...from that block came the sound of screaming ...

September 10, 2006 12:00 PM

Meet the new jailers-- Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad is at the centre of fresh abuse allegations just a week after it was handed over to Iraqi authorities, with claims that inmates are being tortured by their new captors. Mass executions, torture again, etc. How bad is it when the inmates plead for us to come back? (Warning--this second link is graphic evidence of what we did there--NSFW)
posted by amberglow (27 comments total)

Plus ça change, plus c'est pareil.
posted by clevershark at 12:11 PM on September 10, 2006

And mass execution. Let freedom ring.
posted by bob sarabia at 12:19 PM on September 10, 2006

No "missionaccomplished" tag?
posted by clevershark at 12:21 PM on September 10, 2006

No "agendafilter" tag?
posted by keswick at 12:30 PM on September 10, 2006

Awesome. Now if they would only hand the whole damn country back to Saddam Hussein everyone would be better off. Saddam will take care of those terrorists/insurgents/militants/shi'ites - just like he was doing before the neo-con invasion.
posted by three blind mice at 12:31 PM on September 10, 2006

Life in the middle east. Go figure. Let's act surprised!
posted by damn dirty ape at 12:36 PM on September 10, 2006

Twenty-six men and one woman were hanged in Iraq's first mass execution since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein
posted by growabrain at 12:50 PM on September 10, 2006

No "agendafilter" tag?

If hoping to prevent Abu Ghraib happening again in Abu Ghraib is the agenda, I hope it's one that's shared by most people.

The Telegraph is, by the way, a thoroughly right-wing newspaper.
posted by riotgrrl69 at 12:52 PM on September 10, 2006

Worrying about torture and stuff is stupid, LOL.
posted by 2sheets at 1:12 PM on September 10, 2006

No "agendafilter" tag?

No kidding, riotgrrl69, if we shouldn't support measures to prevent atrocities, then we are in fact upholding the status quo which equates an atrocity in itself.
posted by j-urb at 1:28 PM on September 10, 2006

ur mom is an atrocity
posted by keswick at 1:34 PM on September 10, 2006

keswick
posted by bardic at 1:38 PM on September 10, 2006

Your favorite horrific atrocity perpetrated by the United States is stupid.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:43 PM on September 10, 2006

One has to be medicated to realize that having an agenda is quite normal?
posted by c13 at 1:46 PM on September 10, 2006

Back on topic, those pictures are extremely upsetting. Still.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:48 PM on September 10, 2006

"The Americans were better than the Iraqis. They treated us better," said Khalid Alaani, who was held on suspicion of involvement in Sunni terrorism.

I'm certain this quote will be reported on Al-Jazzera. Oh wait...
posted by frogan at 2:13 PM on September 10, 2006

I'm sure the fact that the neocons were slightly less inhuman than their puppet government will be used to trumpet how superior the American Way of Life is.
posted by Malor at 2:20 PM on September 10, 2006

You mean Saddam Hussein wasn't the only bad man?
posted by fshgrl at 2:26 PM on September 10, 2006

.
posted by owhydididoit at 2:28 PM on September 10, 2006

The thing that SHOULD have been done when the US went in was to bulldoze this place and everyother place that was the scene of such horribleness. Not in an effort to make people forget but to remove such a visible reminder of what has happened (and continues to happen). Symbolism is powerful and we need more well intention acts of symbolism.

wtf keswick anyway.
posted by edgeways at 3:24 PM on September 10, 2006

Is it possible to mark users with the "batshitinsane" tag?
posted by EarBucket at 3:25 PM on September 10, 2006 [1 favorite]

The thing that SHOULD have been done when the US went in was to bulldoze this place and everyother place that was the scene of such horribleness.


That's exactly what I was thinking. Leveling this hellhole would first of all be a good PR thing for our forces. Secondly, it's just one more building destroyed..
posted by c13 at 3:49 PM on September 10, 2006

Call me picky, but I remember Bush promising in a speech that Abu Ghraib would be torn down.

Then again what's the good of trying to keep a politician to his word? Especially this one.
posted by clevershark at 6:13 PM on September 10, 2006

A while back I was excoriated for saying pulling out of Iraq will make things worse for Iraq, not better. This is one example of what I meant by that. I'm not making an argument for staying, I'm attempting to point out that the argument "Iraq will be better if the US* leaves" is flawed.
*US as short-hand for the Coalition and its forces
posted by forforf at 7:08 AM on September 11, 2006

" " - edgeways - 2nd.
posted by Smedleyman at 7:15 AM on September 11, 2006

I remember Bush promising in a speech that Abu Ghraib would be torn down.
US to demolish Abu Ghraib jail and punish its general (May 04)

forlorf, how is this connected to us pulling out or staying? We handed the prison over them--we're not stopping what they're doing anywhere in the country, let alone inside Abu Ghraib--we wouldn't dare touch Abu Ghraib now even if they set fire to all the prisoners and held a weenie roast. It's theirs. Our staying or leaving does not affect that, but it will lessen the intolerable situation of occupying a country that hates us. We're not a force for good there, nor a force for calm, nor a force for democracy.
posted by amberglow at 8:42 PM on September 11, 2006

...So let us, on this solemn day, remember the goodness that the noble Leader has brought to the benighted land of Iraq with the political capital he accrued from his captains' dream of a new Pearl Harbor:

Our torturers are not nearly as bad as the torturers we brought in to replace our torturers. ...
posted by amberglow at 6:25 PM on September 14, 2006