US general: Abu Ghraib abuse coverup
Officers, soldiers in Iraqi prison abuse scandal tried to hide their actions from Red Cross.
The scandal over the treatment of Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib prison
continues to grow. The
Guardian newspaper reported Monday that US prison guards and interrogators attempted to
hide the systematic abuse of Iraqi inmates from the International Red Cross.
The allegation by Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the former head of US military prisons in Iraq, is the first hint that the "patterns of abuse" (as she described it) could go farther than originally expected. Brigadier General Karpinski was relieved of her command earlier this year during the investigation into abuse at the prison.
The Washington Post reports that Brig. Gen. Karpinski blamed most of the abuse on a group of
regular military intelligence officers. Karpinski said in an interview that the US military was trying to shift the blame "exclusively to her and the reservists."
"We're disposable," she said of the military's attitude toward reservists. "Why would they want the active-duty people to take the blame? They want to put this on the MPs and hope that this thing goes away. Well, it's not going to go away."
The New Yorker reports that a military investigation carried out by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, uncovered
evidence of "war crimes" against the inmates, including: 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; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick. A report last November by Maj. Gen. Donald J. Ryder, the Army's top law-enforcement officer, concluded that military intelligence did not order US military police to "put pressure on Iraqi prisoners" to prepare them for interrogations. In his report, Maj. Gen. Taguba disagreed with this assessment
"Contrary to the findings of MG Ryder's report, I find that personnel assigned to the 372nd MP Company, 800th MP Brigade were directed to change facility procedures to 'set the conditions' for MI [military intelligence] interrogations," Taguba wrote, according to the article. Army intelligence officers, CIA agents and private contractors "actively requested that MP guards set physical and mental conditions for favorable interrogation of witnesses," said the article's account of Taguba's report.
The
Guardian reports that are also questions that are being raised over the role that
private contractors played in the alleged abuse of prisoners.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that there are
fewer rules to govern the behavior of private contractors in Iraq. "A lot of those people are cowboys – cowboys and scary people," says Steven Schooner, a contracting expert at George Washington University Law School. Peter Singer, also writing in the
Guardian, says the allegations of abuse show that
outsourcing military jobs has gone too far.
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared Sunday on CBS's
Face the Nation and said the abuse of detainees was isolated, and
not representative of the US military prisons elsewhere in Iraq. "It's important to realize that it was American soldiers that turned these people in, and that as soon as we found out about it, we took very quick action to investigate that situation." Karpinski, however, says she warned her superiors about problems at the prison, but they just ignored her because "they wanted it to go away."
Columnist and author Jed Babbin, writes in
National Review, that it's
important to remember the alleged abuses were the actions of a relatively small number of individuals.
As serious as the prisoner abuse was, we must remember that these crimes were the acts of a few, and have no relationship to the conduct of the tens of thousands of Americans who have fought in this war. There will be those who ��� like John Kerry 30 years ago ��� say that war crimes by Americans are the norm, not the exception. It was false then, and it is just as false now. Let the Noam Chomskys of the world say whatever echoes in their own empty heads: The record of the American soldier in every war beginning with the Revolution has been one of defending humanity while defending freedom. But international human rights groups are questioning such assertions.
CNN reports that Amnesty International reported as early as last July that
Iraqi prisoners were being abused, and says the current situation is just "the tip of the iceberg." The group has called for
an independent and public inquiry into the treatment of prisoners in Iraq. And
Newsweek reports that such charges of abuse of prisoners are
not confined to Iraq.
A recent report by Human Rights Watch described similar treatment of prisoners at Baghram and other US-run detention centers in Afghanistan. The deaths of at least two prisoners in American custody in Afghanistan were officially declared homicides by US military doctors who performed autopsies on the victims.
Newsweek also reports that some "pressure tactics" have been in used in interrogations of prisoners since Vietnam, but that what happened at Abu Ghraib prison went far beyond accepted practices.
The Washington Post interviews Iraqis who were detailed by US troops, then
allegedly abused, and subsequently released without warning.
The abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was first reported in January by an MP who discovered
the abuse photos on a CD. In March, the military announced that 17 people "
had been removed from duty" because of charges of abuse of prisoners, but released no details. Some family members of those involved had also known about the abuses, because of
e-mails they had received from Iraq.
The Baltimore Sun reports that even though there was no early official notification of the charges, word about the situation spread among families back in the US.
"A lot of us have known about the arrests and the court-martial, but everyone knew to keep their mouths shut," said the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of hurting her relative's military career.
CBS broke the story last Wednesday when it aired the photos. But it turns out that
CBS had
access to the pictures two week before it aired them, but had been asked by Gen. Myers not to broadcast the story because of "tension on the ground" in Iraq.
MediaChannel.org reports that it was only when
CBS was concerned that someone else was about the break the story that it did its 60 Minutes II report.
Meanwhile, the photos were widely circulated in the Arab media over the weekend, which resulted in a
great outpouring of anger. Many Arab outlets speculated whether other such incidents have taken place but had not received the same widespread media attention of the incidents at Abu Ghraib.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that the effect of the photos was somewhat blunted because Arabs "say they
expect no less from the United States given the widely held view that it is running a brutal and oppressive occupation in Iraq."
"Will the pictures make a difference in the Arab world? Probably not," says Michael Young, a Lebanese political analyst. "It simply confirms what people already think about the Americans. But it will be embarrassing for the Americans in Iraq, and that's where it's going to count." Abd-al-Rahman al-Rashid, writing in the London-based daily
Al-Sharq al-Awsat, says that not all Americans, or American soldiers should be judged by the actions of a few. But he asks that Americans
remember the same thing about Arabs and Muslims.
Certainly there are soldiers who are very kind and understanding... However, there are others who are very cruel, like those who enjoy removing the clothes from Iraqi prisoners, treating them badly and even in some cases killing them... We would like to say the same as President Bush, when he defended most of his disciplined soldiers and protested against generalizations blaming that bad act on all of them, because since the incidents of 11 September 2001, we [Muslims] have all been viewed by the other world [the West] as terrorists or suspects.
Fox News reported Monday that
seven US soldiers have been reprimanded in connection with the alleged abuse.
Also...
•
Inquiry into British 'torture' pictures (
Guardian
•
Troops 'swapped hundreds of abuse pictures' (
Scotsman
•
Foreigners plan to leave Saudi (
The Age
•
Turkish police arrest more than 16 for NATO bomb plot (
Bloomberg)
•
Gamble on Sharon goes awry for Bush (
Washington Post)
•
Is President Bush repeating McKinley's mistake in the Philippines? (
History News Network)
• Feedback appreciated. E-mail
Tom Regan
.
|
RSS feed
