This is an excerpt from a factual, well-researched article from rotten.com. I won't link to the whole thing here, because it's pretty graphic, but this is a timeline of events having to deal with the Abu-Ghraib prison scandal. This is what Kerry means when he says we need to take a realistic view of what America is doing in Iraq, and if Bush thinks the Democratic Party is being pessimistic, maybe he's right, and maybe the Democratic Party is very wise in doing so. This is what's come out of "Operation Iraqi Freedom", and it sucks.

Timeline
1984 According to statistics furnished by the White House, a total of 4,000 Iraqis are summarily executed at Abu Ghraib on orders of Saddam Hussein.

Feb-Mar 2000 According to statistics furnished by the White House, a total of 120 Iraqi political prisoners are executed at Abu Ghraib on orders of Saddam Hussein.
Oct 2001 According to statistics furnished by the White House, 23 Iraqi political prisoners are executed at Abu Ghraib on orders of Saddam Hussein.

Jun 2003 The Army assigns Brigadier General Janice Karpinski to oversee Abu Ghraib prison, which has been renamed the Baghdad Central Correctional Facility.

Sep 2003 Brigadier General Janice Karpinski gives a tour of the Abu Ghraib prison facility to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. She points out that Saddam Hussein used the prison to torture his enemies, whereas the Americans don't.

Oct 2003 During an interview at Abu Ghraib prison with 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft, Brigadier General Janice Karpinski declares: "This is international standards. It's the best care available for -- in a prison facility."

8 Oct 2003 At a Republican party gala at the Washington Hilton, President George W Bush proclaims: "Iraq is free of rape rooms and torture chambers."

6 Nov 2003 After receiving uncomfortable Red Cross reports regarding abuses in the Abu Ghraib Prison, the U.S. military responds by issuing new requirements that appointments be made before any inspections to the particular cellblocks in which the worst abuses occurred. Note that by the rules of the Geneva Conventions, the Red Cross may visit any part of the prison without any prior notification. [The New York Times, 19 May 2004.]

14 Dec 2003 During an interview at Abu Ghraib prison with a St. Petersburg Times reporter, Brigadier General Janice Karpinski declares: "Living conditions now are better in prison than at home... At one point we were concerned they wouldn't want to leave."

14 Jan 2004 Military investigators question Army Reserves Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick regarding his role in the Abu Ghraib incidents. As a reservist, Frederick has a civilian job back home in Virginia, where he worked for six years as a state prison guard at Buckingham Correctional Center.

29 Apr 2004 CBS television broadcasts photographs taken of Iraqi prisoners being mindfucked and sexually humiliated at the hands of US troops in Abu Ghraib prison. "60 Minutes II has a dozen of these pictures, and there are many more -- pictures that show Americans, men and women in military uniforms, posing with naked Iraqi prisoners."

29 Apr 2004 A reporter for the Baltimore Sun shows some of the Abu Ghraib photos to Terrie England, who immediately recognizes her daughter Lynndie R. England as one of the soldiers. The mother then dismisses what she sees in the pictures as nothing more than "stupid kid things -- pranks."

30 Apr 2004 During a photo op in the White House rose garden with Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, President George W Bush insists: "Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the way we do things in America. And so I -- I didn't like it one bit."

30 Apr 2004 During a briefing with the White House press corps, spokesman Scott McClellan thwarts a reporter's attempts to ascertain when the President first learned of the crimes:
REPORTER: How long has the President been aware of the evidence of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison?
MCCLELLAN: Well, there were allegations that go back quite some time here, Terry. And that's why you already have the military pursuing some criminal charges against some individuals.
REPORTER: Had the President seen these photographs before two nights ago?
MCCLELLAN: I don't know the exact time when he saw the photographs. I mean, they've certainly been in the media the last couple of days.

30 Apr 2004 The New Yorker runs a piece by Seymour Hersh detailing other abuses at Abu Ghraib.

6 May 2004 Radio commentator Rush Limbaugh dismisses the photos taken of naked prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, saying: "This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation."

7 May 2004 Testifying before a Senate panel, Donald Rumsfeld confirms that videotapes of abuses at Abu Ghraib have yet to be released, as well as numerous additional photos. Also extant are videotapes taken by U.S. soldiers of Iraqi guards raping young boys.

12 May 2004 A "secret room" at the U.S. Senate becomes an adult theatre between the hours of 2 and 5 PM as unreleased torture pictures, forced-sodomy pictures, and numerous sex pictures allegedly involving Lynndie England are displayed to Congressmen in a government slide show.

14 May 2004 Piers Morgan, editor of England's Daily Mirror newspaper, steps down after criticism over that publication's printing of Abu Ghraib style "torture photos" which actually originated on porn sites created by spammers during the early days of the Afghan and Iraq Wars. Another publication fooled by similar photos was the Boston Globe.

21 May 2004 In an interview with Australia's 60 Minutes, Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage declares: "If you're talking about Abu Ghraib and the abuse there, it doesn't intrigue me at all; it horrifies me. And it seemed to me that we had a command climate there that was conducive to this kind of bad behavior. And nobody was taking normal corrective actions, no one was exercising command, and I find that a horrifying specter and I couldn't be angrier about it, and I couldn't be sorrier about it."

24 May 2004 In a speech at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, President George W Bush announces: "A new Iraq will also need a humane, well-supervised prison system. Under the dictator, prisons like Abu Ghraib were symbols of death and torture. That same prison became a symbol of disgraceful conduct by a few American troops who dishonored our country and disregarded our values. America will fund the construction of a modern maximum security prison. When that prison is completed, detainees at Abu Ghraib will be relocated. Then, with the approval of the Iraqi government, we will demolish the Abu Ghraib Prison as a fitting symbol of Iraq's new beginning."

24 May 2004 See no evil: Donald Rumsfeld bans the use of cameras by the U.S. Military in Iraq. (edit by me, John: I did a little research on this one, because it seems to me like the authority to do something like that ought to be in the President's hands, or that banning cameras altogether is really extreme, and I was able to find this quote from a Pentagon statement: "Digital cameras, camcorders and cellphones with cameras have been prohibited in military compounds in Iraq," it said, adding that a "total ban throughout the US military" is in the works. This might not mean cameras altogether, but who the hell knows what our government means anymore. The point is that it's a surprisingly blatant attempt to keep more shit like this from pouring out of Iraq, and you don't need to be a conspiracy theorist to see the obvious cover-up.)

Kerry/Edwards '04~