NOT AN ISOLATED INCIDENT
Not a Few Rogue Guards

From the Baltimore Sun courtesy of Eschaton:

The two military intelligence soldiers, assigned interrogation duties at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, were young, relatively new to the Army and had only one day of training on how to pry information from high-value prisoners.

But almost immediately on their arrival in Iraq, say the two members of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, they recognized that what was happening around them was wrong, morally and legally.

They said in interviews Friday and yesterday that the abuses were not caused by a handful of rogue soldiers poorly supervised and lacking morals but resulted from failures that went beyond the low-ranking military police charged with abuse.

The beatings, the two soldiers said, were meted out with the full knowledge of intelligence interrogators, who let military police know which prisoners were cooperating with them and which were not.

Click here for the rest.

So, the question here is how far up the chain of command does this go? Rumsfeld has already apologized, but my bet is that he had no problem with these abuses until they saw the light of day. For that matter, I bet the only thing Bush is sorry for is that they got caught: these guys are hardcore bastards, without any sense of morality as you and I understand the term. As far as I can tell, the entire military, from the lowliest MP to the Commander-in-Chief, is now in cover-your-ass mode, pointing the finger of blame at anyone in sight. In my opinion, the commanding officers bear much more responsibility, but it remains to be seen whether they will actually be held responsible.

Just another day in the American Empire.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$