It's a pretty face to go with an ugly crime, but the Bush administration finally has an official scapegoat in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Lynndie England. England, who was infamously photographed pointing and smiling with a cigarette dangling from her lips at naked detainees in the Abu Ghraib scandal, became a scapegoat for abuses that occurred within the prison. The Army Reservist was following ambiguous orders and faces nine years in jail for doing so. England was put in a situation that she was ill trained for and her conviction represents the hypocrisy of the Bush Administration. One person is blamed while those in power walk away unscathed.
A new report from Human Rights Watch claims that U.S. soldiers routinely subjected Iraqi detainees to severe beatings and other torture at a base in central Iraq from 2003 through 2004. Soldiers' accounts show these acts were administered under orders or with the approval of superior officers. The report details complaints by Army Captain Ian Fishback who said prisoners were kicked and beaten, their bones broken and skin and eyes doused with chemical irritants. Fishback repeatedly took his complaints to the appropriate channels within the Army but was rebuffed at every turn, which led him to seek out the HRW to give his account. An earlier report by the agency cited U.S. government data showing that 108 people have died in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that 27 deaths have been investigated as criminal homicides involving possible abuse. This information does not jibe with the Bush Administrations spin that the events involving England and her cohorts were an isolated incident involving one shift at one prison. It is evidence of a widespread torture policy being acted upon.
This is not surprising in light of Alberto Gonzalez's characterizing of the Geneva Convention's prohibition on torture as "quaint." This was before he became our Attorney General and was a lawyer for the White House. Donald Rumsfeld instructed the military to "take off the gloves" when questioning detainees in an effort at gaining intelligence on the mushrooming insurgency in Iraq. The result has been a systematic implementation of torture at U.S. military prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Cuba. A second batch of pictures and videos taken in Abu Ghraib that bear light on the scope of the abuses are being held by the Pentagon. An ongoing lawsuit by the ACLU seeks their release; a judge has ruled the military must comply, yet the Pentagon still refuses to honor the judge's request for fear of further inflaming the Muslim world. Recent revelations have caused Senator John McCain to back an amendment calling for the U.S. military to live up to its international obligations under the Geneva Convention and "not engage in torture." The fact that this must spelled out in legislation is indicative of the mindset pervading the White House, and by extension the Pentagon.
Accountability has never been the Bush administration's strong suit. But officers who oversaw or advised on detention and interrogation operations in Iraq while abuses were occurring have actually been promoted by the Pentagon. So the grunts go to jail and the officers involved find their careers advancing. Former FEMA director Michael Brown never had it so good.
