AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

Conspiracy to violate the Geneva Convention at Abu Grhaib

It is becoming clearer and clearer to me that despite the Bush administration's statements to the contrary, there was a conspiracy to violate the Geneva Convention at the prison at Abu Grhaib. The Bush administration has had contempt for the Geneva Convention from the start. As reflected in this BBC article from 2002, the administration formed a policy that the Geneva Convention applied to the Taliban in Afghanistan, but not to the alleged Al-Qaeda terrorists. (Of course, to the administration, anyone who they decide to treat as a terrorist IS a terrorist, and that is incontrovertible, even if you are an American citizen.)


BBC News | AMERICAS | Geneva Convention to cover Taleban

A special lawless zone was set up in Guantanamo Bay Cuba, "Gitmo" where the alleged terrorists could be held indefinitely without any due process and without the Geneva Convention.

Iraq is a signatory to the Geneva Convention. When the U.S. invaded and took thousands of prisons, many were taken to Sadam's chamber of horrors at Abu-Grhaib. The Commander of the facility, General Janice Karpinski, stated that the military police under her command had no interrogation training, but they were specifically instructed to treat the Iraqi prisoners "like dogs." Interrogation was assigned to a military intelligence unit. Now supposedly these specialists would have had training in following the Geneva Convention, right? Those soldiers that have talked so far that have been implicated in the abuse of prisoners essentially say that the military intelligence people were out-of-the-picture for the majority of the photo-worthy abuse. The supervisors were civilian "contractors".





I find it interesting that none of these civilian "contractors" have been identified as of yet. For that matter, not even the firms that they work for. It seems to me that if these contractors did anything wrong, and they did, the Administration would be rushing to name names and place blame on these contractors and the companies that they work for. The simple fact that the Administration is keeping quiet leads me to believe that these civilians were in fact CIA operatives. They haven't been identified because they can't legally be identified. (Of course, we all know that the Bush administration is not above rating out an agent whose husband is a Bush critic.)
The CIA has a policy and practice of lying to the American people whenever there is "plausible deniability."

George W. Bush committed an immoral act and violated international law when he decided to allow torture of Al-Qaeda and Iraqi soldiers. He committed an equally immoral act by lying about his policy and allowing 19 year old soldiers to take the blame and face court martial for carrying out his orders.

George Bush's supporters say he is a strong leader in time of war. So were Hitler and Mussolini, but that doesn't make them good role models for America or the World.