http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/12/04-0

NEW YORK - As a group of retired military leaders prepared to urge U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to quickly put an end to the harsh interrogation practices inflicted on security prisoners, a new United Nations report charged that Iraqi authorities were committing "grave human rights violations" in their treatment of thousands of detainees.

On Wednesday, members of the Obama team will meet with more than a dozen retired military leaders who will urge the new president "to restore a U.S. image battered by allegations of torturing terrorism suspects". (Image: BBC)"Grave human rights violations ... remain unaddressed," the U.N. report said. It cited "ongoing widespread ill-treatment and torture of detainees by Iraqi law enforcement authorities, amid pervasive impunity of current and past human rights abuses."

The U.N. report cast doubt on whether Iraq will be prepared to professionally manage control over thousands of security detainees now in U.S. custody under a new security pact that would end the U.S. mission there by 2012. Approved by Iraq's parliament last week, the agreement mandates that U.S. forces transfer to Iraqi custody all detainees believed to be a major threat and to release the rest "in a safe and orderly manner".

As an example, the U.N. report said that 123 men crammed had been into a single 540-square-foot cell -- about the size of a studio apartment. It urged the Iraqi government to speed up legal reforms and strengthen the judicial system as it asserts more control over its own affairs. The report also renewed concern about the U.S. detention of suspects for prolonged periods without judicial review of their cases.


It's time for our country to prove to the world that we can either do the right thing or ignore these criminal acts.

i have to believe this presidential executive order has already been drafted and only awaits the signature of the President on january 20