Army Report on Prison Abuse Sets Off Partisan Uproar

[nosmokes]

original

Army Report on Prison Abuse Sets Off Partisan Uproar
By ERIC SCHMITT

Published: July 22, 2004

WASHINGTON, July 22 — A new Army report concludes that military detention operations in Iraq and Afghanistan suffered from poor training, haphazard organization and outmoded policies, but that these flaws did not directly contribute to the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison.

The report, by Lt. Gen. Paul T. Mikolashek, the Army inspector general, found no evidence that any systemic problems caused the abuses. Instead, his five-month inquiry blamed the "unauthorized actions taken by a few individuals, coupled with the failure of a few leaders to provide adequate monitoring, supervision and leadership over those soldiers."

The 321-page report, the first of at least seven military inquiries into prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan to be released in the next few months, left many contentious issues still to be addressed by Army criminal investigators and the other inquiries.

When presented at a hastily called Senate hearing today, the inspector general's findings set off a partisan uproar. Some Democrats virtually accused General Mikolashek of a whitewash. "General, I just think the premise of your report that there's been no systemic problems is undercut by the fact that you didn't look at some systematic problems," Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, noting that the inquiry did not examine the military's practice of keeping high-value detainees off Abu Ghraib's rolls.

Republicans rushed to defend the Army, and the Pentagon's longstanding argument that a handful of rogue jailers were responsible for the misconduct at Abu Ghraib. "We should not overreact," said Senator Pete Sessions, an Alabama Republican. "We want our soldiers, right up to the limit of what they legally can do, to obtain good intelligence, to help save lives."
~snip~

more, more, more at the link above. unbelievable, these guys.

[izzie]

1. Yar right. How come they all thought to do the same thing world wide?

We are not even getting reports on the prisoners kept on navy ships.Must be something they are putting into the food that makes these people wake up and all start treating people just alike all at once.

[frylock]

3. hive mind

[progressivebydesign]

8. I ask, as other have..

Did the "few bad apples" carry the hoods with them when they were sent to Iraq and Afghanistan? Are those standard issue????? What, we're supposed to believe this was collective unconcious at work? They ALL thought to do the same things? What about the contractors involved? This report is more political bullshit.. blame the enlisted, when in fact.. the blame lies further up the food chain.. as in BUSH AND CHENEY, who authorized it!!

[2Design]

2. what does Jesus think of this crap.....they are all turds....

[Alpharetta]

4. "Relations with the Iraqi citizens are excellent"

That's what Colin Powell would have written had he been the Pentagon investigator.

Cuz that's what he reported in his investigation of the massacres in Vietnam.

[leetrisck]

5. Why is bush court martialing soldiers

if everything is "just great." bush should either say Rumsfeld was wrong or the soldiers were right - now which is it mr. commander in thief.

[Mountainman]

6. What is it that the administration has on everyone?

The Senate Intellegance report
The 9/11 Commission
The prisoner abuse scandal

[rooboy]

7. They saw what happened to Wellstone. n/t

[Democat]

9. Who do you think sets up and undertakes the investigations?

Friends of Bush will find no problems with Bush.

Reno made a big mistake to allow Starr to go after Clinton - we should have played like the Republicans are playing now.

[Solly Mack]

10. lies lies lies

there are so many lies on top of so many lies, couched in disinformation and misinformation, wrapped in obfuscation and served up with a straight face, wired tightly shut by the living organism the original lie (war on terror) has become.

[Shakespeare]

11. It shouldn't be a partisan uproar--it should be an uproar, period.

And how pathetic and sad that anybody could view this torture scandal as partisan in any way.

[Rose Siding]

12. Levin was incredulous, too

from a companion article:

"Interrogation techniques witnessed by the International Committee of the Red Cross during visits to Abu Ghraib appear consistent with techniques that we now know were approved and later rescinded by high-level Defense Department officials or by commanders in the theater in Iraq," Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said at a Senate Armed Service Committee hearing where the report was unveiled. "In light of the frequently changing `rules of engagement,' as they were called, for interrogators in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, it is difficult to believe that there were not systemic problems with our detention and interrogation operations."


Mikolashek, however, told the committee that his investigation of individual abuse cases found "they were not the result of any widespread systemic failure, but ... the result of an individual's failure to adhere to known standards of discipline, training or Army values."

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9219590.htm

How can both those things possibly be true?

[JNelson6563]

14. Rock on Carl!

Levin is great. He will persue this with the dogged single mindedness that it requires. He is a very determined individual who seems to have had it with Team Bush's bullshit. Last summer he was highly irritated. This summer, he is outright disgusted.

He is a very good fried to us in the north and he visits regularly. He's very open when I talk to him, you can ask the guy anything and get a plain-spoken answer. Great to see him in the thick of this.

Julie

[lovuian]

13. Good try Army but that is a pathetic report

I now feel sorry for the men in the Army...their commanders are
just crazy if they think thats going to fly in the World courts

Cause we have Geneva Convention Violations here

Systemic Violations with lots of video

[bpilgrim]

15. GOOD!

so republicans support TORTURE?

is that the msg they are trying to send :shrug:

peace