Some good news

by John Q on May 25, 2004

Abu Ghraib prison is to be demolished. Obviously, I welcome this news and hope that this symbolic measure will be accompanied by the substantive changes it should represent, including the abandonment of the policy of detention without trial.

{ 9 comments }

1

Cynic 05.25.04 at 2:08 am

In 37 days? Or are they just going to suggest it to the new souvereign government of Iraq?

Even something positive from them lot I don’t trust anymore.

2

jdw 05.25.04 at 2:09 am

“We will begin, with the filing cabinets.”

3

Stupid cynic 05.25.04 at 2:21 am

Oops, the speechwriter actually thought of that…


Then, with the approval of the Iraqi government, we will demolish the Abu Ghraib prison, as a fitting symbol of Iraq’s new beginning.

Haven’t seen the full text, but if “we” refers to Iraq and the US I might even ditch the cynicism.

4

Alex R 05.25.04 at 2:46 am

From the president’s speech:
America will fund the construction of a modern, maximum security prison. When that prison is completed, detainees at Abu Ghraib will be relocated.

Why is the fact that the US will be building a new “modern” prison to replace Abu Ghraib not giving me the warm, fuzzy feeling I might expect on hearing that the prison will be demolished? Does anyone else think that an American-built prison in the middle of Iraq — built to hold our “detainees” as we like to call them — might become an even more tangible symbol of imperial occupation than the demolished Abu Ghraib?

What we should do is simply release the 70% – 90% of the prisoners that are neither criminals nor highly dangerous insurgents, and build a *temporary* facility to hold any remaining prisoners that we can not easily move to other existing facilities, and demolish that temporary facility when our soldiers finally leave the country.

5

Poppy McCool 05.25.04 at 3:01 am

This is not news. A bipartisan bill to destroy Abu Ghraib passed the House last week 308-114. It was sponsored by Weldon (R-PA) and Murtha (D-PA). Once again Bush is taking credit for other people’s work.

6

MC 05.25.04 at 5:28 am

This seems in keeping with two tendencies of the Bush adm: 1) doing the right thing (demolishing the prison) only after doing the wrong thing (keeping it/torture) and 2) attempting to revise history in such a way that renders criticism of Bush more difficult. Goodbye prisoners on leashes, hello panopticon.

7

ccm 05.25.04 at 6:56 am

Well, when you can’t destroy the evidence, destroy the scene of the crime right?

Whoops, there goes my cynicism again. Dreadfully sorry, I hope it washes out.

8

Thomas 05.25.04 at 8:41 pm

I think we should stop detaining suspected terrorists without trial. We should kill instead of capture.

9

dev 05.26.04 at 11:01 pm

That’s right. Blame the building!

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