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McClellan's Disconnect on Prisoner Abuse

There's a disconnect here and I'd say it's on the part of Scott McClellan.

  • Scott McClellan
    "The [Koran flushing]allegations are ridiculous and unsupported by the facts. The United States is leading the way when it comes to protecting human rights and promoting human dignity."
  • Amnesty International
    Despite the US administration’s repeated use of the language of justice and freedom there was a huge gap between rhetoric and reality. This was starkly illustrated by the failure to conduct a full and independent investigation into the appalling torture and ill-treatment of detainees by US soldiers in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison and the failure to hold senior individuals to account.

Abu Ghraib. Guantanamo. Bagram. Camp Bucca. And we haven't even gotten to Camp Cropper yet - where Saddam and other high level Iraqis are held:

100 top ex-regime members are confined to windowless cells two meters square in three long single-storey cell blocks. “The only entry is through bolted steel doors with a metal ventilation flap placed a meter from the ground,” he said. Sometimes the flaps are sealed as punishment. Most of the “high-value” prisoners of Camp Cropper are held in solitary confinement. Once a day they are allowed one hour’s exercise in a small yard enclosed by a high wall. They may not speak to each other. When taken for interrogation, they are clothed in the same orange overalls as the al Qaeda inmates of Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba.

The Guardian had more on Camp Cropper:

a top U.N. weapons inspector who was involved in interrogating prisoners at Camp Cropper has revealed to the Observer details about the regime inside the prison, including suggestions that some of those arriving at the facility had been badly beaten.

Rod Barton, a former special advisor to the Iraq Survey Group and a leading expert in chemical and biological weapons, has spoken out to highlight what he claims is the unjust detention of "innocent scientists" at the Baghdad jail. He has also revealed that the group of interrogators at Camp Cropper included at least three British intelligence officers.

....The treatment of high-value detainees like Saddam has been highlighted by Barton, a former Australian intelligence officer, who was involved with interviews at the camp. "Interrogations are carried out in metal portakabins on the prison complex. What happens is we decide when to interrogate them. This is normally at the dead of night, which was deliberate to disorient them. The prisoner had no idea where he was being taken."

How can Scott McClellan say such things with a straight face?

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    Re: McClellan's Disconnect on Prisoner Abuse (none / 0) (#1)
    by Pete Guither on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:20 PM EST
    I don't think it's a matter of "disconnect" with Scott McClellan. He's doing exactly what he's been instructed to do. Lying.

    Re: McClellan's Disconnect on Prisoner Abuse (none / 0) (#2)
    by Johnny on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:20 PM EST
    Yeah but the admin is telling the truth and Amnesty International is a commie pinko org dedicated to destroying everything the US stands for... Or so goes the wrong-wing mantra...

    Re: McClellan's Disconnect on Prisoner Abuse (none / 0) (#3)
    by The Heretik on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:20 PM EST
    Truly this is the stuff of tragedy. More on the tragedy here

    Re: McClellan's Disconnect on Prisoner Abuse (none / 0) (#4)
    by DonS on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:20 PM EST
    "Lying", yeah, that's the correct term, though no one in DC or the media appears able to mouth it. The NYT this morning confirms additional evidence of reference to abuse of the Koran. However, while Newsweek's retraction seems less and less vindicated, this information only stimulates wingers to say right on, that heretical book needs more desecration. We all know wingers are theological scholars of the first water.

    Re: McClellan's Disconnect on Prisoner Abuse (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:20 PM EST
    They are definitely and deliberately lying. Look at the story of Dilawar who died at Bagram. The govt tried to bury the story at first, then they moved on to saying that Dilawar died of a pre-existing heart condition. Now the facts are out, that he was beaten til his legs couldn't move, he was tortured and interrogated and then subjected to more hours of "palestinian hanging" before he died. And what did he do to end up in our "custody?" He was driving a cab in the wrong area. It is quite likely that he had no connection to the Afghani insurgency and held no information that could be extracted. No self respecting human being would try to make any excuses for this treatment. And then there's McClellan, Dubya and Alberto.

    Re: McClellan's Disconnect on Prisoner Abuse (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:20 PM EST
    Pre-existing heart condition that stops it when lethal force is applied to the body...very common ailment in Iraq these days...they don't need America's help, they seem to require f#@*king cardiologists, if you believe the U.S. military...

    Re: McClellan's Disconnect on Prisoner Abuse (none / 0) (#7)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:59:21 PM EST
    He can frog walk with the rest of them.