Tuesday, September 15, 2009

US Embassy Scandal: A New Abu Ghraib?

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Will ArmorGroup's embassy scandal inflame the Muslim world in the same way Abu Ghraib did?

Members of the Commission on Wartime Contracting, the independent panel established to probe contracting issues in Iraq and Afghanistan, certainly see parallels between the infamous photographs of detainee abuse and those depicting Kabul Embassy guards engaging in a range of lewd conduct.

Graphic shots of ArmorGroup personnel cavorting half-naked and participating in humiliating hazing rituals, which have circulated widely online, "provide free recruiting material to the Taliban," Chris Shays, the commission's cochair and a former Republican congressman from Connecticut, said on Monday during a hearing on the State Department's oversight of contractors that focused on the recent allegations against ArmorGroup.

Dov Zakheim, a member of the commission who served as the Pentagon's comptroller during the Bush administration's first term, had a similar take on the fallout of the embassy scandal. "This is the equivalent of Abu Ghraib," he said, adding later, "that Internet is killing us."



MORE PHOTOS




See also: Official: Kabul Embassy Hazing Covered Up










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1 comment:

Mark Prime (tpm/Confession Zero) said...

Torture and such prideful displays of an uncaring force say the same things- "fuck you", "America doesn't care" and "fuck everyone who thinks otherwise"... It is upon the doorstep of tragedy, Shakespeare style.