I feel more and more like I'm living in a ticking time bomb. Is it too late to start school in Canada?

U.S. ignored abuse pleas, Red Cross says

[ from The Toronto Star ]
May 6, 2004. 06:49 AM
'We were aware of what was going on,' aid organization says

GENEVA (AP) ? The international Red Cross said Thursday that it had repeatedly asked U.S. authorities to take action over prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison before recent revelations about the way detainees were treated.

"We were aware of what was going on, and based on our findings we have repeatedly requested the U.S. authorities to take corrective action," said Nada Doumani, spokesperson for the International Commitee of the Red Cross, speaking from Amman, Jordan.

The ICRC, which visits prisoners held by coalition authorities in Iraq, had previously refused to comment publicly on conditions at the prison.

And also,
Good Ol' Girl Who Enjoyed Cruelty

"POINTING crudely at the genitals of a naked, hooded Iraqi, the petite brunette with a cigarette hanging from her lips epitomised America's shame over revelations US soldiers routinely tortured inmates at Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad.

Lynndie England, 21, a rail worker's daughter, comes from a trailer park in Fort Ashby, West Virginia, which locals proudly call "a backwoods world".

She faces a court martial, but at home she is toasted as a hero.

At the dingy Corner Club Saloon they think she has done nothing wrong.

"A lot of people here think they ought to just blow up the whole of Iraq," Colleen Kesner said.

"To the country boys here, if you're a different nationality, a different race, you're sub-human. That's the way girls like Lynndie are raised.

"Tormenting Iraqis, in her mind, would be no different from shooting a turkey. Every season here you're hunting something. Over there, they're hunting Iraqis."