Aaron Barlow interviews Svodoba after reading her searing book Black Glasses like Clark Kent: A GI's Secret from Postwar Japan.

Barlow begins:

“I think it’s unconscionable to train soldiers to kill and then offer them only two years of treatment after they return to recover from the experience of killing.” So wrote Terese Svoboda after I contacted her on finishing reading Black Glasses Like Clark Kent, her exploration of the distant events behind the suicide of her uncle Don. Motivated in part by the suggestion of an emotional connection between the events at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Don Svoboda's service guarding imprisoned US soldiers soon after WWII, there's an outrage and a sadness in this book turning it from the story of a “Superman” uncle into something of a polemic. At the end of the book, she positively pounds the table.

Read Aaron's questions and Terese's very personal answers on the Journal.

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Lets see Saddam, even though we installed and supported him, Had To Go. Because he Arrested the Innocent and his 'Henchmen' Tortured and Killed many of those arrested, as well as Killing and Maiming Tens of Thousands of Iraqi's. Those are only a Couple of the many 'Nobel Cause' Reasons for the Righteousness of Invading, Destroying, and Occupying Iraq for our National Security!

But the true subject of the movie is the mentality and the atmosphere that produced sadistic conduct, both at Bagram and at Guantánamo

How many remember this:

"For the vast majority of Iraqi citizens who wish to live as free men and women, this event brings further assurance that the torture chambers and the secret police are gone forever." - George W. Bush upon capture of Saddam Hussein.

There was a post, early this morning, that I followed the links embedded before heading for work. And once again my Disgust at the Depths my Country has Sunk to left me in a Rage for the rest of the day, and is still there!

Wired magazine has released a new set of photos that were assembled by Philip Zimbardo, author of The Lucifer Effect. They are posted on Wired Magazine's website. Also at Raw Story with more background information

Once Again, Our Country Needs Winter Soldiers

War crimes "encouraged?"

Via Federal News Radio (hat-tip to JRichards for the heads-up):

January 11, 2008 - 6:33am -- By BEN NUCKOLS
Associated Press Writer

BALTIMORE (AP) - The revelation that the Army threw out the conviction of the only officer court-martialed in the Abu Ghraib scandal renewed outrage from human rights advocates who complained that not enough military and civilian leaders were held accountable for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

Those critics found an unlikely ally in the officer himself, Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, whose conviction on a minor charge of disobeying an order was dismissed this week, leaving him with only an administrative reprimand.

Jordan told The Associated Press on Thursday he believes many officers and enlisted soldiers did not face adequate scrutiny in the investigation that led to convictions against 11 soldiers, none with a rank higher than staff sergeant.

He said the probe was "not complete" and that a link between abusive interrogations at Abu Ghraib and in military prisons at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan was not adequately established.

Under the logic of the Bush League, failure and incompetence gets rewarded -- people fail upward, and spectacularly so, until they have nowhere to go but out -- to roam free among the public.

promoted -cho

See Update at the bottom.

Do you remember Abu Ghraib?

Do you remember the pictures?

...do you recall what you never did see, but the existence of which was confirmed?

"...those women who were arrested with young boys/children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror it's going to come out."

[via Gryn]

Shut down the Bush Administration now.

Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.