BY DAN
KENNEDY
Serving the reality-based community since 2002.
Notes and observations on
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Tuesday, May 04, 2004
THE HORROR, CONT'D. Likely
to become a Media Log standing head in the days to come. Reuters is
now reporting
that two Iraqi prisoners in US custody may have been murdered - one
by an Army soldier, the other by a private contractor hired by the
CIA.
The English-language
website
of Al-Jazeera gives an indication of how the Abu Ghuraib story is
playing in Arab and Muslim countries. This is from a story headlined
"Abu
Ghuraib Prisoners Speak of
'Torture'":
One of the released
detainees who was forced to pose naked in a human pyramid has told
Aljazeera that the acts committed against them were so horrible
that he still could not get himself to speak about most of
it.
"They wanted to humiliate us. It
was disgusting", said Hashim Muhsin.
"They covered our heads with
plastic bags and hit our backs with sharp objects, which added to
our wounds".
"They then took off all our
clothes, made us stand next to the wall and carried out immoral
acts that I cannot even talk about", Muhsin continued.
He said "women soldiers took
pictures of naked men and did not care".
The New York Times website
reports
that Democratic senator Tom Daschle and Republican senator John
McCain are demanding that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld be
held accountable. Rumsfeld is reported to be "deeply disturbed."
Senator Ted Kennedy is quoted as saying:
We have a great sense of
revulsion, not only because of these actions, but we also
recognize what the dangers are for American troops if they are
ever taken prisoners and the kind of treatment that they would be
subject to. And this has been a major setback to our interests in
that region.
Meanwhile, Josh Marshall
notes
that George W. Bush still hasn't apparently bothered to read the
Taguba report. Marshall's headline: "Shaken, but Apparently Not
Stirred."
posted at 4:20 PM |
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Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
