Abu Ghraib: Pattern of systemic abuse, not the wrongdoing of a few
This article summaring the Red Cross report to the military sounds extremely plausible given the fact that the prison is overloaded, the prison guards were reservists with little or no training in guarding prisons, and that military intelligence (interrogation units) were basically running the place. The US deserves every bit of backlash it gets from this horrendous mess.
A Red Cross report disclosed Monday said coalition intelligence officers estimated that 70-90 percent of Iraqi detainees were arrested by mistake and said Red Cross observers witnessed U.S. officers mistreating Abu Ghraib prisoners by keeping them naked in total darkness in empty cells.
The report by the International Committee of the Red Cross supports its allegations that abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers was broad and “not individual acts” — contrary to President Bush’s contention that the mistreatment “was the wrongdoing of a few.”
Full article is here.