August 19, 2004

Check out the misleading headline from the LA Times:
Report on Iraq Abuse Will Widen the Blame

A long-awaited report on the Abu Ghraib prison scandal will implicate about two dozen military intelligence soldiers and civilian contractors in the intimidation and sexual humiliation of Iraq war prisoners, but will not suggest wrongdoing by military brass outside the prison, senior Defense officials said Wednesday.
[...]
But in the end, Defense officials said, the report implicates no one outside the prison.

"The report is going to say responsibility for Abu Ghraib stops at the brigade level," a senior official said.

The scandal has drawn international condemnation and questions about U.S. interrogation and detention policies. It also has cast a legal cloud over U.S. moves to begin trials for detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Defense attorneys in those cases, which begin next week, may submit evidence of abuse to question the legitimacy of confessions and other government claims.
[In short, all it's done has been to empower our enemies and give them more tools to hurt us and kill us.--Jen]
[...]
Some on Capitol Hill said they were dismayed that the investigation failed to implicate more senior military officers or Bush administration officials.
[Can you believe our fellow Americans can be so disgusting?!...being disappointed because they can't find enough people and enough important leaders who are bad people of low character. Unbelievable.--J.T.]
The administration has portrayed the abuses as isolated incidents committed in disregard of established procedures. But critics have questioned whether administration policies favoring more aggressive interrogations contributed to a climate in which abuses occurred and whether Fay's findings might be part of a lax Pentagon response.

"I'm a little shocked, I guess, that it doesn't go higher than that," a senior congressional aide
[And you know it's a Dimocrat Congressperson, too!--Jen]
, speaking on condition of anonymity, said when told of the initial news reports, adding that the findings weren't dramatic. "It's not big stuff."
However, others said the prison scandal was fueled in part by the political season.

This faux scandal was totally fueled by the destructive politics of the Left.
Interesting that the Bush-hating LATimes would report the findings so relatively accurately as they've been no cheerleader for the exoneration of the Bush Administration.
Of course, they fudged the headline, knowing that would be all a lot of Americans would see.
Scumbags.
Oh, how the Left called for SecDef Rummy's head over this and how they planned for the exposure of what they painted as the "systemic" Pentagon approval of enemy abuse in the WOT to dovetail with Kerry's charges of war crimes in the Vietnam War that also supposedly went all the way up the chain of command.
Lord above, I really hate the Dimocrats and the Left!
They will tell any lie and besmirch fine fellow citizens in their crazed lust to get power back.
Well I say let's not give it to them again. Ever.
And beyond creating a presumption of "systemic" criminality in our armed forces, the heavy play giving to the Abu Ghraib story with its implications for the enemy detainees at Gitmo is empowering the terrorists who are trying to murder us, just when we're starting to bring justice to them and prevent them from doing just that.
Let's hope that this report and the ongoing investigations will continue to exonerate the Pentagon brass and even our regular GIs in theater, as I'm sure they will, and that the American people won't have to hear about this trumped-up crap anymore!
(Although the buzz is that when President Bush wins a second term, they're going to gin the attack back up to try and impeach him and take out members of his Cabinet like Rumsfeld. Give me strength, Lord!)
Doesn't the LATimes know there's a war on?
Apparently, it's a war on Truth and they're losing the Stalinist side of rewriting history to suit their agenda.