The Political Chase

Detainee Abuse: How Much More?

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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