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Tuesday, May 18, 2004
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Excellent UPI column on the widening, ever more ugly, Iraq prison abuse scandal.
I grow more appalled by the day. So, the prison scandal is not the result of classic mismanagement. Rather, it's the result of appalling actions on the part of high level civilian officials - amateurs. Now this kind of mismanagement is criminal. Is it any wonder that the Iraq occupation has degenerated into a horrific mess?
On to the article - this paragraph references this weekend's Hersh article in the New Yorker.
The spearhead for the new wave of revelations and allegations - but by no means the only source of them - is veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. In a major article published in the New Yorker this week and posted on to its Web-site Saturday, Hersh revealed that a high-level Pentagon operation code-named Copper Green "encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation" of Iraqi prisoners. He also cited Pentagon sources and consultants as saying that photographing the victims of such abuse was an explicit part of the program meant to force the victims into becoming blackmailed reliable informants.
Hersh further claimed in his article that Rumsfeld himself approved the program and that one of his four or five top aides, Cambone, set it up in Baghdad and ran it.
Further down in the UPI article:
But what enrages many serving senior Army generals and U.S. top-level intelligence community professionals is that the "few" in this case were not primarily the serving soldiers who were actually encouraged to carry out the abuses and even then take photos of the victims, but that they were encouraged to do so, with the Army's well-established safeguards against such abuses deliberately removed by high-level Pentagon civilian officials.
Abuse and even torture of prisoners happens in almost every war on every side. But well-run professional armies, and the U.S. Army has always been one, take great pains to guard against it and limit it as much as possible. Even in cases where torture excesses are regarded as essential to extract tactical information and save lives, commanders in most modern armies have taken care to limit such "dirty work" to very small units, usually from special forces, and to keep it as secret as possible.
For senior Army professionals know that allowing patterns of abuse and torture to metastasize in any army is annihilating to its morale and tactical effectiveness. Torturers usually make lousy combat soldiers, which is why combat soldiers in every major army hold them in contempt.
8:15:03 PM 
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Tonight, I had dinner at one of my all time favorite Thai restaurants, Bangkok Thai. Exquisite cuisine, great wine list, just a real treat.
And in of all places, Salt Lake City! Who would have thunk?
7:47:52 PM
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I am happily ensconced at the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake. Dad clued me to the Little America a few years ago - Dad always could unearth the great classic hotels that ooze character.
Tomorrow is my bi-annual appointment with my CFS doc - Lucinda Bateman. This should be an interesting visit. I'm doing well. But I want to do better. I want to be an athlete again.
Anyhoo, after my Dr. Bateman appointment, I head off to Grand Junction where a cosmic confluence occurs - the Ski Boy flies in on the red-eye, I arrive at 9:20 PM and we're all set for my little sister, Songya's High School graduation Thursday morning (at 8:00 AM!).
This should be a lot of fun!
7:41:48 PM
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© Copyright 2005 Stephanie A. Kesler.
Last update: 3/5/2005; 8:44:07 PM.
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