From McKlatchy:
WASHINGTON — The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison accused the Bush administration Wednesday of committing "war crimes" and called for those responsible to be held to account.
The remarks by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who's now retired, came in a new report that found that U.S. personnel tortured and abused detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using beatings, electrical shocks, sexual humiliation and other cruel practices.
"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes," Taguba wrote. "The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."
Are you listening, Democrats? I want trials for the members of the Bush maladministration. I want them to have the trials that they've refused to give the detainees. I want them to be held accountable.
The group Physicians for Human Rights, which compiled the new report, described it as the most in-depth medical and psychological examination of former detainees to date.
Doctors and mental health experts examined 11 detainees held for long periods in the prison system that President Bush established after the 9-11 terrorist attacks. All of them eventually were released without charges.
The doctors and experts determined that the men had been subject to cruelties that ranged from isolation, sleep deprivation and hooding to electric shocks, beating and, in one case, being forced to drink urine.
Bush has said repeatedly that the United States doesn't condone torture.
(My emphasis in the quotes)
This is sickening. Evidence that the decision to use "enhanced interrogation" methods was authorized at the highest levels grows ever stronger with new investigations and revelations. Those who were released must have been innocent, right? The maladministration would not let terrorists go free, would they? Is this the kind of country we want to be?
"The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."
Yes, Gen. Taguba, and thank you.
"Are you listening, Democrats?"
ReplyDeleteTherein lies the problem. This Democratic congress has been a huge disappointment. They have done nothing but buckle under and enable Bush in every way possible. The entire congress, with the exception of Kucinich, Paul and maybe a couple of others, have only one goal - re-election.
Yep. Even with the majority, they still knuckle under. It just makes me so very tired. What the hell are they afraid of?
ReplyDeleteRemember the old slogan Making the World Safe for Democracy? It turns out that we have met the enemies of democracy and "they is us."
ReplyDeleteThe Democrats a disappointment? Sometimes I'm driven to dear despair by the Democrats in the Congress.
ReplyDeleteFISA anyone? Pelosi wants a bill that the president will sign before the July 4th recess. You know that any bill that Bush will sign will be fatally flawed. What's the rush, Nancy?
That would be "near despair". There's nothing dear about despair.
ReplyDeleteI am speechless.
ReplyDeleteDemocrats? Listen?
Deep sigh.
General Taguba is a brave and honorable soldier, who was forcibly retired early for telling the truth after Abu Ga'raib. I understand his family fought and suffered as guerillas during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. There are some lines honorable people do not cross; there is no point in explaining this to members of the current maladministration, which, I am beginning to see, includes the enabling Democratic Congressional leadership. I mean you, Pelosi and Stoyer.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I believe in it, but sometimes I wish there was a hell for some of these people. And I know which ways that points.
Johnieb, you are absolutely right about Gen. Taguba.
ReplyDeleteI cannot believe what the Democrats are about to do tomorrow. I cannot believe it. According to Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor, the bill will give immunity not only to the Telecoms, but to the members of the Bush maladministration. What are they thinking?!
Immunity for the Bush Crime Gang is the whole point; the telcoms are a smokescreen for those whom they really seek to protect.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do NOT want them granted immunity, and have made that position clear to the politicians in my neck of the woods, I do not care that much about the telcoms. I want Bush and his cronies in the maladministration held accountable with no free passes on anything.
As the comedian Lewis Black once said, the Republicans are the party of bad ideas and the Democrats are the party of no ideas.
ReplyDeleteSince it looks like we may not be cleaning up our own house, others will have to do it for us. I heard on the radio today that there is talk already of bringing up Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al on charges of war crimes before the International Court in The Hague. At the very least, they would not be able to travel without the risk of arrest. Bush will certainly pardon everyone, including himself, before he leaves office. Then I suppose they will all hide out together in air-conditioned splendor in Dubai.
Counterlight, I doubt that those in the Bush inner circle will be troubled if they cannot travel in "Old Europe". Still I'd like to see them charged and in disgrace here and all over the world. They're already in disgrace, but in a way that might cause them to be a tad embarrassed. Or maybe they're not capable of that. Perhaps they'd feel like martyrs instead.
ReplyDeleteThere will be more of this as men and women of integrity speak out. There will also be some really nasty responses. You wait for the muck to start being raked, the innuendo, the questions about their motives and integrity, the trashing of reputations....
ReplyDeleteDP, the powers tried a bit of mud-slinging when Taguba's report first came out, but they didn't get far. The evidence that's come out since then has either confirmed his report or revealed horrors that were not known at the time he investigated.
ReplyDeleteBush has said repeatedly that the United States doesn't condone torture.
ReplyDeleteBush is a chronic lying sociopath.
Bush is a chronic lying sociopath.
ReplyDeleteJohnieb, ya think?
Joe Galloway of McClatchy, the preminent military reporter of his generation (and mine), was my source for Taguba's background. www.mcclatchydc.com
ReplyDeleteJohnieb, I read McKlatchy and Juan Cole, who links to them often. They're my best sources of news from the ME.
ReplyDelete