- It was only last month that the US army formally asserted
that the abuse of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison consisted of "aberrations"
that could not be put down to systemic problems. This week, however, two
official reports have painted a more disturbing picture. The reports, one
for the Pentagon chaired by the former defence secretary James Schlesinger,
and the other for the US army by Generals George Fay and Anthony Jones,
describe a situation in which the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners was more
extensive than previously acknowledged and in which military leadership
was found seriously wanting. The abuses sadly bear repetition. Forced nudity
was common, the generals' report confirms, and stemmed from the importation
to Abu Ghraib of techniques used in Afghanistan and at Guant·namo
Bay. "They simply carried forward the use of nudity into the Iraqi
theatre of operations," General Fay observes. Prisoners were frequently
stripped and hooded, then left in extreme heat or cold for hours. One detainee
was handcuffed naked and forced to crawl on his stomach as US soldiers
urinated and spat on him; later he was sodomised. The importation process
from Guantanamo also led to the use of dogs to frighten prisoners. In one
case, US military personnel held an unmuzzled dog within inches of two
naked and screaming teenage Iraqis and discussed whether the prisoners
could be terrified into losing control of their bowels.
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- These were acts of "brutality and purposeless sadism",
Schlesinger says. The abuses continued for several months. They were not,
the report stresses, "just the failure of some individuals to follow
known standards." Generals Fay and Jones confirm that. At least 34
US officers, including the two most senior figures in US military intelligence
at Abu Ghraib, are implicated in at least 44 cases of recorded abuse over
a period of at least six months, they found. Some of them took place during
interrogations. "There were a few instances where torture was being
used," General Fay told a press conference this week. The causes of
the culture of abuse were many, he said. They ranged from "morally
corrupt soldiers and civilians" to lack of discipline at several levels
and "a failure or lack of leadership by multiple echelons". Mr
Schlesinger goes even further: "institutional and personal responsibility
at higher levels" was involved, he found. The context of everything
that happened at Abu Ghraib was the Pentagon's strategic error of assuming
"benign stability" in post-invasion Iraq. The failure to anticipate
a major insurgency, and to adapt when it occurred, were fundamental.
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- The reports stop short of placing direct responsibility
at the feet of the highest officials involved in Iraq strategy. But the
cumulative effect of the two reports points clearly in that direction.
It was not just individuals who failed. It was a system. Those who are
in charge of that system cannot escape responsibility for abuses that debase
not just the US but its allies, including Britain. But it is not just Donald
Rumsfeld or George Bush who need to look into their souls. The same goes
for a lot of Americans, and a lot of American men in particular. A Pew
Center poll last week showed that 43% of all Americans, 48% of American
men, 54% of American men aged under 50, and 58% of people intending to
vote for Mr Bush in November believe that torture of suspected terrorists
can "often or sometimes" be justified. The things that happened
in Abu Ghraib happened because individual Americans broke the law. But
they also happened because too many Americans are prepared to look in the
other direction or even actively support such abuses. America is a society
with a problem. That problem erupted in Abu Ghraib. America has begun to
address it. But it must not slacken off now.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1291908,00.html
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