There’s a greater danger here than the threat that the violence in Iraq or Afghanistan might temporarily escalate (would anybody even notice?) It’s the risk that some future administration, or future army commander, might be encouraged to endorse — or cover up — war crimes, on the expectation that they, too, will be able to rely on official secrecy to protect themselves (and the country) from the consequences.
Back to Main
August 16, 2005
WB: Viewer Discretion Advised
Comments
What I’m hoping is that seeing the horror of Abu Ghraib captured on tape — even if it is filtered through the corporate media nannies — might at least have the same effect on American public opinion that the recent airing of a video from the Bosnian killing fields had on Serbia’s willful amnesia about it’s own war crimes.
Last year’s images repulsed those who are capable of being repulsed; as for the rest of Joe Public; them’s just sand niggas!
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Aug 16 2005 11:13 utc | 1
But, Cindy’s husband is divorcing her.
Seriously, I’m beyond disgust.
Posted by: garyb | Aug 16 2005 14:35 utc | 2
But surely Gen. Myers understands that while shots of helpless little boys being anally raped don’t exactly meet local community standards (either here or in Iraq) the Freedom of Information Act doesn’t have an obscenity exemption.
No, but Gonzales COULD always go after anyone showing (or even possessing) these images for violating child pornography laws. I’m betting someone in the AG’s office is already planning that as the fallback censorship position right now.
Prior Restraint of hardcore, government sponsored, kiddie porn: low is never low enough for these guys.
Posted by: Night Owl | Aug 16 2005 15:25 utc | 3
The neo-cons, pentagon fly-boys and lapdog media knew they were the biggest and baddest. They wanted a neat easy neo-colonial war to kick some raghead ass. Except the Sunni Arabs fought back against the foreign invaders. Extra-legal immoral tactics were used in an attempt to quell the rebellion. They failed.
The Generals are covering their asses and the Grunts are getting their asses kicked. Even if they don’t end up as body parts, the Grunts minds are screwed. “Marine of the Year” for his service in Iraq was charged with attempted murder
Posted by: Jim S | Aug 16 2005 15:53 utc | 4
…hearing Rush Limbaugh try to explain how raping little boys is really not that much different than your average frat house initiation ritual.
Maybe Rush has a point there.
Posted by: catlady | Aug 16 2005 15:57 utc | 5
I notice links from MoA to prisonplanet, rense, Greg Szymanski, tomflocco, etc. It’s all fun, hyperparanoid bullshit, nothing more. No harm so long as as these links to the loon-libertarians are widely understood for what they are.
Posted by: slothrop | Aug 16 2005 16:13 utc | 6
@slothrop:
Yup. It’s like spending the summer reading trashy novels–if “they” are gonna be so GD secretive, then I’ll enjoy fantasizing the luridest worst about them.
Posted by: catlady | Aug 16 2005 16:22 utc | 7
As has been pointed out by observers, this is just business as usual within the American prison system, certainly not just the “acts of a few low-level untrained recruits”. Read 15yearstolife.com, Sing Sing had drug bars and sex parlors run by the guards, and death to anyone who broke the code. The silk boot of Neo has an iron-tipped point.
It’s just more skulls and bones along the slime trail of pharoahs.
Posted by: tante aime | Aug 16 2005 16:28 utc | 8
Two policemen killed, 26 civilians wounded in two attacks in Baghdad
Gunmen killed two Iraqi policemen and wounded two others while US forces wounded 26 bricklayers in Baghdad on Tuesday, police said.
“Armed men opened fire at about 4:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) at a civil defense center in Baghdad’s eastern Sadr City, killing two policemen and wounding two others,” an Interior ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
In a separate incident, the US forces fired at a group of bricklayers at about 5:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) in Alawi district in central Baghdad, wounding 26 of them, the source said.
The US troops told the Iraqi police that they had shot at ” terrorists”.
“But when our patrols reached the scene they discovered the wounded people were bricklayers who left home early looking for work,” the source said.
Source: Xinhua
HEARTS AND MINDS, WIN THEIR HEARTS AND MINDS
Posted by: steve duncan | Aug 16 2005 17:13 utc | 9
Three India Fakirs
What Biden and McCain realize is that the real elephant trap in Iraq will be when intifada ratchets the action next summer as the Bushites
try for a smooth orderly pullout, exposing the remaining defenders to a withering series of attacks and assaults while their 90-day wonder
ARI militias cut and run. We should be doubling troops on the ground in Iraq, both to put fresh boots on the ground, but also to cover an
eventual complete withdrawal. Otherwise it’s Bataan meets Dunkirk….
Posted by: Lash Marks | Aug 16 2005 18:12 utc | 10
catlady
have you checked that story out? A quick glance makes me very sceptical. Not that I am too lazy to run it down myself, just wondering..
Posted by: dan of steele | Aug 16 2005 19:23 utc | 11
@ dos:
See above, it’s just trashy summer reading for cheap thrills.
I did google “Kay Griggs” and found pages and pages of hits on her tell-all video–pretty much all from the tinfoil-hat crowd, nothing that looked particularly reliable.
Still, these wonky conspiracy theories fill a human need, to have Tales that somehow account for what’s going on around us. If the proponents aren’t forthcoming, then imagination runs wild. There is a history of buggery rituals amongst them-in-power: British schoolmasters, Catholic priests, Roman emperors. For a rather graphic telling of ritual rape of boys, check out Gary Jennings’ novel “Raptor.” (I think that’s where I read it).
Please understand that the disturbing part of this for me is “rape,” not homosexuality. Power over.
Posted by: catlady | Aug 16 2005 23:39 utc | 12
Illegal invasion, illegal occupation, illegal laws, illegal actions vis a vis territory, infrastructure and trade, illegal arrests, illegal treatment of prisoners, illegal torture…
There are no consequences. (No striking and lasting ones.)
It is true though that torture is the one issue capable of strongly affecting the US public – that part that is ‘unaware’ – partly simply because it is attested to by pictures, rather than some complicated wordy explanation about medecines or water. Besides the horror of the violence and compassion for the victim(s), torture degrades the torturer too. Americans must feel very unconfortable at the thought that their gallant boys are doing the same thing that Saddam was reviled for.
Today’s Matin (a Swiss tabloid) shows pictures of ‘mock Abu Ghraib’ torture – recruits who went on a well-planned rampage. The scenes seem to mix elements of what the Americans would call ‘frat jokes’ with staples of the SM-BD scene (such as dog collars, leashes) and postures and tableaux copied from the released-so-far A.G. pix. The ‘victims’ were all part of the group and playing a role.
It is a trend that is catching on, copy-catting at a symbolic level, based on the same principle as kinky sex beween consenting adults (no harm), although I am sure it also comprises elements of ‘ragging’ (old Brit word…what? …insult and domination that passes for jokey but does impact real-life relations).
Much more could be said .. the point I was coming to is that all of it, the pictures, the copy-catting, etc., serve to depersonalise and distance the real victims of real torture. The outrage finally becomes erstaz, to take up a theme from another thread. So, some pertinent arguments might be made for not releasing those pictures.
My guess is that the deciders in the the US Gvmt. are hesitant – the effects of release may be temporarily negative, long term positive, etc. etc. They probably don’t care much and just go along with whatever procedures are on the books, society of law and all that. Public outrage is not a problem for them – other calculations are more important.
Posted by: Noisette | Aug 17 2005 16:52 utc | 13
Publish the tapes.
Let those that care understand the what they have wrought.
Team Bush should have been able to anticipate the blow back from their decisions, and by plugging their ears have demanded the public outrage that will come from them.
Publish the tapes. No filters. Let us know the depth of our monsters.
Posted by: patience | Aug 17 2005 21:05 utc | 14
Interesting…Gen. Myers is afraid of how the Muslims and the rest of the world will react upon seeing Abu Grahib torture images. Rather than fighting to suppress the release of those images, he should be doing everything he can to insure that such images can’t be taken. You see, if they’d STOP TORTURING people, then no one could take images of them torturing people.
His reaction is much like any sleazy criminal or naughty child. He prefers a cover up to actually dealing with the consequences of his actions. Those images only exist because of his failures. Any consequences rest on his (and Bush’s) shoulders, not on the judge or the ACLU.
Posted by: gaucho_surfer | Aug 18 2005 22:08 utc | 15