Let's quit making excuses

[bigpoppanils]

Molly Ivins: Let's quit making excuses

By Molly Ivins

Published 2:15 am PDT Thursday, May 6, 2004

AUSTIN, Texas — Let's get real. On Fox So-Called News, former Army Sgt. Tony Robinson was allowed to claim without contradiction that what happened at the prison at Abu-Ghraib was no worse than "fraternity hazing." Rush Limbaugh concurs.

Let me speak up on behalf of the Kappa Sigs, K.A.s and even Dekes (where only "minor" branding incidents occurred when George W. Bush was the head Deke at Yale). This is straight from the report of Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba:

"Between October and December 2003, at the Abu Ghraib Confinement Facility, numerous acts of sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees. This systematic and illegal abuse of detainees was intentionally perpetrated by several members of the military police guard force. ... The allegations of abuse were substantiated by detailed witness statements and the discovery of extremely graphic photographic evidence ... including the following acts:

— Punching, slapping and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet;

— Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees;

— Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing;

— Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time;

— Forcing naked male detainees to wear women's underwear;

— Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped;

— Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and jumping on them;

— A male MP guard having sex with a female detainee;

— Using military working dogs to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee;

— Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees;

— Breaking chemical lights and pouring phosphoric liquid on detainees;

— Beating detainees with a broom handle and chair;

— Threatening male detainees with rape;

— Sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps with a broomstick."

There it is. Just face up to it, and quit making excuses. I have spared you much disgusting detail.

In our continuing quest to understand how we got where we are, let us turn our attention to Ahmed Chalabi. He's a most plausible con man and comes with excellent credentials. Born to a prominent Iraqi family in 1944, exiled in 1958 with buckets of family money, went to MIT at age 16, got his Ph.D. in math from the University of Chicago, where he first encountered one of the founders of the neo-conservative movement, Albert Wohlstetter. According to a profile in Salon.com, he there met future neo-con leaders Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz.

Salon reports, he is "charming, worldly and a skilled networker." (Someone needs to look into whether Chalabi studied with Leo Strauss, the neo-con guru at Chicago who reportedly had profoundly anti-democratic instincts, including the idea that it's fine for governments to lie to their people. That is second-hand information: I have not read Strauss myself.)

What follows is a complicated business-financial history, leading to the founding of the Petra Bank in Jordan in 1977. Chalabi had ties both to the Shia theocracy in Iran and the Shia Amal militia in Lebanon. He also helped finance Saddam Hussein's trade with Jordan during the 1980s, according to Salon. By 1986, Petra had $1 billion in annual trade with Iraq. The bank collapsed, and Chalabi was convicted of embezzlement and fraud. He fled Jordan for London.

As head of the Iraqi National Congress, funded by the United States, Chalabi continued to push for the overthrow of Saddam. The United States is still paying him and his organization $350,000 a month. His association with neo-con hawks continued, even though both the CIA and the State Department concluded he was untrustworthy. The "intelligence" he provided to the Bush administration before the war consistently proved wrong and fraudulent.

So why did the neo-cons trust him, despite his record? My theory is there is a terrible naivete about neo-cons that often deludes them into believing what they want to be true. Remember the time they convinced themselves Jonas Savimbi of Angola was a great freedom fighter? For anyone who knew Savimbi's record, it was "gag me with a spoon" city, but they kept insisting this disgusting human was a hero.

Other neo-cons so hated the Sandinistas in Nicaragua they backed drug-runners and creeps of all description against them. (Fat lot of good it did the Nicaraguans, who now have the worst health record in the hemisphere — worse than Haiti.)

The neo-cons fell for Chalabi for one reason: He said he would help Israel. Once Saddam was overthrown, he said he would reinstate the Iraq-Israel pipeline, recognize Israel, trade with Israel.

Chalabi, with our backing, became a member of the current Iraqi Governing Council. He has also made his nephews into power players in postwar Iraq. Gone are the promises about Israel. Whether justified or not, most Iraqis believe Chalabi corrupt beyond counting. Even some of the neo-cons who have so long discounted the CIA and State Department reports about Chalabi's essential dishonesty, are starting to doubt him. Could this entire disaster in Iraq be as simple as, "We wuz conned"?

Yep.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/national/ivins/story/9207957p-10133204c.html

[kramadas]

Interesting article!

[siceone]

Never joined a fraternity did you ?

[ghhhhhost]

thats pretty weak carl...im sure they didnt sic german shephards @ the recruits @ any fraternity

[pattbateman]

im sure they have done worse. i just saw an article about some guy joing the freemasons and he was shot in the head and he actually died during their rituals.

[daprofessional]

i remember reading a while back about some kid having to do pushups with heavier guys sitting on him during hazing. He was so strained that somehow one of his testicles burst.

so yea, fraternity hazing is an apt analogy

[pattbateman]

hahhaha that would fucking suck that had to hurt so bad.

[siceone]

thats pretty weak carl...im sure they didnt sic german shephards @ the recruits @ any fraternity

First of all Those Dogs Wer Muzzled Second Of all That is a common tactic used against muslims world wide The British Police do it Every year during Ede I seen it with my own eyes.

as for the dogs in Fraternities It's been done

I know this Cause Im in one

[jamiroguy1]

Never joined a fraternity did you ?

They ass fucked you with a broom when you joined?

[jamiroguy1]

First of all Those Dogs Wer Muzzled Second Of all That is a common tactic used against muslims world wide The British Police do it Every year during Ede I seen it with my own eyes.

as for the dogs in Fraternities It's been done

I know this Cause Im in one

Wrong... They have pictures of Iraqis that are bitten by the dogs and it was put in the new yorker. Damn apologists.

[cintron]

Never joined a fraternity did you ?

LOL mum's the word, man.

funny thing is... Iraq refused to sign the geneva convention which legally prohibits this stuff. Iraq doesn't even have a government now.

these guys could have shot some american in the head and spent a whole day dancing on the body, but oh no we take pics of em naked and hit them with a broomstick and the world is screaming bloody murder.

why doesn't the world scream murder about murder instead of screaming murder about hazing?

[kramadas]

To compare the United States military's actions in a foreign country, with the world watching closely, to what goes on in a college fraternity is beyond absurditiy! What - you guys think the war in Iraq is some sort of frat party??

Plus let me ask you "frat boys" this:

- how many of you have had broomsticks up your ass?

- How many of you have been put in cold damp cells, naked for days and days?

- How many of you have had chemical lights stuck up your ass?

- How many of you have had dogs actually bite you viciously while your frat "brothers" watched?

- How many of you have been tied up and left in crazy positions hours on end?

- oh last but not least, how many of you have been forced to give blowjobs to the rest of the frat?

, and only God knows what else is in those photos.

Yeah, so the world IS going to make a big deal about this. And you neo-cons trying to defend this is sick.

Thats like me saying suicide bombings are no big deal - its just people venting. Whats the big deal, a few more people blown up in this overcrowded world, right?

[pattbateman]

again if you are not in a frat how the fuck do you know what takes place. and you will never know cause no one will ever tell. dumb fuck

[kramadas]

again if you are not in a frat how the fuck do you know what takes place. and you will never know cause no one will ever tell. dumb fuck

Exactly the response I expected. So, thanks for proving my point that comparing this shit to a frat party is dumb!

You're still in college man. You realize once you graduate there are greater things in life, and trust me, if you think people take frat stories to the grave, man you have some shocking news awaiting you once you graduate! There's a difference between hazing and torture. And there's a difference between willingly submitting yourself to that, and being forced to do it.

[pattbateman]

and there is a difference in making someone talk to save lives and being a fucking hippie and letting them sit there with cable tv and 3 squares a day and not talk so people are harmed.

[cintron]

DING^^^^. hit it on the head.

if you're so concerned that people are viewing the Iraq war as a joke, then why do you spend so much of your time casting blame on the united states and so little time making your voice heard when it comes to talking about Dead American soldiers.

Oh sure save the Iraqis god no dont let them be harassed far less brutally then they handled our POW's during the gulf war. Dear lord no that might take away their dignity....

and not a peep about the dead americans riding home in coffins, possibly becuase some of those poor defenseless prisoners helped to kill them.

what do you think this is, a joke?

[pattbateman]

are you talking about me or raver?

[igloo]

The hypocrisy that is being displayed by the anti-war crowd here is both laughable and despicable......and the lack of perspective is downright alarming.....

[siceone]

To compare the United States military's actions in a foreign country, with the world watching closely, to what goes on in a college fraternity is beyond absurditiy! What - you guys think the war in Iraq is some sort of frat party??

Plus let me ask you "frat boys" this:

- how many of you have had broomsticks up your ass?

- How many of you have been put in cold damp cells, naked for days and days?

- How many of you have had chemical lights stuck up your ass?

- How many of you have had dogs actually bite you viciously while your frat "brothers" watched?

- How many of you have been tied up and left in crazy positions hours on end?

- oh last but not least, how many of you have been forced to give blowjobs to the rest of the frat?

, and only God knows what else is in those photos.

Yeah, so the world IS going to make a big deal about this. And you neo-cons trying to defend this is sick.

Thats like me saying suicide bombings are no big deal - its just people venting. Whats the big deal, a few more people blown up in this overcrowded world, right?

dude it's happened Im not trying to joke around But it's happened

[bigpoppanils]

[sobeton]

First of all Those Dogs Wer Muzzled Second Of all That is a common tactic used against muslims world wide The British Police do it Every year during Ede I seen it with my own eyes.

as for the dogs in Fraternities It's been done

I know this Cause Im in one

where is the muzzle