abusive soldier's names

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040510fa_fact


The photographs—several of which were broadcast on CBS’s “60 Minutes 2” last week—show leering G.I.s taunting naked Iraqi prisoners who are forced to assume humiliating poses. Six suspects—Staff Sergeant Ivan L. Frederick II, known as Chip, who was the senior enlisted man; Specialist Charles A. Graner; Sergeant Javal Davis; Specialist Megan Ambuhl; Specialist Sabrina Harman; and Private Jeremy Sivits—are now facing prosecution in Iraq, on charges that include conspiracy, dereliction of duty, cruelty toward prisoners, maltreatment, assault, and indecent acts. A seventh suspect, Private Lynndie England, was reassigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, after becoming pregnant.


The photographs tell it all. In one, Private England, a cigarette dangling from her mouth, is giving a jaunty thumbs-up sign and pointing at the genitals of a young Iraqi, who is naked except for a sandbag over his head, as he masturbates. Three other hooded and naked Iraqi prisoners are shown, hands reflexively crossed over their genitals. A fifth prisoner has his hands at his sides. In another, England stands arm in arm with Specialist Graner; both are grinning and giving the thumbs-up behind a cluster of perhaps seven naked Iraqis, knees bent, piled clumsily on top of each other in a pyramid. There is another photograph of a cluster of naked prisoners, again piled in a pyramid. Near them stands Graner, smiling, his arms crossed; a woman soldier stands in front of him, bending over, and she, too, is smiling. Then, there is another cluster of hooded bodies, with a female soldier standing in front, taking photographs. Yet another photograph shows a kneeling, naked, unhooded male prisoner, head momentarily turned away from the camera, posed to make it appear that he is performing oral sex on another male prisoner, who is naked and hooded.


Such dehumanization is unacceptable in any culture, but it is especially so in the Arab world. Homosexual acts are against Islamic law and it is humiliating for men to be naked in front of other men, Bernard Haykel, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at New York University, explained. “Being put on top of each other and forced to masturbate, being naked in front of each other—it’s all a form of torture,” Haykel said.

Who's baby is that???

The military people involved are rightly being pursued for these crimes, but the involvement of the "contractors" is being covered up by the media.

How far does their involvment reach within the DOD, CIA and the Bush administration? Who is giving them their orders? WHO KNEW WHAT WAS GOING ON? Those pictures were being sent somewhere I am sure. They are trophy pictures meant to be bragged about. Who got them, and how did they respond?

This is a much, much bigger scandal that involves more than these six military people.

Watch Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, General Sanchez, General Kimmet point fingers downward to the enlisted men & women. "Don't judge all of us Americans because of a few miscreants".

And yes, these guys are going to get indicted and made into an example. But -- don't blame the prisonkeepers - not 100%. Look to their commanders, who most probably encouraged it.

Does anybody really think these people would stand there, casual, laughing with a cigarette hanging out of their mouths, unless they thought this was OK? Meaning, it was acceptable to their superior officers. And when you take away absolutely every right that a human being has, then these types of things happen.

They are above the law. They are being paid by the government. People in the government and their families have investments in these companies. These companies in turn give money to their campaigns.

Look there. But be careful, rats have rabies.

What do they say about rats?

"You see one and count 10 that you didn't see." Yes, I believe they have penetrated the highest echelons of the government. They're there: these non-partisan, non-political, non-human entities who will fight in the name of the dollar.

Thanks for being persistent about it.