"In keeping with the Rumsfeld adage "Stuff happens" and given the Senate Armed Services Committee's timidity, no senior U.S. Army officer or defense official is likely to be held accountable for the torture, "ghost" prisoners, and other abuses at Abu Ghraib.
Only the bad apples at the bottom; none of the rotten ones at the top. Not the commander in chief, who authorized torture with his memorandum of Feb. 7, 2002, announcing and implementing a new policy that detainees be treated "humanely, as appropriate, and as consistent with military necessity." Not then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, nor his deputy Paul Wolfowitz, nor U.S. pro-consul Paul Bremer, nor troop commander Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, nor Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller (in charge of Gitmo-izing Abu Ghraib), nor Sanchez's intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, nor National Security Council functionary Frances Townsend.
All of the above visited Abu Ghraib during the torture year of 2003 before the photos surfaced the next year. Had it never occurred to them that their incessant pressure on Army interrogators to find nonexistent WMD in Iraq and nonexistent ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda, together with the expanded list of torture techniques duly approved by hired-gun lawyers in the Pentagon, the office of the vice president and the Department of Justice, would lead to the abuses of Abu Ghraib?
Not to mention things like the marginal notes from Rumsfeld, on the list of torture techniques, "Make sure this happens."
The fact that no one will be "punished" for the outrages at Abu Ghraib, as this past week has shown, adds farce to the disgraceful and shameful conduct of those at the prison itself, the relevant commanders and the politicians who knew what was afoot.
Sam Provance, a former sergeant specializing in intelligence analysis, refused to remain silent about the torture at Abu Ghraib, where he served for five months at the height of the abuses. He was punished for refusing to take part in the coverup, and pushed out of the Army. His article, part of which is above, appeared in AlterNet here.
Only the bad apples at the bottom; none of the rotten ones at the top. Not the commander in chief, who authorized torture with his memorandum of Feb. 7, 2002, announcing and implementing a new policy that detainees be treated "humanely, as appropriate, and as consistent with military necessity." Not then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, nor his deputy Paul Wolfowitz, nor U.S. pro-consul Paul Bremer, nor troop commander Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, nor Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller (in charge of Gitmo-izing Abu Ghraib), nor Sanchez's intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, nor National Security Council functionary Frances Townsend.
All of the above visited Abu Ghraib during the torture year of 2003 before the photos surfaced the next year. Had it never occurred to them that their incessant pressure on Army interrogators to find nonexistent WMD in Iraq and nonexistent ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda, together with the expanded list of torture techniques duly approved by hired-gun lawyers in the Pentagon, the office of the vice president and the Department of Justice, would lead to the abuses of Abu Ghraib?
Not to mention things like the marginal notes from Rumsfeld, on the list of torture techniques, "Make sure this happens."
The fact that no one will be "punished" for the outrages at Abu Ghraib, as this past week has shown, adds farce to the disgraceful and shameful conduct of those at the prison itself, the relevant commanders and the politicians who knew what was afoot.
Sam Provance, a former sergeant specializing in intelligence analysis, refused to remain silent about the torture at Abu Ghraib, where he served for five months at the height of the abuses. He was punished for refusing to take part in the coverup, and pushed out of the Army. His article, part of which is above, appeared in AlterNet here.
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