04/28/05

It has been exactly one year since the pictures of U.S. soldiers humiliating and torturing detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq appeared on 60 Minutes II. Shortly after the photos came out, Secretary of State Colin Powell told foreign leaders: 'Watch America. Watch how we deal with this. Watch how America will do the right thing.' But America is not doing the right thing. Rather, the United States is doing what every banana republic does when its abuses are discovered: covering up and shifting blame downward. Each passing day brings new evidence that the mistreatment of Muslim prisoners ... was widespread in Afghanistan, Iraq, and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. ... This pattern of abuse across three countries did not result from the acts of individual soldiers who broke the rules. It resulted from decisions made by the Bush administration to bend, ignore, or cast aside rules...

http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=9607

from The American Prospect, by Reed Brody


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp