From today's
Oregonian, by Mike Francis. In the "how's that handing over of power going?" Department, I guess one interpretation might be:
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
(emphases added)
BAGHDAD - The national guardsman peering through the long-range scope of his rifle was startled by what he saw unfolding in the walled compound below.
From his post several stories above ground level, he watched as men in plainclothes beat blind folded and bound prisoners in the enclosed grounds of the Iraqi Interior Ministry.
He immediately radioed for help. Soon after, a team of Oregon Army National Guard soldiers swept into the yard and found dozens of Iraqi detainees who said they had been beaten, starved and deprived of water for three days.
In a nearby building, the soldiers counted dozens more prisoners and what appeared to be torture devices - metal rods, rubber hoses, electrical wires and bottles of chemicals. Many of the Iraqis, including one identified as a 14-year-old boy, had fresh welts and bruises across their back and legs.
The soldiers disarmed the Iraqi jailers, moved the prisoners into the shade, released their handcuffs and administered first aid. Lt. Col. Daniel Hendrickson of Albany, Ore., the highest ranking American at the scene, radioed for instructions.
But in a move that frustrated and infuriated the guardsmen, Hendrickson's superior officers told him to return the prisoners to their abusers and immediately withdraw. It was June 29 - Iraq's first official day as a sovereign country since the U.S. invasion.
Reading the rest of the article, it is clear that the guardsmen were frustrated and upset at being ordered to return the prisoners to their torturers:
The guardsmen who later gave their account of that day said they wanted Americans to know about the actions they took to protect unresisting prisoners - and that they were ordered
by U.S. military officials to walk away.
"The guys were really upset," said one soldier. Said another who talked to them immediately after ward, "They were really moved by what they'd seen."
It is also clear that they have been instructed in no uncertain terms that they are not to make statements to the media:
An Oregon guardsman who witnessed the day's events, Capt. Jarrell Southall, provided The Oregonian with a written account of the incident. Other guardsmen interviewed in Iraq corroborated Southall's account on the condition that their names not be used.
...
Southall said he was speaking as an individual and not as a military officer. Senior Army officers have instructed soldiers not to discuss the incident.
So, what exactly are we
doing in Iraq now, as, er, invited guests of the government or whatever the h*ll it is we are right now? If it ain't WMD, isn't it supposed to be to liberate folks from brutality? Am I remembering that right?....