Barbarism

from Broken Laws, Broken Lives

"This report tells the largely untold human story of what happened to detainees in our custody when the Commander-in-Chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture. This story is not only written in words: It is scrawled for the rest of these individuals’ lives on their bodies and minds. Our national honor is stained by the indignity and inhumane treatment these men received from their captors."

General who probed Abu Ghraib says Bush officials committed war crimes

The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison accused the Bush administration Wednesday of committing "war crimes" and called for those responsible to be held to account.

Torture from the Top Down

100 Years

I was reading this opinion piece ["One more year in Iraq, or 100?"] and the following stood out to me:

Long-term use of more than 50 bases in Iraq," plus immunity from Iraqi law for U.S. troops and contractors, "and a free hand to carry out arrests and conduct military activities in Iraq without consulting the Baghdad government.

There's potential for a story-within-a-story here. "immunity from Iraqi law for U.S. troops and contractors"??? I'm not being sarcastic, but posing a question - why the contractors? There has to be some logical reason that I'm missing. And surely this doesn't mean that the contractors can rape and murder innocent civilians - or each other - without consequence, right?

Furthermore, I'm trying to imagine what it would be like if some other country had these powers within the U.S. That's completely frightening.