The Wily Filipino

"Losing Moral High Ground."

From Major General Antonio Taguba's report:

6. (S) I find that the intentional abuse of detainees by military police personnel included the following acts:

a. (S) Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet;

b. (S) Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees;

c. (S) Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing;

d. (S) Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time;

e. (S) Forcing naked male detainees to wear women's underwear;

f. (S) Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped;

g. (S) Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them;

h. (S) Positioning a naked detainee on a MRE Box, with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture;

i. (S) Writing "I am a Rapest" (sic) on the leg of a detainee alleged to have forcibly raped a 15-year old fellow detainee, and then photographing him naked;

j. (S) Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee's neck and having a female Soldier pose for a picture;

k. (S) A male MP guard having sex with a female detainee;

l. (S) Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee;

m. (S) Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees.

Meanwhile, Rummy defends himself:

Adding to the Bush administration's discomfort is the dark history of the facility where the abuse took place.

It was inside the walls of Abu Ghraib prison that the former Iraqi regime is thought to have tortured and executed thousands of prisoners.

However Mr Rumsfeld was quick to reject any comparison between that period and what happened under American control.

"Equating the two, I think, is a fundamental misunderstanding of what took place," he said.

Amazing, though, how op-ed columnists in the US are now tripping all over themselves to use the phrase "losing moral high ground," as if there was any to lose in the first place. (Subsequent coverage keeps referring to reactions in "the Arab world" -- as if they're the only ones who should be indignant about this -- and therefore shifting focus onto the act of publishing the photographs, and not necessarily the acts depicted in the photographs themselves.) Hopefully followers of the right wing will be a little more quiet in their constant bleating about America's (God-given) gift of freedom and democracy to Iraq, but one doubts it.

I mean, Jesus, listen to Bush's often-quoted reaction:

I share a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated. Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the way we do things in America. I didn't like it one bit.

George, when are you going to wake up and discover that you're really the bad guy? Posted by the wily filipino at May 5, 2004 12:04 AM