----- Original Message ----- From: "Gautam Mukunda" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, April 30, 2004 11:31 PM Subject: Re: Disturbing evidence of torture
> > But that's neither here nor there. It's not shocking > or surprising but it is, of course, tragic. I'm a bit disturbed that Rumsfeld, just now, appears to have been shocked as I have, and as you haven't. My shock was partially based on the assumption that the US occupation force was competent enough to provide as good a prison environment as possible. I expected there to be good supervision, and for treatment to be exemplary...mainly because it is very much in our self interest to do so. >From what I am reading, and from the quotes I've seen from those involved, the supervision at the prison was woefully inadaquate. The comments by the general who was in charge of the prison were particularly disturbing. She claimed to have not been in control of that part of the prison. She said her superiors were at least partially to blame for what happened. She is not some private, she is a general. From the reports I've read, at least that part of the prison was seriously out of control. If one just considers her culpability, it seems that she was oblidged to raise a tremendous stink if she was not allowed to do her job properly. (if she is simply lying about her resources then she is even more culpable.) No matter what, her superiors do bear responsability for the apparent massive breakdown of discipline at the prison. The nature of the photos mesh with other reports on the lack of control in the prisons. I cannot imagine posing for happy face photos of abuse when one knows that any abuse would be severely punished. Beatings in the dark, yes, but not voluntary documentation. This is also consistant with other reports. For example from http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/04/iraq.abuse.main/index.html <quote> According to Taguba, the alleged abuse was systemic, intentional and perpetrated by members of the military police guard force, with the apparent purpose being to "set physical and mental conditions for the favorable interrogation of witnesses." <end quote> > Americans who > commit atrocities are, and should be, punished for > their crimes. There is _nothing_ more important > facing the American military's justice system right now. I agree with that. I know that you are strongly pro-military, and that part of being pro-military is that you hold the military to high standards. One of the things that bothers me is that the senior leadership in Defense should have known about the high risk of prisoner abuse and should have taken significant steps to minimize the possibility. If the reports of massive understaffing and no real supervision of a mix of MPs, intellegence officers of the armed forces, and private contractors are accurate, the exact opposite happened. Even I, who argued against the war in Iraq due to lack of proper preparation for the aftermath though that we would be far better prepared than this. Finally, one of the reports that bothered me was one that stated that, probably, half the people in prison posed no risk. We were keeping them there mostly becasue the record keeping was so bad. (IIRC, an authoritive source was quoted...I can go back and look if need be.). If that's true, then we really planned poorly for this. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
