Shame

[Spence]

The commander of the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been transferred to Iraq to oversee the treatment of 8,000 detainees as part of an investigation into alleged sexual and physical abuse at a U.S. Army-run prison outside Baghdad, officials said Thursday.

The officials also disclosed that the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, has ordered administrative penalties against seven unnamed officers who supervised the Army Reserve military police unit that was responsible for the Abu Ghraib detention facility in November, when Iraqi prisoners allegedly were subjected to beatings and sexually degrading acts by American soldiers.

Criminal charges were filed in March against six members of the unit, the 372nd Military Police Company, based in Cumberland, Md. The charges included conspiracy, dereliction of duty, cruelty and maltreatment, assault and indecent acts with another, the military's term for sexual abuse.

Three of the suspects have been recommended for court-martial. The other three face preliminary hearings in May and June to determine whether a court-martial is warranted.

An Army spokesman said charges are likely to be filed against a seventh soldier, and three more soldiers are still under investigation and could face criminal charges.

According to sealed charging papers that were provided to The Washington Post, soldiers forced prisoners to lie in "a pyramid of naked detainees" and jumped on their prone bodies, while other detainees were ordered to strip and perform or simulate sex acts. In one case, a hooded man allegedly was made to stand on a box of MREs, or meals ready to eat, and told that he would be electrocuted if he fell off. In another example, the papers allege, a soldier unzipped a body bag and took snapshots of a detainee's frozen corpse inside.

Several times, soldiers were photographed and videotaped posing in front of humiliated inmates, according to the charges. One gave a thumbs-up sign in front of the human pyramid.

The documents add to growing accusations of improper prisoner treatment at Abu Ghraib, which was Iraq's largest and most notorious prison during the rule of ousted president Saddam Hussein. In addition to the military's announcement in March that soldiers had been charged, details of the abuses and photographs from inside the prison were broadcast Wednesday night by CBS's "60 Minutes II."

On Thursday, U.S. officials confirmed that the images were authentic and said they had taken several steps to stop the mistreatment of prisoners.

These photos and this story are all over newspapers in Europe and the Arab world. Public international support for the occupation, already quite small, is about to disintegrate entirely.

Source

[Skinzaholic]

I agree Tom... this report saddens me deeply. To hear that we have sunken to levels of our enemies is very sad. These soldiers should be severly punished for these actions.

You personal input was a stretch indeed... but... the story is still grave.

[Spence]

Kevin, check some international newspapers. They're running with this on the front page in bold type. Photos included. I don't know if you've seen the photos, but even blurred out they are pretty disgusting. A lot of these people, especially in the Arab world, were already predisposed to not trust the U.S. This ain't gonna help.

[lakewinola]

Originally Posted by Skinzaholic

I agree Tom... this report saddens me deeply. To hear that we have sunken to levels of our enemies is very sad. These soldiers should be severly punished for these actions.

You personal input was a stretch indeed... but... the story is still grave.

You really think everythings good in the world that everyone loves us unconditionally? That the world is behind us 100%? Oh, yeah that was before cowboy bush alienated the entire world.

[Spence]

This is what I'm talking about.

CAIRO, Egypt -- Arab television stations led their newscasts Friday with photographs of Iraqi prisoners being humiliated by U.S. military police. One main channel called the pictures evidence of the "immoral practices" of American forces.

The images, including prisoners naked except for hoods covering their heads, documented alleged abuses that have led to charges against six American soldiers. They were first broadcast Wednesday night in the United States on CBS' "60 Minutes II."

The Dubai-based Al-Arabiya and the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera channels blurred the nudity of the prisoners.

The images were potentially inflammatory in an Arab world already angry at the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Arabs consider public nudity as dishonorable.

Prime Minister Tony Blair's office Friday condemned the alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners, but stressed it did not reflect the conduct of the vast majority of coalition troops.
...
Al-Jazeera introduced the pictures by saying they showed the "immoral practices" of Iraq's occupation forces. The anchor reported that some of those responsible would face trial and could be discharged from the Army.

Among the images shown by the news channels were a hooded prisoner standing on a box with wires attached to his hands. CBS reported that the prisoner was told that if he fell off the box, he would be electrocuted, although in reality the wires were not connected to a power supply.

Both stations also showed a photograph of a female U.S. soldier standing by a hooded naked prisoner. The soldier is pointing at his genitals, which are blurred out, and grinning at the camera.

The stations also broadcast a picture of several naked men intertwined as if they were engaging in a sex act.

CBS said the images were taken late last year at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, where American soldiers were holding hundreds of prisoners captured during the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Source

By now, just about everyone in the Arab world with access to a newspaper or television has seen these photos. Others will have heard about it on the radio.

[Spence]

WARNING: The following information is graphic and disgusting, though also very, very important. Consider yourself cautioned.

Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.

There was stunning evidence to support the allegations, Taguba added—“detailed witness statements and the discovery of extremely graphic photographic evidence.” Photographs and videos taken by the soldiers as the abuses were happening were not included in his report, Taguba said, because of their “extremely sensitive nature.”

The photographs—several of which were broadcast on CBS’s “60 Minutes 2” last week—show leering G.I.s taunting naked Iraqi prisoners who are forced to assume humiliating poses. Six suspects—Staff Sergeant Ivan L. Frederick II, known as Chip, who was the senior enlisted man; Specialist Charles A. Graner; Sergeant Javal Davis; Specialist Megan Ambuhl; Specialist Sabrina Harman; and Private Jeremy Sivits—are now facing prosecution in Iraq, on charges that include conspiracy, dereliction of duty, cruelty toward prisoners, maltreatment, assault, and indecent acts. A seventh suspect, Private Lynndie England, was reassigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, after becoming pregnant.

The photographs tell it all. In one, Private England, a cigarette dangling from her mouth, is giving a jaunty thumbs-up sign and pointing at the genitals of a young Iraqi, who is naked except for a sandbag over his head, as he masturbates. Three other hooded and naked Iraqi prisoners are shown, hands reflexively crossed over their genitals. A fifth prisoner has his hands at his sides. In another, England stands arm in arm with Specialist Graner; both are grinning and giving the thumbs-up behind a cluster of perhaps seven naked Iraqis, knees bent, piled clumsily on top of each other in a pyramid. There is another photograph of a cluster of naked prisoners, again piled in a pyramid. Near them stands Graner, smiling, his arms crossed; a woman soldier stands in front of him, bending over, and she, too, is smiling. Then, there is another cluster of hooded bodies, with a female soldier standing in front, taking photographs. Yet another photograph shows a kneeling, naked, unhooded male prisoner, head momentarily turned away from the camera, posed to make it appear that he is performing oral sex on another male prisoner, who is naked and hooded.

Such dehumanization is unacceptable in any culture, but it is especially so in the Arab world. Homosexual acts are against Islamic law and it is humiliating for men to be naked in front of other men, Bernard Haykel, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at New York University, explained. “Being put on top of each other and forced to masturbate, being naked in front of each other—it’s all a form of torture,” Haykel said.

Two Iraqi faces that do appear in the photographs are those of dead men. There is the battered face of prisoner No. 153399, and the bloodied body of another prisoner, wrapped in cellophane and packed in ice. There is a photograph of an empty room, splattered with blood.

The 372nd’s abuse of prisoners seemed almost routine—a fact of Army life that the soldiers felt no need to hide. On April 9th, at an Article 32 hearing (the military equivalent of a grand jury) in the case against Sergeant Frederick, at Camp Victory, near Baghdad, one of the witnesses, Specialist Matthew Wisdom, an M.P., told the courtroom what happened when he and other soldiers delivered seven prisoners, hooded and bound, to the so-called “hard site” at Abu Ghraib—seven tiers of cells where the inmates who were considered the most dangerous were housed. The men had been accused of starting a riot in another section of the prison. Wisdom said:

SFC Snider grabbed my prisoner and threw him into a pile. . . . I do not think it was right to put them in a pile. I saw SSG Frederic, SGT Davis and CPL Graner walking around the pile hitting the prisoners. I remember SSG Frederick hitting one prisoner in the side of its [sic] ribcage. The prisoner was no danger to SSG Frederick. . . . I left after that.

When he returned later, Wisdom testified:

I saw two naked detainees, one masturbating to another kneeling with its mouth open. I thought I should just get out of there. I didn’t think it was right . . . I saw SSG Frederick walking towards me, and he said, “Look what these animals do when you leave them alone for two seconds.” I heard PFC England shout out, “He’s getting hard.”

Wisdom testified that he told his superiors what had happened, and assumed that “the issue was taken care of.” He said, “I just didn’t want to be part of anything that looked criminal.”
...
Myers, who was one of the military defense attorneys in the My Lai prosecutions of the nineteen-seventies, told me that his client’s defense will be that he was carrying out the orders of his superiors and, in particular, the directions of military intelligence. He said, “Do you really think a group of kids from rural Virginia decided to do this on their own? Decided that the best way to embarrass Arabs and make them talk was to have them walk around nude?”

In letters and e-mails to family members, Frederick repeatedly noted that the military-intelligence teams, which included C.I.A. officers and linguists and interrogation specialists from private defense contractors, were the dominant force inside Abu Ghraib. In a letter written in January, he said:

I questioned some of the things that I saw . . . such things as leaving inmates in their cell with no clothes or in female underpants, handcuffing them to the door of their cell—and the answer I got was, “This is how military intelligence (MI) wants it done.” . . . . MI has also instructed us to place a prisoner in an isolation cell with little or no clothes, no toilet or running water, no ventilation or window, for as much as three days.


The military-intelligence officers have “encouraged and told us, ‘Great job,’ they were now getting positive results and information,” Frederick wrote. “CID has been present when the military working dogs were used to intimidate prisoners at MI’s request.” At one point, Frederick told his family, he pulled aside his superior officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Phillabaum, the commander of the 320th M.P. Battalion, and asked about the mistreatment of prisoners. “His reply was ‘Don’t worry about it.’”

In November, Frederick wrote, an Iraqi prisoner under the control of what the Abu Ghraib guards called “O.G.A.,” or other government agencies—that is, the C.I.A. and its paramilitary employees—was brought to his unit for questioning. “They stressed him out so bad that the man passed away. They put his body in a body bag and packed him in ice for approximately twenty-four hours in the shower. . . . The next day the medics came and put his body on a stretcher, placed a fake IV in his arm and took him away.” The dead Iraqi was never entered into the prison’s inmate-control system, Frederick recounted, “and therefore never had a number.”

Source

There is more and it just gets worse. This is a gigantic scandal that is on the front page of every major [and most minor] newspapers in the world. Iraqis and other Arabs are bombarded with news about this constantly.

What's more, as The Washington Post reported on Sunday, the horrible conditions at the Abu Ghraib prison got much worse AFTER a team of military intelligence officials arrived from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with instructions as to how interrogations of Iraqi prisoners should be conducted. When several British detainees at Guantanamo Bay were freed, they returned to the United Kingdom and told stories of terrible abuse by U.S. officials at the prison in Guantanamo Bay. Their stories were dismissed as the rantings of Islamic fanatics, but with the revolting evidence pouring out of Iraq every day, we can see that perhaps the world should be paid closer attention to what those freed British men said.

I know from several conversations I have had this weekend with members of defense teams for Guantanamo Bay prisoners about to go on trial that their lawyers intend to raise the issue of torture at Gitmo very prominently. The Bush administration has declared that they have the absolute right to run these prisons in Gitmo and Iraq [and anywhere else in the world] as they see fit and any judicial oversight is unconstitutional. The notion that the administration should be trusted to run these prisons properly because they say they will has received a serious blow. We shall see how judges hearing these cases react to this news.

[BigCountry]

Only thing I don't get is why this is a suprise? Anyone really think soldiers were going in there as good will people? Call this contraversial all you want but when was the last time you heard of a "white" country invaiding a "minority" country without this stuff happening? This thing is routine to U.S invasion justified or not. They don't hate us out there for no good reason. Nobody up in the white house, democrats or republicans, looks at any Arab country as an equal, and never will. This is very extreme, but when's the last time we treated an Arab country like equal human beings?

[Booser]

this is truly a shame, but i would hesitate to look to other (especially European) countries' media outlets for an indication of support. Keep in mind that the Socialist party controls many European countries (like Spain). Also, over 60 countries now have troops working in conjunction with US forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I would hardly call that a lack of international support. Who cares what France thinks anyway?

[higgybaby]

originally posted by lakewinola:

You really think everythings good in the world that everyone loves us unconditionally? That the world is behind us 100%? Oh, yeah that was before cowboy bush alienated the entire world.

Lakewinola if you believe that was the worlds sentiment of us before the bush administration, oh wait a minute I have another call, I am back sorry about that, where was I, Oh yeah Santa and the Easter bunny said for me to tell you to make sure you are good this year...

[thickskin]

actually, the easter bunny and santa clause are real only in the sense that they might have a real initial referent, the rest is mythologized, even more so than religious figures bc fewer attempts have been made to conflate mythical with historical events, which are dubious in their own right, so i suspect it is really you, higgybaby, who wishes goodness of lakewinola. defend your honor!

[akhhorus]

I know it was on the daily show, but when Wolfowitz said that the torture chambers were gone, shouldnt he just said: "Under new management"?

[Spence]

Originally Posted by Booser

this is truly a shame, but i would hesitate to look to other (especially European) countries' media outlets for an indication of support. Keep in mind that the Socialist party controls many European countries (like Spain). Also, over 60 countries now have troops working in conjunction with US forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I would hardly call that a lack of international support. Who cares what France thinks anyway?

I can't think of anything sensible in this post. What difference does it make if the Socialist party runs the government in Spain? It has a free press. The government does not control the media in Spain, as the Occupation controls the media in Iraq. There is not censorship in Spain as there is in Iraq under Saddam Hussein or the U.S. occupation.

Who cares what France thinks? Well, the Bush admin, actually. The Bush admin is the one who insulted Europe and the U.N. and has now gone back to the U.N. begging for help in Iraq. And in case you need to be reminded, France has a seat on the permanent Security Council.

Jeebus, how long is this incredibly childish "Freedom Fries" mentality going to last?

[camasterton]

A pregnant woman and her four children were shot by PLO terrorists. 18 children are burned alive by Arab terrorists in Bhagdad. Pick a day, any day, and similar disgusting acts occur. Where's the outrage from these oh so offended. Where's is the outrage over the countless deaths caused by the misogynistic, racist, murdering culture in the Arab world? There is none. There is no censorship, yeah so what. There is nothing the 21st century French press could teach the world about morality. Thier "seat" is a joke. A great place for them to receive kick backs, to make secret oil contracts with murdering dictators in the "name of the chlildren". They'll be on the wrong side of history again, France and Spain et al. They're the ones who'll be begging.

[Spence]

Originally Posted by camasterton

A pregnant woman and her four children were shot by PLO terrorists. 18 children are burned alive by Arab terrorists in Bhagdad. Pick a day, any day, and similar disgusting acts occur. Where's the outrage from these oh so offended. Where's is the outrage over the countless deaths caused by the misogynistic, racist, murdering culture in the Arab world?

I suspect the world expects more of the U.S. The reason the Bush admin invaded Iraq has shifted from WMD [which didn't exist] to ending oppression. Mr Bush bragged about how we had closed down the torture chambers. Clearly, we didn't close them down, they're just under new management. This is not what the world expected of the U.S. This is not what the American people expected.

The world expects more of the U.S., Cam. So do I. Don't you?

[dukeuch]

Originally Posted by camasterton

A pregnant woman and her four children were shot by PLO terrorists. 18 children are burned alive by Arab terrorists in Bhagdad. Pick a day, any day, and similar disgusting acts occur. Where's the outrage from these oh so offended. Where's is the outrage over the countless deaths caused by the misogynistic, racist, murdering culture in the Arab world? There is none. There is no censorship, yeah so what. There is nothing the 21st century French press could teach the world about morality. Thier "seat" is a joke. A great place for them to receive kick backs, to make secret oil contracts with murdering dictators in the "name of the chlildren". They'll be on the wrong side of history again, France and Spain et al. They're the ones who'll be begging.

Man oh man, do you really think that during the various embargos on the importation of oil from Iraq and Iran over the past decades that we did not import Iraqi and Iranian oil? Of course we did, it just was not from Iraqis or Iranians directly.

There is plenty of outrage regarding atrocities around the world. Just as there should be plenty of outrage regarding the atrocities committed by the US. Personally, I hold ourselves and our allies to a higher standard than terrorists, and you should too. Do you think that the acts committed by the six or seven soldiers here represent the total? Please.