Abuse photos: ‘straw that broke the camel’s back for America’…
Photos of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners drew international condemnation on Friday, prompting the stark conclusion that the U.S. campaign to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis is a lost cause.
“This is the straw that broke the camel’s back for America,” said Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi. “The liberators are worse than the dictators.”
“They have not just lost the hearts and minds of Iraqis but all the Third World and the Arab countries,” he told Reuters.
Bush sends the wolf to protect the hens
And what is Bush doing about this? Why he’s sending the head of the Guantanamo gulag to run the Iraq prisons – this being the very same gulag where prisoners are not allowed to see lawyers and family, and where mistreatment of prisoners is said to border on torture. Bush feigns shock at what happened in the Iraq prisons, then sends someone tainted by precisely the same types of allegations to run them.
How bad are the conditions at Guantanamo?
At the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, miles of razored coils wrap the Delta Prison Camp, binding 660 men U.S. officials deemed “enemy combatants,” mostly during the Afghanistan phase of the war on terror.
But “The Wire,” and the facility’s magnetically locked doors, are perhaps more significant for what they’re keeping out — lawyers, family members, and the protections of U.S. and international law.
“I think it’s maybe the most lawless set of actions the United States government has taken in my lifetime,” said Stuart Taylor, a legal columnist for the National Journal.
A British prisoner, held for months in Guantanamo, reports his story of beatings and mistreatment.
Sending the head of the Guantanamo detention camps to Iraq is beyond clueless. What ARE they thinking?
Of course, the blowback from the Arab and Muslim street will be immense. Every time you think the Bushies can’t possibly screw things up worse, yup, they go ahead and do it anyway.