
