abu ghraib

When President Obama changed his mind and said he wouldn’t release those photos I figured it had to be something really bad.

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.

Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

Reading this I kept thinking back to 2003 when Bush and his ilk were out there saying “Saddam has these rape and torture rooms”. Well guess what? So do we..

As we continue to learn more about Gitmo and Abu Gharib its becoming harder to believe that Abu Gharib was just a few soldiers acting on their own ambitions. We already know that what we saw happening in the original Abu Gharib manuals pretty much mimic what the EIT memos were saying. That means someone either gave orders/guidance or we have just seen the king of all coincidences.

No matter what cause Abu Gharib to occur, one thing is for certain. We now need a full blown inquiry. It mustn’t be limited to one facility, but to the military and intelligence community as a whole. This is the kind of investigation that only Congress along with a army of prosecutors can delve into. Hopefully this latest report will put us closer to that reality, and that reality is that this happened at the hands of the U.S.:

(photos after the fold – graphic warning)

Remember the Republican controlled Congress spent 1/10th the time investigating Abu Gharib as they did investigating Bill Clinton's Christmas Card list. Here is why that is such a crime:

Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the prison's former U.S. commander said in an interview on Saturday.

Former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski told Spain's El Pais newspaper she had seen a letter apparently signed by Rumsfeld which allowed civilian contractors to use techniques such as sleep deprivation during interrogation.

Karpinski, who ran the prison until early 2004, said she saw a memorandum signed by Rumsfeld detailing the use of harsh interrogation methods.

"The handwritten signature was above his printed name and in the same handwriting in the margin was written: "Make sure this is accomplished,"" she told Saturday's El Pais.

Karpinski was made to be the fall guy (girl) in the entire scandal and no one would listen to her. Now she is going to countries where people will listen.

It is amazing how we hear that we should support our troops, yet the people who constantly make that demand are the ones who refuse to listen to the troops when they address problems like this. Almost every single general who has served in Iraq and left service during that time has raised serious complaints, but Bush don't listen to them. Instead he chooses to listen to the now fired Donald Rumsfeld.

It looks like Murtha is wanting the shooting of Iraqis dealt with right:

"Who covered it up, why did they cover it up, why did they wait so long?" Murtha said on "This Week" on ABC. "We don't know how far it goes. It goes right up the chain of command."

This echoes of Abu Gharib. We all know it wasn't some isolated incident of soldiers acting out of line. There had to be people at the top of the chain on down involved in this. When we hear reports of the exact same kind of abuse happening there as in Gitmo then there definitely is something bigger.

"I will not excuse murder, and this is what happened," Murtha said. "This investigation should have been over two or three weeks afterward and it should have been made public and people should have been held responsible for it."

Of course the military hoped no one would ever know. We are now investigating something that happened six months ago. The only reason it is being investigated is because Murtha brought it up and is a very credible source.

"This is the kind of war you have to win the hearts and minds of the people," he said. "And we're set back every time something like this happens. This is worse than Abu Ghraib."

That is it right there. Bush says that we need a "free and democratic Iraq" to help us win the war on terror. Well it does not matter one bit if they are free and democratic or not. If we treat their citizens like some expendable trash then they will hate us and end up building to a point to become a serious foe in the future. This is proof of how Bush has indeed made us LESS safe in the war on terror.

The cover up our country did surrounding the facts of Pat Tillmans death is by far one of the most embarrassing acts we have done in anytime I can remember. We have taken a national hero and his tragic fall and made it into a Public Relations tool full of lies. They lied about the facts surrounding his death, and told his parents their son died of enemy fire when in fact he died of friendly fire.

Not suprising considering Tillman's death happened around the same time the Abu-Ghraib prison scandal was gaining attention. The media spin controllers in the White House had to get the attention off of the bad press and get some good press out there for the country to eat up on. The only other thing that could of possibly eased the media pressure of Abu-Ghraib was an American hero being killed by the enemy. If it would of come out at that time he was a victim of friendly fire our country would of been in more of an uproar.

Now the press is starting to cover the death of Patrick Tillman more (read an article published by The Nation today), and should give the commander in chief more to stomach. I am sure George is already talking with Carl Rove to figure out how to spin some positive press out of this.