Soldiers' Warnings Ignored -- Blame goes far beyond MPs (Balt Sun)

This is an excellent, richly detailed piece from the point of view of two bright, young soldiers with a conscience.

It's more evidence that it wasn't just a few dead enders. It Was The Policy, Stupid!


http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-te.guard09may09,0,2180279.story

WIESBADEN, Germany - The two military intelligence soldiers, assigned interrogation duties at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, were young, relatively new to the Army and had only one day of training on how to pry information from high-value prisoners. But almost immediately ...they recognized that what was happening ...was wrong, morally and legally.

They said in interviews Friday and yesterday that the abuses were not caused by a handful of rogue soldiers poorly supervised and lacking morals but resulted from failures that went beyond the low-ranking military police charged with abuse. ... The beatings, the two soldiers said, were meted out with the full knowledge of intelligence interrogators...
...

"There was like a big disconnect at every level," said the other. "Guys were given jobs they had never done, contractors are in there acting like they're in the movies. The whole operation was like a chicken with its head cut off."
...

Though they entered Iraq with no training in interrogation, they were assigned to extract information from prisoners considered of high intelligence value - ranking Baath Party members and suspected insurgents, for example - and report on their findings.

I was having some trouble understanding why people would take photographs of their mis-deeds. Yes, some warped types would take photos to brag on, but mostly people don't want evidence of their sins wandering through the world.

Scenario: Someone is somewhere in Iraq trying to get "support" for the "new democracy" created by the U.S. You've got some recalcitrant locals, maybe some of these obstinate types are even in the Iraqi police. What better way to convert them to happy citizens of our "big rock candy mountain" client state than to threaten them with the most embarassing images possible. "Pssst, hey Ahmed, you know Muhamar? You know why he won't cooperate with your political group? He's a pervert! A friend of mine surprised him in prison one night. My buddy happened to have a camera and he got photos. Believe me Muhamar and his friends are sexual perverts."

Can it be traced to Haliburton, Bechtel?

They will sing like canaries

I say we cut off the head chicken.

They can lock him up in Abu Ghraib and initiate him with some of those fraternity pranks Rush talked about. It's the only way we'll get the truth out of him.