[Vision2020] being fair and even

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Hi Roger,

I forgot to respond to your reference to Abu Ghraib as just some soldiers' "amusement." Those "techniques" and stress positions were not made up on the spot, but they have a long history, especially in Latin America where we trained and supported secret police practices. Again I quote from my own research from my torture column:

"In his article 'Abu Ghraib: The Rule, Not the Exception,' Dr. Miles Schuman, who has personally examined torture victims from Latin America, states that “the black hood covering the faces of naked prisoners .  . . was known as la capuchi in Guatemalan and Salvadoran torture chambers." Contrary to initial impressions, the soldiers at Abu Ghraib evidently did not make up these techniques on their own.  Filming the torture sessions was also not new. 

"Schuman describes some gruesome details: "The metal bed frame to which the naked and hooded detainee was bound in a crucifix position . . . was la cama, named for a former Chilean prisoner [to whom] electrodes were attached to her arms, legs and genitalia, just as they were attached to the Iraqi detainee poised on a box, threatened with electrocution if he fell off." 

"From 1984-86 Colonel James Steel was head military advisor to the Salvadoran military, and then he reappeared as chief security advisor under Paul Bremer in Iraq.  Some commentators have linked him with the torture chamber that was recently discovered in the bowels of the Baghdad Interior Ministry. In 2003 Lane McCotter, former director of the Utah state prison system, was hired to head the Abu Ghraib prison. During his tenure in Utah, Michael Valent died after 16 hours in a restraint chair and another prisoner was bound to a four point restraint board for 12 weeks."

Roger: Abu Ghraib fits a long standing pattern, and as usual, only the little guys were prosecuted and the big fish have not yet been touched.

Nick