The Abu Gharib Interogators

[moe.ron]

It seems that the "civilian contractors" that conducted the interogation of the Abu Gharib prisoners were hired by . . .
the interior department. What on earth is the department charged with overseeing the nation's parks and Native American affairs doing in hiring "civilian contractors" in Iraq?

Story Here

I'm worried that these 'civilian contractors' are answereable to noone. Why called it civilian contractors?

[aurora_borealis]

Perhaps by having private citizens, and a civilian contractor doing the interrogations and/or abuse, is a way to avoid being brought up on war crimes and other charges? Kind of a safety net if you will?

Information technology services and interrogations, didn't link those two before today!

[James]

I think she is right.

Originally posted by aurora_borealis
Perhaps by having private citizens, and a civilian contractor doing the interrogations and/or abuse, is a way to avoid being brought up on war crimes and other charges? Kind of a safety net if you will?

Information technology services and interrogations, didn't link those two before today!

[RACooper]

Has anyone seen the four guys tapped to run the newly cleaned-up Iraqi prison system?

Hmmm.... all four have questions in their record concerning their running of US prisons... and one had to leave the his job in Nevada over allegations of abuse.... this after Gen. Miller was sent to Iraq to clean up Abu Gharib, but whose methods were pointed out as "not in the spirit" of the Geneava Convention.... it's looking a little systemic to me...

[RACooper]

The Fifth Estate on the CBC recently aired an indpeth look into those personally accused of the torture/abuse at Abu Gharib...

It's available online and is pretty interesting, in that they have interviews with some of the soldiers invovled, the commander, and people in the Administration.

Link to website:
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/badapples/index.html

Also includes some transcripts of interviews with one of the legal eagles that authored the memos on what constitutes torture...

Excerpt:

Gillian Findlay: WHEN YOU WERE ASKED TO LOOK AT THIS QUESTION, YOU ENDED UP WITH A DEFINITION OF TORTURE EQUIVALENT IN INTENSITY TO THE PAIN ACCOMPANYING SERIOUS PHYSICAL INJURY SUCH AS ORGAN FAILURE, IMPAIRMENT OF BODILY FUNCTION OR EVEN DEATH. DO YOU NOT THINK WHEN YOU SAY THINGS LIKE THAT, YOU WRITE THINGS LIKE THAT IN THE CONTEXT THAT YOU WERE WRITING, THAT THAT OPENS THE DOOR TO THE KINDS OF ABUSE THAT WE HAVE SEEN?

John Yoo: You have to figure out what the law says and again, I think there is an important difference between law and policy. And so I think there is a legal question that has to be answered and I think it's a hard question. Don't get me wrong. What the word "torture" means when it's undefined by federal statutes is a hard question. It's never, that statute had never been interpreted by the executive branch, by courts, prosecutors, by anybody.
So I think it's a hard legal question. That's a different question in my mind than about whether, what kinds of policies ought to be drafted and shaped within the law. And I think factors like, will there be likely abuses to occur or not are certainly things policy makers should think about when they decide what policies to adopt. But it should not, it seems to me, change the legal analysis or the legal conclusion about what Congress has and has not prohibited.

Also please be warned that some images and video may be disturbing... and that some of the images and video shown in the documentary were never released or shown on US media outlets.

[hoosier]

Like some renegade college sports team posting hazing pictures on Webshots, some renegade soldiers took pictures of prisoners being mistreated, and sent them to the media.

They Muslims solve their prisoner problems by cutting off heads, and making recruiting videos of their despicable acts.

[RACooper]

Originally posted by hoosier
They Muslims solve their prisoner problems by cutting off heads, and making recruiting videos of their despicable acts.

Sigh... why bother trying to debate with a bigot... just interesting to note that you have taken the same ideological view that those who accuse all US soldiers of abuses or crimes. Both views are equally wrong, and both are equally founded in hatred, ignorance, and bigotry.


For the others out there - can I get an honest opinion of someone who has at least taken the time to either a)watch the program; or b)at least read through the transcripts.

[_Q_]

Originally posted by RACooper
Link to website:
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/badapples/index.html

Also includes some transcripts of interviews with one of the legal eagles that authored the memos on what constitutes torture...

.....

Also please be warned that some images and video may be disturbing... and that some of the images and video shown in the documentary were never released or shown on US media outlets.

Looks interesting, thanks for posting it. What - "fair and balanced" Fox News didn't show the images? Shocking.

[KSig RC]

Originally posted by _Q_
Looks interesting, thanks for posting it. What - "fair and balanced" Fox News didn't show the images? Shocking.

Nor did 'fair and balanced' CNN, or 'fair and balanced' anything for that matter - no need to be a douche.

[_Q_]

Originally posted by KSig RC
Nor did 'fair and balanced' CNN, or 'fair and balanced' anything for that matter ...

Fair enough.

[Coramoor]

The gov't hires a lot of...private companies (although that is not correct either) to do things that they cannot do.

There are some rather large orgs out there that are better equiped and better trained than even our Delta Force (they don't have the heavy equipment), and they go in to areas and do things that would get the US gov't in trouble.

[DeltAlum]

Originally posted by Coramoor
...they go in to areas and do things that would get the US gov't in trouble.

Which, under any other banner, would be considered breaking the law -- or international treaties.

[RACooper]

Originally posted by _Q_
Looks interesting, thanks for posting it. What - "fair and balanced" Fox News didn't show the images? Shocking.

In all fairness if a flash of Janet's boob got the networks into hot water and the FCC in a tizzy, there is no way some of the images and video in this piece would be shown.

[_Q_]

Originally posted by RACooper
In all fairness if a flash of Janet's boob got the networks into hot water and the FCC in a tizzy, there is no way some of the images and video in this piece would be shown.

Yeah, you guys are right. No matter how I feel about Fox, this really has nothing to do with them.

[hoosier]

Originally posted by RACooper
Sigh... why bother trying to debate with a bigot...

Once again, let's debate, not call names.