From Bad Apples to Gov't Policy

Kinda weird how this works. First the abuses at Abu Ghraib were the work of a few 'bad apples' poorly supervised. Now the WH wants to ensure that they retain the ability to abuse whomever they want.

The Bush administration in recent days has been lobbying to block legislation supported by Republican senators that would bar the U.S. military from engaging in "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of detainees, from hiding prisoners from the Red Cross, and from using interrogation methods not authorized by a new Army field manual.

Vice President Cheney met Thursday evening with three senior Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee to press the administration's case that legislation on these matters would usurp the president's authority and -- in the words of a White House official -- interfere with his ability "to protect Americans effectively from terrorist attack."

Too bad they weren't making this argument during trials of England and Granger - they could have filed an Amicus Curiae brief for the defense about how those brave kids were just defending us effectively from terrorists.

It should come as no surprise that they're also blocking the release of all the rest of the photos...

Lawyers for the Defense Department are refusing to cooperate with a federal judge's order to release secret photographs and videotapes related to the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal.

The lawyers said in a letter sent to the federal court in Manhattan late Thursday that they would file a sealed brief explaining their reasons for not turning over the material, which they were to have released by yesterday.

The photographs were some of thousands turned over by Specialist Joseph M. Darby, the whistle-blower who exposed the abuse at Abu Ghraib by giving investigators computer disks containing photographs and videos of prisoners being abused, sexually humiliated and threatened with growling dogs.

Yeah, you can't see them and we can't tell you why. Because we say so, that's why. Uh-huh.