Senator Leahy on Abu Ghuraib

Democractic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont addressed the Abu Ghuraib torture revelations and their implications on the Senate floor on 05/04/04:

I have no doubt that the vast majority of American men and women who are risking their lives in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere are as disgusted by these abhorrent acts as the rest of us.  But I could not disagree more with those who would characterize these incidents as aberrations.  While President Bush, Secretary Rumsfeld, General Myers, Secretary Powell and Condoleezza Rice, may have been shocked by the photographs that have been on the front page of every newspaper in the world, they should not have been surprised by the revelations themselves.  These types of abuses have been going on at U.S. military detention facilities for a long time, and the Administration has known about the incidents in Iraq for five months.  This fact signals a failure of leadership at several levels. 

The mistreatment of prisoners by the U.S. 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 U.S. Army’s own inquiry, a “systemic and illegal abuse of detainees.”  It is revealing, and particularly disturbing, that the U.S. 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 U.S. 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. 

Leahy rightly claims credit for having focused on the problem of torture in Bush and Rummy's gulag long before the Abu Ghuraib S&M photos were published:

Frankly, I regret to say that I was not among those who were shocked by these revelations.  Revolted, yes.  Shocked, I was not.  I have been concerned, as have others, about ongoing reports of physical and psychological abuse and the denial of rights of detainees in U.S. military custody since September 11, 2001, not only in Iraq but in Afghanistan and Guantanamo. 

These abuses have been well documented by reputable human rights organizations, as well as by members of the press.  Some of the cases involve allegations of torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by U.S. military and intelligence personnel.  Other cases involve allegations of the denial of due process, incommunicado detention without charge, and the refusal of access to attorneys.

So when I hear the National Security Advisor, or the Secretary of Defense, say they are determined to get to the bottom of this, I frankly have to wonder, especially as they have known about this for a long time.  I first wrote to National Security Advisor Rice a year ago about reports of cruel and degrading treatment of Afghan detainees.

His speech lists a number of reports of various kinds over the past year about illegal treatment of prisoners in the gulag.  And he reminds us how much goodwill among our allies and the people of the world that Bush and Rummy have flushed down the toilet in the months since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon:

Mr. President, two and a half years ago, shortly after 2,986 people of some 60 nationalities died in the attacks on the World Trade Center, on the Pentagon, and in a lonely field in Pennsylvania, there were expressions of sympathy and good will toward our country unlike any we had experienced since the end of the Second World War. 

I remember how the cover of the French newspaper, Le Monde, proclaimed “Today, We Are All Americans.”  The National Anthem was played at Buckingham Palace.

Today, that sympathy and good will, which offered such promise, has long since dissipated.  In fact, it has been squandered.  Squandered by an Administration blinded by arrogance, steeped in condescension, prone to distortions of the truth, motivated by simplistic notions of “good versus evil,” and having only the most rudimentary understanding of the Iraqi people, their culture, their faith and traditions.