It's Not Abuse, It's Torture
Part XVII. I haven't been on this story in a while for a number of reasons, the two most salient of which are that I was terribly busy and I just couldn't stand it anymore. However, there's another terrible revelation today.
They were just having fun? Fun? I so hope these people go to prison themselves, and then understand what it's like being on the other side of the fun.
When the Iraq fiasco is all over, I think that things like this will be recognized as having really lost it:
Abu Ghraib prison should be evacuated and blown to smithereens for starters.
Then, the military needs publicly to allow independent organizations to inspect ALL of its prisons, from Afghanistan to Iraq to (especially) Guantanamo. All of the crap they taught us in school about the moral superiority of the US has been demolished, but that doesn't mean that we need to wallow in degeneracy.
Additionally, it seems to me as if Congress needs to start up some serious prison investigations in this country. I'm not sure that Mr. Graner's attitude can be taken as representative of prison guards in general, but the casualness with which he made that statement at least implies that such behavior is okay in the Pennsylvania prison where he formerly worked. And I'm pretty sure that abuse and torture of prisoners is fairly widespread (Note: I realize that a lot of people who go to prison have done awful, awful things. However, that does not mean that treating them inhumanely is okay--especially if you want to have them successfully re-enter society at some future date).
Finally, George Bush and his administration have to go. They started looking for loopholes in international law from the beginning, so they knew what they were doing was illegal. I have a sinking feeling that this Administration's torture powwows will be compared to the Wannsee Conference by future historians. And that just makes me sick.
It does seem, though, that some members of the House Judiciary Committe (including my representative, Tammy Baldwin) are calling John Ashcroft (R-Choad) on his possible involvement. It's a PDF file, so you need Adobe to read it--but it's so worth it. Oh, and Maxine Waters and Robert Wexler signed in the wrong spots. Oops!
Part XVII. I haven't been on this story in a while for a number of reasons, the two most salient of which are that I was terribly busy and I just couldn't stand it anymore. However, there's another terrible revelation today.
They were just having fun? Fun? I so hope these people go to prison themselves, and then understand what it's like being on the other side of the fun.
When the Iraq fiasco is all over, I think that things like this will be recognized as having really lost it:
Darby quoted Graner, a former Pennsylvania prison guard, as saying: "The Christian in me says it's wrong, but the corrections officer in me says, 'I love to make a grown man piss himself."'
Abu Ghraib prison should be evacuated and blown to smithereens for starters.
Then, the military needs publicly to allow independent organizations to inspect ALL of its prisons, from Afghanistan to Iraq to (especially) Guantanamo. All of the crap they taught us in school about the moral superiority of the US has been demolished, but that doesn't mean that we need to wallow in degeneracy.
Additionally, it seems to me as if Congress needs to start up some serious prison investigations in this country. I'm not sure that Mr. Graner's attitude can be taken as representative of prison guards in general, but the casualness with which he made that statement at least implies that such behavior is okay in the Pennsylvania prison where he formerly worked. And I'm pretty sure that abuse and torture of prisoners is fairly widespread (Note: I realize that a lot of people who go to prison have done awful, awful things. However, that does not mean that treating them inhumanely is okay--especially if you want to have them successfully re-enter society at some future date).
Finally, George Bush and his administration have to go. They started looking for loopholes in international law from the beginning, so they knew what they were doing was illegal. I have a sinking feeling that this Administration's torture powwows will be compared to the Wannsee Conference by future historians. And that just makes me sick.
It does seem, though, that some members of the House Judiciary Committe (including my representative, Tammy Baldwin) are calling John Ashcroft (R-Choad) on his possible involvement. It's a PDF file, so you need Adobe to read it--but it's so worth it. Oh, and Maxine Waters and Robert Wexler signed in the wrong spots. Oops!
posted by Jude at 11:08 AM
