It's decided torture's okay. It's decided renditions are peachy. It feels that holding a person without charge or trial forever is perfectly acceptable. And now, it's decided that if prisoners act up, why, stuffing them in a box is the right thing to do:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military is segregating violent Iraqi prisoners in wooden crates that in some cases are not much bigger than the prisoners.
The military released photos of what it calls "segregation boxes" used in Iraq.
Three grainy black-and-white photos show the rudimentary structures of wood and mesh. Some of the boxes are as small as 3 feet by 3 feet by 6 feet tall, according to military officials.
[snip]
The military said the boxes are humane and are checked every 15 minutes. It said detainees, who stand inside the boxes, are isolated for no more than 12 hours at a time.
"Someone in a segregation box is actually observed more than those anywhere else," said Maj. Neal Fisher, a spokesman for Task Force 134, the Marine unit in charge of detainees. "Their care and custody does not change simply because they are in segregation."
Are you fucking insane? Of course "their care and custody" has changed - you've shoved them in a tiny little box and left 'em crated like a Chinese chicken for twelve fucking hours, you fuckwit.
And then, and then, the same sick fucks who abuse these prisoners turn around and call us unpatriotic because we don't condone this shit. They think we should be proud of America. You know what? I'm really not. I'm dead ashamed. My country makes me sick.
Especially since this shit isn't news anymore. Go ahead. See for yourselves. The only people carrying this story besides CNN are the bloody blogs.
We should be outraged. Everyone in this country should be screaming. Every news source in the nation should be running these stories non-stop. The Bush regime should have been hauled away in chains ages ago. Instead, we get a collective yawn, a shrug of the shoulders, and a big, fat, "Whaddya gonna do?"
I really, really hope the International Criminal Court does what we don't have the guts to do, and indicts every last one of these insane fuckers. Someone needs to remind this country how civilized nations are supposed to behave.
(Tip o' the shot glass to both Think Progress and dday on this one.)
What is so remarkable about this is that McCain was once a prisoner of war and probably had to endure this sort of treatment himself, now most sane and rational people in the same situation, having endured something like this, would find it abhorrent (I have a few Vietnam Vet friends that I served with while I was in the Army and they cant even begin to accept this sort of behavior, let alone condone it)
ReplyDeleteYet not a word from a former POW about how depraved and morally reprehensible something like this is, I don't know, maybe he wants revenge for his past treatment as a POW(something I would consider to be valid psychological grounds to exclude him from ever running for Presidency)or he is so morally bankrupt that he can somehow turn a blind eye to this type of treatment (another thing that should preclude him from the head honcho job)
I just hope that the American Public don't get blind sided by the Repugnantcon party again this November.
The UPI has covered this. It, and the CNN report, appear to be based on a FOIA request by Russ Kick at The Memory Hole. He based it on a Vanity Fair article from 2005.
ReplyDeleteWhat seems to be newsworthy here is that the military is acknowledging they still engage in this practice, three years later. As a temporary measure I can almost understand this, but they've had plenty of time to sort out the accommodations by now.
I'd go with "morally bankrupt", Atheist Chaplain. I don't claim any special insight into his character, but he spent so much effort trying to improve our handling of prisoners that I'd have to believe that his current stance is a matter of political convenience.