'Military Intelligence'; an oxymoron?

[Peter Jenkins]

I was watching the Panorama special (UK, BBC1 - see website here ) on the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. It was an excellent program, fairly balanced and with interviews from all the major players - Lindy England, Graner, some of the lawyers representing the accused soldiers, the camp commander and a spokesman for the ICRC.
It was fairly balanced, in that it explored the possibility that these were one-off actions by a group of thuggish soldiers, as well as the possibility that the whole thing was co-ordinated by Military intelligence.
All of the accused - including Sivits, who pleaded guilty to abuse, say that Military intelligence directed the abuse. Circumstantial evidence points to this and there are many links to MI/Guantanamo Bay
Bearing in mind that Iraq is a powder keg, at the moment, It doesn't sound very *intelligent* to torture people who's only crime may have been staying out after curfew.

Given Luke T's strong defence of Guantanamo bay, a few weeks back, I wonder if anyone has changed their mind on the likelihood of abuse at camp X-Ray?

Peter

 

[toddjh]

Given Luke T's strong defence of Guantanamo bay, a few weeks back, I wonder if anyone has changed their mind on the likelihood of abuse at camp X-Ray?

I have. I no longer think the word of the U.S. military is automatically more credible than statements made by detainees. I'm still undecided on whether abuse actually took place at Guantanamo, but I don't dismiss the possibility out of hand anymore.

Jeremy

 

[AtheistArchon]

- A good thing to remember is that the military is run, at the highest levels, by the politicians. The lower you go in rank, the more disconnected you are to the politicians themselves, but that arrow only gets broken in one direction in most cases.

- Example: chain of command dictates that Rummy follow Bush's orders. Secretary of the Army is then briefed by Rummy. Command 4-stars are then briefed by the SotA, and so on down to the junior enlisted troops that actually undress, beat, and sodomize the detainees. These troops are, usually, lower to low-middle class citizens with a GED or high school diploma... hardly knowledgeable about geopolitics or what is going on at the levers of power in DC.

- My take: punish the troops responsible, but also pursue the commanders. Follow the links back up the chain to the person who actually MADE the decision to "haze" the detainees.

- Anyhow. The US Military has never been an outstanding source of morality or moral philisophy. The military takes orders from elected politicians. That doesn't excuse anything, but it certainly casts a shadow on the politicians.