Thread: New details of abuse in Iraq

Shameful .

It will be unfortunate all around.

"It will be unfortunate all around."

Not really. It's only Americans left in Iraq that will suffer from any such outrage.

Meanwhile, I'm fairly certain that we'll never know how compassionate Iraqis are about the imprisonment of their own. I doubt they're so stupid as to eagerly rush to the presses with their own particularly perverse prison peculiarities.

Nor the Afghan government.

Nor the Pakistani government.

Just to name a few.

Let's not rush to judgment here. How do we know these claims are true and the prisoners didn't just make them up? Or exaggerate a little?

Yeah especially if you factor in that the British won't be investigating.

This investigation has started today and the guy was on the beeb saying there will be no whitewash , blame will be laid where the blame should go ,im not holding my breath tho


An official inquiry into Britain's involvement in the Iraq War began on Tuesday, promising a thorough investigation which could prove embarrassing for the government ahead of next year's election.

The five-member inquiry team, headed by former civil servant John Chilcot, was set up by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in June to examine the reasons for Britain's involvement in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and the subsequent occupation of Iraq.

"We want to establish a clear understanding of the various core elements of the UK's involvement in Iraq, and how these developed over time," Chilcot said in an opening statement.

"What we are committed to, and what the British general public can expect from us, is a guarantee to be thorough, impartial, objective and fair."

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair sent over 45,000 troops to topple Saddam Hussein in a war that became deeply unpopular in Britain and angered many Labour supporters.

British combat operations officially ended at the end of April this year, six years after the invasion and with the deaths of 179 British service personnel.

Relatives of some of those killed and opposition politicians have long called for an inquiry into the war, arguing the government had distorted intelligence to justify the invasion.

A government dossier justifying military action included the claim that Saddam was capable of launching weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes. No such weapons were found, leading to accusations the public had been deceived.

Commentators say evidence to the inquiry and publicly raking over such a divisive issue could embarrass the government before a general election which must be held by June 2010, with Brown already trailing in polls to the Conservatives.

However the inquiry's final verdict will not be made public until after the vote at the end of next year.

Chilcot's study will be the third official probe into the Iraq War. A 2004 inquiry into intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction concluded much of the information had been flawed but ministers had not deliberately misled the public.

Another report earlier in 2004 cleared ministers of any wrongdoing over the death of an Iraq weapons expert who killed himself after the government outed him as the source of a BBC report that claimed Blair's team had "sexed up" intelligence.

Both findings were widely condemned in the media as being a whitewash, and fuelled demands for a full independent inquiry. Anti-war campaigners said they did not have much confidence in the latest probe.

"Sir John Chilcot insists that it will not be a whitewash but the committee -- the five members of which were all hand picked by Gordon Brown -- looks like it was set up with exactly that purpose," said the Stop the War Coalition.

Chilcot insisted his team would be "thorough and rigorous."

"We are not a court or an inquest or a statutory inquiry; and our processes will reflect that difference. No one is on trial. We cannot determine guilt or innocence," Chilcot said.

"But I make a commitment here that once we get to our final report, we will not shy away from making criticisms where they are warranted."

Chilcot's team will begin by hearing testimony from senior officials and military officers. Blair and other politicians will be quizzed early next year, although Chilcot has not yet said whether Brown will be called to give evidence.