Saturday, May 21, 2005

 

Bad Apple Zero Re-Discovered by Media

Although W and the Bush League couldn't figure out how those few "bad apples" were spread out from Afghanistan to Abu Ghraib, the news has been out for quite some time now, for those willing to see. Here's today's story:
While senior military intelligence officers at Bagram quickly heard reports of abuse by several interrogators, documents show they also failed to file reports that are mandatory when any intelligence personnel are suspected of misconduct, including mistreatment of detainees. Those reports would have alerted military intelligence officials in the United States to a problem in the unit, military officials said.

Those interrogators and others from Bagram were later sent to Iraq and were assigned to Abu Ghraib prison. A high-level military inquiry last year found that the captain who led interrogation operations at Bagram, Capt. Carolyn A. Wood, applied many of the same harsh methods in Iraq that she had overseen in Afghanistan.
Source: New York Times Abuse Inquiry Bogged Down in Afghanistan, May 22, 2005 [Emphasis added])
Far from being disciplined for teaching her subordinates to routinely torture detainees, this story from last August notes Captain Wood was apparently awarded two Bronze Stars for her actions:
WASHINGTON - Army investigators believe that some of the military interrogators who were implicated in the abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were involved in earlier deaths and abuses of detainees held by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Yet even as investigators were uncovering troubling evidence of prisoner abuse in Afghanistan, orders were cut to transfer the military intelligence company involved to Iraq and to Abu Ghraib. And within weeks of the deaths of two Afghan detainees, the officer in charge at the Bagram Collection Center, where the men died and where others are thought to be mistreated, was awarded her first of two Bronze Stars for "exceptionally meritorious service."
...
Critics say the Army's handling of the Afghan investigation amounts to a cover-up. And they say the fact that no one has been held accountable for the deaths and other abuse at the facility in Afghanistan suggests that high-ranking officers didn't consider mistreatment of detainees to be a serious offense until the graphic pictures of Abu Ghraib prisoners were broadcast around the world.
(Source: Knight Ridder News Service Afghanistan probe implicated Abu Ghraib interrogators, August 20, 2004 [Emphasis added])
I suppose being awarded a medal for her actions is proof she was guilty of incompetence or worse, like George "Slam Dunk" Tenet, Gen. Tommy "Enough Troops" Franks, and L. Paul "Disband Iraq's Army and Police" Bremer. (Bush Gives Medal of Freedom to 'Pivotal' Iraq Figures) Besides, Captain Wood couldn't be at fault for anything - she didn't work for Newsweek.

Of course, it could also be that Ms. Wood has the goods on more senior officers, and so they can't bring her to account until after the mid-term elections next year...

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