Texas Case Sheds Light on Abu Ghraib Scandal

[LiberalFighter]

I didn't see this ABC report and hope that it is in the right place.

Prisoner Abuse Echoes

Texas Prisons: ‘The Second Circle of Hell’
Consider the following scenario: Some rather frightening prisoners — ones that might not elicit your sympathy — are placed in a situation where many are abused. Complaints are made to the proper authorities; it remains unclear if any of them made their way to chief executive George W. Bush. Those complaints largely go nowhere. Then months later, photographic evidence of the abuse emerges, whipping up a media outcry and a promise by Bush to get to the bottom of the atrocities.

This scenario is not just the story of Abu Ghraib circa 2004. It was also a prisoner abuse scandal from 1997 in Brazoria County, Texas, when Bush was governor.


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The story broke in August 1997 when a videotape was broadcast on the local Fox affiliate in Austin, Texas. The tape — shot on Sept. 18, 1996 — showed deputies in a Brazoria County private prison assaulting prisoners, wielding stun guns against them and allowing a German shepherd to bite a few of them. Some inmates were poked with electronic prods and ordered to say, "I love Texas."


I hope this story runs hard and shows the voters that he can't be trusted.

[LiberalFighter]

1. Parallels with Abu Ghraib

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In the Brazoria County Prisoner abuse scandal, as with Abu Ghraib, the emergence of photographic evidence changed things.

"I think in retrospect had I known the videotape existed, and I'm confident had other state officials known the videotape existed, we would have pushed for harsher action, quicker action," then-Gov. Bush told the local Fox affiliate.