[Vision2020] A Shameful Silence

[Tom Hansen]

>From the editorial section January 30, 2006 edition of the Army Times
(www.armytimes.com <http://www.armytimes.com/> ) -

 

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A shameful silence

 

That Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller wants to slip-slide into two-star
retirement after invoking his right against self-incrimination in connection
with alleged abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is appalling.

 

To date, eight low-ranking enlisted soldiers have been charged and punished
for the abuses that surfaced in 2004; a handful of officers have been
quietly dealt with administratively. Pentagon officials tried to dismiss the
episode that caused international uproar and undermined U.S. standing with
the Arab world as the unfortunate hijinks of enlisted soldiers acting on
their own. But questions persist about whether the interrogation tactics
that violated articles of the Geneva Conventions were carried out under
orders of others up the chain of command. 

 

Miller was deemed of particular interest because of his assignments in both
Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. He served as detention facility commander at
Gitmo in 2002, a period in which investigators have found evidence of
prisoner abuse, including one detainee who was threatened with a snarling
dog. That same tactic surfaced at Abu Ghraib after Miller arrived there in
August 2003, charged to improve intelligence collection.

 

Sgt. Santos A. Cardona is set to go to court-martial this spring on charges
he mistreated Abu Ghraib detainees by allowing dogs to attack or threaten
them. The sergeant's attorney sought to question Miller, but on Jan. 10, the
general invoked his rights and refused to testify in Cardona's case, as well
as that of another dog handler. 

 

There is no doubt that Miller has a legal right to refuse to offer testimony
that would incriminate himself. But while that refusal cannot be used
against him in a court of law, it will certainly reverberate loudly in the
court of public opinion. 

 

If Miller's testimony against himself would lessen the blame now resting
solely on the shoulders of enlisted men and women serving or facing hard
time in prison, then the honorable thing to do is to speak up.

 

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As I have said in the past, accountability must start at the top.

 

In addition to Major General Miller being given a free walk, Brigadier
General Karpinski (the former district commander of prisons in Iraq) was
forced into early retirement.

 

What a friggin' joke!

 

Take care, Moscow.

 

Tom Hansen

Moscow, Idaho

 

 

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"You may leave here for 4 days in space
But when you return, it's the same old place
The poundin' of the drums, the pride and disgrace
You can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace
Hate your next-door neighbor, but don't forget to say grace."

 

- Barry McGuire

 

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