Damn Foreigner has a good idea:

I think that the US has to take one large step to clean up this mess...Get out of the business of incarcerating Arabs and Muslims. Any perceived benefit from taking certain people off the streets is easily negated by the pictures that we saw which will inflame those on the outside.

This includes a few things..first Gitmo has to go. Either charge people or release them. We are supposed to be a shining example of freedom and democracy, this doesn't help. The possibility that something like the photos of Abu Ghraib getting out of Gitmo also exists. And quite frankly, lets do this before the Supreme Court makes a decision on this case.

Next, we have to release people in Iraq who haven't been charged with a crime. Holding people because we think they might do something bad is simply wrong and un-American. It violates constitutionally protected freedoms that we should be spreading, not suppressing at every chance. Then for all of the people who should be incarcerated, we should hand over control of the prisons to other people. This can include the Iraqi's themselves, or re-assigning troops in the Coalition of the Willing to those duties. They should have independent oversight by the Red Crescent Society or other such groups.

by TChris

Daniel Scruggs couldn't take the bullying at school, so he hanged himself in his bedroom closet. He was 12.

Rather than pursuing the bullies or the school system that allowed them to torment Daniel, a Connecticut prosecutor went after Daniel's mother, Judith Scruggs. The government claimed that Daniel was targeted by bullies because of his body odor, which they contend was caused by a filthy home. Judith's lawyer says that Judith may have been a poor housekeeper, but she worked long hours supporting her family as a single mother and had little time or energy to devote to cleaning.

Judith was convicted of contributing to Daniel's suicide by creating a risk of injury. To the extent that Judith's housekeeping played any tenuous role in Daniel's death, the loss of a son should have been punishment enough.

Judith was placed on probation today, sparing her a sentence of incarceration. Her probation conditions require her to obtain counseling and perform 100 hours of community service.

by TChris

Josiah Sutton, who served 4-1/2 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit, has been pardoned by Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The pardon saves Sutton the anguish of having to live as a registered sex offender while waiting for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to decide his fate. Look here and here for prior coverage of Sutton's case.

From the Washington Post:

Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski, commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade who was in charge of running prisons in Iraq, told Army investigators earlier this year that she had resisted decisions by superior officers to hand over control of the prisons to military intelligence officials and to authorize the use of lethal force as a first step in keeping order -- command decisions that have come in for heavy criticism in the Iraq prison abuse scandal.

Karpinski spoke of her resistance to the decisions in a detailed account of her tenure furnished to Army investigators. It places two of the highest-ranking Army officers now in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller and Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, at the heart of decision-making on both matters. She has been formally admonished by the Army for her actions in Iraq. She said both men overruled her concerns about the military intelligence takeover and the use of deadly force.

Karpinski will be online Friday, May 14 at 11 a.m. ET, to discuss the prison abuse scandal. Submit your questions and comments before or during today's discussion.

As anticipated, Prison guard Spc. Jeremy Sivits, is cooperating with authorities in exchange for more lenient treatment in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The Washington Post obtained copies of his statements, and the AP reports:

[Sivits] took photos of abuse at the Abu Ghraib detention center in Iraq, described soldiers laughing and joking as they beat, stripped and sexually humiliated detainees, according to newspaper reports....

He said the mistreatment was not authorized by higher-ups in the chain of command. "Our command would have slammed us," he said. "They believe in doing the right thing. If they saw what was going on, there would have been hell to pay."

The other charged guards tell a different story:

The other guards facing charges have said they acted on orders from superiors or from military intelligence, and all six have declared their innocence.

Sivits claims:

Sivits described Graner as one of the ringleaders. The former Pennsylvania prison guard was joking, laughing, angered and "acting like he was enjoying it," Sivits said. He said Graner once punched a detainee in the head so hard the man fell unconscious. Sgt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick II forced naked detainees to masturbate, showing them how to do it "right", and seemed to enjoy watching the prisoners beaten, Sivits said. Sivits said Sgt. Javal Davis threw himself on a pile of prisoners and "then stomped on either the fingers or toes of the detainees," as they screamed in pain.

Lawyers for the other charged guards say Sivits is not credible, lying and just saying what the investigators want to hear to get himself a sweeter deal.

Update: The Washington Post profiles Jeremy Sivits.

Following Donald Rumsfeld's surprise visit to Abu Ghraib, 300 prisoners have been released.

Mohammed al-Musawi, complained that he was humiliated by guards at least once during his 11-month incarceration. "They forced me to take all my clothes off and female prison guards were whispering and laughing at me, " Musawi said while sitting in a room with tribal leaders. He was arrested in Baghdad's Hurriyah neighborhood, for allegedly participating in an attack against a U.S. tank.

Al-Musawi spoke of other detainees who left interrogation rooms with bruises, apparently from beatings."After taking some of the detainees into the interrogation rooms, they would come out with bruises and swellings in their bodies," he said.

At yesterday's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, both Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz testified they did not know about the Interrogation Rules used at Abu Ghraib. We published the rules here. Our prior discussion of them is here.

by TChris

President Bush doesn't read newspapers. That seemed like a good idea to Donald Rumsfeld, who announced that he doesn't read them either. Hey, why be informed? Facts, diversity of opinion, the mood of the country ... how could any of that contribute to governing?

by TChris

This one can't be blamed on the Bush administration, although there is a tie-in to Iraq.

Declassified government documents shed new light on the secret protection and support given to former Nazi officials and Nazi collaborators by U.S. intelligence agencies in the years following World War II, according to a book released yesterday by historians who have been reviewing the records for the government.

One of the villians in this story is J. Edgar Hoover.

A set of FBI files analyzed in the book by historian Norman J.W. Goda of Ohio University shows that former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover resisted taking action against Viorel Trifa, a former officer in the pro-Hitler Romanian Iron Guard who emigrated to the United States in 1950. This helped Trifa stay in the country until he was stripped of his U.S. citizenship in 1984.

The CIA subsidized a group of former SS officers who acted as intelligence sources in post-war West Germany, but failed to produce good intelligence. Therein lies the link to Iraq, says Timothy Naftali of the University of Virginia.

"This is the most troubling for me," Naftali said in an interview, "given the context of Iraq, where we once again have to reconstruct a foreign national security system, and we have to do it fast."

by TChris

If you have a taste for the absurd, you might enjoy The Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld. The defense secretary's ramblings are set to music "in an accessible style based in classical music, with strong popular influences from cabaret to pop music." You can listen to sound clips on this page.

by TChris

This is William C. Costopoulos describing his days as a prosecutor:

"I thought I was great in front of a jury as a prosecutor. I honestly believed it had something to do with my oratory skills and preparation. My blue suits, exotic boots, and briefcase added to my confidence. I was fighting evil, winning the war between right and wrong, with a meaningful purpose in life as one of God's chosen. I didn't have a clue."

by TChris

Oh darn. One of the President's pet money drains doesn't work. Maybe he'll do better with his plan to occupy Mars.

The multibillion-dollar U.S. ballistic missile shield due to start operating by Sept. 30 appears incapable of shooting down any incoming warheads, an independent scientists' group said on Thursday.

Hey, it's a measley $53 billion over the next five years. Small change compared to the cost of the war in Iraq.