Posted on 08/25/2004 6:12:52 AM PDT by OESY
..."There was no policy of abuse at Abu Ghraib," said a four-member commission headed by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger. "Quite the contrary."
...But those heinous acts did not result from any "authorized interrogation" or — as some of the soldiers now under charges have alleged — officially sanctioned attempts at intelligence-gathering.
In fact, the report says, they were "freelance activities of the night shift at Abu Ghraib" — a point underscored by the fact that no mistreatment took place on other shifts.
Yet circumstances at Abu Ghraib were tailor-made for the abuse that followed.
"There was chaos at Abu Ghraib," said Schlesinger.
Specifically, there were far too many prisoners and far too few guards — and most of those few were undertrained, ill-prepared and badly led.
And the chaos was exacerbated by the fact that the prison was regularly being shelled by Iraqi insurgents.
"The abuses were not just the failure of some individuals to follow known standards, and they are more than the failure of a few leaders to enforce proper discipline," said the report.
But there was no policy handed down the military chain-of-command — and certainly not from Rumsfeld and other civilian officials — to soften up prisoners through humiliation and physical abuse....
Specifically faulted were Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, who "should have taken stronger action . . . when he realized the extent of the leadership problems at Abu Ghraib," and Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who was suspended as commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade and has since been whining about being made a scapegoat for the scandal....
And as for suggestions that Rumsfeld should step down, Schlesinger declared: "His resignation would be a boon to all of America's enemies."...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
"His resignation would be a boon to all of America's enemies."...
I'm guessing the Kerry camp will be calling for his resignation. Oh, that's right, they already have ....
The events at Abu Grahib could be thought of as similar to what Kerry *says* happened in Vietnam (under Johnson):
Kerry, himself, says that he and people he knew witnessed much worse atrocities but no one reported them until he got home!
The problem is people like Lt. (jg) Kerry who would not act on what they knew or thought they knew.
Whoops, see my #3
(steely)
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