Free Republic

Wednesday morning, I noticed that military stories are dominating the news in this politically charged season. The service records of the president and his opponent are being attacked. Trials are under way for alleged abuses in Abu Ghraib. The detention center at Guantanamo is under scrutiny. A three-star general is under fire for off-duty comments about his religious convictions. Blame is being directed to others throughout the chain of command. There is no question that people who violated the rules governing military conduct should be held accountable. However, I am very concerned about how this barrage of negative press affects...

While leftist critics entertained high hopes of deeply wounding the Bush administration over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, they will now have to shelve their hopes for another day. Testimony from the MPs involved in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, including key figure Lynndie England, indicates that no higher officials were involved; a fact the independent commission investigating the scandal confirmed in Washington last week. Naturally, the left and those who hate America have never considered the possibility that Bush administration officials did not orchestrate the abuse and that the Abu Ghraib MPs acted alone. To do so would blunt...

He said a notorious incident in which he was involved where naked Iraqi prisoners were photographed piled up into a pyramid occurred after a female U.S. soldier was struck in the face with a stone by a prisoner. "First we searched them, got them stripped naked and then pushed them into this pyramid -- and then everything got out of control," he said. "One of the methods was to humiliate them so that they would break down and talk." ... "I want to apologize to the victims and their families. And in the trial, I will accept responsibility for my...

BERLIN (AP) - Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick, who last week agreed to plead guilty to some charges in the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal, said in an interview published Sunday that "secret services" operating in the jail encouraged the humilation of prisoners. But Frederick said he was taking responsiblity for what he had done and urged other defendants to do the same. "I will answer for my acts in court, but I hope that others will take my example and take responsibility for their guilt - there are certainly more people responsible for what happened in Abu Ghraib and many...

Kolbe, others object in view of Abu Ghraib role.The Army is standing behind the two-star general set to take command at Fort Huachuca, despite formal findings this week that her inaction may have contributed indirectly to abuse of detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.   An Army spokesman at the Pentagon said Friday that the service has not changed its plan to install Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast as commander of the Sierra Vista post and its military intelligence training school.   "There is no change to her status," Lt. Col. Gerard Healy said in an e-mail statement to the Arizona...

ABU GHRAIB SCANDAL WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 - Classified parts of the report by three Army generals on the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison say Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the former top commander in Iraq, approved the use in Iraq of some severe interrogation practices intended to be limited to captives held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and Afghanistan. Moreover, the report contends, by issuing and revising the rules for interrogations in Iraq three times in 30 days, General Sanchez and his legal staff sowed such confusion that interrogators acted in ways that violated the Geneva Conventions, which they understood poorly...

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon on Thursday opposed calls for an independent investigation of prisoner abuse from human rights groups and a key congressional Democrat, who said such a probe was the only way to get to the truth. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called for an independent investigation into U.S. prisoner detention and interrogation operations after two Pentagon reports this week greatly expanded the scope of culpability in the prisoner abuse scandal. "The investigations either completed or under way and the rigorous oversight by Congress provide the department and the public a thorough examination of the facts," said Matt...

What went wrong at Abu Ghraib prison? Two reports released this week agree: Woefully deficient planning for post-war Iraq, too few troops and inadequate leadership at the top.... THE REMAINDER OF THE COLUMN IS NOT WORTH IT.

"Of course, the president keeps telling people he would never question my service to our country. Instead, he watches as a Republican-funded attack group does just that. Well, if he wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: 'Bring it on.'" -- Sen. John Kerry Dear John, As usual, you have it wrong. You don't have a beef with President George Bush about your war record. He's been exceedingly generous about your military service. Your complaint is with the 2.5 million of us who served honorably in a war that ended 29 years...

WASHINGTON While blaming sadistic night shift workers in a prison ill-equipped to deal with a massive influx of detainees, an independent Pentagon report also took civilian leaders to task Tuesday for “indirect responsibility” in prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. “You had this 'Animal House' mentality that occurred on the night shift,” James Schlesinger, chairman of the Independent Panel to Review Department of Defense Detention Operations, told a press conference following the report's release. “There was chaos at Abu Ghraib.” The prison and those running it were not prepared to deal with the range of detainees pulled together in...

Since Operation Enduring Freedom began in October 2001, the U.S. has handled about 50,000 detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and other venues of the war on terror. Among those, about 300 allegations of abuse have arisen. And as of this month 155 investigations have resulted in 66 substantiated cases of mistreatment. Only about a third of those cases were related to interrogation, while another third happened at the point of capture.... [T]he report says that "No approved procedures called for or allowed the kinds of abuse that in fact occurred. There is no evidence of a policy of abuse promulgated by...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said Wednesday that civilian leaders in the White House and the Pentagon should be held accountable for abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison."Harry Truman had that sign on the desk and it said, 'The buck stops here,'" Kerry said. "The buck doesn't stop at the Pentagon." Responding to an independent report that faulted all levels of the military for prisoner abuse, Kerry repeated his call for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to resign and for President Bush to appoint an independent commission. He said the commission should investigate "all of the chain...

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry called today for Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign and urged President George Bush to appoint an independent group to recommend reforms after a report faulted all levels of the military for abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. “It’s not just the little person at the bottom who ought to pay the price of responsibility,” Kerry said at a Philadelphia union hall. “The buck doesn’t stop at the Pentagon.” A report released yesterday by an independent panel led by former Defence Secretary James Schlesinger concluded that senior US military leaders in Iraq and the...

Army Report Blames More U.S. Personnel in Iraq Abuse WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. military intelligence soldiers and civilian contractors were directly involved in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners to a greater extent than previously acknowledged, a senior Army official said on Wednesday. A new Army report to be released later on Wednesday found that 27 of the 35 U.S. military intelligence personnel and contractors cited in 44 cases of prisoner abuse in Iraq (news - web sites) committed acts that could draw criminal charges, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The other eight were faulted for failing to...

A Bellingham (Ma) High School teacher sued his principal and school superintendent yesterday, contending they unfairly took away one of his classes because two parents complained that students had to study graphic photographs of American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners.

The mortification of Iraqi prisoners by American military personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad has been discomfiting far beyond the impact of the now-infamous images. Coupled with other reports about harsh post-9/11 tactics to garner information from captured terrorists, and with ongoing investigations into deaths alleged to have occurred in connection with interrogations, Abu Ghraib and the reaction to it have forced front and center a profound national evasion: the propriety of torture. As one would expect, the scandal has produced no small amount of righteous indignation. The civil-libertarian lobby, operating in overdrive, has issued ringing declarations that...

Excerpts of the report of the Independent Panel to Review DoD Detention Operations: The events of October through December 2003 on the night shift of Tier 1 at Abu Ghraib prison were acts of brutality and purposeless sadism. We now know these abuses occurred at the hands of both military police and military intelligence personnel. The pictured abuses, unacceptable even in wartime, were not part of authorized interrogations nor were they even directed at intelligence targets. They represent deviant behavior and a failure of military leadership and discipline. However, we do know that some of the egregious abuses at Abu...

Rumsfeld's Status Taken Down a Notch By Thomas E. Ricks Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, August 25, 2004; Page A01 Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's leadership of the Pentagon has been weighed by a jury of his peers and found somewhat wanting. A report by a blue-ribbon panel he appointed to review the military establishment's role in creating and handling detainee abuse problems at Abu Ghraib prison said that the Iraq war plan he played a key role in shaping helped create the conditions that led to the scandal. In addition, the four-member panel, which was led by one former defense...

Panel points to `responsibility at higher levels' in prisoner abuse BY STEPHEN J. HEDGES Chicago Tribune WASHINGTON - (KRT) - A Pentagon-appointed commission that examined the abuse of Iraqi detainees by U.S. troops puts much of the blame for those actions on soldiers in Iraq, but it also rebukes senior Pentagon civilian and military leaders for neglecting the treatment of detainees. The four-member Schlesinger Commission issued a 92-page report Tuesday stating that the worst of the prisoner abuse was the work of a small group of U.S. military police guards inside Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. Referring to photographs taken by...

By Charles Aldinger and Philip Blenkinsop WASHINGTON/MANNHEIM (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld came under fire on Tuesday from a high-level inquiry into the Abu Ghraib prison scandal but a U.S. military judge ruled he did not have to testify at a trial arising from the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. A four-member panel headed by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger issued a report accusing the chain of command from Rumsfeld down of leadership failures that created conditions for the abuse late last year that sparked anti-American outrage across the world. Schlesinger described the events at the U.S.-run Baghdad prison as...