Excellent New Yorker Article on Prison Situation

[noel]

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040524fa_fact

This article touches not just on the prison situation, but also on the administrative involvement.

I have no problem with a group of spec-ops perform a field interrogation of a hostile/known enemy combatant/soldier/terrorist. The fact is, sometimes you have to do some level of field interrogation to get the necessary level of intelligence to act immediately. In the prison situation, you had what I would deem as stale enemy assets and a handful of soldiers on a power trip. In my mind the only failing of the media is their desire to tie the events in the prison to the program for the spec-ops personnel, be they Delta, Seals, or CIA. I believe the two conditions are separate, and quite different.

In summation, if the intent of an interrogation is to gather critical real-time intelligence, so be it. If your intent is to dehumanize, or harm someone just to get your jollies, you should be brought up on charges and punished as severely as possible

Still reading the article, so I might have more comment slight difference of opinion at a later date.

Additionally, Rumsfield is an idiot who's egomaniacal power trip scares the hell out of me.

[Arilain]

I think the way we treat them is wrong personally. However, how if I was in the shoes of an interegator and I knew that someone should have info that could stop a major terrorist attack and save lives; I have to ask..how far would I go to get the info? Honestly I am afraid to answer that question. Thank god it is not my job.

[Arborealus]

I think the way we treat them is wrong personally. However, how if I was in the shoes of an interegator and I knew that someone should have info that could stop a major terrorist attack and save lives; I have to ask..how far would I go to get the info? Honestly I am afraid to answer that question. Thank god it is not my job.

Yes but we aren't talking about real time info about imminent terrorist attacks in Abu Gharib...And we aren't talking about terrorists who we have reasonable suspicion of plotting terror attacks...We are talking about POWs and a large number of people picked up for no particular reason...

[Akaran_D]

But if those PoWs may have information on insurgent activities or any dormant plans..


Stilll, agree 100% with Ara on this.

[noel]

If they do, there's a right way to interrogate someone, and a wrong way. The right way is not the way it's done in the photos. Not knocking you Akaran, just saying...

This fuck, Cambone and by association Rumsfield need to fucking go down.

Cambone then made another crucial decision, the former intelligence official told me: not only would he bring the sap’s rules into the prisons; he would bring some of the Army military-intelligence officers working inside the Iraqi prisons under the sap’s auspices. “So here are fundamentally good soldiers—military-intelligence guys—being told that no rules apply,” the former official, who has extensive knowledge of the special-access programs, added. “And, as far as they’re concerned, this is a covert operation, and it’s to be kept within Defense Department channels.”

[Midnyte_Ragebringer]

In summation, if the intent of an interrogation is to gather critical real-time intelligence, so be it. If your intent is to dehumanize, or harm someone just to get your jollies, you should be brought up on charges and punished as severely as possible

I'd have to concur as well. Inhumane behavior like that cannot be tolerated if it is done for jollies as you say.

[Akaran_D]

I agree.. the stuff in the photos is sick crap that shouldn't be done to anyone, regardless.

Also jumping on the anti-Rumsfield bandwagon. That guy has issues.

[noel]

More from the article:

“In an odd way,” Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, said, “the sexual abuses at Abu Ghraib have become a diversion for the prisoner abuse and the violation of the Geneva Conventions that is authorized.” Since September 11th, Roth added, the military has systematically used third-degree techniques around the world on detainees. “Some jags hate this and are horrified that the tolerance of mistreatment will come back and haunt us in the next war,” Roth told me. “We’re giving the world a ready-made excuse to ignore the Geneva Conventions. Rumsfeld has lowered the bar."