If you’re like the liberal half of our country, you’ve probably ignored politics for the last 8 years. After all, the sainted Barack Obama, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, could never do anything wrong. Possibly because of this bias, many around the country were perplexed last night when Donald Trump queried “you think our country’s so innocent?” when Bill O’ Reilly questioned the president on his relationship with the “murderous” Vladamir Putin. While many Americans have never questioned the actions of Barack Obama, the former president might not have been as innocent as many would like to imagine. Our media just forgot to tell you about the time he became a war criminal.
In July 2010, the US completed the transfer of 9,250 detainees, many of whom were merely displaced by the Iraqi war, to the Iraqi authority. While this event would not have been of much consequence, a 2006 Amnesty International report had verified the systemic use of torture by the Iraqi authority.
According to Amnesty International, “It is likely that the detainees handed over could face torture. Many of the reports in the logs detail complaints of brutality reminiscent of Saddam Hussein’s regime. They include accounts of detainees being whipped with cables, chains, wire and pistols and being burnt with acid and cigarettes. Some accounts describe people having electric shocks to their genitals, fingernails ripped out and fingers cut off. In other cases, the documents report men being sodomised with bottles, hoses and raped.”
The United Nations Convention Against Torture, which was ratified by the U.S. in 1994, considers transferring detainees to a regime where they are likely to face torture or other serious human rights violations a clear violation of international law.
One of the most disturbing cases of this torture relates to an Iraqi man who was repeatedly suspended from his ceiling; blunt items were used to beat the man’s back and legs. After becoming unsatisfied with the man’s responses, Iraqi authorities used electric drills to bore holes into his legs.
Much of the terror now being committed by the new Iraqi regime seemed to escape being mentioned by President Obama in any speech. In a 2010 speech, President Obama seemed unaware of the law he had just broken:
“The Americans who have served in Iraq completed every mission they were given. They defeated a regime that had terrorized its people. Together with Iraqis and coalition partners who made huge sacrifices of their own, our troops fought block by block to help Iraq seize the chance for a better future,” the President ironically stated.
Indeed, President Obama had allowed a regime that had terrorized its own people to be replaced by a regime that terrorizes its own people – and then gloated about the success of the Iraqi project.
Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Porgramme said: “This adds further weight, if it were needed, that US authorities committed a serious breach of international law when they handed over thousands of detainees to Iraqi security forces who, they clearly knew, were responsible for widespread and systematic torture. It is our view that the current US administration is complicit in torture.”
So next time you hear that Donald Trump, like the evil Souron to Middle Earth, has brought darkness and evil to our land, remember that Barack Obama knowingly sent men to be drilled into like a block of wood. More than that, remember that Barack Obama proceeded to go on television and pretend that Iraq’s transition to democracy was going well.Maybe most importantly, remember that the same media that never covered this story is the same media that has crucified Donald Trump for a temporary reassessment of the refugee policy. It kinda’ makes you wonder if the liberal media cares more about ideology than people.