The Senate hearing into the abuse of Iraqi prisoners; click on photo for story

The fallout from the abuse, by American soldiers, of prisoners detained at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison continues.
Joe Conason, in Salon, provides insight into a report by human rights lawyers which found that the Abu Ghraib abuse was not only lawless — it was sanctioned by Pentagon political appointees.
Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Sternberg, in a compelling and readable column, suggests that President Bush is wrong to say prison abuse is inconsistent with the nature and temperment of Americans. Read why.
The New York Times reports on the life and current status of Pfc. Lynndie England, the female national guardsman featured so prominently in the Iraqi abuse photos.
The Times also presents a timeline, titled “Prison Abuses: Military Actions Taken and When Top Officials Knew.”
Update: ITV reports allegations of a “girl as young as 12 (who) was stripped and beaten by military personnel.” National Public Radio in the U.S. offers this audio report, by Jackie Northam, providing detail and insight into the report issued yesterday by the International Committee of the Red Cross on the coalition forces’ treatment of persons held in Iraq.
And, finally in this update on the scandal that is rocking the Bush White House …
Yale law professor Jack Balkin writes that the Bush “administration wanted secrecy. It wanted to be free of legal constraint. It wanted to do whatever it wanted whenever it wanted without ever having to be called to account for it.” Balkin goes on to suggest that in denying the prisoners in Iraq (as well as Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay) the usual protections of the Bill of Rights — including the presumption of innocence, the right to counsel, the right to know the charges against them, and the writ of habeas corpus to test the legality of their detention if they are placed in jail — the Bush administration is now “reaping what it has sown.”

Raymond Tomlin

Raymond Tomlin is a veteran journalist and educator who has written frequently on the political realm — municipal, provincial and federal — as well as on cinema, mainstream popular culture, the arts, and technology.

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