Opinion
 

Abu Ghraib, Haitian arrests typical

By Warren Domask

When the average American thinks of prisons, he or she imagines herds of minorities caught up in a "don't drop the soap" fiasco. Whatever their thoughts, everyone realizes jail is an unpleasant experience.

Unfortunately, I am absolutely dumbfounded at the America's "horrified" reaction to the Abu Ghraib atrocities. Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush have stepped forward to tell Americans that the behaviors of "a few" don't represent the many, and are absolutely "un-American."

According to the San Francisco Bay View, while the Abu Ghraib tragedy occurred, a horrifying event took place in Haiti on May 10 that the American press has largely ignored. Annette Auguste, or "So Anne," is a popular cultural icon of Haiti who is an outspoken supporter of the ousted Lavalas regime of former elected president Jean Bertrand Aristide. On May 10, 2004, fully armed U.S. marines broke into her home at a time of day violating Haitian law (which as peacekeepers they are generally expected to respect), firing weapons into a house full of unarmed persons. 

After shooting dogs for barking at them, the marines arrested 7 adults, including So Anne. In addition to the 7 adults, two children, ages 12 and 5, were also arrested, interrogated and arbitrarily detained overnight. This five-year-old child, in addition to the twelve-year-old unarmed child, was hooded and manacled by regular U.S. marines.

Instead of invoking massive outrage, this story has been covered by only two U.S. references that I can find as of today. The fact that the United States is continuing the same brutal tactics it used in Iraq makes me embarrassed to be an American.

Do we, as Americans, need to see pornographic disaster before we will look at a problem? There were at least three reports announcing the tragic horrors of Abu Ghraib before the pictures were leaked, all of which were ignored. When the story finally did begin to bubble to the surface, Donald Rumsfeld held the phone, hoping that the pictures would never make it to the media.

This should not represent an American standard, but apparently it does. We don't care that prisoners are being sodomized with broomsticks until we see the pictures with our eyes. Just how little interest do we have in being responsible for the people we elect?

Equally frightening is the fact that few Americans realize that the sexual humiliation and wonton abuse exhibited in those glaring photos is virtually identical to actions taken in prisons across the country.

Charles A. Graner Jr., the charming, smiling fellow in the background of the naked pyramid of Iraqis picture, also happens to be a prison guard at SCI-Green, the Pennsylvania institution that holds political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal on death row. Abu-Jamal has documented accounts of prisoner abuse and torture within this hellacious environment for years.

Graner was present during a 1988 prisoner-brutality scandal at SCI-Green, although officials give no details about the guards involved, citing privacy laws.

Ironically, the prison has suppressed the tapes of SCI-Green during that time, and he escaped any charges of wrongdoing. Exonerated death row inmate Nicholas Yarris, however, has characterized Granger as "abusive and violent."

These instances of prisoner abuse and U.S. violence are horrifying, but are they un-American? I think it's pretty obvious the only thing they're in trouble for is taking the pictures.

Domask, a columnist for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached at dccampus@mail.uh.edu.