Sean Baker is living proof that the prisoner abuse scandal is not about a few rouge officers but about what has become a rouge administration. You can read Nick Kristof's chilling account of an officer that particapted in a simulation that went far out of control. Here is the money quote from Mr. Baker as found on Andrew Sullivan's website:
"They grabbed my arms, my legs, twisted me up and unfortunately one of the individuals got up on my back from behind and put pressure down on me while I was face down. Then he — the same individual — reached around and began to choke me and press my head down against the steel floor. After several seconds, 20 to 30 seconds, it seemed like an eternity because I couldn't breathe. When I couldn't breathe, I began to panic and I gave the code word I was supposed to give to stop the exercise, which was 'red.' ... That individual slammed my head against the floor and continued to choke me. Somehow I got enough air. I muttered out: 'I'm a U.S. soldier. I'm a U.S. soldier."
Not only were the soldiers who did this nothing more than common thugs, but it shows that the administration which claims that Iraq and the war on terror were against immoral people have become immoral themselves. Stories like this show that the United States has no moral authority at all in the world. None. If we can beat up US soliders who were participating in a simulation for God sakes, what are we doing to real prisoners? And who's to say that when there is another terrorist attack on our shores that these tactics might be used on American suspects?
Posted by Dennis at June 11, 2004 08:50 AMAshcroft’s refusal to produce the documents in the prisoner torture matter before a Senate committee makes it all too clear that the administration believes it has, finally, overcome the limitations of a Constitutional government. I don’t want to live in a dictatorship, so I’ve written to several Senators urging them to charge Ashcroft with contempt of Congress and to prosecute the charge. If millions of us simply contact the Senate (and not merely our own Senators), the weight of our urgency might bring this government down before it has the chance to pull off an October surprise that will nullify our Constitution as, in the view of Gen. Tommy Franks, merely an experiment.
I urge you all to e-mail as many Senators as you can at: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm. This is the message I sent:
Dear Senator:
Attorney General Ashcroft's recent refusal to produce documents relating to administration policies on torture is, in fact, contempt of Congress. I strongly urge you prosecute Mr. Ashcroft on this issue.
We need your leadership now. The Constitution has not been in such serious jeopardy since the Civil War. Please stand up to the administration for all of us who love our country and are appalled and frightened by this totalitarian threat.
Respectfully,
Feel free to use it, change it, or make up your own, but please write.
Follow up? Contact every media outlet you can think of, and let them know about this campaign and make sure they cover it.
For a free country,
Steve Woodring