Stain of Torture Lingers (Reed Brody in Baltimore Sun)

[struggle4progress]

Op-ed published in the Baltimore Sun on April 28, 2005
By Reed Brody, special counsel, published in Baltimore Sun

IT HAS NOW been one year since the appearance of the first pictures of U.S. soldiers humiliating and torturing detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. When the pictures first stunned the world, Washington sought to portray them as an isolated incident, the work of a few "bad apples." President Bush spoke of "disgraceful conduct by a few American troops who dishonored our country and disregarded our values."

We now know, however, that the only truly exceptional aspect of the horrors at Abu Ghraib was that they were photographed.

Abu Ghraib was, in fact, only the tip of the iceberg.

Around the world, in a long archipelago of recognized and secret detention centers, the United States is brutalizing Muslim detainees in the name of the war on terror. <snip>

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/04/28/usint10555_txt.htm