The stench of Abu Ghraib is on the Bush White House,
and the stench of the Bush White House is on Abu
Ghraib...Remember, the most disgusting revelation of
this story has yet to be acknowledged by the US
regimestream news media...Take a look at the
"Iraq`War" section of the LNS "Vital Links" for some
background:
http://www.mindspace.org/liberation-news-service/links.html
Associated Press: The Pentagon is under increasing
fire for its handling of the prison abuse
investigation, as some retired military officers call
for an independent commission to get to the bottom of
the four-month-old scandal.
Their appeal came a day before Thursday's hearings by
the Senate and House armed services panels, which were
reviewing the two latest reports ordered by the
Defense Department.
"We cannot ignore that there are now dozens of
well-documented allegations of torture, abuse and
otherwise questionable detention practices" eight
former generals and admirals said Wednesday of prisons
in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In-house Pentagon probes don't require sworn
testimony, don't have subpoena power and are examples
of the military trying to police itself, the officers
said in a letter to Bush.
Most of the officers had backgrounds in military law.
In the presidential campaign, two of them have
publicly called for President Bush's defeat in
November.
Support Our Troops, Show Up for Democracy in 2004:
Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/09/prison.abuse.ap/index.html
Retired military leaders call for abuse probe
House, Senate panels holding Abu Ghraib hearings
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon is under increasing
fire for its handling of the prison abuse
investigation, as some retired military officers call
for an independent commission to get to the bottom of
the four-month-old scandal.
Their appeal came a day before Thursday's hearings by
the Senate and House armed services panels, which were
reviewing the two latest reports ordered by the
Defense Department.
"We cannot ignore that there are now dozens of
well-documented allegations of torture, abuse and
otherwise questionable detention practices" eight
former generals and admirals said Wednesday of prisons
in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In-house Pentagon probes don't require sworn
testimony, don't have subpoena power and are examples
of the military trying to police itself, the officers
said in a letter to Bush.
Most of the officers had backgrounds in military law.
In the presidential campaign, two of them have
publicly called for President Bush's defeat in
November.
The Pentagon says a probe headed by former Defense
Secretary James Schlesinger was independent, but its
members were appointed by Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld, who has been criticized in the scandal.
An Army investigation headed by Maj. Gen. George Fay
concentrated on which military intelligence officers
at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq could be charged with
crimes under military law. But Fay's group also said
the Army's top commanders in Iraq shared some blame
for management failures.
The Schlesinger report looked at Afghanistan and
Guantanamo Bay as well as Iraq and at military police,
the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Rumsfeld as well as
intelligence officers in Iraq.
It concluded that while lower ranking soldiers might
be charged, some blame could go to the highest levels
of the Pentagon for inadequate supervision and failure
to adapt to developments.
A Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee said
Wednesday that months of piecemeal military
investigations have left officials and the public
without a full idea of exactly what happened and who
is responsible.
"It's about time we had an investigation that is
complete and answers all the questions," Sen. Jack
Reed of Rhode Island said in telephone conference with
several reporters.
The scandal created international revulsion four
months ago with disclosure of photographs showing
troops threatening prisoners at Abu Ghraib with dogs,
posing them in sexual positions and keeping detainees
naked and hooded.
Though defense officials said the photos portrayed the
actions of a few bad apples, the controversy has grown
to include probes of some 300 allegations of detainee
deaths, torture or other mistreatment, some during
interrogations to gather intelligence.
Abuses occurred as long as nearly two years ago --
among prisoners taken in the campaign to rout al-Qaeda
from Afghanistan.
Critics say fault may ultimately rest with White House
and Pentagon leaders for creating confusion when they
decided in early 2002 that terrorist suspects at
Guantanamo Bay did not fall under Geneva Conventions
and then sought to redefine longtime rules of
detention, interrogation and trials to suit the
counterterror war.
Reed decried what he called "the corrosive effect of
ignoring laws and regulations."
"After a while, the rules are anybody's guess," he
said.
The retired military leaders who wrote to Bush were
Rear Adm. John D. Hutson, Navy Judge Advocate General
from 1997 to 2000; Brig. Gen. David M. Brahms, Marine
Corps senior legal adviser from 1983 to 1988; Brig.
Gen. James Cullen, former chief judge of the Army
Court of Criminal Appeals; Maj. Gen. John L. Fugh,
former Judge Advocate General of the Army; Lt. Gen.
Robert Gard, currently a consultant in international
security; Vice Adm. Lee F. Gunn, Inspector General of
the Department of the Navy until his retirement in
August 2000; Gen. Joseph Hoar, a former commander of
U.S. Central Command; Brig. Gen. Richard Omeara, who
served in the Army's Judge Advocate General Corps.
Hoar is part of a group of retired diplomats and
military officers who has said Bush should be voted
out of office because his policies damaged U.S.
national security interests and America's standing in
the world.
Gunn is among 12 retired generals and admirals who
have endorsed Bush's Democratic rival John Kerry.
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