Posted on 05/12/2004 8:50:26 AM PDT by PhiKapMom
SENATOR INHOFE'S COMMENTS on Prisoner Abuse from Channel 9 News -- MUST SEE/HEAR -- OUTRAGED over OUTRAGE -- GREAT JOB SENATOR!
I have put together a montage of comments that started with Senator Inhofe's appropriate and welcomed remarks yesterday to the Senate hearing on prisoner abuse. These appeared in both The Oklahoman and the Norman transcript but most were not available on the Net but because they are the MUST SEE variety, I have transcribed them on here for everyone to see along with posting The Oklahoman editorial which fits perfectly!
Please visit the link below to hear/see Sen Inhofe in his interview with Kelly Ogle, Channel 9 News brought to you by The Oklahoman newspaper:
The following is being transcribed from The Oklahoman, page 9A, which is not on the Net, but you all need to read this:
Sen. Jim Inhofe said Tuesday he was "more outraged at the ourtrage" over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners than he was about the American treatment of the prisoners.
Inhofe, R-Tulsa, also said at a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting, "I would guess that these prisoners wake up every morning thanking Allah that Saddam Hussein is not in charge of these prisons. When he was in charge, they would take electric drills and drill holes through hands. They would cut their tongues out, they would cut their ears off."
Inhofe's comments came at a meeting called to hear testimoney from the Army general who wrote the report about the abuse of prisoners in Baghdad by members of the U.S. armed forces.
Inhofe said the guards who abused the prisoners were "misguided and maybe even perverted" but that they represented on seven people out of the hundreds of thousands of troops who have served in Iraq since the war began in 2003.
"I am also outraged that we have so many humanitarian do-gooders crawling over these prisons looking for human rights violations while our troops, our heroes, are fighting and dying."
And now for another article which is appeared in the liberal Norman Transcript (AP) which I have excerpted:
A Republican Senator from Oklahoma inflamed partisan tempers Tuesday, charging his colleagues and the media with manipulating the images of Iraqi prisoner abuse for political gain.
Sen Inhofe, R-OK, said: "I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment." He said he believed the individuals responsible for mistreating prisoners should be punished. He also speculated on how the prisoners must feel since Saddam Hussein has been ousted... But Inhofe also said the prisoners in Iraq are being held there for crimes.
"You know, they're not there for traffic violations," he said. "If they're in cell block 1A or 1B, these prisoners -- they're murderers, they're terrioritsts, they're insurgents. Many of them probably have American blood on their hands. And here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals."
Inhofe read aloud from an e-mail issued by the presidential campaign of Senator Kerry, D-MA., that coupled a demand for President Bush to fire Defense Sec Donald H. Runsfeld with a solicitation for campaign contributions.
"I'm also outraged by the press and the politicians and the political agendas being served by this, and I sway to political agendas because that's actually what's happening," ...
David Wade, a Kerry campaign spokesman, accused Inhofe of "trying to divert attention from the serious issues being discussed."
Now for the comments of John Warner along with the John McCain's comments to my Senator which follow below:
The committee's chairman, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said he understood that some of the photos, such as one showing an Iraqi prisoner with women's underwear covering his head, were to be shown to prisoners' families "by way of threat unless he came forward with some valuable information."
The committee has now held two hearings on the abuses in less than a week and planned a third for Thursday. But Warner has expressed frustration about the amount of information military officials were providing. They have skirted many questions by citing ongoing investigations or criminal proceedings.
Given the "ramifications on foreign policy, on safety of the troops, on everything, I think the higher authorities of this government have got to be informed about it in a manner that still protects" criminal proceedings, Warner said in a brief interview.
But another Republican senator, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, said the abuse issue already has been overblown, with the news media and politicians using it for political purposes.
"I am also outraged that we have so many humanitarian do-gooders right now crawling all over these prisons looking for human rights violations while our troops, our heroes, are fighting and dying," he said.
Inhofe was later tacitly rebuked by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who was held as a prisoner of war for 5 1/2 years in Vietnam. McCain asked three Army officials whether the Geneva Conventions, which dictate the terms for humane treatment of prisoners, were a burden on U.S. military activities. All three said the conventions were needed to protect U.S. soldiers in conflicts and to demonstrate the United States' moral integrity.
McCain said "if somehow we convey the impression that we've got to do whatever is necessary and humanitarian do-gooders have no place in this arena - which I believe the International Red Cross has an important role to play - then I think we're setting ourselves up for some very serious consequences for American fighting men and women in conflicts in the future."
WE SUSPECT Sen. Jim Inhofe spoke for a number of Americans on Tuesday when he said he was "more outraged by the outrage" over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners than by the abuse itself. The Tulsa Republican isn't known for pulling punches. He is used to criticism for speaking his mind. Tuesday's remarks at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the prisoner abuses will generate some heat.
"These prisoners, you know they're not there for traffic violations," Inhofe said. "I am also outraged that we have so many humanitarian do-gooders right now crawling all over these prisons looking for human rights violations, while our troops, our heroes, are fighting and dying."
Some will accuse Inhofe of trying to shift attention from the Americans who abused Iraqi prisoners. Some will say he opposes thorough, independent fact-finding, some of which is performed by humanitarian groups like the International Red Cross. Neither is true. Rather, we think Inhofe's outrage is a call for perspective, which means consideration of the larger context in which the abuses occurred.
The behavior of the U.S. prison guards was terribly wrong, but so is the terrorism that continues to put our troops at risk in Iraq. An argument could be made, as Inhofe has done, that the outrage and concern expressed for the two is out of balance.
Inhofe can defend himself. No one is saying those who acted shamefully, immorally, shouldn't be punished or that the commanders who authorized or allowed the abuses to occur shouldn't be held accountable. But that doesn't mean we need to empty out the Pentagon or declare the Iraq mission a failure.
Inhofe said that as more photographs of the abuses are released, they should be accompanied by photos of Saddam Hussein's mass graves. The point is to remember the overwhelming good being done by the United States in Iraq. America's efforts, though tainted by the terrible actions of a few, remain worthwhile. To lose sight of that in the prisoner-abuse case would be unfortunate.
The other day the Red Cross said that 90% were in the Iraqui prisons by mistake. How did they know? Pure B.S., IMHO.
Uh, I hope he really did not say that. The Wall street Journal, quoting the Red Cross said that 70 to 90 percent of those arrested were released on no charges. Many were routinely abused when they were arrested, and their wives and mothers threatened. It is troubling indeed.
Come on good folks, we would not accept this malarkey from Janet Reno. We can't accept unlimited state power & state abuse in these circumstances either.
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