Sep 24, 2005 at 7:46 PM by Political Chase
The New York Times has more in-depth information than the Post on the detainee abuse. The issue, which the Post also cites, was in a report issued by Human Rights Watch. Moreover, the officer reporting the abuse, Capt. Ian Fishback, reported the abuse conditions to his superiors for an extended period of time. Finally, Capt Fishback made his concerns known to Senators Warner and McCain.
The 30-page [Human Rights Watch] report does not identify the troops, but one is Capt. Ian Fishback, who has presented some of his allegations in letters this month to top aides of two senior Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee, John W. Warner of Virginia, the chairman, and John McCain of Arizona. Captain Fishback approached the Senators’ offices only after he tried to report the allegations to his superiors for 17 months, the aides said. The aides also said they found the captain’s accusations credible enough to warrant investigation. [Emphasis added.]
The abuses reportedly took place between September 2003 and April 2004, before and during the investigations into the notorious misconduct at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. Senior Pentagon officials initially sought to characterize the scandal there as the work of a rogue group of military police soldiers on the prison’s night shift. Since then, the Army has opened more than 400 inquiries into detainee abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan, and punished 230 enlisted soldiers and officers. [Emphasis added.]
In one incident, the Human Rights Watch report states, an off-duty cook broke a detainee’s leg with a metal baseball bat. Detainees were also stacked, fully clothed, in human pyramids and forced to hold five-gallon water jugs with arms outstretched or do jumping jacks until they passed out, the report says. "We would give them blows to the head, chest, legs and stomach, and pull them down, kick dirt on them," one sergeant told Human Rights Watch researchers during one of four interviews in July and August. "This happened every day."
[The Sergeant] said he had acted under orders from military intelligence personnel to soften up detainees, whom the unit called persons under control, or PUC’s, to make them more cooperative during formal interviews.
"They wanted intel," said the sergeant, an infantry fire-team leader who served as a guard when no military police soldiers were available. "As long as no PUC’s came up dead, it happened." He added, "We kept it to broken arms and legs."
The Times goes on to say that Capt. Fish expressed frustration with his civilian and military leaders. Imagine that.
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Sep 24, 2005 at 7:04 PM by Political Chase
John Tierny has a good perspective on the government:
Counting on the government in an emergency is like sending your kids to a candy store where the guy is selling drugs.
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Sep 24, 2005 at 6:07 PM by Political Chase
Senator Frist seems to have selective memory in addition to his blind trust.
[D]ocuments unearthed yesterday by the Associated Press showed that Frist was told about stock trades in his blind trust. In documents filed with the Senate, trustee M. Kirk Scobey Jr. told Frist in 2002 that HCA stock had been transferred to his trust. Scobey, reached by phone last night, declined to comment.
The AP said that the documents disclosed that HCA stock worth hundreds of thousands of dollars was placed into Frist’s blind trusts several other times in 2002 as well. Frist maintained in a television interview in 2003 that he did not know how much HCA stock he owned, if any. Spokesmen for Frist did not return phone messages last night.
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Sep 24, 2005 at 5:11 PM by Political Chase
There are more reports of systemic detainee abuse. An officer and two soldiers have blown the whistle this time.
They also detailed regular attacks that left detainees with broken bones — including once when a detainee was hit with a metal bat — and said that detainees were sometimes piled into pyramids, a tactic seen in photographs taken later at Abu Ghraib.
And like soldiers accused at Abu Ghraib, these troops said that military intelligence interrogators encouraged their actions, telling them to make sure the detainees did not sleep or were physically exhausted so as to get them to talk.
"They were directed to get intel from them so we had to set the conditions by banging on their cages, crashing them into the cages, kicking them, kicking dirt, yelling," the soldier was quoted as saying. Later he described how he and others beat the detainees. "But you gotta understand, this was the norm. Everyone would just sweep it under the rug."
Government and high military officials repeat ad nauseam that these are isolated cases and that they are investigating. These are not isolated incidents and the alleged military investigations amount to nothing more than rhetoric (i.e., cover ups.)
The same types of incidents continue to occur. Historically, the whistle blowers and criminally accused all report they are carrying out the orders of military intelligence. Yet, interestingly enough, it all gets quiet and dismissed at the colonel level above. Why?
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Sep 24, 2005 at 4:07 PM by Political Chase
I’ve talked about Rove’s absence before. Rita is hammering the Gulf Coast today, but Karl Rove is in North Dakota giving speeches and attending political fundraisers. Finally, someone in Congress is concerned too.
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Sep 24, 2005 at 6:53 AM by Political Chase
For all the evacuees from Katrina (and Rita?), there’s good news. The Secret Service is hiring.
For more information, go here or here.
Maybe the President’s Gulf Coast Wage Cut will not apply to these jobs???
Sep 24, 2005 at 6:37 AM by Political Chase
I just looked at what all falls under the umbrella of Department of Homeland Security (DHS). No wonder nobody knows who’s doing what. I think I would rather have Bush’s job.
After you’ve reviewed the existing structure below, you may want to have a look at their reorganization plans. I will sleep much better at night now knowing the reorganization of the dysfunctional chaotic mess is boiled to a six point agenda.
Wonder if Brownie had anything to do with planning that agenda?
Oh, in case you’re wondering/worried following is the current status of the Threat Advisory.
Well that makes things perfectly clear. Indeed I feel much safer knowing what to expect, what to do, and especially what DHS has planned…more duct tape?
Office of the Secretary
Border and Transportation Security
Emergency Preparedness and Response
Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection (IAIP)
- Homeland Security Operations Center (HSOC)
- Information Analysis (IA)
- Infrastructure Protection (IP)
Science and Technology (S&T)
- Office of National Laboratories
- Homeland Security Laboratories
- Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA)
Office of Management
The Under Secretary for Management is responsible for the budget, appropriations, expenditure of funds, accounting and finance, procurement, information technology systems, facilities, property, equipment, other material resources, and the identification and tracking of performance measurements relating to the responsibilities of Homeland Security.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- Office of Citizenship
- National Customer Service Center
U.S. Coast Guard
U.S. Secret Service
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Sep 24, 2005 at 12:42 AM by Political Chase
- Hurricane Katrina = $200+ Billion
- Hurricane Rita = $10+ Billion
- Mea culpa after Katrina = Priceless
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Sep 24, 2005 at 12:17 AM by Political Chase
It seems as though the past month has given the President a whole new area for marketing himself. He now has a web site just for hurricanes.
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