Today’s torture headlines are self-explanatory. Anyone who cannot see the signs of
\nsystematic mismanagement in all that’s being reported must be blind. Even if the nitwit in the
\nWhite House and the top Pentagon brass from Rummy boy on down had no knowledge of what
\nwas going on — which strains credulity — such purported ignorance is in itself Exhibit A for their
\nculpability as incompetents. <\/P>
\n
Some sentient Republicans finally understand this. Like the rest of us shamed by the torture of
\nprisoners at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, they presumably see the crisis as a moral issue. But if they
\ndon’t — if they see it merely in practical terms as “a metaphor for the mismanagement of the war”
\n(Tim Russert’s description this morning) — we won’t argue with them as long as their practicality
\nleads to ridding us of the unredeemable thugs now in charge.<\/P>
\n
Today’s menu: “New Details of Prison Abuse The Post, which obtained more graphic evidence of the torture, reports: “Videos Amplify Picture of Josh White, Christian Davenport and Scott Higham write: “The new pictures and videos go Now add to those articles, these in The New York Times this morning: <\/P> + “Justice Memos Explained How to Skip + “Afghan Policies on Questioning Prisoners Toss in this column by Bob Herbert: “‘Gooks’ to Have a look at this article, Armstrong’s appointment was approved by the Justice Department, although he is a former “One of the inmates, a diabetic, died of heart failure after going into diabetic shock and then
\nEmerge.”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> The Washington Post reports “Abu Ghraib Detainees’
\nStatements Describe Sexual Humiliation And Savage Beatings.” Scott Higham and Joe Stephens
\nwrite: “Previously secret sworn statements by detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq describe
\nin raw detail abuse that goes well beyond what has been made public, adding allegations of
\nprisoners being ridden like animals, sexually fondled by female soldiers and forced to retrieve their
\nfood from toilets.”<\/P>
\n
\nViolence.”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> A photo gallery accompanying the article shows a U.S.
\nsoldier threatening a prisoner with an attack dog, a naked prisoner covered in feces standing with
\nhis arms outstretched as though crucified, a hooded prisoner handcuffed to the bars of a railing
\nwho appears to have collapsed.<\/P>
\n
\nbeyond the photos previously released to the public in several ways, amplifying the overt violence
\nagainst detainees and displaying a variety of abusive techniques previously unseen.”<\/P>
\n
\n
\nPrisoner Rights.”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> Neil A. Lewis reports: “A series of Justice
\nDepartment memorandums written in late 2001 and the first few months of 2002 were crucial in
\nbuilding a legal framework for United States officials to avoid complying with international laws
\nand treaties on handling prisoners, lawyers and former officials say.” <\/P>
\n
\nTaken to Iraq.”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> Douglas Jehl and Eric Schmitt report: “The
\ninterrogation center at Abu Ghraib prison was run by a military intelligence unit that had served in
\nAfghanistan and that had taken to Iraq the aggressive rules and procedures it had developed for
\nthe Afghan conflict, according to documents and testimony.”<\/P>
\n
\n‘Hajis,'”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> about a soldier who’s being court-martialed for refusing to
\nreturn to Iraq, where he witnessed “the killing of children, the cruel deaths of American G.I.’s
\n[targeted by bounty hunters] … the ineptitude of inexperienced glory-hunting military
\nofficers who at times are needlessly putting U.S. troops in even greater danger, and the growing
\nrage among coalition troops against all Iraqis (known derisively as ‘hajis,’ the way the Vietnamese
\nwere known as ‘gooks’).<\/P>
\n
\nGuant\u00e1namo,”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> and this one, “Screening of Prison Officials Is Faulted by
\nLawmakers,”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> in which Fox Butterfield and Eric Lichtblau report on
\nthe “checkered record” of the assistant director of operations of American prisons in Iraq, John J.
\nArmstrong. <\/P>
\n
\nstate commissioner of corrections for Connecticut who resigned from that post after the state
\n“settled lawsuits by the American Civil Liberties Union and the families of two Connecticut
\ninmates who died last year after being sent by Mr. Armstrong to a supermaximum security prison
\nin Virginia.” <\/P>
\n
\nbeing hit with an electric charge by guards wielding a stun gun and kept in restraints,” Butterfield
\nand Lichtblau write. The other, “who had been diagnosed with mental illness, jumped off his bunk
\nwith a makeshift rope around his neck in plain sight of a guard who did nothing to come to his
\naid,” according to the senior staff counsel for the ACLU’s National Prison Project.<\/P>
\n