Is No One Accountable?

[papau]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/28/opinion/28herbert.html?hp

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Is No One Accountable?
By BOB HERBERT Published: March 28, 2005

The Bush administration is desperately trying to keep the full story from emerging. But there is no longer any doubt that prisoners seized by the U.S. in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere have been killed, tortured, sexually humiliated and otherwise grotesquely abused.

These atrocities have been carried out in an atmosphere in which administration officials have routinely behaved as though they were above the law, and thus accountable to no one. People have been rounded up, stripped, shackled, beaten, incarcerated and in some cases killed, without being offered even the semblance of due process. No charges. No lawyers. No appeals.

Arkan Mohammed Ali is a 26-year-old Iraqi who was detained by the U.S. military for nearly a year at various locations, including the infamous Abu Ghraib prison. According to a lawsuit filed against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Mr. Ali was at times beaten into unconsciousness during interrogations. He was stabbed, shocked with an electrical device, urinated on and kept locked - hooded and naked - in a wooden, coffinlike box. He said he was told by his captors that soldiers could kill detainees with impunity.

(This was not a boast from the blue. On Saturday, for example, The Times reported that the Army would not prosecute 17 American soldiers implicated in the deaths of three prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.)

Mr. Ali's story is depressingly similar to other accounts pouring in from detainees, human rights groups, intelligence sources and U.S. government investigators. If you pay close attention to what is already known about the sadistic and barbaric treatment of prisoners by the U.S., you can begin to wonder how far we've come from the Middle Ages. The alleged heretics hauled before the Inquisition were not permitted to face their accusers or mount a defense. Innocence was irrelevant. Torture was the preferred method of obtaining confessions.<snip>

Lawlessness should never be an option for the United States. Once the rule of law has been extinguished, you're left with an environment in which moral degeneracy can flourish and a great nation can lose its soul.

[GOPFighter]

1. What's really scary is that Americans don't really...

...give a damn. Why? Because they're non-Christians? Because they are too involved in Survivor and American Idol? Is it because they're scared that this country is out of control and they can't deal with it?

[ElectroPrincess]

2. Nope, unless they're way down the food chain ...

like the cleaning lady on the night shift, a few enlisted personnel ... oh let's go nuts? We'll throw in an official reprimands toward a few company grade officers. (LTs, CPTs).

But no, no one save for the middle management whistle blowers get punished. Not even field grade officers in the military (MAJ, LTC) are being held accountable.

Why should anyone but the lowest of the low (according to the ruling class) be punished. In the present society of the Bush Banana Republic IF you massively screw-up our entire Country from Diplomacy meltdown trough Intelligence Corruption (cooking the books) and Military Mismanagement, Bush Co. holds three of the top *F**k-ups accountable by giving all three the "Medal of Freedom." (Bremer, Franks, Tenet) :grr:

Can we say 1984?

[ixion]

3. and this from the party that preaches personal accountability

how these reptillian creatures are able to maintain this veil-thin venneer is mind boggling.

When I talk to pepole who I 'assume' are in the know, and I mention that we've pissed off the entire planet, they look at me as if they don't know what on earth I'm talking about.

People really don't understand the damage done by BushCo.


The administration needs to be brought to justice in front of the ICC, IMO.

As they are so very fond of reminding us while glibly removing our civil liberties: "if they've done nothing wrong then they have nothing to fear." :evilgrin:

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

4. Yes, there IS a single person responsible for all this.

Bill Clinton.

The Republicans ARE the party of responsibility-- they claim the Big Dawg is responsible for everything bad they've ever done. Pretty simple, really.

:evilgrin:

[atommom]

5. It baffles me too. On the same day, they announce that the

soldiers who organized a mudwrestling contest should be prosecuted. Torture good, mudwrestling bad? :crazy:

[unhappycamper]

6. here's a screen print from yahoo yesterday

I liked the irony.

[indepat]

7. No one in this Administration is accountable to the Congress or we the

people on any action, policy or issue.

[IntiRaymi]

8. Can we form interdiction groups?

Shadow recruiters with appropriate literature, such as what is mentioned here.
What are the legal ramifications of such actions?
I know of a group of citizens in San Francisco that do just this in High Schools.
The 'Anti-recruiters'?
My personal motivation in this is that we need to provide young minds interested in the military the moral tools to make a choice, because at the rate that this is going they are going to be held up for blame for this moral quagmire.
Informing them will absolve those accusing them of the question: "They were too young to know better."

[wiggs]

9. Here's what I don't get

A little while after the initial Abu Ghraib stuff was made public, congressmen and the president viewed additional new video and pictures that supposedly made previous images pale by comparison. I remember seeing, on television, officials emerging from the viewing room looking like they'd seen satan.

At the time, rumors abounded of rape of boys and young girls. These images were not made public, and very little was mentioned of them again. From then till now, the focus has been on prosecuting those involved in the initial Abu Ghraib stuff that we all knew about.

Where did this story go?