Incompetence, Not Malice
That dedicated campaigner, Ann Clwyd, who in better days helped propagandise for the assault on Iraq, has noticed that things are not altogether as they should be in the new, liberated nation which now adorns the Middle East. The Vicar of Downing Street's special envoy on selected human rights is "very unhappy" with the number of people being held in detention, and has called on the sovereign, independent Iraqi government to publish a report.
There was a time when Ms Clwyd was very unhappy about the number of people being held in detention under Saddam Hussein, although to the best of my knowledge she was never quite unhappy enough to oppose Britain's trade links with the Abu Ghraib funhouse's previous owner and operator. Now that the new sovereign, independent Iraqi government is receiving more direct help, she suspects "incompetence, not malice, in the disappearances." Ms Clwyd cites the case of an elderly woman who had been arrested and who was eventually freed thanks to Ms Clwyd's personal intervention. "She had, according to Clwyd who interviewed her afterwards, been abused in custody: as a Muslim, the shame was such that she would not be identified." Incompetence leading to abuse is one thing - anyone can be tempted by a rubber hose, after all - but it's clear that what haunts Ms Clwyd is the terrible spectacle of that enforced Muslim discretion: "She was obviously very unsure of herself, emotional, confused: she was frightened. She wanted to put it all behind her", draw a line under it, so to speak.
In another case, an elderly man disappeared in 2004 and was reported seen in an American prison. His son, like the relatives of the elderly woman, was a British resident, and thus able to call on Ms Clwyd's indefatigable moral fervour. She raised the matter in Washington, but so far there has been no trace of the elderly man. Ms Clwyd is worried: "You did feel that people were disappearing into black holes and it's very difficult", though presumably not as difficult as it would have been under Saddam Hussein. We have, after all, improved matters.
Ms Clwyd lectures the Americans on taking such cases of incompetence more seriously. "If they had followed it up harder at the time" - the abuses are all in the past, apparently - "I think it might have avoided some of the allegations - and proof - of abuse that took place." As usual, the emphasis is on public relations. Had our impetuous co-special-relationshippers but taken a moment's thought, unfavourable allegations and their subsequent proofs might have been comfortably dodged. "Mistakes were being made," she said. "People were being scooped up - [although] that was all at a time when they were still looking for some of the most wanted", a practice which has since been discontinued.
Tony, of course, is the usual tower of rectitude: "I know, in conversations he has with the people of influence in the US, he doesn't pull his punches. He pushes them, sometimes with direct results." Perhaps a punch or two has been pushed Ms Clwyd's way, with direct results: "She has spoken out amid growing criticism of Britain's failure to stop abuses in Iraq."
There was a time when Ms Clwyd was very unhappy about the number of people being held in detention under Saddam Hussein, although to the best of my knowledge she was never quite unhappy enough to oppose Britain's trade links with the Abu Ghraib funhouse's previous owner and operator. Now that the new sovereign, independent Iraqi government is receiving more direct help, she suspects "incompetence, not malice, in the disappearances." Ms Clwyd cites the case of an elderly woman who had been arrested and who was eventually freed thanks to Ms Clwyd's personal intervention. "She had, according to Clwyd who interviewed her afterwards, been abused in custody: as a Muslim, the shame was such that she would not be identified." Incompetence leading to abuse is one thing - anyone can be tempted by a rubber hose, after all - but it's clear that what haunts Ms Clwyd is the terrible spectacle of that enforced Muslim discretion: "She was obviously very unsure of herself, emotional, confused: she was frightened. She wanted to put it all behind her", draw a line under it, so to speak.
In another case, an elderly man disappeared in 2004 and was reported seen in an American prison. His son, like the relatives of the elderly woman, was a British resident, and thus able to call on Ms Clwyd's indefatigable moral fervour. She raised the matter in Washington, but so far there has been no trace of the elderly man. Ms Clwyd is worried: "You did feel that people were disappearing into black holes and it's very difficult", though presumably not as difficult as it would have been under Saddam Hussein. We have, after all, improved matters.
Ms Clwyd lectures the Americans on taking such cases of incompetence more seriously. "If they had followed it up harder at the time" - the abuses are all in the past, apparently - "I think it might have avoided some of the allegations - and proof - of abuse that took place." As usual, the emphasis is on public relations. Had our impetuous co-special-relationshippers but taken a moment's thought, unfavourable allegations and their subsequent proofs might have been comfortably dodged. "Mistakes were being made," she said. "People were being scooped up - [although] that was all at a time when they were still looking for some of the most wanted", a practice which has since been discontinued.
Tony, of course, is the usual tower of rectitude: "I know, in conversations he has with the people of influence in the US, he doesn't pull his punches. He pushes them, sometimes with direct results." Perhaps a punch or two has been pushed Ms Clwyd's way, with direct results: "She has spoken out amid growing criticism of Britain's failure to stop abuses in Iraq."
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