An Abu Ghreib flashback

Posted Wed, May 5, 2004 at 9:49 pm

So much has been written recently about the Abu Ghreib prison that its past has apparently been forgotten:

  • "Qusay, [Saddam's] second son, ordered Abu Ghreib prison to be "cleaned out" and had 2,000 prisoners executed in 24 hours." (link)

  • "Abu Ghreib prison, 30 kilometres (19 miles) west of Baghdad, was by all accounts one of the darkest places in Saddam's benighted realm..." (link with much more)
  • "The grave diggers say that the bodies in many of the graves here in a walled-off enclave of the Kirkh Islamic Cemetery, a mile down the road from the big prison, lie twisted in twos and threes. For over 20 years, they report, almost no one has been allowed to visit here, apart from a lone shovel man and the secret police who heaved the bodies from their cars toward the holes in the earth." (link)
  • "[American Kenneth Beatty] was sentenced to 7 or 8 years in prison and transferred to Abu Ghreib prison in Baghdad. There he lived in a cell invested with vermin and shared a toilet with more than 200 prisoners. He suffered from a heart condition but was denied medical attention." (link)
  • "During captivity [in Abu Ghreib], both [American] men were in constant fear for their lives. The captors displayed little respect to human life. At one point, an Iraqi guard attempted to execute Mr. Barloon, but was stopped by another guard." (ibid)
  • "On Monday, hundreds of people gathered at the headquarters of state security in Baghdad seeking information on those who never appeared [after Abu Ghreib was opened by Saddam before the war]... But within the crowd were elderly women and other relatives demanding information about prisoners. After some forced their way into the Foreign Press Center, shots were fired into the air, dispersing the crowd. Two hours later, they returned... One man told an official that he had not seen his brother since 1980..." (link)

Comments

jay (not verified)

Mon, 05/10/2004 - 04:16

Don't get me wrong, Mr. Cleaver. I am definetely upset at the 15 or 20 stupid soldiers. They will be reprimanded for what they have done. Meanwhile, Sudan and Vietnam (as an example, the so-called UN Human Rights Commission) condemns what some of our soldiers have done, and yet ignores their mistreatment of their own citizens (slavery, child prostitution, Christian killing).

I'll quote the Bible, "remove the log from your own eye before you tell someone about the dust in their eye," not exactly word-for-word, but close enough.

The Beaver (not verified)

Sun, 05/09/2004 - 11:00

So, Lone Wacko, what's your point? Saddam was a bad guy? Holy cow, stop the presses! Does that somehow excuse war crimes by US soldiers?

And Jay, I think you're the one who needs to get over it. Again, Saddam's atrocities are a matter of record and have been for years, even when Rumsfeld was over there gladhanding him and helping out with his little war against Iran.

As for the dead Ukrainians, sorry, I wasn't born then. As for the dead Southeast Asians, I'll see your dead 1 million killed by the communists and raise you 2 million killed by the capitalists. As for the Chinese Christians, good luck to 'em. I think they should be allowed to practice in peace.

But the fact that others commit evil doesn't mean it's okay or somehow not so bad when the US military does it. And yes, I tend to get more upset at the US government than the Chinese or the Iraqi because....drum roll, please...it's my government.

jay (not verified)

Thu, 05/06/2004 - 06:01

Wow! So what were you doing about Iraq when the AI was supposedly screaming their heads off to the world medias about the atrocities that Saddam was committing?

What exactly did liberals have to say about the 10+ millions Ukrainians that were killed by Communists?

Or, what about the 1+ million Cambodians that were killed by communists?

Or, what about the millions of Christians in China that are daily tormented and imprisoned for their beliefs?

Get over it, we all agree that Saddam was a horrible person, and that he committed sins against humanity. What I have wondered is why hasn't the mainstream media really exposed the horrible things that Saddam did to the world population? Why are they so fixated on about a dozen stupid American soldiers, but can so easily neglect the fact that Saddam had mass graves filled with 100s of 1000s of his citizens?

You do realize that CNN admittedly ignored the atrocities that Saddam committed so they could have a media center in Baghdad? That is an example of what is so wrong with the big dogs of media!

BCG (not verified)

Thu, 05/06/2004 - 06:00

New Bumper sticker:

Vote George Bush: He's not as bad as Saddam

Zizka (not verified)

Thu, 05/06/2004 - 05:07

Go piss up a rope, Mr. Fake Email address.

Liberals of the Amnesty International type were talking about Saddam and his kind for decades and no one was listening.

Cheney: "The good lord didn't see fit to put oil only where there were democratic governments". (Cheney was talking specifically about Burma, another hellhole no one thinks about much, but he had his Iraw shit too.

You piece of shit.

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