It sounds more like "standard-operating-procedures" than "a few bad apples" to me.This fish stinks from the head.Remember when Rummy told us the Geneva Convention didn't apply to any of our prisoners in Gitmo or Iraq? That's so they could happily abuse them. And the foreign press, at least, has noted that the official responsible for intelligence policy, the Deputy Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, is none other than lieutenant AWOL's favorite holywarrior LTG Boykin, whose God is bigger than your God.
Something we all know here but must be repeated over and over again (because- if you let the right wing define terms, all the prisoners were AQ operatives), 70% to 90% of the folks in Iraq prisons had nothing to do with AQ or the insurgency- just folks in the wrong place at the wrong time. "Sometimes they arrested all adult males present in a house, including elderly, handicapped or sick people," it said. "Treatment often included pushing people around, insulting, taking aim with rifles, punching and kicking and striking with rifles."
LONDON (Reuters) - The Red Cross saw U.S. troops keeping Iraqi prisoners naked for days in darkness at the Abu Ghraib jail last October and was told by an intelligence officer in charge it was "part of the process", a report leaked on Monday said.
The 24-page report added to the pressure on U.S. officials by revealing that commanders were alerted to apparent abuses at Abu Ghraib months before they opened a criminal investigation.
<snip>
Although most of the Red Cross's observations concerned U.S. forces, it also piled pressure on Washington's closest ally, describing British troops forcing Iraqi detainees to kneel and stomping on their necks in an incident in which one died.
The International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva confirmed that the confidential February 4 report, initially leaked on the Website of the Wall Street Journal, was genuine.
During a visit to Abu Ghraib in October, Red Cross delegates witnessed "the practice of keeping persons deprived of their liberty completely naked in totally empty concrete cells and in total darkness," the report said.
"Upon witnessing such cases, the ICRC interrupted its visits and requested an explanation from the authorities. The military intelligence officer in charge of the interrogation explained that this practice was 'part of the process'."
Delegates met prisoners who were being held naked in complete darkness. Others were forced to wear women's underwear.
PICTURES
The Red Cross's visit took place two months before pictures were taken of U.S. troops abusing prisoners, which later led to criminal charges against seven soldiers. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has said he was unaware of abuse until the investigation into the pictures was launched in January.
<snip>
Although much of the abuse described in the report appears to have taken place in jails run by U.S. forces, the report also describes the death of an Iraqi prisoner in custody in the British zone of Basra last September.
The victim's name is blacked out, but Britain's defence ministry said it referred to detainee Baha Musa, whose death Britain says it has been investigating since last year.
The Red Cross report described him as one of nine men arrested in a Basra hotel and "made to kneel, face and hands against the ground, as if in a prayer position. The soldiers stamped on the back of the neck of those raising their head."
His death certificate said he died of a heart attack, although witnesses saw a body with a broken nose and ribs.
The Red Cross said it had repeatedly brought allegations of mistreatment to the attention of the authorities. In some cases, they changed practices. For example, they stopped issuing wristbands marked "terrorist" to all foreign detainees.
The report says prison guards often opened fire with live ammunition on detainees who "were unarmed and did not appear to pose any serious threat to anyone's life".
Among "serious violations of international humanitarian law" the report listed a failure to set up a system to notify family members of arrests, resulting "in the de facto 'disappearance' of the arrestee for weeks or months".
"The uncaring behaviour of the CF (Coalition Forces) and their inability to quickly provide accurate information on persons deprived of their liberty for the families concerned also seriously affects the image of the Occupying Powers amongst the Iraqi population," it said.
"The Geneva Conventions were put into place not to protect the bad guys - they were put into place to protect our people. Every time we cross these lines we make it okay for the rest of the world to do it to US soldiers too."
Not to fear - "We've already got our scapegoats lined up."
Yes, and they're giving the first one a whopping ten days, until May 19th!, to prepare his case. Maybe he should hire Limbaugh's team and use its delaying tactics?
Meanwhile, for your reading pleasure, here's a truly brilliant post by another guy named Mike from Kevin Drum's blog:
I'd settle for a national day of atonement.On that day, all those who voted for Bush would strip naked, put a hood over their head, and walk out into the street, begging passerbys (and vicious pets) to abuse and torture and rape and murder them as they wished.
Until that day, all republicans deserve to be spit on. And they owe you. They wasted the national treasure: hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of dead and wounded US soldiers. They committed murder on a mass scale. They turned the US into an international outlaw, inviting the enmity of the entire planet. Republicans are supposed to be good at business, but their misguided dreams of rapture and empire will translate to trillions of dollars *not* invested in the US over this century.
They should at least buy us lunch. Every day for the rest of their miserable little lives. It'd be the Christian thing to do after that colossal waste of money and life.
Of course, being the sniveling little chickenhawk cowards that they are, they'd deny voting for Bush. So let's do a little 'group punishment' on all republicans. Tattoo 'necrothuglican' on their foreheads. Make it legal to piss on them.
