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TechnoratiBracing for New Prisoner Abuse Photos
NEW YORK - This Tuesday, Apr. 28, will mark five years since the world got its first look at the sickening photographs from Abu Ghraib on the U.S. television programme "60 Minutes."
![[An SBS TV photo shows a hooded prisoner allegedly being tortured at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib jail supposedly during interrogation by US soldiers in Baghdad in 2004. A US military agency warned the administration of former US president George W. Bush in July 2002 that torture of terrorism suspects usually yields "unreliable information," The Washington Post reported. (AFP/SBS/Ho/File)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/abughraib.jpg "abughraib.jpg")
And a month after that, on May 28, the Department of Justice, acting under a court order, will release several thousand never-before-seen-in-public photographs of U.S. prisoner abuse from Afghanistan and from elsewhere in Iraq.
The recent "torture memos" - which will inform public reaction to these new photos in a way not possible at the time of the Abu Ghraib scandal - were also released as the result of what President Barack Obama called an unwinnable lawsuit by the same plaintiff, the American Civil Liberties Union, and under the same law, the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA.
While the content of the new images is not known, some members of Congress, who viewed them in a classified setting, have said they are far worse than the Abu Ghraib images.
Following the public release of the Abu Ghraib photos on television in 2004, the Pentagon commissioned more than a dozen separate investigations of what took place and why. Some 26 military personnel, mostly low-ranking enlisted soldiers, were convicted or reprimanded.
An Army intelligence colonel received immunity for his testimony. The commander of the Abu Ghraib detention centre, Brigadier General Janice Karpinsky, was demoted to colonel. She continues to insist that she was a scapegoat.
None of the investigations pinpointed responsibility for the abuses to any higher-ranking George W. Bush administration or military or civilian Pentagon leader.
The investigation reports contain sentences such as, "Clearly abuses occurred at the prison at Abu Ghraib. There is no single, simple explanation for why this abuse at Abu Ghraib happened. The primary causes are misconduct (ranging from inhumane to sadistic) by a small group of morally corrupt soldiers and civilians, a lack of discipline on the part of the leaders and soldiers... and a failure or lack of leadership..."
One of the other investigations was headed by former Defence Secretary James Schlesinger. He reported, "The events of October through December 2003 on the night shift of Tier 1 at Abu Ghraib prison were acts of brutality and purposeless sadism. We now know these abuses occurred at the hands of both military police and military intelligence personnel."
"The pictured abuses, unacceptable even in wartime, were not part of authorized interrogations nor were they even directed at intelligence targets. They represent deviant behavior and a failure of military leadership and discipline. Department of Defense reform efforts are underway and the Panel commends these efforts."
President Bush described the perpetrators in the Abu Ghraib photos as "a few American troops who dishonoured our country and disregarded our values." He meant low-ranking soldiers like Private First Class Lynddie England and Sergeant Charles Graner, who were among those who received prison terms for their role in the scandal.
The scope of each of the investigative assignments was determined - and limited - by the Pentagon. Thus, the officer heading up the first investigation was ordered to find out what happened only within the 800th Military Police (MP) Brigade in U.S. military prisons in Iraq, and only in Iraq.
The leader of that investigation, Major General Antonio Taguba, concluded that "The 800th MP Brigade was not adequately trained for a mission that included operating a prison or penal institution at Abu Ghraib Prison Complex."
He said, "Units of the 800th MP Brigade did not receive corrections-specific training during their mobilization period. MP units did not receive pinpoint assignments prior to mobilization and during the post mobilization training, and thus could not train for specific missions. The training that was accomplished at the mobilization sites were developed and implemented at the company level with little or no direction or supervision at the Battalion and Brigade levels, and consisted primarily of common tasks and law enforcement training."
Nevertheless, Gen. Taguba concluded that the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib went far beyond the actions of a few sadistic military police officers. His report said 27 military intelligence soldiers and civilian contractors committed criminal offences, and that military officials hid prisoners from the Red Cross.
Gen. Taguba was forced into retirement by civilian Pentagon officials because he had been ''overzealous.'' ''They always shoot the messenger,'' Taguba said. He has recently accused former President Bush of war crimes.
It was an ordinary soldier who was troubled enough by what he saw at Abu Ghraib to photograph it and put it on a CD that he turned over to his superiors. And it was the military itself that announced, in 2003, that an investigation by the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Command was underway into alleged prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib.
Few journalists paid much attention to this investigation. Some have since pointed out that at that time the Iraq war had just begun and the war's public spokesperson, former Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, was something of a rock star with the press.
Due to the recent release of memoranda prepared by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, the public has learned that by the time the Abu Ghraib photos were released in 2003, the Bush administration's "enhanced interrogation" policy was already in place and being implemented.
Regarding the photos to be released on May 28, ACLU attorney Amrit Singh said, "These photographs provide visual proof that prisoner abuse by U.S. personnel was not aberrational but widespread, reaching far beyond the walls of Abu Ghraib."
She says, "Their disclosure is critical for helping the public understand the scope and scale of prisoner abuse as well as for holding senior officials accountable for authorising or permitting such abuse."
Since the ACLU's FOIA request in 2003, the Bush administration had refused to disclose these images, the ACLU said. The administration claimed that disclosure of such evidence would generate outrage and would violate U.S. obligations toward detainees under the Geneva Conventions.
But, in September 2008, a U.S. Appeals Court ruled that disclosure of the photos was required, thus rejecting the Bush administration's position. The court ruled that there was significant public interest in disclosure of the photographs. The Bush administration's appeal to the full appeals court was denied on Mar. 11 of this year.
"The disclosure of these photographs serves as a further reminder that abuse of prisoners in U.S.-administered detention centers was systemic," said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU National Security Project.
He told IPS, "Some of the abuse occurred because senior civilian and military officials created a culture of impunity in which abuse was tolerated, and some of the abuse was expressly authorised. It's imperative that senior officials who condoned or authorised abuse now be held accountable for their actions."
42 Comments so far
Show Allthis abuse was systemic, and ordered right from the top all along. And to think the Bush admin top officals blamed it on morally corrupt foot soldiers. SHAME!! SHAME!! When are there going to be indictments on these creeps?
The title of this article is very irritating. Brace ourselves? What are we - some kind of sensitive prairie flowers who cannot even rest our delicate eyes on pictures of what was DONE TO PEOPLE in our name.
Let's not flatter ourselves. We have a well developed capacity to ignore the results of our deeds. We have become cold and habituated to the sufferings of racial and cultural "others" through centuries of genocide, slavery, racism and invasions of other countries.
Ok - I pray that some will be sufficiently upset to demand justice.
Joe
Good on yer, joe!
Rainborowe
Thank God, more photos are coming out and in about a month! With swine flu taking over the headlines, something needs to come along to bring torture back! Unfortunately the Bush administration made an art of just waiting out the news til it passes.....and it usually does! Hopefully, there will always be something to bring this issue back each time it starts to slip away.
I note that MSNBC and Olbermann isn't letting it go despite the flu fury! Last night he spent a good 50% of the show on torture...as he should!! You GO, Keith!
Now I'll post to this article.
One argument that iI do not hear is that here prisoners have been being abused... for a war which we should NEVER HAVE BEEN FIGHTING. WE WENT THEIR TO STEAL OIL. LET'S LOOK INTO THAT MEETING THAT CHENEY HAD BEFORE THE 'OK" TO GO TO WAR WITH IRAQ AND SEE WHAT WENT DOWN WITH THOSE OIL COMPANIES.
THIS IS SO SICK- WE INVADED IRAQ TO STEAL THEIR OIL THEN WE TORTURE AND ABUSE THOSE WHO ARE FIGHTING BACK. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT INFO WE GOT FROM THEM BY TORTURE OR ANY OTHER MEANS. WE WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE THERE!!!!!!!
Good post initiate, but please don't write in all caps. It's hard to read and harder still to make sense of--at least to those of us past the springtime of our lives. Also emphasis isn't emphasis when everything is emphasized.
Rainborowe
This post has nothing to do with this article but since no one is talking about this yet here, I'm going to start.
Does any one remember, about a week ago, or a little more, that the Pentagon had announced that a virus had gone missing from a lab. It was said the virus was not serious(?) Then they came out and said that it must have been thrown away in a broken refrigerator. I wonder where they disposed of that frig...?
Isn't it interesting that a major virus occurs below the Southern U.S. border-especially when some people are having such a hard time dealing with the current flow of immigrants into the U.S.? Now, some talk about closing the borader -exactly what does that mean? Absolutely no crossings at all I guess. Cross at your own peril? Maybe, just maybe, some people will do anything to get what they want. It's not like it hasn't happened before. (Cheney wanted Iraqi oil).
Some people will probably be upset that I posted this, trying to link certain events. But ya' know, in this day and age I think we have to try and keep everything fresh in our minds at least...
Yes, it DOES seem coincidental that this should strike just as we are dealing with an economic crisis. Makes one wonder about the possibility of a'terrorism' link. I remember the story you mention!
A new ABC poll shows that a majority of Americans favor investigating whether Bush administration officials broke the law regarding torture. An independent investigation would reaffirm the basic American principle that no one is above the law.
Tell Attorney General Hold to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate whether Bush administration officials violated laws prohibiting torture:
http://tinyurl.com/NoMoreTorture
Greenferret,
Yes, last night on Olbermann, a commentator (can't remember who it was) commented that Americans are ahead of the government on this one. They want accountability while the government isn't so sure!
Seymour Hersh is working on a book about all the torture. He was waiting for Bush to be out of 'power', so that his life would be less in danger.
He has photos, and videos, of American soldiers sodomizing Iraqi *boys* (12 and under) in front of their mothers, with the mothers screaming for someone to please kill them.
Also photos of those famous 'military attack dogs' that the Bush Administration said were just to "scare" the Evildoers. The photos show them releasing the hounds on naked, terrified, shackled prisoners, and the dogs shredding their legs into a bloody mess.
I wonder if *these* kinds of photos/videos will come out ?
(He has mentioned them in a few talks he has given, but he has not published anything yet).
The two examples above were from the laptop of a soldier that killed himself after he came home; his mother was put in contact with Hersh after she explored her sons laptop for clues about why he killed himself.
"Freedom is on the March".
--- George W. Bush
Where did you get this information? It would be interesting to know your source!
A few of these have slipped out into the public. Seymour Hersh has described these on many occasions and you may be sure that the ones where people are shown being torn to death be police dogs will be missing from the portfolio. What Really Happened is a good source of original photographs ans well as the GI buddy sites where the creepy geeks showed off what they did to civilians.
Meanwhile the story has been killed from the news cycle with the phony flu story. Isn't it interesting how the great Wurlitzer works?
michael jordan
http://sites.google.com/site/apolloguide/
Sy published "The Generals' War" in either 2007 or 2008 in The New Yorker magazine. Interviewed on TV (CSPAN?) about the article, Sy briefly mentioned dtainees forced to do 'sex acts' to/with their children in front of guards.
Of course it got no further press. Google will get you to the TV clip.
What a sad group of pissants we have leading us! Congress is useless. But even the generals let us down. After the first general told W they needed 400,000 soldiers to take Iraq responsibly, and they removed him, every next-in-command should also have refused the plan as-was, then quit. Until their considerations were considered.
Guess it is every man woman and child for themselves... Bah!
although i commend your humanitarian approach to the subject, bobv, i'm not so sure. one would like to believe that the release of the photos would be a sort of retribution to and for the victims. touchy subject, but sometimes you've got to air out the problems, letting the chips fall where they may. it's an impossibility to get all of the victims to agree unanimously. one would also like to believe that seeing bush and cheney and rice and rumsfeld swinging from the end of nooses, from the limbs of the strongest oak, would help ease the pain and suffering and humiliation that the victims have gone through, as well as begin a healing process for this country via a severe and harsh lesson of accountability. however, since one of the surefire ways of becoming president begins by lying one's way into the office, followed by showing an arrogant lack of spine, it's not likely to happen. unless, of course, the american sheople rise up off their asses and demand accountability. currently, there's not even a ripple on the water.
and it's a guarantee that it's so easy to sit here, saying what i say, without having to live the horrors of the victims.
So if your wife or sister or girlfriend, or you, were brutally raped and there were photographs, how would you go about deciding whether the pictures should be broadcast on Fox News and MSNBC? What if she and your family were not even asked whether it was something you'd all care to have input about? How would you respond if after your complaints about the pictures' release some leftie accused you of stonewalling and getting in the way of bringing the rapists to justice?
And for every person who will be repelled and then convinced by the pictures that this was indeed a crime against humanity, there will be those who make it into a joke while guzzling beer, children who will ape the torturers in their backyard play after seeing the photographs, and shadow side politicians who will minimize the amount of suffering caused.
I am old enough to remember as well when the family members of black men, women and children chose to have open caskets and pictures of their loved ones who had been savagely tortured and murdered by whites widely disseminated just to show the nature and reality of the crime.... but it seems to me that in those cases they were largely in control of how, where and how much it was done. It was a part of their own individual chosen way of going forward and living with that kind of desperate trauma. I just wonder. Why and how can we think about taking at least a modicum amount of that kind of control away from the Iraqis and others even after it is quite clear how inconceivably brutal we have been to them?
Bobv, the simple answer is ASK THEM. The torturers had to have kept a record of their names and their addresses. It isn't hard to track them down. All Arab names have four parts: own name, father's name, grandfather's name, family/clan name. And Arabs also identify themselves by their place of birth as well as their place of domicile. And from this information one can also trace family members, should the tortured one be dead.
Rainborowe
This is difficult.
While I understand the role that the images will have on helping people solidify ideas and opinions, and merely inform those to whom written description does not seem to make an decisive impact (although, to me, forming the images in my head independent of photographs or drawings can be more powerful), I am deeply concerned about the impact that such a media-infused, post-photograph release, frenzy will have on the victims, their families, loved ones and those who live in the same culture targeted by such gruesome and illegal mass cruelty for the past eight years or more.
I am concerned about the re-victimization of those who have, really, had enough abuse. Is there not some way we can allow them some power in decisions about how these photographs are presented? Otherwise I fear it will be seen as just another way the people in the US have made them victims and humiliated them on the world stage.
It is true that in court rooms graphic photographs are often employed to impress upon judges and juries the extent of the damage done in property and personal injury and murder/rape cases... but still, aren’t there precedents set surrounding whether and how widely these images can be circulated in order to protect the dignity and privacy of the victims and their families? Why would we not follow those kinds of guidelines now? I would suggest that if we do not, the general release of the images of such atrocity might be seen as just another assault and invasion. What is the line of political expediency being followed here, that again ignores human dignity in truth-telling to pursue an agenda that seems to exist largely in subtext?
On the other hand, perhaps the victims would, in fact, want the kind of evidence the photographs show to be widely disseminated, but I would hope we might ask them first. At least ask someone who might give us a compassionate way forward with this without pouring salt on a wound that is, in many ways, still open and suppurating. Perhaps there are Iraqis who can offer a way to go forward, programs that can be put in place to help victims cope and recover, for the initial torture and now again, if they agreed to the photos being shown, the predictable aftermath of being seen globally in such a terrifying dehumanizing position. Even if there are masks, they know who they are.
This is the kind of hope and change I think we need to show.
One would expect that those photos released would either have been approved for release by the prisoners/their families or would have parts of the face blacked out to prevent recognition. I hope that is done, although, to be honest, I suspect a lot, perhaps most, of the victims would be OK with the release of their pictures; they constitute evidence of the crimes committed on them. Arabs are very much into sexual modesty but the anger at the evil that was done to them, and their demand for justice, I've been noticing, transcends that.
Rainborowe
Eventually truth, albeit never every thread, comes out. Once known that there are more memos and photos, if they are not officially released, people will leak them.
There must be a huge number of people who participated at many levels. I think about Vietnam vets (from officers to the lowest ranks), who have photos in their heads every day. Some participants of all US torture 'get' the horror, some never will, and some will kill themselves.
I hate the slime that will be on TV. We all bear responsibility. The least we can do is be willing to look at what we have done.
"The methods and photos from Abu Grahib and Guantanamo were no shock to any Palestinian who had been in prison between 1967 and the ‘80’s.
"All the methods used in Abu Grahib were normal procedures against Palestinians. In 1999 Internationals, Palestinians and Israelis for human rights threatened a boycott against Israel and that is what forced the Supreme Court to address the torture issue.
"They did not ban torture and the General Prosecutor can choose not to prosecute those who still use it."-Ala Jaradat, to me while in Ramallah at the Headquarters of ADAMEER [Arabic for conscience] January 5, 2006.
Eileen Fleming, Author, Founder WAWA:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Producer "30 Minutes With Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu"
good point. it makes a lot of sense the US and israel sharing torture playbooks, especially considering america refused to attend the recent international conference on racism.
--------------
President's way Bush league: Many Americans want officials who sanctioned torture of prisoners to face justice -- by Eric Margolis | April 27, 2009 - 10:34am
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/21496
{"The Senate reported CIA and Pentagon torture techniques were adopted from torture methods North Korea used in the 1950s to compel American prisoners to admit to lies about germ warfare.
In fact, North Korea learned its torture techniques from Soviet KGB instructors. KGB's favourite tortures in the 1930s and '40s were merciless beatings, confinement in refrigerated cells, week-long sleep deprivation and endless interrogations. The CIA and U.S. military copied these but added contorted positions and nakedness and humiliation, techniques reportedly copied from Israeli interrogators who used them to blackmail Palestinian prisoners into becoming informers. Hence all the naked photos from Abu Ghraib prison."}
-------------
were mossad or idf agents present during any of the torture (interrogation) sessions ?
…peace…
If you want to brace yourself for something, brace yourself for the consequences of Barack Obysmal's cowardice. On the other hand, he's probably hastening the end of this criminal empire. So perhaps his cowardice and lack of principle will prove beneficial in the end.
Shiblikov (great moniker, btw)--
Do you really think it's cowardice? I think it's just what he always intended. He was a cypher on the campaign trail, he moved so smoothly into office and lickety-split he showed his colors in the decisions and appointments he made. He's another Bill Clinton after Alan Greenspan and Robert Rubin sat him down and told him to forget this idea of renegotiating NAFTA and any other vaguely liberal stuff he'd promised on the campaign trail. Except Obama didn't have--or need--that meeting with Rubin and Greenspan; he was with the program all along.
Rainborowe
New Prisoner Abuse Photos should be required reading in the Sunday bulletins of every Catholic and Evilgelical church that supported this Bush Family War Crime.
Wonderful idea! I belong to a church that is overwhelmingly right-wing, as is the priest. I do my best to re-educate people but I suspect it's a waste of time. However, I have no objection to stuffing those pictures (metaphorically speaking) down their throats.
Rainborowe
And even these new photos will be just the tip of the iceberg. What about all those US OUTSOURCED torture jobs? There are photos some place of these criminal acts also.
And we all know, too, that the US is continuing to outsource torture jobs, and did so way before Bush and his Klan ever came along. Americans love to play dumb about it all, too.
"Americans love to play dumb about it all, too."
This is perhaps the biggest reason for all of our problems, whether torture, the economy, the environment, etc. If there is no host for a virus, it will not find expression.
I think it goes back to the fact that all Americans have to take a loyalty test. They are taught to proclaim that America is the best, in all categories, country in the world. The free-est the richest, the most democratic, etc. etc. As long as they believe that (and not believing it--or at least not proclaiming that they believe it--risks bodily assault from the enforcers of "America the Free") they will, at the least, remain ignorant of the evil we inflict upon the rest of the world and, at worst, demand that we carry on inflicting them in the name of what is right for America. It's called American exceptionalism and it allows us to shun nations that don't do what we want them to do while doing even worse ourselves. And seeing no contradiction in that.
Rainborowe
Yes, what you say is very true.
Spuds
america, it's time to pay the piper.
it will be interesting to see where these trails of torture lead. it's a certainty that many democrats and repulsicans and independents are currently scrambling to get their ducks in a row. oh, to be a public relations firm now...
The photos leaked at that time were a minority of the photos taken – those considered "less damning" - though the reaction of all civilized people in the world was horror at what they saw. And we now know that they were not "tourist snapshots for the folks back home", but were staged and set up at the direction of civilian contract interrogators for use in the future training of new interrogators (as former Brig. General Karpinski, responsible for running Abu Ghraib in 2003 told Democracy Now in October 2005).
The soldiers brought to trial for the photos did not interrogate the prisoners but had been given the job of “softening up” or “breaking the prisoners” as a preliminary to the real “interrogations” by the military and the employees of private corporations hired by Rumsfeld. One of these soldiers wrote proudly in his diary that the prisoners “usually end up breaking within hours” and because of the “good job” done he was allowed into the “interrogation room to watch”.
The other photos, not yet seen in US media, were described by the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, as "blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhumane” and for this reason he refused a judge's order to release them; i.e. to let the world see them. As he said in August 2005 "We're talking about rape and murder here."
This arrogant and arbitrary refusal to conform to the order of a US court is prompted of course by Rumsfeld’s fear of being held accountable for the torture he is hiding. But sitting beside the accused should also be Vice President Dick Cheney.
Both Cheney and Rumsfeld campaigned untiringly for torture, and used every ounce of their power and leverage in Congress to silence the voice of anyone trying to ban "cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment" of prisoners in US custody (as written in John McCain's amendment to a Defense Department bill allocating $440 billion to "defense"). Cheney used constant pressure to exempt the CIA from the ban on torture in this amendment.
Rumsfeld hired private torturers on the free market through his policy of hiring private corporations specializing in “interrogation techniques and personnel”, or the “outsourcing” of torture to private contract interrogators. (One of the corporations present at Abu Ghraib, Titan International, is reported to have annual “sales” of 2 billion dollars.) Such private contractors are convenient for the government because they are potentially free from military regulations and accountability and scrutiny. No private contractors operating at Abu Graib have ever been punished.
For these corporations “confessions” from tortured prisoners were seen as an aid to obtaining further lucrative contracts, and their interrogators were employees whose job security depends on their “production”. As the US General Taguba investigating Abu Ghraib (later forced to retire) at the beginning of 2004 reported, the majority of the prisoners were simply random victims picked up to “fill the quota”. Taguba estimated that more than 60% of the prisoners were innocent civilians, saying “These are people picked up at random checkpoints and random going into houses”.
Rumsfeld and Cheney - together with their mouthpiece, Bush – did everything to obtain US legal authorization of torture (declared illegal by the Geneva Conventions, which the United States has signed, and by the US army field manual drafted to comply with the Conventions) to cover their backs should a future international court condemn them.
The use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" such as suspending a prisoner from the ceiling or wall by his wrists, while these are handcuffed behind his back, breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoritic acid liquid on detainees, beating detainees with broomhandle and a chair, threatening them with rape, sodomizing a detainee with chemical lights and a broomstick, sicking military dogs on detainees are among the tortures which we could see after the release of the rest of the photos originally meant for training future private “investigators”. These photos should also constitute for the American people the judicial grounds for the impeachment of those who drew up and approved the memos for their justification.
General Geoffrey Miller, sent by Rumsfeld from Guantanamo to AbuGhraib, said: “You have to treat them like dogs.” Let us, instead, treat those responsible for such concepts like men on trial for the evil they have done.
Thera
Thank you for reminding us of the details many of us (at least we oldsters) had forgotten. That's an excellent post.
Rainborowe
Royce
When press Rock Stars question political Rock Stars, you don't get news. You get entertainment.
What is with the lousy photography? We had such GREAT pictures from Viet Nam, but since then... crap.
Where are all the great photo's??
Torture is illegal. The media memes of 'does it work', or 'democrats knew', or any other yack, miss the only real issue: torture is illegal.
Perhaps, as pictures do, the new pictures will heighten the moral outrage. I wonder if the children we tortured were photographed.
May 28 is a month away. Here are some words to ponder as we wait:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/04/bushs-promise-on-torture.html
Perhaps if a thousand or more photos suddenly come out in a flood, the public will be so enraged that they will demand a criminal investigation and prosecutions, and that way Attorney General Eric Holder might be more inclined to go ahead with what he has been holding back on doing.
Enough public outrage and demand for justice may then let Obama off the hook and stop his waffling. He did authorize the photos to be out here for the public to see. So that's a plus.
So maybe, when the photos come out, it's up to us to flood the Attorney General's office, The White House switchboard, and same for our representatives and senators demanding special investigators and legal action immediately.
Be interesting to see what appears and what is said on the MSMedia.
Anyone get the feeling that our country is in a mess and is a mess? ; - )
/cm
that's an excellent idea - (flood white house/AG's office/congress with emails-phone calls the day the photos are released)
the arab/islamic world is also closely following the story. the editorial pages of middle eastern news agencies in the coming days will be telling. if obama could follow through by prosecuting and imprisoning these criminal elements that created/implemented this policy (straight to bush and cheney), he might discover the world at home and abroad would support him.
from al jazeera yesterday...
Pentagon to release 'abuse images'
english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/04/200942422831902699.html
{"These photographs provide visual proof that prisoner abuse by US personnel was not aberrational but widespread," said Amrit Singh, an ACLU lawyer.
The administration of George Bush, the previous US president, had argued that cases of abuse, such as that at Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq, were isolated incidents.And the Pentagon said the images proved that its investigations into abuse allegations were serious.
...The memo release was followed by two US senate reports, one of which said that Condoleezza Rice, the former US national security advisor and secretary of state, approved the use of torture methods such as waterboarding as before legal memos backing its use were written.}
...peace...
You have to admit, whether Obama sweeps this all under the rug or not, that the Americans have the funniest justice system in the western world.
"President Bush described the perpetrators in the Abu Ghraib photos as "a few American troops who dishonoured our country and disregarded our values." He meant low-ranking soldiers like Private First Class Lynddie England and Sergeant Charles Graner, who were among those who received prison terms for their role in the scandal."
national guard privates, go to jail for torturing prisoners, and the president who set up the whole illegal system, not only speeds them on their way, but now has his VP and campaign advisor appearing on tv, bragging about the whole "success" of the interogation program.
this bit is funny as well:
"Since the ACLU's FOIA request in 2003, the Bush administration had refused to disclose these images, the ACLU said. The administration claimed that disclosure of such evidence would generate outrage and would violate U.S. obligations toward detainees under the Geneva Conventions."
Bush is so concerned about the wellfare of his abuse victims that he is protecting their "privacy" interests, I suppose he wants Americans to think that if people see more of his crimes, it might prove embarassing to the victims and their families,...Awwwww, isn't that sweet?
Just like with Enron, the financial industry meltdown and other crimes, a few token prisoners are taken while the rest of the pirates are free to commit ever more horrific crimes, proving that the US has THE most corrupt government in the world.
It's not just the government, it's the legal system. Or make that systems as there re so many of them. It's hard to think of one worse, at least in the civilized world.
Rainborowe