May 08, 2004
Reflecting America
Josh Marshall refers us to this Times article, which explores the connection between American prisons and Abu Ghraib:The experts also point out that the man who directed the reopening of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq last year and trained the guards there resigned under pressure as director of the Utah Department of Corrections in 1997 after an inmate died while shackled to a restraining chair for 16 hours. The inmate, who suffered from schizophrenia, was kept naked the whole time.The Utah official, Lane McCotter, later became an executive of a private prison company, one of whose jails was under investigation by the Justice Department when he was sent to Iraq as part of a team of prison officials, judges, prosecutors and police chiefs picked by Attorney General John Ashcroft to rebuild the country's criminal justice system.
Are they sorry because they are shocked, shocked that something like this is happening when they had no idea?
Click here for a picture of McCotter giving a tour to Paul Wolfowitz
I should note that lawsuits against prison facilities are very common… not necessarily an aberration… but the evidence does warrant further investigation. Surely McCotter’s job was a difficult one and the allegations are merely conjecture.. let’s not hang the guy on this.
But there his a history there…
href="http://www.rightsideredux.com/archives/2004_05_01_archive.html#108402745852998030">see
my post.