Hell On Earth - USNews -Abu Ghraib

[Rose Siding]

In October last year, Army Capt. Donald Reese visited the Abu Ghraib prison complex near Baghdad for the first time. He had plenty of reason to be there. He had just been installed as the warden of part of the prison, and as he toured cellblock 1, he was stunned to see a bunch of naked prisoners. He would later tell Army investigators: "My first reaction was, 'Wow, there a lot of nude people here.' " Army intelligence officers assured him, he testified, that "nothing was illegal or wrong about it"--that, in fact, stripping the prisoners was a tried-and-true intelligence tactic used to make the prisoners uncomfortable. By his own account, Reese, a reservist and window-blinds salesman in civilian life, was ill-prepared for the job. He had never before set foot in a prison, even as a visitor, and he knew nothing of the Geneva Conventions, which specify conditions for humane treatment of enemy prisoners of war and others. "I, myself, have never been in a prison," Reese told Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who was assigned to investigate the issue of abuses at Abu Ghraib. "So I had no experience at all as far as a warden or that type of thing."

As things turned out, of course, there was plenty wrong with the treatment that some of Reese's soldiers inflicted on Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib. The Army admonished Reese for failing to supervise his subordinates, but he is not alone: Criminal charges have been brought against seven soldiers in Reese's 372nd Military Police Company, while other military police and intelligence officers have been reprimanded. Several Defense Department investigations are underway, and the Senate is planning a close look.

These various inquiries may answer the most pressing questions: How did the mess at Abu Ghraib happen? Was it, as the Bush administration says, the work of just a few rogue soldiers, a few bad apples? Or did some senior military leaders, despite their denials, know what was going on inside the prison walls late at night? For now, the most compelling evidence of what happened is contained in a report completed in March by General Taguba. He found, the report says, "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses."

Chaos. Over the past two months, many of the classified documents supporting Taguba's findings have emerged in various news accounts, including in U.S. News. But the magazine now has obtained all 106 classified annexes to the report.......more............

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/040719/usnews/19prison.htm

[Ripley]

1. This is more insane than I thought...

They put a window-blinds salesman who had never even stepped foot into a prison in charge of Abu Ghraib as WARDEN????

Hey Wolf Blitzkrieg and the rest of you rich asses...maybe you could question someone in the admin about this gross incompetence? But I know, you get so many more brownie points if you just stuff words into Joe Wilson's mouth...

And another thing...what glares out at me from the article is ...constant pressure from Washington to squeeze out intelligence....

[cap]

13. the main employer in Cumberland MD is the state prision...

there were enough people in that company who were former prison officials who could have given him advice or even served in that billet. This is just an excuse.

Not knowing the Geneva Convention? I beg your pardon. Who here hasn't seen at least one war movie that made reference to this convention? Who doesn't know what decent and humane treatment is?

[saigon68]

2. War Criminals

CHILDREN ANALLY RAPED by his people ----- while others "Watched and Filmed the ACTION"

[geek tragedy]

3. Holy Fucking Shit.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any more bizarre . . .

[mhr]

4. But Rush Said It Was Only Fraternity Hazing

Never Forget The Face Of American Fascism'THIS IS NO DIFFERENT THAN WHAT HAPPENS AT THE SKULL & BONES INITIATION...I'M TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE HAVING A GOOD TIME. THESE PEOPLE -- YOU EVER HEARD OF EMOTIONAL RELEASE? YOU EVER HEARD OF NEEDING TO BLOW SOME STEAM OFF?'

[mctrotter5]

5. Seymour Hersh during the ACLU conference gave a damning

speech about our Administration's involvement. If you haven't watched the streaming video BuzzFlash has a link. How can we be doing this values babble around this election which this stuff happening?

[peacetalksforall]

6. The key phrase in the paragraphs above are ---

"He had never before set foot in a prison, even as a visitor, and he knew nothing of the Geneva Conventions..."

He was put in charge of a military prison and he knew nothing of the Geneva Convention.

Isn't that proof enough to go all the way to the top.

It is obvious - we went into this intelligence gathering rule with an intent of horror. In any corporation or organization = it means it started at the top.

Secret prisons and secreted prisoners.
Stonewalling and hiding from the RC AI and UN.
My leaders disgust me.

[nosmokes]

7. holy cow.

Colonel Jordan, when questioned by General Taguba about how out of hand the camp had become, said: "I mean every time I turned left, sir, there was all this stuff coming up." The intelligence officer noted that in one 18-hour period he had had to deal with two soldiers abusing a prisoner, another soldier being sexually propositioned by an officer, and a third sick and vomiting in her room after drinking too much alcohol. He also worried, he testified, that "hookers" were living in some bunks.

this is like the inmates running the asylum. that's in less than one day, fcol. wtf are we doing over there? no wonder there are children being raped while they're in our charge. dammit. dammit. good lord this pisses me off.

[nosmokes]

8. kick

:kick:

[NJCher]

9. oh and if bush is so concerned about "protecting us" and the troops

Why the hell were they using a former member of the Republican Guard for a translator!!??

...military intelligence was using a former Iraqi soldier--who had been a prisoner--as a translator.

So that's how our government is protecting us: by enlisting the enemy, exposing them to top secret documents, and then letting them on the loose.

Real professional. Sounds like something that could happen if you put a chimp in charge of a country.


Cher

[saigon68]

11. A CHIMPANZEE IS IN CHARGE

Well not really, actually it is a bunch of Criminal Nazis posing as Defense Dept Heads and a Vice-President.
The CHIMPANZEE is just a clueless, sock puppet posing as window dressing

[nosmokes]

10. this still pisses me off

:kick:

[JPZenger]

12. They Dragged the Good Name of the USA through the Mud

Gore said: "How dare they subject us to such dishonor and disgrace! How dare they drag the good name of the United States of America through the mud of Saddam Hussein's torture prison!"

Gore also argued that the abuse of Iraqi inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison was not the result of "a few bad apples" but "the natural consequence of the Bush administration policy."

He said reservists photographed abusing prisoners "were clearly forced to wade into a moral cesspool designed by the Bush White House," which, he said, had abandoned the Geneva Conventions.

[saigon68]

14. A-Men and Right On

[nosmokes]

15. this article is a must read.

print it out, pass it around. copy and paste it at other sites you frequent. you can't read this piece and believe we're doing the right thing in iraq. can you?

:kick:

[struggle4progress]

16. kick

:kick:
"The abuses took place, the files show, in a chaotic and dangerous environment made even more so by the constant pressure from Washington to squeeze intelligence from detainees. Riots, prisoner escapes, shootings, corrupt Iraqi guards, unsanitary conditions, rampant sexual misbehavior, bug-infested food, prisoner beatings and humiliations, and almost-daily mortar shellings from Iraqi insurgents--according to the annex to General Taguba's report, that pretty much sums up life at Abu Ghraib."
:kick:

[JNelson6563]

17. This says it all

....constant pressure from Washington to squeeze intelligence from detainees.

Mmm hmm.

Find us those weapons or we lose this election. We don't care if you have to anally rape children to get their parents to talk, get us what we need for our political survival.

That is what the italicized words translate into.

Julie

[DemoTex]

18. Calling Seymour Hersh, calling Mr. Hersh!

Seymour, sir, the ball is in your court again. Or maybe I should say the balls are between your legs again. I'm sorry that you must deal with it ... but you must. You are the last surviving journalist. You are the only hope of this republic. You did it once before (My Lai massacre). Now buck-up and fuck the powers-that-be again. Please, sir. Do it.

Thanks,

Mac