TORTURE

Many readers keep cavilling that the evidence of torture and prisoner abuse committed by U.S. forces is non-existent. They are tragically wrong. Recall this part of the Taguba report, the official investigation at Abu Ghraib. Here’s some of what happened:

Breaking chemical lights and pouring phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall of his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.

There is incontrovertible evidence of actual rapes and murders. Prisoners under U.S. command have been killed. Now we hear the following:

The memorandum said that the Defense Intelligence Agency officials saw prisoners being brought in to a detention center with burn marks on their backs and complaining about sore kidneys.

This was after the Abu Ghraib scandal came to light. Some Defense Intelligence Agency officials witnessed one officer “punch a prisoner in the face to the point the individual needed medical attention.” And part of the response to the complaints was to threaten the investigators. Just put it all together. We have a problem here.