Shays Says Abu Ghraib Abuses Were Sex Ring, Not Torture
Associated Press
Published October 13 2006, 11:18 AM EDT
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Republican Rep. Christopher Shays says the Abu Ghraib prison abuses weren't torture but instead involved a "sex ring" of National Guard troops.
"Now I've seen what happened in Abu Ghraib, and Abu Ghraib was not torture," Shays said at a debate Wednesday.
"It was outrageous, outrageous involvement of National Guard troops from (Maryland) who were involved in a sex ring and they took pictures of soldiers who were naked," added Shays. "And they did other things that were just outrageous. But it wasn't torture."
The lawmaker's comments were in a transcript of the debate provided by his opponent, Diane Farrell. Shays' campaign, contacted Friday, did not dispute the comments.
I'm not sure which is more disturbing, the possibility that Congressman Shays isn't really aware of what happened at Abu Ghraib, or that the Congressman doesn't think it constituted torture.
In case you didn't know, or knew but had simply forgotten, some of the most well-documented human rights abuses of the past ten years occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, perpetrated by U.S. soldiers, not upon other soldiers, (as the Congressman apparently believes), but upon Iraqi citizens, most of whom were apparently never charged with crimes.
Salon has a catalog documenting the abuses. You'll have to sit through a commercial to get a free day pass, but it's well worth thirty seconds out of your life.
Battery cables to the genitals, waterboarding, beatings, attacks by dogs, the sodomizing of children, and this little chestnut:
Military investigations of Abu Ghraib turned up other incidents of abusive treatment of female detainees that were not shown in photographs. According to the Fay report, one of the most horrific incidents occurred on Oct. 7, when three military intelligence soldiers allegedly assaulted a female detainee. The unnamed detainee told investigators that she was taken to an empty cell, where a soldier held her hands behind her back while another soldier forcibly kissed her. She was then taken to another cell, where she was shown a naked male detainee and told that she would be stripped if she did not cooperate. Finally, she was returned to her cell, and forced to kneel and raise her arms while one of the soldiers removed her shirt. She said she began to cry, and her shirt was returned to her, with a warning that the soldiers would return each night if she did not cooperate. The Fay report found that there was no record of an authorized interrogation of this detainee on that night.
Just some soldiers out for a fun time, Congressman?
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