SwiftVets.com

[Floridavietvet]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon is under increasing fire for its handling of the prison abuse investigation, as some retired military officers call for an independent commission to get to the bottom of the four-month-old scandal.

Their appeal came a day before Thursday's hearings by the Senate and House armed services panels, which were reviewing the two latest reports ordered by the Defense Department.

"We cannot ignore that there are now dozens of well-documented allegations of torture, abuse and otherwise questionable detention practices" eight former generals and admirals said Wednesday of prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In-house Pentagon probes don't require sworn testimony, don't have subpoena power and are examples of the military trying to police itself, the officers said in a letter to Bush.

Most of the officers had backgrounds in military law.

In the presidential campaign, two of them have publicly called for President Bush's defeat in November.

The Pentagon says a probe headed by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger was independent, but its members were appointed by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who has been criticized in the scandal.

An Army investigation headed by Maj. Gen. George Fay concentrated on which military intelligence officers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq could be charged with crimes under military law. But Fay's group also said the Army's top commanders in Iraq shared some blame for management failures.

The Schlesinger report looked at Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay as well as Iraq and at military police, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Rumsfeld as well as intelligence officers in Iraq.

It concluded that while lower ranking soldiers might be charged, some blame could go to the highest levels of the Pentagon for inadequate supervision and failure to adapt to developments.

A Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee said Wednesday that months of piecemeal military investigations have left officials and the public without a full idea of exactly what happened and who is responsible.

"It's about time we had an investigation that is complete and answers all the questions," Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island said in telephone conference with several reporters.

The scandal created international revulsion four months ago with disclosure of photographs showing troops threatening prisoners at Abu Ghraib with dogs, posing them in sexual positions and keeping detainees naked and hooded.

Though defense officials said the photos portrayed the actions of a few bad apples, the controversy has grown to include probes of some 300 allegations of detainee deaths, torture or other mistreatment, some during interrogations to gather intelligence.

Abuses occurred as long as nearly two years ago -- among prisoners taken in the campaign to rout al-Qaeda from Afghanistan.

Critics say fault may ultimately rest with White House and Pentagon leaders for creating confusion when they decided in early 2002 that terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay did not fall under Geneva Conventions and then sought to redefine longtime rules of detention, interrogation and trials to suit the counterterror war.

Reed decried what he called "the corrosive effect of ignoring laws and regulations."

"After a while, the rules are anybody's guess," he said.

The retired military leaders who wrote to Bush were Rear Adm. John D. Hutson, Navy Judge Advocate General from 1997 to 2000; Brig. Gen. David M. Brahms, Marine Corps senior legal adviser from 1983 to 1988; Brig. Gen. James Cullen, former chief judge of the Army Court of Criminal Appeals; Maj. Gen. John L. Fugh, former Judge Advocate General of the Army; Lt. Gen. Robert Gard, currently a consultant in international security; Vice Adm. Lee F. Gunn, Inspector General of the Department of the Navy until his retirement in August 2000; Gen. Joseph Hoar, a former commander of U.S. Central Command; Brig. Gen. Richard Omeara, who served in the Army's Judge Advocate General Corps.

Hoar is part of a group of retired diplomats and military officers who has said Bush should be voted out of office because his policies damaged U.S. national security interests and America's standing in the world.

Gunn is among 12 retired generals and admirals who have endorsed Bush's Democratic rival John Kerry.

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[Navy_Navy_Navy]

So Floridavietvet,

The press and the leftists are now doing exactly the same thing to THIS generation of soldiers as they did to Vietnam Vets.

The question is, "Are you going to sit still for it and let it happen all over again?"

I, personally, will NOT.

Never again will the asshats be allowed to get away with their propaganda that de-humanizes our men and women!!!

I was only 15 when the last of the VV's came home. I was too young and didn't understand, but I damn well do, now.

I am old enough and pizzed off enough over what I have learned over the years to stand with them, PROUDLY as a sister vet!!!!
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother