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Junkie
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Two murdered in Iraq, 23 other deaths being investigated
Wow, this story just got a lot worse. Two prisoners are confirmed murdered by a US soldier and a CIA contractor. 23 other deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan are under investigation. Disgusting torture techniques have been confirmed.
What's surprising if you read through this is that:
- The Bush Administration has known this since December/January
- Even congress wasn't told about the situation
This has the potential to be very bad for the Bush administration, both nationally and internationally. Personally, this says to me that Bush's "disgust" at the treatment of the prisoners didn't happen when he got the news in December/January, it happened when the press got the story.
This is not going to be good for Bush, he doesn't need powerful Republicans like McCain mad at him. He needs to carry Arizona badly to win the election, which is McCain's home state.
Time for an independent investigation, I think.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...abuse_usa_dc_4
Quote:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two Iraqi prisoners were murdered by Americans and 23 other deaths are being investigated in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites), the United States revealed on Tuesday as the Bush administration tried to contain growing outrage over the abuse of Iraqi detainees.
"The actions of the soldiers in those photographs are totally unacceptable and un-American," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said of humiliating images in the media of Iraqi prisoners. "Any who engaged in such action let down their comrades who serve honorably each day and they let down their country."
Army officials said the military had investigated the deaths of 25 prisoners held by American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and determined that an Army soldier and a CIA (news - web sites) contractor murdered two prisoners. Most of the deaths occurred in Iraq.
An Army official said a soldier was convicted in the U.S. military justice system of homicide for shooting a prisoner to death in September 2003 at a detention center in Iraq.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a private contractor who worked for the CIA was found to have committed the other homicide against a prisoner.
Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites), at the United Nations (news - web sites) for consultations on the Middle East, said only a "small number" of American troops had been involved in the abuse and vowed wrongdoers would be quickly brought to justice.
"I can assure you that no stone will be left unturned to make sure that justice is done and to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again," he said.
President Bush (news - web sites), campaigning in Ohio, did not mention the abuse but his National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) again said the president was disgusted and outraged and had demanded those responsible be held accountable.
"The president has told the secretary of defense that he expects people to be held accountable, and that he wants, too, to know that this is not a systemic problem," Rice said.
"In other words, quite apart from the specific cases of those particular photographs, Americans do not dehumanize other people. That is not why we're in Iraq. We're in Iraq to liberate a people, to help them," she added.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters traveling with the president that Bush became aware of the allegations of abuse at the prison some time after the incidents occurred, late December or early January. It was unclear from McClellan when exactly the president was ware.
NEW ALLEGATIONS
Six U.S. soldiers have been reprimanded and six others face criminal charges in connection with abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, but Iraqi prisoners have complained of inhumane treatment by U.S. troops at other centers as well. The allegations first surfaced on Jan. 13 but were only made public last week.
The new U.S. commander overseeing military-run prisons in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, said there are an estimated 8,000 detainees, about half of them at Abu Ghraib. The two other main prisons are at the southern port city of Umm Qasr and at the Baghdad International Airport, The Washington Post reported on its Web site.
Miller said the U.S. military runs 11 other detention facilities in Iraq where prisoners can be held for up to 14 days before a decision is made to release them or transfer them to one of the three main prisons, the newspaper said.
Images of Iraqis prisoners stripped of their clothes and being humiliated and abused have badly damaged U.S. prestige and credibility, especially in the Arab world. They have severely dented the U.S. argument that it invaded Iraq to bring democracy and human rights to a nation brutalized by a vicious dictator, former President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).
Shocking excerpts from a report on the abuse completed on March 3 by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba were likely to further stoke fury at home and abroad.
"Between October and December 2003, at the Abu Ghraib Confinement Facility (BCCF), numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees," the report said.
"This systemic and illegal abuse of detainees was intentionally perpetrated by several members of the military police guard force (372nd Military Police Company, 320th Military Police Battalion, 800th MP Brigade), in Tier (section) 1-A of the Abu Ghraib Prison (BCCF)."
Taguba said several detainees had credibly described acts of abuse, including:
* Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees
* Beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair
* Sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick
* Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them
* Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time
* Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped
ANGRY LAWMAKERS
On Capitol Hill, angry Republicans and Democrats denounced the abuses. The Senate Intelligence Committee scheduled a closed hearing for Wednesday.
"The prisoner abuse is so disgusting, so degrading, that I think humanity has been hurt broadly," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican. He said it could undercut U.S. efforts to bring democracy to Iraq.
Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), an Arizona Republican and committee member who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, joined many lawmakers in complaining that Rumsfeld and other top Pentagon (news - web sites) officials failed to inform Congress of the situation.
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