Lynn C. Woolsey: “earlier this year people from around the world saw photographs of the mistreatment, the torture, the sexual abuse of…”

“earlier this year people from around the world saw photographs of the mistreatment, the torture, the sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners that took place at Abu Ghraib. If anti-American sentiment was not strong enough after the United States invaded a country that never had weapons of mass destruction and never once threatened us, these callous images of American soldiers torturing prisoners sealed the deal. Still, Bush administration officials deny any responsibility for the actions of these soldiers. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld shamefully called it the action of "a few bad apples." This scandal continues to get worse. It has come to light in recent months that prisoners also have been abused in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay and, moreover, evidence was uncovered earlier this week indicating American abuse of Iraqi prisoners in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. An American inquiry into the prisoner abuse uncovered the existence of ghost detainees, prisoners hidden from International Red Cross inspectors and kept off the inmate list of each prison, and military personnel have indicated that the number of ghost detainees may total in the hundreds. Even someone who does not closely follow the quagmire in Iraq would readily acknowledge the real possibility that the widespread prisoner abuse may not be the unfortunate actions of just a few bad apples.”