"Emmanuel Gustin" wrote in message
om...
"Kevin Brooks" wrote in message
...

Let's see, according to the AP's timeline for this incident:

"Jan. 13, 2004: Army Spc. Joseph M. Darby, an MP with the 800th at Abu
Ghraib, first reports cases of abuse at the prison.

The problem with this AP "timeline" is what it leaves out. The first
report of the ICRC notifying the US government about abuse of
prisoners by US soldiers was delivered a long time before the US Army
finally took this action. The director of operations of the Red Cross,
Mr. Kraehenbuehl, is quoted as saying "Our findings were discussed at
different moments between March and November 2003, either in direct
face-to-face conversations or in written interventions."
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3694521.stm)

March 2003 to January 2004 is very a long time to do nothing. Red
Cross reports are confidential -- the burden of taking action rests on
the government.

LOL! March 2003 was when we were moving into Iraq--pretty quick reaction
time for the ICRC, eh? And the thought of securing a bad guy in an unlit
cell...jeepers (at a time when most civilian Iraqis were also without
power...that's rich!)! The claims of murder and shootings seem a bit
far-fetched--I guess you think we covered those up, but for some odd reason
when the first reputable claim of mistreatment at Abu Ghraib was presented
to the military chain, they immediately initiated (multiple) investigations
and announced that to the press, eh? Now how do you explain that?

Again, you are letting your prejudices cloud your better judgement. I
thought you were a bit more sensible than what you have been exhibiting of
late, Emmanuel. We have already begun criminal proceedings against soldiers
involved in this terrible affair. I will bet you that our accused personnel
face a bit tougher future than some other nation's troops that were
photographed doing some rather disgusting things (to children, no less--ring
any bells for you?)...maybe you ought to instead look a bit closer to home,
if you feel such outrageous indignation at the idea of such treatement of
prisoners? "First published in the United States on the cover of the June
24th issue of the left-wing weekly Village Voice, the photograph depicts two
Belgian paladins of the new world order giddily holding a Somali child over
an open flame...One Belgian UN soldier testified that it was a regular
practice to use metal boxes as prison cells, and that other Somalis probably
died similarly gruesome deaths...Belgian military authorities launched an
investigation into the atrocities following publication of a front-page
story by Belgium's Het Laatste Nieuws. In early July, Privates Claude Baert
and Kurt Coelus, the two paratroopers photographed dangling the Somali child
over a flame, were acquitted by a military court, which ruled that the
incident - described by Baert and Coelus as a punishment for stealing - was
"a form of playing without violence," according to prosecutor Luc
Walleyn...In September, another military tribunal will be held to
investigate the actions of Sergeant Dirk Nassel, the soldier photographed
forcing a Somali boy to ingest worms and vomit. However, the Belgian
military system - which is deeply entwined with the UN "peacekeeping"
apparatus - has yet to inflict substantive penalties for abuses committed in
the service of the UN. Several years ago, according to Gould, "Belgian
soldiers were also accused of holding mock executions for Somali children
and forcing them to dig their own graves; though their officer was given a
suspended sentence, the soldiers were acquitted."
(www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/ POLITICS/UN/peace.html ) [I was not sure
about the veracity of this article, given the somewhat whack-o bent of the
website, but it appears from scanning AP reports from the period it was
accurate] Or: "A fourth member of the 3rd battalion of the Parachute
Regiment, based at Tielen in Flanders, is also due to go on trial in
September. Sergeant Major Rudy Derkinderen is suspected of having murdered a
Somali whom he was photographed urinating on. The circumstances surrounding
the death of another child at the paratroopers' base near Kismayo in
southern Somalia are also under investigation. According to the testimony of
two former paratroopers, the boy, who had been caught trying to steal food,
died after being locked in a container for 48 hours."
(www.public.iastate.edu/~vwindsor/WTH.html )

Sounds like you have to do a bit of house-cleaning of your own (I notice
that your military courts proved either unwilling or unable to do it for
you) before you start worrying too much about whether or not the Iraqi PW's
had electric lighting in-place IAW with your own expectations--and I guess
in Belgian circles "firelight" is acceptable (even if it is used to "heat
up" some Somali child?).

Brooks


Emmanuel Gustin