Bush Responsible for Torture

Public outcry is spreading that the George W. Bush administration is evading responsibility for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

In an editorial on May 13, the Washington Post stated, “The Bush administration is still attempting to mislead the Congress and the public regarding the policies that contributed to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners” and added, “The damning tortures of prisoners at Iraq will strike a fatal blow to the U.S. foreign policy regardless of how the Bush administration reacts.”

The New York Times also stated in an editorial, “The Bush administration and the Republican Party seem to have found a way to divert the public’s attention from the torture issue of victims at the Abu Ghraib prison to somewhere else” and added, “It is to condemn the Democratic Party and the press for being oversensitive and shift the remaining blame to battlefield officers who are as far away from President Bush and his political administration.”

Senator (Massachusetts) John Kerry of the Democratic Party whose presidential candidacy has been practically confirmed, also furiously attacked President Bush by saying the war in Iraq was a “failure,” and a Cabinet shake-up as well as a new political agenda is necessary to put an end to the mistake and incompetence of the Bush administration.

On the other hand, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld claimed on May 12 that the U.S. military techniques used to interrogate prisoners in Iraq do not breach international regulations.

According to a CBS broadcast, Rumsfeld attended the Armed Service Committee of the Senate this day and confirmed that the Department of Defense approved interrogation methods of Iraqi prisoners including sleep deprivation, food replacement, and assuming of difficult positions. However, responding to claims that these methods are in violation of a Geneva Convention stricture, he added that it does not apply to those who are imprisoned by a pan-national terrorist activity, and not from war between countries.

Jung-Ahn Kim credo@donga.com