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August 24, 2004
Iraqi Teens Tortured in "Sadistic Game" in Abu Ghraib
I can't decide which is worse. If we are to take military top brass' defense at face value --that no high-level direction was involved in Abu Ghraib tortures-- are we then to conclude that our military harbors wanna-be sadists along with conformists who will turn a blind eye to the sadists? I think I'd be slightly less horrified by a scenario where the torture was ordered from the top and practiced by soldiers reared on obedience. In any case, it's getting worse however you want to interpret the chain of events. Washington Post has obtained an advance copy of a report that narrates how detainees were deliberately hidden from international humanitarian organizations, raped by their captors and subjected to sadistic "games," even if they were just kids:
But the new report, according to Pentagon sources, will show that MPs were using their animals to make juveniles -- as young as 15 years old -- urinate on themselves as part of a competition."There were two MP dog handlers who did use dogs to threaten kids detained at Abu Ghraib," said one Army officer familiar with the report, one of two investigations on detainee abuse scheduled to be released this week. "It has nothing to do with interrogation. It was just them on their own being weird."
Just them on their own being weird. You know, blowing off some steam. On children.
The Pentagon, predictably, sticks by the few bad apples theory:
"The report will show that these actions were bad, illegal, unauthorized, and some of it was sadistic," said one Defense Department official. "But it will show that they were the actions of a few, actions that went unnoticed because of leadership failures."
What's the message here? Take comfort America, our soldiers torture children of their own iniative? The leadership just happenned to not take notice and that's the only problem we'll own up to?
Meanwhile, the infamous Spc. Charles Graner takes a cue from his leadership and tries to wiggle out of responsibility based on the kind of technicalities that constitute the worst plots on T.V. law dramas. Graner's lawyers want the evidence found on his laptop -- presumably those famous pics and more-- to be thrown out because Graner was too sleepy when he consented to a search of his laptop:
Graner said he had been in Iraq for months under dangerous conditions when he was awakened after no more than 1 1/2 hours of sleep and told by the Army investigating agent, Manora Iem, that he could not return to his quarters until it had been searched. He said he finally signed the search order because he thought it was a "done deal" anyway.
Not the kind of "I can't sleep at night" one would have wished to have heard from him. I don't know how to remark on the irony of a man who tortured detainees under his control claiming his constitutional search and seizure protections weren't fully respected because his consent was obtained when he was too sleepy. The irony is even deeper when considering prolonged sleep deprivation is systematically practiced in U.S. detention facilities around the world. But, I digress.
The judge refused to grant that motion, keeping the laptop in evidence for now but to be reconsidered later if necessary. Graner did indicate he'd plead guilty to some of the charges but it's unclear at the moment which ones, and what that might mean for the investigation.
Meanwhile, the judge also chastised the U.S. military prosecution for moving at an unacceptable pace -- apparently, Army criminal investigators had assigned only one person to go through "hundreds of thousands" of documents on the Abu Ghraib classified computer server. Referring to the reviewing process, the judge angrily asked: "And in what millennium will that be finished?"
Does it matter? We've all moved on. We're all bored of that story already. We'd rather discuss how the U.S. military did not commit any atrocities in Vietnam and anyone who dared suggest otherwise is a traitor.
Posted by zeynep at August 24, 2004 12:23 AM
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