Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Staring into our heart of darkness
From the AP:
In this context, I don't think the Nuremberg defense cuts it:
I have long believed that guilt is "sub-additive"---there's not some fixed amount of guilt to be split up, 60% here, and 40% there. No, each person involved in a crime can be, in some sense, fully and separably responsible. So no, "I was just following orders" doesn't cut it.
Lawmakers Are Shown New Photographs of Iraqi Abuse
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:54 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. military personnel included torture, humiliation and forced sex beyond what has been seen in public, members of Congress said Wednesday after viewing fresh photos and videos in the scandal that has shaken the Bush administration.
``I don't know how the hell these people got into our army,'' said Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., one of several members of Congress who emerged grim-faced from lawmakers-only screenings in the Capitol.
Lawmakers said they saw disturbing images that included military dogs snarling at cowering prisoners, Iraqi women commanded to expose their breasts and photos of sex acts, including forced homosexual sex.
In addition, lawmakers said there were images of hooded Iraqi prisoners being forced to masturbate while cameras captured the scene.
Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., said she saw a clothed man hurling himself against a wall as though trying to knock himself unconscious.
``It was yet another series of pictures depicting horrific acts, examples of torture and sexual abuse,'' said Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota.
The private screening marked the latest turn in a scandal that has prompted President Bush to apologize to the victims and Democrats to demand the dismissal of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
In this context, I don't think the Nuremberg defense cuts it:
Pfc. Lynndie England told KCNC-TV in Denver on Tuesday that her superiors gave her specific instructions on how to pose for the photos. Asked who gave the orders, she would say only, "Persons in my chain of command."
In photographs that have been shown worldwide, England, 21, is seen smiling, cigarette in her mouth, as she leans forward and points at the genitals of a naked, hooded Iraqi. Another photo taken at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison shows her holding a leash that encircles the neck of a naked Iraqi man lying on his side.
"I was instructed by persons in higher rank to 'stand there, hold this leash, look at the camera,' and they took picture for PsyOps (psychological operations)," she told the station.
"I didn't really, I mean, want to be in any pictures," she said. She also said she thought "it was kind of weird."
...
Asked whether worse things happened than those already seen on the photos, she said yes but declined to elaborate.
She said her superiors praised the photos and "just told us, 'Hey, you're doing great, keep it up.'"
I have long believed that guilt is "sub-additive"---there's not some fixed amount of guilt to be split up, 60% here, and 40% there. No, each person involved in a crime can be, in some sense, fully and separably responsible. So no, "I was just following orders" doesn't cut it.
