The Giant Jellyfish and the Ghoul
While its encouraging to see some spine developing in the giant jellyfish that is the corporate media, there is severely inconsistent coverage of the torture scandal and many questions only really asked by a few informed commentators. Evidence of the use of torture by the U.S military are not new, as I previously noted.
While its encouraging to see some spine developing in the giant jellyfish that is the corporate media, there is severely inconsistent coverage of the torture scandal and many questions only really asked by a few informed commentators. Evidence of the use of torture by the U.S military are not new, as I previously noted.
Who received the Taguba report and what actions (memos, commands) resulted from it and when?
When did Rumsfield know of abuse claims and what did he do about it? Why wasn’t the senate informed?
Why didn’t Bremer do anything about investigating abuse claims by the IGC minister for Human Rights Abdul Basit Turki?
How were private contractors involved in interrogations? They and their companies should be indicted and tried in public courts.
As others have questioned, who are the third nation citizens involved in interrogation and torture? Israeli agents? Certainly Mossad has a long history torturing in order to interrogate Arabic detainees, as Juan Cole comments. Claims of torture of Guantanamo bay detainees should give rise to questioning of the appointment of the replacement commander at Abu Ghairab, Major General Miller.
As is now being recognised by the giant jellyfish, torture is an outcome of the policy of distain paid to international obligations by the Bush administration and in particular the Secretary of Defence.
How can the public verify abuse has stopped? Answer: very simple, meet the U.S. Geneva Convention obligations and allow continual monitoring of prisoners and conditions by NGO agencies. In particular, the revelation that prisoners were being moved around to avoid access to the International Committee of the Red Cross is a clear contravention of the Geneva Convention and a therefore a U.S. crime according to the sixth article of the U.S. constitution.
But lets not kid ourselves, the neofascist media are condoning the abuse as blowing off steam. A crazy percentage of the population believe Rumsfelds lies and inculpability. As the Angry Arab has noted, we watch the jaw-dropping ability of U.S. political representatives to believe that only the U.S. has the ability to investigate itself and backslap one another about the U.S. high moral position in the very context of evidence of gross human rights crimes.
That Rumsfeld has to go is only the tip of the iceberg, but as Democrat Jim McDermott has argued, the Bush-house will never cave in (since aggressive invasion is a key component of the administration policy), so it falls on the Democrats to find some damn spine themselves and impeach the ghoul. There is only one way to do that with a Republican controlled congress, they must rise up with a concerted voice and draw the issue to the public, to have the U.S. public force all congress-people to act.