Group: U.S. military urged abuse in Iraq

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

The group Human Rights Watch said in a report released Sunday that U.S. military commanders encouraged abusive interrogations of detainees in Iraq, even after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal called attention to the issue in 2004.

Between 2003 and 2005, prisoners were routinely physically mistreated, deprived of sleep and exposed to extreme temperatures as part of the interrogation process, the report said.

"Soldiers were told that the Geneva Conventions did not apply, and that interrogators could use abusive techniques to get detainees to talk," wrote John Sifton, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.

The organization said it based its conclusion on interviews with military personnel and sworn statements in declassified documents

Click here for the rest.

This is what more than a few people have suspected for some time. Indeed, I've personally just assumed that all this bullshit was coming down from the top. The torture and abuse are just too widespread, too similar in manifestation, to be coming from just "a few bad apples." Furthermore, if torture wasn't official policy, why did White House lawyers spend so much time and effort drafting documents in anticipation of legal challenges? Why were the Geneva Conventions dismissed as "quaint," well before the scandals broke, by Bush administration insiders? Actually, one would have to be pretty stupid and naive, or willfully blind, to not suspect that this goes all the way up the chain to the Commander in Chief. It has amazed me how the corporate press hasn't chased down these obvious lines of reasoning, but then, I guess that's pretty much par for the course when it comes to our intrepid news media. But it sounds like a few public advocacy groups are on the case, and, hopefully, the truth will come out while the big Chimp is still in office. Then the GOP dominated House will have to explain why they won't impeach our Great White Father.

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