File spoon-archives/anarchy-list.archive/anarchy-list_2004/anarchy-list.0405, message 102


Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 22:14:56 -0500
Subject: Re: torture scandal theory



At 05:38 PM 5/17/2004, Mark Waller wrote:
>=EF=BB=BF
>
>As promised, my conspiracy theory regarding the torture photos, as posted
>on Houston Indymedia:
><http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2004/05/29595.php>http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2004/05/29595.php
>
>  Berg Execution and Abu Ghraib: The Propaganda Wars
>by malcontent Monday May 17, 2004 at 03:28 PM


<snip>

Not a bad read, Mark.   I am somewhat on the same page.  The ascendancy of
the neo-cons in the elected portions of the executive branch has bent many
limbs in the more permanent trees of the bureaucracies.  But it has long
been said that administrations come and go but the bureaucracy is never tamed.

This follows your line that it is the CIA doing this as a "liberal
Institution" whose main goal is preservation of the status quo of
state.   Colin Powell would be salable in the halls of the Pentagon or in
Langley.  Rumsfeld and the neo-con "revolutionaries" aren't.   So yes, this
volley over the prisoners may well be a CIA shot to save the military from
the neo-con usurpers who rely very much on corporations to do the business
of state and military.   But it may be more.

Do not forget that as the Abu Gharib scene was being painted other leaks
were happening, among them the revelation that civilian contractors for
both the Occupational Power and the military do not come under the US
Universal Code Of Military Justice and as there is no Iraqi government with
sovereignty, there are exactly ZERO legal barriers from keeping these
contractors from acting in any way they wish, be it torture, rape, theft or
murder.   And they are absolved not just in the interrogations they may be
contracted for, but as there are 20,000 mercenaries in Iraq with the
coalition, they are immune from any legal strictures on
behavior.  Literally the US has a private army in Iraq that exists
completely beyond the pale.

The release of the prison pictures pulls those contractors back, somewhat,
into the pale.   And what if there is resistance from some?

Release the Berg video.   It speaks volumes about the dangers and penalties
of free-lancing.    It puts the CIA/"old establishment" back in a position
to impart and enforce a bit of firm moral footing in a place where moral
relativism is about as good as it ever gets.

Did the CIA do it?   No, I don't think so.   Or at least no direct
contractors were involved.  But like Kennedy, once sucked into the maw they
used it for everything they can.

Rejection of this thought is expected.  But absent clear thinking or
evidence one way or the other, we are back at that original question:  How
do you control 20K private-hire mercenaries with no code of expected
behavior?

By example.



carp

HTML VERSION:

At 05:38 PM 5/17/2004, Mark Waller wrote:
=EF=BB=BF

As promised, my conspiracy theory regarding the torture photos, as posted on Houston Indymedia: http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2004/05/29595.php

 Berg Execution and Abu Ghraib: The Propaganda Wars
by malcontent Monday May 17, 2004 at 03:28 PM


<snip>

Not a bad read, Mark.   I am somewhat on the same page.  The ascendancy of the neo-cons in the elected portions of the executive branch has bent many limbs in the more permanent trees of the bureaucracies.  But it has long been said that administrations come and go but the bureaucracy is never tamed.

This follows your line that it is the CIA doing this as a "liberal Institution" whose main goal is preservation of the status quo of state.   Colin Powell would be salable in the halls of the Pentagon or in Langley.  Rumsfeld and the neo-con "revolutionaries" aren't.   So yes, this volley over the prisoners may well be a CIA shot to save the military from the neo-con usurpers who rely very much on corporations to do the business of state and military.   But it may be more.

Do not forget that as the Abu Gharib scene was being painted other leaks were happening, among them the revelation that civilian contractors for both the Occupational Power and the military do not come under the US Universal Code Of Military Justice and as there is no Iraqi government with sovereignty, there are exactly ZERO legal barriers from keeping these contractors from acting in any way they wish, be it torture, rape, theft or murder.   And they are absolved not just in the interrogations they may be contracted for, but as there are 20,000 mercenaries in Iraq with the coalition, they are immune from any legal strictures on behavior.  Literally the US has a private army in Iraq that exists completely beyond the pale.

The release of the prison pictures pulls those contractors back, somewhat, into the pale.   And what if there is resistance from some?

Release the Berg video.   It speaks volumes about the dangers and penalties of free-lancing.    It puts the CIA/"old establishment" back in a position to impart and enforce a bit of firm moral footing in a place where moral relativism is about as good as it ever gets.

Did the CIA do it?   No, I don't think so.   Or at least no direct contractors were involved.  But like Kennedy, once sucked into the maw they used it for everything they can.  

Rejection of this thought is expected.  But absent clear thinking or evidence one way or the other, we are back at that original question:  How do you control 20K private-hire mercenaries with no code of expected behavior?    

By example.



carp





   

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