Military "transparency" on detainee abuse a joke...

[marmar]

When will this insanity end? :cry:

An Exercise in Transparency
Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2006-06-19 16:55. Evidence
By Jayne Lyn Stahl

More than 1,000 pages of reported findings about the systematic, and systematically sanctioned, abuse of Iraqi detainees were released by the Pentagon today, according to the Associated Press, as a result of a victory, by the ACLU, in their Freedom of Information Act suit. Included among the many "incidents" recounted, in this official Pentagon report, was forcing prisoners to subsist on bread and water only, for more than 2 weeks, as well as forcing them to strip, and depriving them of sleep.

While some of these allegations have made their way to members of the press, and Congress, before, this is the first public airing of these documents in which several paragraphs have been blacked out, including specific names of people, and places. Also excised, and excluded, are members of the press who are being kept out of Guantanamo Bay, as a news blackout is underway following the report of 3 suicides there last week.

While the ACLU claims that today's findings represent a "whitewash," and that only a minute percentage of the allegations,against the military special forces, are being investigated, Lt. Col. Ballesteros,a spokesman for the Pentagon, disagrees, telling an AP reporter that the military has taken "significant steps" to get to the truth, and hold those responsible accountable, all part and parcel of their "effort to be transparent and show that we investigate all allegations thoroughly, and we take them seriously." Transparent is a term we've heard a lot of lately not unlike the word "asymmetrical," and the irony of how both words apply is something not lost on any reasonable person.

The rest is at: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/11983

[ThomCat]

1. The military has zero credibility to investigate itself.

I trust the judgement of the ACLU that this is a drop in the bucket.

If we could document the full extent of the attrocities being done in our names, would people finally take to the streets?

[marmar]

2. I don't know what it will take...

People should already be taking to the streets, trying to get this derailed train back on the tracks. I worry that by the time people are ready to take to the streets, it will be much too late.