Rights groups, military watchdogs call for new Abu Ghraib investigation

[struggle4progress]

By Jon R. Anderson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Saturday, March 12, 2005

<snip> “The Defense Department is not able to assess accountability at senior levels, particularly when investigators are in the chain of command of the officials whose policies and actions they are investigating,” charged Sen. Carl Levin, the ranking democrat on Senate Armed Services Committee, as Church was reporting his findings Thursday. <snip>

“This was the mother of all whitewashes,” said Tom Malinowski, director of Human Rights Watch in Washington, D.C. <snip>

“It seems the military can only look down the chain of command, not up, when it comes to holding people accountable,” ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said in the statement. <snip>

“There are still too many questions that haven’t been answered,” said Winslow Wheeler, a senior fellow for the Center for Defense Information, an independent Pentagon watchdog group, who spent more than 30 years as an investigator for the Government Accounting Office and as a congressional aide. <snip>

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=27692

[TacticalPeek]

1. Senator Jack Reed stuck it back down their throats.

But Senator Reed was clearly dissatisfied with the scope of Admiral Church's inquiry, particularly his decision not to interview L. Paul Bremer III, the former civilian administrator in Iraq, but to interview his military assistants instead.

"Admiral, that seems to be a stunning omission," Mr. Reed said. To interview Mr. Bremer's military aides instead "seems to be woefully inadequate, with all due respect," the senator said.

"I accept the criticism, sir," the admiral replied, explaining that his assignment was to try to determine how the interrogation techniques were developed and "I didn't need to interview Ambassador Bremer to determine that."

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Retard.

[bobthedrummer]

2. The entire process needs to be examined-especially the role of "con-

tractors" like Titan and CACI--the PMC's/Private Military Companies.
The administration of George W. Bush aka The War President employs mercenaries contrary to the world sanctions against that.

And guess who some of these mercenaries are-war criminals from foreign countries, criminals, ex-military and police with dirty records, mental cases, racists and deviants of all sorts. They'll do anything if the price is right, including torture and assassination.

Fascism is on the march.

[Moderator]

3. kick to combine

[RamboLiberal]

4. Rights groups, military watchdogs call for new Abu Ghraib investigation

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=27692

Human rights groups and military watchdogs are labeling a recently released investigation into Abu Ghraib a whitewash and are joining calls by some top Congressional leaders for a new independent investigation.

The criticism comes in the wake of a nearly 400-page report authored by Vice. Adm. Albert T. Church, who concluded that top-level policy makers could not be blamed for some 70 confirmed cases of abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“Even in the absence of a precise definition of ‘humane treatment,’ it is clear that none of the pictured abuses at Abu Ghraib bear any resemblance to approved policies at any level, in any theatre,” Church concluded in his report exonerating Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other Pentagon brass of accusations that they either encouraged or turned a blind eye to abuses.

Church was ordered by Rumsfeld to review existing investigations and explore any gaps that remain uncovered.

Briefing reporters Thursday afternoon, Church defended his report and stood by his decision not to interview Rumsfeld or Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Richard Myers as part of his investigation. He could have interviewed them, he made clear, but said he didn’t have any questions for them.