Torture? What Torture?
The abuses at Abu Ghraib shocked the world. The alleged torture of detainees created a wave of popular discontent in America and other countries. The Whitehouse immediately responded with the following press release in May 2004:President Bush views the Abu Ghraib prison abuses as abhorrent.Truly, this will reassure American citizens and the world over that the Bush Administration will not tolerate this kind of behavior. These kinds of deplorable techniques are just isolated cases of abuse, certainly not a systemic trend within the Pentagon itself.
What took place at Abu Ghraib does not represent America, which is a compassionate country that believes in freedom. America sent troops into Iraq to promote freedom.
There are investigations under way to determine how widespread abuse may be occurring.
President Bush has instructed Defense Secretary Rumsfeld to find the truth and then tell the Iraqi people and world the truth. Then, to address the problems in a forthright, up-front manner.
These actions of a few people do not reflect the nature of the men and women who serve our country.
Well... not exactly.
It seems the same kind of behavior that landed seven enlisted soldiers in jail is wrong in Iraq but okay in Cuba. According to a report recently released by military investigators, the same abuses in Abu Ghraib were a clone of techniques used in Gitmo:
The techniques, approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for use in interrogating Mohamed Qahtani -- the alleged "20th hijacker" in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- were used at Guantanamo Bay in late 2002 as part of a special interrogation plan aimed at breaking down the silent detainee.Major General Geoffrey Miller, who commanded the Guantanamo detention facility and later responsible for major US operations in Abu Ghraib, was accused of improper supervision of Qahtani during his interrogation at Gitmo. The report recommended punishment for Miller, but General Bantz Craddock, head of U.S. Southern Command, refused:
The report's findings are the strongest indication yet that the abusive practices seen in photographs at Abu Ghraib were not the invention of a small group of thrill-seeking military police officers. The report shows that they were used on Qahtani several months before the United States invaded Iraq.
The investigation also supports the idea that soldiers believed that placing hoods on detainees, forcing them to appear nude in front of women and sexually humiliating them were approved interrogation techniques for use on detainees.
My reason for disapproving that recommendation is that the interrogation of [Qahtani] did not result in any violation of a U.S. law or policy. And the degree of supervision provided by Major General Miller does not warrant admonishment under the circumstances.The report goes on to describe the abuses as "creative" and "aggressive", but stopped short of calling them "torture." Nor does the report delineate what would constitute torture within the scenarios documented.
So, this is US Liberty and Justice? The administration and Pentagon deny any wrongdoing and arbitrarily punish soldiers who are simply doing what they are told. The public is told the situation is not "torture" (without identifying what is torture) and the military throws blame on its lowest ranks.
I am not sure which is more wrong: the abuse, the coverup of the abuse, punishment of the innocent, or the redefinition of torture. Any sane individual can see how these heinous acts have rotted out any logic they may once have had. Abuse is abuse. These means have no possible justifiable end for any country, certainly not MY country.
This abuse must stop.
posted by the prisoner @ 12:37:00 PM
1 Comments:
Max,
You have been so courteous and reasonable a conservative up to this point. I wonder if you realize the ire in your own words in your "it's all OK as long as we get what we want" attitude.
That's not what I as an American citizen believe. Not that you have to agree with me, of course. Calling me "seditious" is outright scandalous. Can you truly believe that? If it is seditious to point out where I disagree with an important government policy, then I hope we all are. Because that is just as much in rebel America's past as anything else.
Bringing up the Gitmo menu has no bearing when it comes to the abuses at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib. I thought I wouldn't include the pictures of either, because that would be detracting from the ridiculous verbal rings this Administration has run around human rights issues.
What constitutes torture? I'd feel a lot better if Congress checked the Bush Admin's assertion that it knows best and provides me with a definition they are working from. As I explained in previous posts, the Bush Admin doesn't want a definition because then they would be held to it.
Though some conservatives have no idea what it means to be interrogated for months on end captive without charge in a prison for over three years, some POWs do and have been probably the most vocal in stopping this crap. So don't tell me I don't understand interogation when our own CIA and POWs decry what our government is doing.
Again, you can disagree with me, but how can you attack me so personally? Does that really make sense?
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