Senators Fault Pentagon as New Photos Emerge

[UpInArms]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13028-2004May9.html

Republican and Democratic senators criticized the Pentagon yesterday for what one Republican termed a "systemic failure" in overseeing the detention of prisoners in Iraq but expressed divided opinions on whether Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld should resign in the wake of the scandal over the humiliation of Iraqis and other prison abuses.

<snip>

Particularly tough criticism of the Pentagon's actions came from two Republicans on the armed services and intelligence committees, Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Chuck Hagel (Neb.). Although U.S. officials said last week that the problems were aberrations, Graham, a former chief prosecutor for the Air Force, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that "it's clear to me that we had systemic failure" within the military and that "we just don't want a bunch of privates and sergeants to be the scapegoats here."

Hagel, a former Army sergeant and Purple Heart recipient in Vietnam, said on CBS's "Face the Nation" that "it's still in question whether . . . Rumsfeld and, quite frankly, General Myers can command the respect and the trust and the confidence of the military," because of the continuing prison abuse revelations.

<snip>

No Pentagon or administration officials appeared on television talk shows yesterday, after a week in which officials were subjected to stiff questioning and lectures from members of the armed services and intelligence committees. The sessions provided the first information Congress has received on the abuse accusations, which surfaced within the Army and were described to Myers and Rumsfeld in January.

...more...

[saigon68]

1. PENTAGON TRIBUTE TO UNMUZZLED POLICE DOGS

SCHINDLER'S LIST



Ralph Fiennes plays a chilling Amon Goeth in the movie, and plays him to the point that some
people have had trouble distinguishing him from the real thing.

Poldek Pfefferberg, one of the Schindler Jews, famously said, "When you saw Göeth, you saw
death."



GENERAL MYERS TRIBUTE TO AMON GOETH



THIS IS GOING OVER REAL WELL IN EUROPE

[Judi Lynn]

13. Don't know about you but when I see that photo

it's like being dipped in ice water. What human being cannot identify with that poor man and feel such grief for his plight?

I'll bet he'd rather have one of the guards simply shoot him and get it over with than to be trapped there with those war dogs lunging on their leashes on either side.

It's starkly sadistic, and horrifying. If these photos actually wake some people up, maybe it won't have all been in vain, but maybe that's too much to hope.

[Say_What]

17. Seymour Hersch this morning on democracy NOW talking about

those yet to be released photos. They include video tapes of US soldiers abusing Iraqi women, Iraqi guards raping young boys, US soldiers beating an Iraqi man nearly to death and other horrific acts carried out by the US *liberators*.

The Italians said it right when they said: "These are war crimes."

www.democracynow.org

Seymour Hersch's article TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB at the New Yorker has that image and many others:

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040510fa_fact

[Just Me]

19. I am an American and my first reaction was "these are war crimes".

My other initial reaction was that orders came from the top, whether implicitly (via suggestion) or explicitly. Lastly, I felt that this reflects the darkest of times in the history of this nation. When any American starts fearing his/her leadership, a tyranny is taking hold. This leadership scares the shit out of me.

[saigon68]

2. ANOTHER PENTAGON RELEASE FOR THE PEOPLE OF EUROPE

MYERS HANDIWORK looks like the Photos of the naked Jews stripped and marched to the
pits at Babi-Yar to have their brains blown out by Steel Helmeted NAZI THUGS

like this one



The More Things Change the More They Remain the Same.




Amazing on how so little has changed

I can’t wait for the troop apologists to declare

“WELL THEY DIDN’T KILL HIM”

Look at the image of Terror in this MAN’S EYES on his FACE !!!

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. No Pentagon or administration officials

appeared on television talk shows yesterday.

I noticed that all the Bu$hbots were laying low yesterday. Seems odd that they weren't out there doing damage control and pushing their latest set of talking points. Things must be even worse than we have already imagined and that's pretty bad.

[Lindsay]

4. I noticed the lack of administration spokesdrones, too.

I think they used up their only talking point..."a few bad apples"...last week, and couldn't come up with anything else on short notice.

[UpInArms]

5. they have Pickles on ABC GMA right now (CST)

doing the "womanly" touch.

:puke:

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. You know it's bad when they have to drag Pickles out

This is so bad that even Karen and Condi are in hiding.

[iamjoy]

14. Is This What Ms. Hughes Means

by "we value every life?"

[poyke]

7. Pickles

Being a Newbie, I am wondering who Pickles is?
Poyke

[zbird]

8. That would be Laura Bush.

[revcarol]

9. The Stepford Wife,

Laura Bush.

She only comes out of her cave when things get bad and for empty gestures, like sending the Afghan children candy and pencils, in packages the same color as the cluster bombs that hadn't exploded.

[iamjoy]

15. Welcome to DU!

I am not a newbie, but could some one explain why we call her "Pickles"?

[newyawker99]

23. Hi poyke!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Terran]

10. That is very telling, IMO

No admin spokespeople (Condi, Cheney et al) on Sunday talk shows means they are in such disarray that they haven't been able to come up with some kind of defense against all this (which of course, there is none). And that's based mostly on the intial set of pictures. The next set of revelations is MUCH more serious--murder, aiding and abetting rape, all kinds of serious physical harm, not just mental cruelty. Rumsfeld and Meyers have got to go, and soon!

[SquireJons]

12. Their Plan Is...

To lay low and hope that something else comes along that will distract the public. I suspect that something reasonably big will happen this week. Don't know what, but something...

[Miss Authoritiva]

24. Their plan is to lay low and hope that something else comes along

that will distract the public....

That's always their plan, and it never works. It says something about their dysfunctional persistence, though.

[livetohike]

21. Condi and Karen have probably been up all night

coming up with a game plan to clear "their men".

They may be waiting for all of the pictures to be released before they come out to spin.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

11. WP held back the sucessive photos of this incident ...they show the dogs

gnawing on this poor mans legs and puddles of blood on the floor and his torn calfs while a soldier sits on his back on the floor :puke:...i heard this disgusted on c-span this morning

[Judi Lynn]

16. Really! I didn't hear it this a.m. Didn't know they had them.

By God, I hope they'll be honest enough to publish them, too. Every damned one.

It's amazing to hear right-wingers calling their hate-trading talk-shows, and whining about how Democrats meddle in wartime activities.
They INSIST it's simply political. They even drag out Harry Truman and his bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

It seems to be their universal impression that if you are "at war," even when it's a bogus war, you are welcome to act out ANY atrocity that springs into your mind, as, after all, "war is hell."

They seem to believe the statement "war is hell" is like an 11th commandment from "Gawd" writing them a blank check to run amok and savage their fellow men, whenever possible, and anyone who questions this is automatically "the enemy," too.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

18. Seymour Hersh wrote in the May 17 issue about this gaurd dog incident

due out Sunday

New York — Military police in charge of prisons in Iraq saw their mission shift from guarding prisoners to supporting intelligence-gathering to help counter Iraqi attacks on the coalition last fall, The New Yorker magazine reported Sunday.

Following up on its earlier article and photos, the magazine also published more details of abuse and a photo of a naked Iraqi prisoner being terrorized by U.S. military guard dogs. Other photos, not published, show the same man on the floor with bloody wounds on his legs, reporter Seymour Hersh wrote in the May 17 issue, out Sunday.

Mr. Hersch quoted retired major-general Charles Hines, former commandant of the army's military police school, as saying dogs were used to detect drugs or other contraband and perhaps for riot control in military prisons, but “I never would have authorized it for interrogating or coercing prisoners. If I had, I'd have been put in jail or kicked out of the army.”

The magazine says that on Nov. 19, Lt.-Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top operational commander in Iraq, issued an order taking tactical control of Abu Ghraib prison away from the military police and turning it over to the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade.

more

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040509.wiraqiabuse-m...

[The Stranger]

20. Why haven't the new photos been released?

Why, why, why, why, why?

[Just Me]

25. Censorship. n/t

[maxsolomon]

27. to protect the children

they're supposed to believe in their country.

[bemildred]

22. "Senators try to cover their corrupt, indifferent asses." nt

[Just Me]

26. For once,...they really know "fear". As it should be. n/t