Pentagon: Wash Post editorial page the same as prison torturers!!

Letter to the editor from Lawrence Di Rita, principle deputy secretary for public affairs, Pentagon:

'In the Company of Those Involved'

Saturday, May 15, 2004; Page A22

The Post's focus on the possible uncertainty of the international legal status of the detainees held by the United States as the reason for the shocking abuse shown in the photos from Abu Ghraib detention facility is misplaced and wrongheaded <"Protecting the System," editorial, May 12>.

The issue is moot with respect to Iraq because all individuals detained there are explicitly covered by some aspect of the Geneva Conventions.

Nevertheless, The Post's continued editorializing on narrow definitions of international laws and whether our soldiers understand them puts The Post in the same company as those involved in this despicable behavior in terms of apparent disregard for basic human dignity.

To focus -- as the editorial does -- on the soldiers' level of training or their understanding of international treaties is to suggest that those coda dictate: "Don't force another individual to stand naked with electrodes attached to him."

The behavior shown in the photos is depraved and sadistic. It violates the most basic teachings of human behavior that people learn before kindergarten, not just Army regulations and international conventions.

LAWRENCE Di RITA

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary
for Public Affairs
Department of Defense
Washington

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-adv/advertisers/popunders/carrotink_may04_wp.html

doesn't work.

Smack a 5lb Thorazine Suppository up Mr.Di Rita's ass with a 16lb sledgehammer. Hard. He's snapping out.

he even addressed what the article in the Post said. Maybe he should get his Funk and Wagnall out and rediscover the English language.

Lawrence Di Rita misses the point that small offenses against prisoners lead to worse.

Once soldiers are told to humiliate prisoners, and that its legal to hood them and strip them, worse will follow.

I want Congress to pass harsh criminal penalties for anyone who orders a prisoner blindfolded or stripped.