1115.org

Who would have thought that it was possible for conditions at Abu Ghraib to deteriorate after we handed over control of the prison to the Iraqis? But that’s exactly what has happened:

Fresh allegations of brutality are being reported from inside the walls of Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, which was transferred from U.S. military to Iraqi government control on September 1st.

Sa’dik al-Hasnawi, who heads up Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s offices in the southern city of Diwaniya, told OneWorld, “it seems torture is not just a random thing. It’s a policy and everyone is required to follow it.”

Hasnawi has been interviewing inmates as they’re released from Abu Ghraib.

“I have seen cases with drilling and electric shocks and one of the prisoners’ knee caps were removed in a surgical process that was a form of torture,” he said.
[…]
Last week, Iraqi authorities carried out the mass execution of 27 suspected criminals and terrorists inside the walls at Abu Ghraib. This week, the London Daily Telegraph reported conditions inside the prison were “grim, with an overwhelming stench of excrement, prisoners crammed into cells for all but 20 minutes a day, food rations cut to just rice and water, and no air conditioning.”

Prisoners interviewed by the Telegraph in the presence of their jailers said they were frightened for their safety. Iraqi guards apologized for the lack of food for prisoners but said there was nothing they could do.

It was the judgment of our generals in Iraq, right, that the Iraqis were ready to assume control of Abu Ghraib?

And these are the generals in whose judgment Bush has declared himself to have absolute faith:

And the fundamental question you have to ask — and Martha knows what I’m about to say — is: Can the President trust his commanders on the ground to tell him what is necessary? That’s really one of the questions.

In other words, if you say, I’m going to rely upon their judgment, the next question is, how good is their judgment; or is my judgment good enough to figure out whether or not they know what they’re doing? And I’m going to tell you I’ve got great confidence in General John Abizaid and General George Casey. These are extraordinary men who understand the difficulties of the task…

Is there any hope that there will ever be any kind of reckoning for all the screw-ups in Iraq?