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Dear Mom & Dad, Word has reached us about some soldiers who are in trouble for allegedly abusing war prisoners. I don't know the details of the situation, but from what we've heard, it's pretty ugly and all over the news. I wanted to tell you a story about a night in the desert a few weeks ago that you won't see in the news, but is more representative of what's going on over here. Due to operational security constraints, I can't go into great detail in this story, but I think you'll get the picture. In the course of...

The revelations about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers at the Abu Ghureib prison in Iraq aroused many reactions in the Arab media. For the most part, the response was one of harsh condemnation, accusations of hypocrisy directed at the coalition countries, and equating the Abu Ghureib abuse with Nazi atrocities. Following these reactions, however, were several counter-reactions in the Arab press, that included criticism of the Arab media's double standard – i.e., exhaustive coverage of the misdeeds of American soldiers yet complete silence on the spread of the phenomenon of torture in prisons throughout the Arab...

May 27, 2004 -- The Pentagon announced this week that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez is to be replaced as the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. Both the Pentagon and the White House stress that the pending transfer has nothing to do with the scandal at Abu Ghraib prison. After 13 months on the job, they say, Sanchez is scheduled for rotation. Indeed, President Bush declared Tuesday, "Rick Sanchez has done a fabulous job." No doubt he has. But it remains that Abu Ghraib happened while Sanchez was at the top of the Army's operational chain of command in Iraq....

WASHINGTON -- About two months after the Red Cross warned US commanders of widespread prisoner abuses, the commanding general at the Abu Ghraib prison assured the Red Cross in a confidential letter that Iraqi detainees were being given the best treatment possible and that even more ''improvements are continually being made."

WASHINGTON - The Army general who was in charge of the U.S. prison guards accused of abusing Iraqis has been suspended from command of the 800th Military Police Brigade, officials said Monday. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski and other officers in her brigade were faulted by Army investigators for paying too little attention to the prison's day-to-day operations and not acting strongly enough to discipline soldiers under her command for violating standard procedures. Karpinski's suspension, which has not been announced by the Army, was the latest in a series of actions against officers and enlisted soldiers implicated in the abuse scandal...

May 25, 2004ABUSEC.I.A. Bid to Keep Some Detainees Off Abu Ghraib Roll Worries OfficialsBy DOUGLAS JEHL and ERIC SCHMITT ASHINGTON, May 24 — The Central Intelligence Agency's practice of keeping some detainees in Abu Ghraib prison off the official rosters so concerned a top Army officer and a civilian official there that they reached a written agreement early this year to stop.An undated copy of the memorandum was obtained by The New York Times. It was described as an agreement between the Army intelligence unit assigned to the prison and "external agencies," a euphemism for the C.I.A., to halt practices...

"Today's press," writes Michael Barone, "works to put the worst possible face on the war" in Iraq. Is this an exaggeration? We'd have to say not. Consider the press's obsession with the Abu Ghraib prison abuses. Sure, it's a big and important story, but as others have pointed out, it's far from the only story in Iraq. Why, for example, did it get so much more coverage than the murder by terrorists of American civilian Nick Berg? We suppose one could argue that point. But the surest sign that the journalistic obsession with Abu Ghraib has gotten out of hand...

<p>It is difficult to understand what useful journalistic purpose was served by the new photographs of Iraqi prisoner mistreatment published in Friday's edition of The Washington Post. As The Post itself acknowledged in one of two front-page stories about the pictures, the images do not shed any light on the central question of who directed the abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison. So The Post, by its own admission, adds no useful information on perhaps the most basic issue in the case. As for the stories that accompany the picture, if true, they would simply reinforce what was already known: There were rotten soldiers at this prison, who deserve to be severely punished and kicked out of the military.</p>

<p>Many of the worst abuses that have come to light at the Abu Ghraib prison happened on a single November day amid insurgent violence in Iraq, many U.S. soldiers deaths and a breakdown of the guards' command structure.</p> <p>Nov. 8 was the day U.S. guards took most of the infamous photographs: soldiers mugging in front of a pile of naked Iraqis, prisoners forced to perform or simulate sex acts and a hooded prisoner in a scarecrowlike pose with wires attached to him.</p>

I was struck by how shocked members of the Senate were upon viewing additional pictures of the undisciplined, unprincipled freaks masquerading as members of our military at Abu Ghraib prison. Keep in mind, according to reports from the Senators themselves, most of the additional pictures were of our soldiers having sex with each other– male soldiers having sex with female soldiers, that is. Senators such as Feinstein and Campbell expressed absolute shock at the pictures they saw. I’m shocked at how out-of-touch our Senators seem to be when it comes to the nature of what happened at Abu Ghraib. Now...

STOP APOLOGIZING ALREADY by Timothy Rollins, Editor and Publisher May 24, 2004 With all the bellyaching going on in Washington and the handwringing over a few prisoners mistreated at Abu Ghraib, it's a wonder any governing at all goes on in the halls of Congress. The fact of the matter is no governing is going on right now. Why? Because of preening by a handful of prima donna congressional types (mostly Democrats) seeking free face time on the evening newscasts, and networks all too willing to be their willing accomplices.What the hell has become of this country when Iraqi prisoner...

We know conclusively that the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal is as phony as a Bill Clinton sex denial because there are no calls for the resignation or indictment of the one individual most responsible for the abuses. That would be the officer in charge of Abu Ghraib and all U.S. military prisons in Iraq, the commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski. And why have there been no calls for her resignation? Let’s be honest. It is because she is a woman. Thus the frightening lesson of the abuse scandal: Political correctness trumps national security...

Barely three weeks, and already I've developed Abu Ghraib fatigue. At first, I was saddened and ashamed by the photographs of abuse. I thought they might cost us the war, and deservedly so. But then I learned the prisoners in cell blocks 1A and 1B are not nice people. They're in prison because the Army thinks they did things like kill our soldiers with roadside bombs. Then I learned that, not infrequently, such interrogation techniques work — they elicit information that allows us to catch plotters and save lives. Then I was struck by the hypocrisy of Arab state leaders...

Prison Scrutiny May Spread to Guantanamo By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer WASHINGTON - The storm of controversy over abuse at U.S.-run prisons in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites) largely has escaped the detention facility at Guantanamo, Cuba, where terrorist suspects are held. That soon may change. A senior Navy admiral who briefly visited Guantanamo Bay in early May at Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's request has recommended a more in-depth look at the prisoners' treatment. He said conditions there are good now but may have been different earlier. Also, the Pentagon (news -...

PHOTOS OF TORTURED IRAQI PRISONERS BEING FORCED TO SIMULATE GAY SEX HAVE BROUGHT TO LIGHT THE FRIGHTENING CULTURE OF HOMOPHOBIA WITHIN THE US MILITARY, MYLES WEARRING REPORTS. As a gay man and a person of Arab descent, Mubarak Dahir felt a double sting from the pictures he saw on the television news. “Looking at the blurred-out photos of hooded Iraqi prisoners being forced to perform simulations of gay oral sex on one another, I had to wonder what it was that my fellow Americans in uniform who were directing the scene found the most despicable: the fact that the men...

23 May News Report BAGHDAD, Iraq - There was a news report published May 23, 2004, which suggests that Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, Commander of Multi-National Forces-Iraq was aware of, and in some instances, present at Abu Ghraib while detainee abuse was occurring. This report is false, and Lt Gen Sanchez stands by his testimony before Congressional committees.  Release #040523a

The Washington Post, in a story first released on its Web site Saturday night, said a military lawyer stated at an open hearing April 2 that Capt. Donald J. Reese told him that Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez and other senior military officers were aware of the abuse at the prison.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A lawyer for a soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib abuse case said a captain at the Iraqi prison has charged that Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez was present during some unspecified "interrogations and/or allegations of the prisoner abuse," The Washington Post reported on Sunday. Citing a recording of a military hearing obtained by the newspaper, The Post said the military lawyer, Capt. Robert Shuck, was told that Sanchez, the highest-ranking U.S. military officer in Iraq, and other senior officials were aware of what was taking place at Abu Ghraib. Shuck is assigned to defend Staff Sgt....

WASHINGTON (AP) - The commander of the military police company assigned to the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad has said he will testify that the top U.S. general in Iraq was present during some interrogations at the prison and witnessed some of the abuse, according to a published report. The Washington Post, in a story first released on its Web site Saturday night, said a military lawyer stated at an open hearing April 2 that Capt. Donald J. Reese told him that Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez and other senior military officers were aware of the abuse at the prison.The...

I was struck by how shocked members of the Senate were upon viewing additional pictures of the undisciplined, unprincipled freaks masquerading as members of our military at Abu Ghraib prison. Keep in mind, according to reports from the Senators themselves, most of the additional pictures were of our soldiers having sex with each other– male soldiers having sex with female soldiers, that is. Senators such as Feinstein and Campbell expressed absolute shock at the pictures they saw. I’m shocked at how out-of-touch our Senators seem to be when it comes to the nature of what happened at Abu Ghraib. Now...