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The Weblog at The View from the Core - Fri. 12/19/03 09:46:47 PM
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"Tapes Show Abuse of 9/11 Detainees" From a report in today's WaPo: Hundreds of videotapes that federal prison officials had claimed were destroyed show that foreign nationals held at a New York detention facility after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were victims of physical and verbal abuse by guards, the Justice Department's inspector general said yesterday.... That kind of behavior is inexcusable. And it's un-American. In fact, it exemplifies everything that's wrong with America, and why our country has no moral authority to try to impose democracy on the rest of the world. Gotcha! :-) Actually, the rest of the story exemplifies what's right with America: An investigation by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine also found that officials at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, N.Y., which is run by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, improperly taped meetings between detainees and their lawyers, and used excessive strip searches and restraints to punish those in confinement. The report concluded that as many as 20 guards were involved in the abuse, which included slamming prisoners against walls and painfully twisting their arms and hands. Fine recommended discipline for 10 employees and counseling for two others who remain employed by the federal prison system. He also said the government should notify the employers of four former guards about their conduct.... Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo said yesterday that federal prosecutors in Brooklyn and in the department's Civil Rights Division were reviewing the report to determine whether criminal charges were warranted. The Justice Department had previously declined to pursue any prosecutions in the cases. "We agree with the inspector general that even the intense emotional atmosphere surrounding the attacks, particularly in New York City, where smoke was still rising from the rubble of Ground Zero, is no excuse for abhorrent behavior by Bureau of Prisons personnel," Corallo said in a statement. "It is unfortunate that the alleged misconduct of a few employees detracts from the fine work done by the correctional personnel at MDC and around the nation, who conducted themselves professionally and appropriately." .... America isn't the place where nothing bad happens and nobody does anything wrong. It's a place not the only one, but one of the few where there's actually a decent chance that official wrongdoing, like the inexcusable kind reported on here, is actually going to get investigated, publicized, and punished. (Thanks, Mark.) Lane Core Jr. CIW P Fri. 12/19/03 09:46:47 PM |
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