Monday, Oct 20th
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Human Rights Glance
The troops operated under the command of an unnamed US major, who had been involved in the rape of an Iraqi female, showed one such document posted on the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
The incident took place after the victim, the brother of the raped female, reportedly killed a military official in reprisal for the indecent assault.
The following is the body of the original document:
It has been one of the most bitter legal debates during the so-called war on terror - who's to blame for torture and how many degrees of separation are needed to dodge a lawsuit?
The answer may lie in recently leaked documents, which lawyers and human rights groups hope will be a treasure trove of evidence that could prove U.S. and other coalition forces broke a cardinal rule of international law - handing over terror suspects when they had good reason to believe the detainees would be tortured.
A senior UN official condemned attacks by Jewish "settler extremists" on Palestinians' olive trees in the occupied West Bank and called on Israel to "combat violence and terror by Israelis."
Robert Serry, UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, also said he was alarmed that work had started on hundreds of new homes for settlers in the occupied territory since the end of Israel's settlement freeze last month.
The British military has been training interrogators in techniques that include threats, sensory deprivation and enforced nakedness in an apparent breach of the Geneva conventions, the Guardian has discovered.
Training materials drawn up secretly in recent years tell interrogators they should aim to provoke humiliation, insecurity, disorientation, exhaustion, anxiety and fear in the prisoners they are questioning, and suggest ways in which this can be achieved.
Bishops from the Middle East who were summoned to Rome by the pope demanded Saturday that Israel accept U.N. resolutions calling for an end to its "occupation" of Arab lands. In a final joint communique, the bishops also told Israel it shouldn't use the Bible to justify "injustices" against the Palestinians.
The bishops issued the statement at the close of their two-week meeting, called by Pope Benedict XVI to discuss the plight of Christians in the Middle East amid a major exodus of the faithful from the birthplace of Christianity.
Survivor of the air strike has little faith in outcome of the inquiry.
"The court wouldn't bring back my husband," she said. "Even if they [the Israelis] confessed that they shot at the warehouse crowded with the civilians, I didn't expect any justice from them."
Nor did Mrs Samouni, now 22, seem much impressed by the prospect of compensation, claims for which could be aided by any prosecutions flowing from the military police investigation. "The world stands on [Israel's] side. Money can't compensate what I had lost."
Witnesses said Kristien Garrett's one-year-old daughter and Garrett's mother Trina Woodcox were struck a number of times as the officers moved to detain Garrett's husband. Sean Garrett was allegedly handcuffed, beaten repeatedly and subjected to racial slurs while in custody; he was later released when ministry officials determined that his visa was valid.
The Oz unit, which spearheads a high-profile Interior Ministry campaign to track and expel foreign nationals who lack valid permits to remain in Israel, admitted to having detained a family member in error, but denied allegations of use of physical force. It countered that family members had attacked them with "cursing and swearing."
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