In their criticism of Pentagon leadership, Army Times noted:
"The message to the troops: anything goes."
"The message to the troops: anything goes."
While most officials say rights are important, the status quo appears sacred, and a well-tread path of political expediency goes to and from it. US rights groups and civil-rights attorneys have long described abuses within the US criminal justice system as part of a widely entrenched "culture" of official misconduct. When Oklahoma's Republican Senator James Inhofe declared that he was "more outraged by the outrage" over the Iraq abuse than by the abuse itself, he aptly demonstrated a perspective held by many, one which "justifies" abuse.
At the core of this logic lies the assumption that those abused have done something to deserve their illegal and inhumane treatment. And misconduct critics have long charged that many victims of US law enforcement abuse are routinely perceived in a manner similar to that in which rape victims once were - the victims viewed as having done something to "deserve it".
A December 19, 2003 article by the Washington Post revealed that a report by the US Justice Department's Inspector General revealed foreign detainees rounded up in the wake of September 11 had their guards "ram them into a wall". The report concurrently noted that from videotape of the incidents, "there was no evidence that the detainees had provoked or attacked the guards".
On December 6, 1996 I had chaired the Senator Tim Upson-Ritt Goldstein, SCOLED Informational Hearing on Police Accountability in Connecticut's legislature. But after spreading my legislative proposal on the national level, by July 1997 I was forced to flee the US for my life, seeking political asylum in Sweden.
While life-threatening harassment (I was shot at, had the steering unscrewed on my car, was assaulted multiple times daily, etc) was determined, I am yet forced to live underground. A February 10, 1998 Reuters article explained the reason as "it was by individual police and not authorized by police authorities".
Ritt Goldstein/Asia Times May.15.04
