Andrew Sullivan: How America tiptoed into the torture chamber

[emad]

Meet an American hero. He’s Army Captain Ian Fishback, a decorated graduate of West Point, and in training to become a member of the elite special forces.

He has served two combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is described by friends as a devout Christian who prays before every meal and carries a copy of the US constitution in his pocket. And while serving at Camp Mercury near the Syrian border in Iraq, he observed horrifying abuse of prisoners, in testimony that was released last week by Human Rights Watch.



He has testified to habitual beatings to the face and body before interrogation, the pouring of burning chemicals on prisoners’ faces, routine shackling in positions that led to physical collapse, forced exercises that led prisoners to lose consciousness, and stacking prisoners in pyramids in the same mode as Abu Ghraib.

These abuses occurred before, during and after the Abu Ghraib scandal broke. Fishback testified that commanders directed and condoned the abuse. “I would be told, ‘These guys were IED (improvised explosive device) trigger men last week.’ So we would f*** them up. F*** them up bad . . . But you gotta understand, this was the norm.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1806906,00.html

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. So, this Christian boy was told he had to torture people in order

to show his patriotism? Good Morning, Andrew Sullivan. A lot of us have been on the receiving end of this coercive tactic, and you have been one of the main prevaricators.

[MissWaverly]

2. agree with you

he posted an e-mail at a site I was on saying that after November, that
really the best man won, and couldn't the Democrats "get over" their
differences and help pull as a team to get the country back together.
There is no team possible on the deck of a pirate ship.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. I really wish the son of a bitch would just go back to England.

Unfortunately, anyone who rips up the left can make a good living here with all that pundit payola.

[WhiteTara]

4. What an incredible story

Fishback did not participate
"Fishback is now sequestered at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, being interrogated by military officials. From all we know of Fishback he will not crack under pressure. He wrote something to McCain that still rings in my ears: “If we abandon our ideals in the face of adversity and aggression, then those ideals were never really in our possession. I would rather die fighting than give up even the smallest part of the idea that is ‘America’.”

THis is the real message of this article
Last Thursday a judge finally ruled that the remaining photos and tapes from Abu Ghraib will be released, and Bush administration memos specifically related to torture will be made public. There will be appeals, but we will soon be reminded of what really went on: rape and murder.

One wonders when the American public will demand accountability for the abandonment of civilised warfare in their own military and by their own president, who is after all commander-in-chief and ultimately responsible.
I think this is another opening into the cesspool of evil in our government.

[Judi Lynn]

5. This is a surprising admission from Sullivan.

I thought he was far more committed to these criminals. He mentioned a number I've not seen published anywhere else:

We know, for example, that the general in charge of Guantanamo, where torture was formally permitted, was told to Guantanamo-ise Abu Ghraib in the early stages of the insurgency. The notion that the widespread abuse was the invention of a few “bad apples” on the night shift in one prison is preposterous. Reports of inhumane treatment can now be found throughout Iraq and Afghanistan involving hundreds of prisoners, with 36 confirmed deaths in interrogation.

What hell has been poured into the world through this filthy pResident? All that, and corrosive chemicals poured onto their faces, too. My God.

[MissWaverly]

6. I really think this is a matter for the Hague

It has to be made clear once again that this is not justified against
any of our global brethern. It needs to be clearly established that no gaggle of lawyers can come up with special permission to excuse this barbaric behavior.

[cassiepriam]

7. The torture, rapes and murders of Iraqis haunt me....

We are a nation of savages.