Thought Quotient

Report: Abu Ghraib was ‘Animal House’ at night

Interestingly enough, despite the tabloid headline, the real truth comes out in this Report “the four-member advisory panel appointed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in early May to investigate abuse allegations” chaired by by James Schlesinger. The fact is, abuse occurred at the Abu Ghraib facility - abuse that ended in death for five of the detainees. That is a hideous scar on the reputation of our country and there is no excuse for it. But the attempts by popular media to make our entire military structure appear evil, conspiratorial and sadistic are refuted by this article. Of course, the The ever-trustworthy CNN is faithful to include these details… buried far enough down in the article that most will never see them.

When viewed objectively several points come out. Senior officials made very clear that Geneva regulations should apply. They failed in not providing adequate supervision and by a low officer to prisoner ration (75/1 as mentioned in the article). However, the investigative panel doesn’t recommend Rumsfeld’s resignation and if we read the numbers… Out of 50,000 people detained - there were only 300 allegations of abuse - even after apparent efforts to “encourage” prisoners to report. And though the investigations are only 1/2 completed, only 66 cases of the 155 reported have been substantiated. And the investigators are fair in reporting the “great stress” the officers endured at Abu Ghraib including daily shelling of the facility, Iraqi police smuggling arms to the prisoners and the aforementioned ratio of officers to prisoners.

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