The seeds of Abu Ghraib were sown in American prisons

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04128/312608.stm

There is an element of the surreal and a large dollop of hypocrisy in the expressions of shock and dismay over human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of newly "liberated" Baghdad.

Given the Bush administration's scrupulous inattention to the morality of its Iraq policy, it's ironic that a handful of sadists from Appalachia have succeeded in making the Geneva Conventions mandatory reading in the halls of power again.

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The comparison between the smiling sadists in the Abu Ghraib photographs and the postcards of early 20th-century lynching victims surrounded by their grinning tormentors has been made by people cleverer than myself, but very few have made an even more salient observation: The soon-to-be court-martialed soldiers took their cues from the way things are often done in American prisons.

Even folks who don't subscribe to HBO couldn't help thinking of "Oz" when the Abu Ghraib photos surfaced. The gritty prison melodrama instructed viewers on the manly art of sodomy, guard-on-prisoner abuse and the intricacies of psychological humiliation.

That's why no one should be shocked that two of the soldiers under investigation for prisoner abuse in Iraq once worked as prison guards in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Prisons have long been hothouses for sadists who get high on their own brutal authority.

Just in case you click on this post this is for you.

(Not You rmpalmer)


Surely a disproportionate number of Sadists would not be attracted to a Profession such as Prison Guard or the Military where they could have control and dominance over others.

Surely not. Is their any empirical proof for this or are we supposed to
rely on such un-scientific attributes as "Logic and Common sense here"

Sarcasm OFF

Even on DU we laugh about new convicts being in a cell with Bubba.

But -- when the system's locking up Black people and poor people on an industrial scale to get cheap prison slave-labor AND to reduce the number of Black voters and poor voters, they can't be too fussy about minor details like guilt or innocence.

I don't "laugh" about prison rape; I find it thoroughly despicable. And to the credit of the DU moderators, they agree and will delete such ugly posts.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Members of law enforcement here in my state say that once a person has spent any time in our state pen they should never be let out. The things that go on are so awful that it makes heathens of anyone unfortunate enough to be sent there.

Someone actually called in and basically said, why should we care about abu ghraib when the same thing happens in US prisons (like it's no big deal either way!).