Investigative Journalism
The way it's supposed to be done.
Unlike the endless nonsense about peanut butter or ribbons vs. medals that many reporters, including much of the Washington press corps, so adores, Seymour Hersh actually engages in journalism. Shocking, I know. I don't think that Hersh is significantly smarter than most other journalists; however, he does seem to be far less lazy than a great number of the scribbling pollyannas whose dreck fills page after page each day.
"As the international furor grew, senior military officers, and President Bush, insisted that the actions of a few did not reflect the conduct of the military as a whole. Taguba’s report, however, amounts to an unsparing study of collective wrongdoing and the failure of Army leadership at the highest levels. The picture he draws of Abu Ghraib is one in which Army regulations and the Geneva conventions were routinely violated, and in which much of the day-to-day management of the prisoners was abdicated to Army military-intelligence units and civilian contract employees. Interrogating prisoners and getting intelligence, including by intimidation and torture, was the priority.
The mistreatment at Abu Ghraib may have done little to further American intelligence, however. Willie J. Rowell, who served for thirty-six years as a C.I.D. agent, told me that the use of force or humiliation with prisoners is invariably counterproductive. “They’ll tell you what you want to hear, truth or no truth,” Rowell said. “‘You can flog me until I tell you what I know you want me to say.’ You don’t get righteous information.”
Exactly. Also, when news of mistreatment of prisoners becomes public, and it will, it's simply bad--Bad for morale among the soldiers, bad for any captured Americans (present or future), bad for the US' reputation, and bad because WE PAID FOR IT.
Thanks to Billmon for the link.
The way it's supposed to be done.
Unlike the endless nonsense about peanut butter or ribbons vs. medals that many reporters, including much of the Washington press corps, so adores, Seymour Hersh actually engages in journalism. Shocking, I know. I don't think that Hersh is significantly smarter than most other journalists; however, he does seem to be far less lazy than a great number of the scribbling pollyannas whose dreck fills page after page each day.
"As the international furor grew, senior military officers, and President Bush, insisted that the actions of a few did not reflect the conduct of the military as a whole. Taguba’s report, however, amounts to an unsparing study of collective wrongdoing and the failure of Army leadership at the highest levels. The picture he draws of Abu Ghraib is one in which Army regulations and the Geneva conventions were routinely violated, and in which much of the day-to-day management of the prisoners was abdicated to Army military-intelligence units and civilian contract employees. Interrogating prisoners and getting intelligence, including by intimidation and torture, was the priority.
The mistreatment at Abu Ghraib may have done little to further American intelligence, however. Willie J. Rowell, who served for thirty-six years as a C.I.D. agent, told me that the use of force or humiliation with prisoners is invariably counterproductive. “They’ll tell you what you want to hear, truth or no truth,” Rowell said. “‘You can flog me until I tell you what I know you want me to say.’ You don’t get righteous information.”
Exactly. Also, when news of mistreatment of prisoners becomes public, and it will, it's simply bad--Bad for morale among the soldiers, bad for any captured Americans (present or future), bad for the US' reputation, and bad because WE PAID FOR IT.
Thanks to Billmon for the link.
posted by Jude at 3:13 PM
