Bush was hiring known rapists and murderers as contractors in Iraq prisons

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB4Q2KZZUD.html

Senator Cites Four Civilian Contractors in Calling for Wider Investigation of Prison Abuse

<snip>The four were part of a 25-member team that visited various Iraqi prisons over a period of about four months in 2003 and worked to get them up and running again.

One of the four, Terry Stewart, was sued by the Justice Department in 1997, when he ran Arizona's Corrections Department. The lawsuit charged that at least 14 female inmates were repeatedly raped, sexually assaulted and watched by corrections workers as they dressed, showered and used the bathroom. snip

O.L. "Lane" McCotter, who resigned under fire as head of the Utah Corrections Department after a mentally ill inmate died after spending 16 hours strapped to a restraining chair.

McCotter's predecessor, Gary DeLand, who headed the agency in the late 1980s, when civil rights lawyers charged his department denied appropriate medical care to inmates.

more

[diamond14]

1. protests today in Arlington Virginia ....(photos of banner on hwy bridge)

says "US SOLDIERS GO TO JAIL - CACI torturers GO FREE"...on I-66 in Arlington VA....very very close to the pentagon....

there was also a PROTEST at Ballston Metro Stop today, near the CACI Corporated headquarters....

-snips-

A defence contractor supplying civilian interrogators to the US military at the scandal-ridden Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is a subject of five different government investigations, the company president said today.

Most of the investigations centre on whether it was proper for Arlington, Virginia-based CACI to provide interrogators to the US Army under a contract with the Department of the Interior that was originally designed for information technology services.

CACI President and Chief Executive J.P. London told Wall Street analysts that the company is co-operating fully with the investigations. The company has also been doing its own investigation.

Earlier this week, the interior department blocked the Army from ordering new services from CACI under the contract while it is being reviewed. CACI interrogators now working in Iraq are permitted to continue their work.

CACI is investigating the conduct of its interrogators, but Mr London said “we believe people are innocent until proven guilty”. Stefanowicz’s lawyer has also proclaimed his client’s innocence.
Mr London said he did not believe any of the investigations would result in a serious punishment for CACI, whose shares dropped 10% in trading this afternoon.

http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/98673

[burythehatchet]

2. OK ...fine...four more bad apples.....you happy now?

[Karenina]

3. It's NOT about "bad apples."

It's about POLICY and systemic rot. What was documented in the prisons of Iraq is America's MADE FOR EXPORT PRODUCT, refined and perfected in her own corrupt penitentiaries. The denial is STUNNING, GROTESQUE and is quickly eroding the good will some still harbor toward American citizens. A fish rots from the head down...

seemslikeadream Wed Jun-02-04 02:27 PM
Original message
Conflicts Seen for General in Abuse Probe

By TED BRIDIS
The Associated Press


WASHINGTON - The Army general who reported last fall there was no mistreatment at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq also commands the criminal investigators now pursuing the abuse cases, drawing concerns by some military law experts about a potential conflict of interest.

Maj. Gen. Donald J. Ryder was promoted Oct. 29 to provost marshal general in charge of all Army law enforcement units, including the military police now at the center of the investigation, while he was in the middle of a trip looking for management problems and possible abuse at Abu Ghraib and other Iraq prisons.

His report did not document any abuses at the prisons, such as those that emerged in photographs just days after his trip. The report did raise broad questions, though, about restraint of prisoners and compliance with the international rules for prisoners of war.

In his new job as provost marshal general, Ryder helps set policy for the MPs that guard Iraq prisons. He also retains the command he has had since January 2002 over the Army Criminal Investigation Division, whose agents are leading investigations into the activities at Abu Ghraib.

more
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/27-06022004-310003.html

[burythehatchet]

4. Sorry Karenina, I should have used the sarcasm smilie

:)

[NNN0LHI]

5. I didn't need the sarcasm thingy. I was laughing my ass off. Thanks n/t

[Karenina]

7. OOPS!!!

:silly: (Karenina goes to the corner for a time-out cause the daily dose of deep doo-doo seems to be affecting her sense of humor and ability to read posters' names)!!!

There are placards of the picture with the hooded man holding the child in his lap plastered all over the neighborhood advertising a benefit for the Iraqis. I cannot describe what I felt when I first saw it yesterday... Sometimes I feel like a raw nerve.

[burythehatchet]

8. I did not see that picture

As a dad, I don't think I should.

How sad.

[DemoTex]

15. I am a man, but not a dad.

How should I feel?

[indepat]

6. They were looking for a few good men: systemic rot is so apropos,

so descriptive of this Administration's every action and moral fiber when viewed holistically from day-one. Systemic rot: if ever a nail were hit squarely on the head, systemic rot would be it. Bravo!

[J2001]

9. Protestors stupid as hell

Ok what ever protestor posted US Soldiers Go to Jail is doing just as good as the commanders did by ordering torturing. It really isnt the soldiers fault that they were orderd to torture prisoners, they were told that they need to do this torturing in order to stop more attacks, if i was in the situation i would have believed the commanders also. the acts or dispicable but most of the blame needs to be put on the commanders who orderd the torturing not the lowest in command.

The US Soldiers go To Jail has got to be one of the stupid protest signs i have ever seen. dont blame the soldiers you fools to who ever did this

[Torgo Johnson]

12. Read the sign again

It says... "US SOLDIERS GO TO JAIL - CACI torturers GO FREE", meaning that they feel the soldiers are scapegoats for the corporate mercenaries who were in charge. I actually think they both should go to jail. There is such a thing as disobeying a unlawful order, and in the case of the two soldiers having sex with each other in front of the prisoners, I don't think anyone commanded them to do that.

[NNN0LHI]

13. You misunderstood the poster as Agitator pointed out in post #12 but...

...if you are suggesting that if had you been in the same situation you too would have believed your commander. And therefore I will assume (perhaps incorrectly?) that you would have followed orders and joined in the torturing? I may be misreading your intent but that type of defense has been tried before at the Nuremberg war crimes trials. Many defendants there testified that they were only following orders. They were hanged nonetheless.

Don

[Djinn]

14. you've missed the point

but even so - if given an order to rape someone would you follow it?

If "following orders" wasn't an excuse for SS officers 50 years ago it sure as shit isn't an excuse now

[gottaB]

10. slipshod?

Schumer realizes that these people were in all likelihood hired *because* of their accomplished criminality, right?

Are we at a stage where many know that BushCo is a criminal enterprise, but it's still to impolitic to say it outright? Please. Somebody reassure me.

[Alerter_]

11. The rape and sexual humiliation of Arabs was purposeful and planned

By Bush, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, Miller, Boykin, Sanchez, Fast, Stephanowitz, Israel, and Tenet. They hired the worst torturers from Latin America, Israel, and South Africa, and used scumbags like Michael Sewage, Rush Limpbag, Alan Dershoshitz, and the like to justify it.

Strictly speaking, after they are tried and convicted, they deserve to be hung by the neck until dead. Since we're a civilized country, life imprisonment will suffice. If they had any sense of honor, they would commit suicide to end the shame they are bringing on their families and our country.