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Military intelligence and the Iraqi prison scandal

MSNBC has made public photos, provided by Spc. Charles Graner's attorney, which show military intelligence officers who were "in charge of interrogations at the prison", involved with the abuses. MSNBC - Photo may show intelligence officers in charge.

The interrogators are trained at top secret Fort Huachuca in Arizona. "[T]wo former soldiers training there to become interrogators told ABC News that they were taught to 'bend the rules' to inflict physical and mental pain on prisoners." The Arizona Republic: Ex-trainees: We learned abuse tactics at Huachuca.

"The abuse at Abu Ghraib occurred in two cell blocks in the 7,000-prisoner facility. Two cell blocks, 1A and 1B, hold about 200 of some of the most hard-core insurgents thought to have vital information on the whereabouts of Iraqi fighters killing American troops." The Washington Times.

It could not be more clear that this was not some random abuse by a few bad apple rogue soldiers, but rather an example of military intelligence officers using methods they learned at their top secret training to get information out of enemy insurgents.

Now the military and the Bush administration are in deny, scapegoat, and cover up mode. In a most cowardly manner, the Bush administration has blamed everything on the actions of a few low level soldiers, and the army is helping out by happily court martialling them.

No one in the administration has the courage to say what's politically incorrect but true, that these prisoners are terrorists who participated in the murder of Americans, and they should be thankful that they just had to walk around naked and wear women's underwear, and that they weren't beheaded like poor Nick Berg.

I thought that after we got rid of Clinton, the days of coverups and lies coming from the White House had ended, but this is apparently not the case.

As I wrote before, the wrong people are being court martialled. These soldiers were serving their country, and now their country is punishing them for their loyalty.

posted Friday, May 14, 2004