It never stops! The more you look into the Iraqi prison scandal, the worse it gets.
Despite calls to close down the prison, it is still going to function. And guess who will be in charge? Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, previously the fellow in charge of the lock-up at Guatanamo! That's right: To clean up the mess at Abu Ghraib, the Bush administration chose a fellow who ran a prison with an even worse rep. According the Los Angeles Times, Miller previously toured the Iraqi prison complex and made recommendations as to how to run the place. Even if Miller does an exemplary job, what kind of message does this choice send to the world?
The Taguba reports names four persons -- a Colonel, a Lt. Col, and two private contractors -- as targets for immediate disciplinary action. That hasn't happened yet.
The army assigned nobody to provide legal oversight of the prison.
Weeks ago -- April 12, to be exact -- the British press published a little-noticed story in which an anonymous senior British officer is quoted thus: "My view and the view of the British chain of command is that the Americans' use of violence is not proportionate and is over-responsive to the threat they are facing. They don't see the Iraqi people the way we see them. They view them as untermenschen. They are not concerned about the Iraqi loss of life in the way the British are."
The Brits shouldn't feel so smug; they're in this thing too. The U.K.'s Daily Mirror stands by its story that British interrogators swapped torture and abuse photos. Our veddy English friends apparently pissed on their prisoners. Kinky...!
British military intelligence officers and MI6 spies took part in the grim interrogations at Abu Ghraib. Remember, a number of those tossed into the pokey were AOIs (Any Old Iraqis), snapped up by commando teams who could not find the individual they were supposed to capture. Imagine pleading your innocence to an almost-totally-unaccountable spook who thinks you're one of the bad guys...
According to this account, one shop-owner became the target for "interrogation" when a neighbor with whom he had feuded made a false accusation of terrorist connections.
The same account holds that three detainees were tied to a tree and anally raped. Wonder how our "Christian" soldiers hope to explain that one to Jesus?
In the neighborhood around the prison, people have been showing symptoms for a disease doctors cannot diagnose: Strange bubbles and blisters on the skin, rapid hair loss, white patches on the body, breathing problems, immune system issues, and more.
A 57-year-old Canadian civilian named Hossam Shaltout imprisoned (falsely, it seems) and interrogated in Iraq is now suing the U.S. government to the tune of $350,000. He says he was tortured at Camp Bucca, in southern Iraq.
At camp Bucca, dogs were sicced on detainees. AP reported on the abuse last fall, but no-one paid any attention. There were no pictures.
The Taguba report and the majority of news accounts have largely ignored the party most responsible for interrogations at Abu Ghraib: Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast. According to the beleaguered Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, Fast would keep detained those not arrested for threatening American forces, even when the evidence was weak. (Recall that one Iraqi was imprisoned and tortured due to false suspicions of car theft.)
Will any of the responsible parties be indicted for human rights abuses by the International Criminal Court in the Hague? The Bush administration has treated that court as an enemy, renouncing our signature on the treaty which created it, and has authorized the use of U.S. force to "liberate" any accused criminal detained by the court.
Some detainees in Afghanistan were "shot while trying to escape." Ah, you can't improve on the classics!
The biggest prisoner abuse scandal may, as noted, concern Afghanistan. Thousands of surrendered Taliban soldiers went "missing." A number were shot outright (while in custody) and others were suffocated in over-crowded container trucks. In that case, of course, the atrocities were "outsourced" to the Afghan Northern Alliance. And Americans wonder why many Afghans are turning back to the Taliban...
More to come? You know it.
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