Saturday, September 18, 2004
Abu Ghraib: "From Bad to Worse..."
Lynndie England: convenient scapegoat in the "New Era of Personal Responsibility"?
A DAY OF congressional hearings yesterday confirmed two glaring gaps in the Bush administration's response to hundreds of cases of prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan. The first is one of investigation: Major allegations of wrongdoing, including some touching on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other senior administration officials, have yet to be explored by any arms-length probe. The second concerns accountability. Although several official panels have documented failings by senior military officers and their superiors in Washington, those responsible face no sanction of any kind, even as low-ranking personnel are criminally prosecuted....from the editorial "A Failed Investigation" in The Washington Post.
Cynics will not be surprised to learn that senior military commanders and Bush administration officials are on the verge of avoiding any accountability for the scandal of prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan -- despite the enormous damage done by that affair to U.S. standing in Iraq and around the world; despite the well-documented malfeasance and possible criminal wrongdoing by those officials; despite the contrasting prosecution of low-ranking soldiers....from "Refusing to Whitewash Abu Ghraib" by Jackson Diehl. (The Washington Post)
After months of Senate hearings and eight Pentagon investigations, it is obvious that the administration does not intend to hold any high-ranking official accountable for the nightmare at Abu Ghraib. It was pretty clear yesterday that Senator John Warner's well-intentioned hearings of the Armed Services Committee are not going to do it either....from the "No Accountability on Abu Ghraib" op-ed in The New York Times.
While finally, the The Progress Report sums up this disgraceful tragedy way better than I can.
Hold Them Accountable in 2004.
