TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB

[desdemona]

TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB

by SEYMOUR M. HERSH

American soldiers brutalized Iraqis. How far up does the responsibility go?

Issue of 2004-05-10

Posted 2004-04-30

In the era of Saddam Hussein, Abu Ghraib, twenty miles west of Baghdad, was one of the world’s most notorious prisons, with torture, weekly executions, and vile living conditions. As many as fifty thousand men and women—no accurate count is possible—were jammed into Abu Ghraib at one time, in twelve-by-twelve-foot cells that were little more than human holding pits.

In the looting that followed the regime’s collapse, last April, the huge prison complex, by then deserted, was stripped of everything that could be removed, including doors, windows, and bricks. The coalition authorities had the floors tiled, cells cleaned and repaired, and toilets, showers, and a new medical center added. Abu Ghraib was now a U.S. military prison. Most of the prisoners, however—by the fall there were several thousand, including women and teen-agers—were civilians, many of whom had been picked up in random military sweeps and at highway checkpoints. They fell into three loosely defined categories: common criminals; security detainees suspected of “crimes against the coalition”; and a small number of suspected “high-value” leaders of the insurgency against the coalition forces.

read the entire article if you're not squeamish here:

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/

[desdemona]

And I didn't notice a formal apology from the US govt., don't you think there should be one? The argument that this has gone on during all wars doesn't work for me. Especially since the prisoners included women and children, according to the article from the NYker the lines between the high risk prisoners and low risk were blurred, irregardless there's no excuse, what does this mean for american prisoners of war in this conflict?

[Ken]

what does this mean for american prisoners of war in this conflict?

I agree with all of your sentiments, though they wont be of any use.

A formal apology will be nothing more than a formality, fallen on deaf ears. The Arab world wont care, and the Bush admin. will only do it for public and international relations purposes. Nobody truly cares, despite what they say and do.

As for American Prisoners of war, I don't believe any of them in this conflict have been treated according to the Geneva accords.

Hell, civilians are being taken prisoner, and executed.

[-medusa-]

"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order

to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for

patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both

emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And

when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and

the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed,

the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of

the citizenry. Rather the citizenry, infused with fear

and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their

rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know?

For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."

-Julius Caesar

[CTC Command]

Bush's statement when he found out--"This isn't how we do things in this country."

Well wait a minute, numbnuts. Apparently it IS how we do things in this country, since that is what we have been doing. torturing prisoners=torturing prisoners, not some other thing.

Hello?!

W's denial of reality is simply staggering.

[desdemona]

washingtonpost.com > Opinion > Editorials

A System of Abuse

Wednesday, May 5, 2004; Page A28

SECRETARY OF Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday described the abuses of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison as "an exceptional, isolated" case. At best, that is only partly true. Similar mistreatment of prisoners held by U.S. military or intelligence forces abroad has been reported since the beginning of the war on terrorism. A pattern of arrogant disregard for the protections of the Geneva Conventions or any other legal procedure has been set from the top, by Mr. Rumsfeld and senior U.S. commanders. Well-documented accounts of human rights violations have been ignored or covered up, including some more serious than those reported at Abu Ghraib. In the end, the latest allegations may be distinguished mainly by the fact that they have led to court-martial charges -- and by the leak of shocking photographs that brought home to Americans, and the world, the gravity of the offenses.

read the entire editorial here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...2-2004May4.html

Edited May 6, 2004 by desdemona