As Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking member of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee, said in a stirring speech this past Tuesday on the Senate floor:
"The mistreatment of prisoners by the US military in Iraq was not limited to the crimes that have come to light at the Abu Ghraib prison. Rather, there was, in the words of the US Army's own inquiry, a 'systemic and illegal abuse of detainees.' It is revealing, and particularly disturbing, that the US personnel involved conducted themselves so openly, even posing with the victims of their sadistic acts. They obviously felt they had no reason to believe that their superiors would be upset with their conduct. The brazenness of these acts, the reported role of US intelligence officers in encouraging such treatment to 'soften up' detainees for interrogations, combined with earlier reports of similar abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan, suggests a much larger failure."
We couldn't have said it any better ourselves. Hopefully a statement this strong from such a senior member of the Senate will have some reverberations. Click here to read and circulate Leahy's full speech, click here to read follow-up remarks Leahy made on Wednesday, and click here to read Katha Pollitt's new Nation column, Show & Tell at Abu Ghraib.
Peter Rothberg
As Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking member of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee, said in a stirring speech this past Tuesday on the Senate floor:
“The mistreatment of prisoners by the US military in Iraq was not limited to the crimes that have come to light at the Abu Ghraib prison. Rather, there was, in the words of the US Army’s own inquiry, a ‘systemic and illegal abuse of detainees.’ It is revealing, and particularly disturbing, that the US personnel involved conducted themselves so openly, even posing with the victims of their sadistic acts. They obviously felt they had no reason to believe that their superiors would be upset with their conduct. The brazenness of these acts, the reported role of US intelligence officers in encouraging such treatment to ‘soften up’ detainees for interrogations, combined with earlier reports of similar abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan, suggests a much larger failure.”
We couldn’t have said it any better ourselves. Hopefully a statement this strong from such a senior member of the Senate will have some reverberations. Click here to read and circulate Leahy’s full speech, click here to read follow-up remarks Leahy made on Wednesday, and click here to read Katha Pollitt’s new Nation column, Show & Tell at Abu Ghraib.
Peter RothbergTwitterPeter Rothberg is the The Nation’s associate publisher.