Release photos U.S. is urged By Senior US Lawmakers

[Iceburg]

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1084140608777&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724

snip

WASHINGTON—Senior U.S. lawmakers from both parties are calling for the immediate public release of all photos and videos depicting abuse and torture at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. The fate of the unreleased photos came during a weekend when fresh questions were raised about U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's ability to continue to lead American troops and senior Pentagon officials began questioning whether the U.S. can win the war in Iraq.

"One thing I know about scandals — they go on and on and on until the American people feel they have a full and complete picture of what happened," influential Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona said on Fox News Sunday.

"All the information concerning this situation should be brought out, aired, ventilated, and the American people and perhaps people in the Arab world need to be convinced that we are never going to allow such a thing to happen again."
...

McCain said to hold back pictures or to hold back the videos and only show them to members of the U.S. Congress " is foolish because they'll leak out but, second of all, it is sending the wrong signal."

His views were echoed by another senior Republican, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. "If there are more photos, if there's a video, for God's sake, lets talk about it; let's get it all out on the table.

"This is not about command influence, this is about rape and murder. This isn't just humiliation, this is a systematic failure and criminal offences,'' Graham said on NBC's Meet the Press.
...
The White House had been watching to see whether senior Republicans turned on Rumsfeld, although they gave him a strong vote of confidence during the weekend.

"Over the next couple of weeks then the president is going to have to make some hard choices here," Hagel said. "The president is the commander-in-chief. The secretary of defence, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, they serve at his pleasure, they serve to implement the president's policies.

"This is as serious a problem that we've had since Vietnam."

U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney rushed to Rumsfeld's aid, saying people should "get off his case."

"Don Rumsfeld is the best secretary of defence the United States has ever had," Cheney said in a statement from his office late Saturday.

Graham took an unusual swing at Cheney for his remarks.

He said it is the job of Congress to get to the bottom of the scandal and the Cheney comments are just as "inappropriate" as comments from those who tried to politicize the situation by calling for Rumsfeld's resignation before he even testified last Friday.

more ...

[skooooo]

1. Lindsey Graham -- a republican with scruples...

...there are so few left. Graham, at least in this situation, has shown himself to be a true American.

[0007]

3. Quite a contrast between Graham and Jeff Sessions, 'eh?

[Papa]

5. I hope you are right, but I'm not so sure

I watched him on Meet the Press, and the impression that I got from him was that he was going to try and paint this as a broken system problem. Like 911, the system was flawed. Iraq and the WMD's, the system was flawed, broken. Nothing could be done. Nobody was fired, even though we knew where the failure lay.

On meet the press Lindsey was praising Bush and Rumsfeld and constantly harping on it being a system problem, that's where the focus should be. I see this as a crafty way of protecting the administration from responsibility in trying to frame the issue as system failure.

[0007]

2. junior meets with Rummy today

Now that should be an interesting sceen.

Probably trying to figure out what Cheney meant when he said, "people should get off Rummy back"

[dbt]

4. Bringing Honor and Dignity back to the White House!

That was a nice little bowl of pablum for the sheep, wasn't it? Had to get rid of those nasty old Democrats and put the Adults Back In Charge. Wouldn't do to have another President getting a blowjob or (shudder!) hugging a tree.

Now we find ourselves calling for the full release of degrading, humiliating, criminal evidence of US lawlessness.

Notice how we don't have to explain oral sex to the children anymore?

:grr:
dbt

[Dhalgren]

6. They are lining up to blame the Army.

This is all the Army's fault. The CIA and the State Department were to blame for 911 and going into Iraq and now the Army will be to blame for this plunge into the dark ages. I am so sick and tried of Rebuplicans refusing to take responsibility for their actions I could puke!!! Why won't any Republican "lawmaker" step up and smell the coffe and denounce these gutless bastards? The Republican Party has got to start acting like an American institution and call these pustules out for what they are - criminal, traitorous, crooks! If the American public "rallies" around Bush and elects him in November, then I no longer belong to this nation!