Today the full text of the secret March 9 report on Abu Ghraib prison, written by Army Major
General Antonio Taguba, is online at NBC, The Smoking Gun, and a bunch
of other places. I saw bits of it yesterday, in Joi Ito’s weblog.
This quote from the report really sticks with me–“intentional abuse of detainees by military police
personnel” included:
“I am a Rapest” (sic) on the leg of a detainee alleged to have forcibly
raped a 15-year old fellow detainee, and then photographing him naked”
Prison conditions were so chaotic that a 15-year old could be (allegedly) raped by a fellow detainee?
Prison conditions were so chaotic that this was the way guards responded to such an (alleged) event?
Officers gave this much power to soldiers who couldn’t spell a six-letter word like “rapist”?
In response to persistent reports of abuse at the prison. General Taguba’s report was requested on January 19, 2004.
It was delivered to military authorities on March 9, 2004.
As of May 4, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld claimed he still didn’t know what was in the report.
Now that it’s on the Internet, I hope he’ll read it.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Roger Benningfield // May 6, 2004 at 9:27 am
Betsy: “Prison conditions were so chaotic that a 15-year old could be (allegedly) raped by a fellow detainee?”
Everything else aside, if people can be routinely raped in our own maximum security prisons, why would it be any surprise that it happens in much harsher conditions?
Almost by definition, prison is living hell.
2 Betsy Devine // May 6, 2004 at 4:09 pm
I’m not in favor of prisons where “people can be routinely raped”–but it seems to me the best way to get just such prisons is to shrug off the prison rape of a 15-year old as not surprising enough to get upset about.