Prisoner Mis-Treatment - RushOnline.com

What happened in Abu Garayb was abuse and mistreatment, not atrocities.

The World, the Media, and even the Moslems themselves, did not cry out with revulsion, horror, and disgust, at Saddam's gassing, rapes, and strangulations.

The World and the Media did not cry out when Moslem men, at point-blank range, first shot dead a pregnant woman, and then, one by one, shot dead her terrified and screaming four little girls.

The World and the Media did not cry out at the Islamic World dancing for joy at the photos of the dragged, mutilated, and charred bodies hanging from a bridge.

But when America tries to help people by attempting to create a free society in which people have real hope of better lives (while Moslem leaders use their oil billions to create one hell-hole after another), then the world watches closely, ever ready to pounce and condemn any misdeed.

Pornography sells, and that is why there are multi-thousands of pornographic websites; since the Media and the World cannot use pornography to attract the public, they are now successfully making maximum use of very suitable substitute photos.

I say: "ENOUGH, ALREADY !!!".

Every honest person without any sort of axe to grind, clearly recognizes the truth of our American values. We have apologized for the bad actions of a few; we do not condone those actions; we will punish the wrong-doers.

To continue humiliating ourselves, is to empower the enemy by demonstrating a lack of resolve to focus on the greater problems; in turn, this will rightfully be interpreted as weakness.

People who hate your very existence cannot be negotiated with.

"If you are not prepared to take life, you must often be prepared for lives to be lost in some other way." George Orwell, "Reflections on Gandhi".

Do we really need to get back to showing photos of the bodies in the streets of New York, Washington, Jerusalem, Spain, ............?

Dr. Halperin

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freedom works in Iraq

I AM APPALLED AT THE PICTURES OF PRISONERS IN IRAQ, BUT DOESNT THE FACT THAT SEVERAL IRAQEES ARE SPEAKING OUT SHOW THAT FREEDOM (AT LEAST OF SPEECH) IS AT WORK? THE TORTURE THAT THESE PEOPLE WERE PUT THROUGH IS OUTRAGEOUS, BUT IF UNDER SADAM WOULDN'T THESE PEOPLE HAVE PAID WITH THEIR LIVES FOR LIFTING A VOICE AGAINST THEIR CAPTURES? WHAT MEANS OF INTERRIGATION WILL WORK WHEN PEOPLE HAVE BEEN MUTALATED AND TORTURED TO THE POINT OF DEATH FOR MERELY SPEAKING OUT AGAINST A DICTATOR. I THINK THAT THE INTERVIEWS THAT ARE BEING BROADCAST SHOW THAT AMERICA IS DOING A GOOD JOB OF FREEING THESE PEOPLE.

LISA WILLIAMS

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It is my opinion that the uproar about the "abuse" of prisoners in Iraq is much ado about nothing. There are no eyeballs rolling around the floor, no fingers missing, in fact not a bruise or any blood. There may have been some embarrassment and intimidation, but there is no brutality. We should keep in mind that these are the people who danced in the street when the Trade Towers were hit in NYC. These are the same people who dragged our countrymen's bodies through the street and set them afire.

Compared to the violence the people of Iraq suffered under Sadam, the actions of our troops, who watched these same people kill their comrades, is moderate. No one apologized when they committed atrocities on Americans, why should we apologize.

I think that these acts are not professional and the people involved should be retrained and possibly reprimanded, but all in all, they didn't do anything that bad. It is certainly not as terrible as the liberal press makes it out to be and should not be given the extensive coverage they choose to give for political gain.

Jim of Kingman, AZ

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Article Title: "Far, Far Worse Thing"

Terrorism: So American stomachs turned at the photos out of Abu Ghraib prison. How do they feel now, after seeing the images of Nick Berg of Pennsylvania beheaded by a pack of animals?

There is no moral equivalence between what happened to some of the detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the gruesome, savage death of Berg. That the madmen who killed him think that psychological humiliation and some physical abuse of prisoners is the same as callously decapitating an innocent man is instructive.

We are dealing with an enemy that suffers from a medieval, even primitive, mind-set that Western minds simply cannot understand.

Yet it is with despair that we note that some major U.S. media outlets seem to see the Berg murder the same way the terrorists see it. Their focus is still primarily on Abu Ghraib, as if what happened there to detainees, who, as Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe put it, were in prison for a reason, was worse than what happened to Berg.

Do the media not know that many of the "victims" of the alleged abuse at Abu Ghraib are of the same sort as those who, for no reason other than insane zealotry, cruelly extinguished a young life?

This is the same press that's still far more focused on Abu Ghraib than it is on Berg and is clamoring (in some cases) for additional photos of the events at the prison while grisly shots of the slaughter of Berg and his story are not granted similar attention.

Where is the media outrage over Islamic jihadists using an American for a live human sacrifice? Was it all spent on the soldiers who supposedly mistreated detainees and their commanders, all the way up the line to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld?

Yes, there are sensitivity issues with Berg's family over images of his death. It was wrenching to see his family members collapsed on the lawn after they had been told that a video of his murder was on a Web site that could be accessed by the public.

But as long as America falls back into the comfortable fantasy that there is no urgency in vanquishing our enemy, as long as we insist that we have to be careful about how we defend ourselves - it's far beyond a police issue, Sen. Kerry - we're going to see more American families grieving just as the Bergs were.

Maybe it won't come to that, though. Perhaps the hooded cowards who murdered Berg might have made an error. Their act of "revenge" for the treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib is serving well as a reminder of what we're dealing with, if indeed we've forgotten 9-11, the Daniel Pearl throat slitting, the slaughter of Americans in Fallujah and the subsequent desecration of their bodies.

Which brings up an angle that has escaped, as far as we can tell, the mainstream media: The photos of Americans' sins are offensive, but there's no effort to withhold them from the public because of their violent nature. The images of the terrorists' acts, however, are so disturbing that the media is circumspect about releasing them for public consumption.

They might choose not to recognize it, but their caution is telling: There is a world of difference between abuse and murder and the country would be wise to switch the object of its outrage to something of graver consequence.

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SHELL SHOCKED

The graphic pictures being circulated on the Internet and newspapers of the Iraqi prisoners being tortured at the hands of what appears to be a very few of our soldiers is very disturbing. An article in today's paper says it is causing shell shock to many of our young people in their 20's. Some of our politicians in Washington are using this to promote their agenda to force us out of Iraq and to destroy the chance for re-election of President Bush.

It's hard for our military men and women to look good in freeing millions of the people in Iraq when only bad publicity makes the front pages of the big news papers and the evening news on ABC, CBS and NBC. If the media was half as interested in the US winning the war as they are in getting Bush defeated they would show 10 pictures of the GI's doing humanitarian deeds for each one they show of the torture of the prisoners.

No prisoner of war should be treated inhumanely. My guess is that there is not a single Iraqi pictured who would want to trade places with the one of our soldiers, sailors or marines who were POW's in Japanese POW camps. Personally, I would have preferred to being paraded necked in front of a woman than having bamboo splinters driven under my finger nails. In Germany it was common practice to crowd all of the Jews, men, women and children in a dungeon for months and weeks at a time with no clothes and little food or water.

As horrific as the treatment was for our POW's at the hands of the Japanese, when they were defeated and the war declared over, it was over. I was on a troop ship headed for Japan when WW2 ended. On landing at Sasebo, Japan the 10 bed field hospital that I was attached to traveled by Jeep the entire length of Kyushu Island to Fukuoka to care for a port director unit there.

Our rifles still had the protective grease on them and we were not issued any ammo. We stopped frequently in villages that had never seen an American to ask directions and never felt threatened. During my 8 months of occupation duty there I never heard of a single attack on an American.

That was a different occupation of a defeated country than the one in Iraq. Every GI in Iraq is a potential target for many members of the Iraqi population. They can't walk or ride down a street any place in that country without feeling some Al Quida or other insurgent has a bead drawn on their ear. Their Flak jacket don't go up that high.

Makes you wonder how we would have felt about the alleged abuse if this had taken place before 9-11and our intelligence interrogators had discovered these were the terrorist trained to take over the 4 commercial Jets and fly them into the twin towers and the Pentagon.

It's about time we start showing some of the good our military has done for the Iraqi people and quit doing everything possible to demoralize then. This advise also applies to Teddy Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and presidential hopeful, John Kerry.

AND, did you notice that not a single Iraqi POW pictured in his birthday suit seemed to be under feed or suffering from malnutrition ?

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Beheading

We did not behead a contract worker. They abuse we did is not how we operate, but compared to those SOBs, Those savages we have nothing to be ashamed of. So they didn't have clothes on in front of woman. big deal. How about that poor kid that got beheaded. Lets get outraged and direct it to the right cause.

Regards, Norma

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Note the trend by the anti-American media. They are now referring to the abuses by US military on captured Iraqi terrorists as "atrocities", thereby equating their situation with that or Mr. Berg. I am so sick and tired of these ABB (anybody but Bush) fanatics who are blind to all else.

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Why didn't the media realize there would be retaliation for the viewing of the treatment of prisoners? Why didn't they let the military handle this? The military was already investigating it. This execution is at the hand of the media, not only the Iraqis.

Sara

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I just wanted to relay a couple of off-the-wall thoughts about those pictures from the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.

Perhaps since the LIBERAL media claims that these were posed pictures, which it does appear to be correct, Why couldn't these be classified as ART! and be eligible for recognition and possibly a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

After all, if a crucifix in a bottle of urine is applauded by all the liberals as "art", why not!!

Who knows, maybe the so called "prisoners" are just the newly established local chapter of the Baghdad Gay Rights Activists!! being allowed under the protection of our military to celebrate their new found freedom to EXPRESS themselves!!! After all, it was the great liberal ghuru, Bill Clinton, that forced the military to accept the "don't ask, don't tell" philosophy concerning homosexual behavior!!

Also, since the LIBERAL media is condemming these pictures as showing "humiliating, degrading and disgusting behavior", where are the American Gay Rights Activists complaining that the media is being unfairly biased and discriminatory in denouncing the type of behavior that they claim to have a constitutional and moral right to participate in.

All these liberals are upset Pres. Bush has not personally appologized for what allegedly was done to these "prisoners" and what these pictures represent.

Does this mean that these liberals and gays should APPOLOGIZE for the actions of gays in this country?!!!

I know that these comments are really "out-there", but don't they sound similar to the "spin" that most liberals attempt to place on almost every situation.

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Sir, I sincerely believe in our fighting forces, mainly for two reasons: first I have not one, but two sons who have fought in Iraq, one who has since returned, and is heading back for another year tour, and the other, who is still over there on an extended tour. The second reason is that I was in the first gulf war. But my main reason for writing you is that as much as I can respect your opinion for what it is, I must say Mr. Limbaugh, 'relieving' a little pressure by military guards, has done nothing for the rest of the soldiers over there who are fighting.

You say that the media is making way more out of this: sir, do you have children fighting over there? And if so, my prayers and thoughts go out to them. But if not, then let me ask you: based on the very foolish, and childlike demeanor of these select few, and their actions, don't you think that this will ultimately place the rest of the troops in so much more danger? What do you think an insurgent will do NOW, since they have seen the pictures? Do you think for one minute that if, and when another US soldier is captured they will be treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention? These kids now are in so much more of harmÕs way because of the very stupid actions of a few. I'm sorry, but I do not look forward every night and day wondering if one of my boys will end up a POW That alone, frightens me. The guards involved should be punished accordingly.

Sherman

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the Geneva Convention applies only to standing armies. Soldiers in uniform.

Those prisoners that were (Humiliated), what category did they fall in? If they were in fact uniformed soldiers, they should have been accorded prisoners of war status. If not, then they are treated as seen fit by the nation that has them.

It is not our way of doing business to mistreat prisoners, and theres' the rub.

The MPs where stupid. Stupid for doing what they did. Dummer yet for taking pictures of it. As to playing innocent, I say bull. All soldiers from basic training on are made aware of the code of conduct, geneva convention, search procedures. To include behavior as regard to prisoners.

For trained military policemen to even intimate lack of knowledge is ludicrous.

* * *

Boy, those sure were awful (War prisoner photos). I know I'd sure hate to have a picture taken of me while I was lying on the floor too!

Speaking of pictures; I seem to recall some snap shots of a marine who was beaten and dragged through the streets . . . oh, and there's a dandy of the 911 attacks on American soil.

Never mind all that - I hope that poor fellow that had to stand on a box will be able to recover . . . bless his heart.

Matthew in Oklahoma

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If this unfortunate beheading incident is an act of Al-Queda, doesn't it prove the President's message that we ARE fighting terrorism in Iraq, and that there is an AL-Queda connection to Iraq? Something which the libs have been trying to deny since the beginning of the war? Otherwise, why would the terrorists care what happens the the Iraqi prisoners at all?

* * *

Today we are just so quick to judge each other. I am thinking of the inhumane treatment of Iraqi prisoners.

During WWII I spent some time in the South Pacific and witnessed some very odd behavior--at least it would have been such if conducted back in the States.

Our whole world consisted mainly of two small atolls, Eniwetok and Kwajalein, Marshall-Gilbert Islands, with a side trip to Tarawa. We had a grand time catching 17-foot Tiger sharks with grappling hooks, hauling them aboard our Sub-Chaser and per-forming surgery--they had livers the size of PT boats.

It was only later that someone reminded us why sharks were so plentiful there: dead soldiers from battle were in the water with the sharks. The predators were awaiting the next wave.

Mass graves on Tarawa were marked with a piece of paper on a stick stating how many Japs were buried there.

The SeaBee's (construction battalion) used bull dozers to build roads on the islands, and at least one had the head of a Jap soldier dangling from the top of the blade. Back home this would have been scandulous behavior, but out there no one gave it a second thought. That is why some returned home unrecognizable to their families--with behavior unsuited to American society.

Bill

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This was not torture but a form of humiliation - not much different than what goes on in high school locker rooms towards freshman or college initiations. It's been going on for years without the presence of women. The gesturing, imitations and anal behavior is typical of males at this age. Watch any video, pornography all the things that todays generation watch's and it's no wonder this went on. I don't think the females were responsible for it - but they definitely had an impact in making it escalate to this level - but I'm not sure if other males were doing the cheering and egging on - you probably would have ended with the same outcome.

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I thought that it was against the Geneva War Convention to show pictures of prisoners of war being humiliated. Are not the networks breaking the law on this issue?

Paul of Eau Claire, WI

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The terrorists are not the moral equivalent of anything...they are immoral, or amoral.

The liberals who see the recent beheading and the abuses at the prison as a wedge to use against Bush, are clearly more concerned with winning the election than they are concerned with America's freedom and safety.

Dr. Kleckner

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When problems arise within a family, as they will inevitably, do you see parents running out into the street yelling for everyone to come and see what a horrible thing their child has done? Do you see them screaming for the media to come in and do all they can to get the "horrible" offense on tape for the rest of the world to see, so that the severity can be multiplied? Well, that's precisely the approach being taken by many Democrats within our government. You would think that people like Senator Ted Kennedy and company, would have enough common sense to realize that the rest of the world is already watching as they throw a tantrum for the evening news camera crews. They are telling the world that our leadership is filled with "loose cannons" that are willing to humiliate our nation, our brave military in Iraq, and themselves to make the desired "political statement."

Human rights violations at the Abu Ghraib prison must be appropriately dealt with so that it does not re-occur, but it has now become yet another tool for "Republican bashing" by the DNC. Americans from coast to coast will likely agree that the violations were "bad" and that those responsible, should be punished, but the approach being taken by our Democratic lawmakers is akin to something right out of the pages of "CHICKEN LITTLE!"

Possibly, worst of all, is the effect that all of this has on the remainder of our one hundred thirty five thousand innocent troops in Iraq. These fine professional military men and women put their lives on the line daily for this country and the best morale builder that Democratic lawmakers can muster is "outrage." There's no concern for heroic service of men & women, only outrage, because it serves their political ends. Ted, John, and Hillary use the media limelight to stir political fervor against their opponents, but couldn't manage indignation when American contractors were slaughtered and burned in the streets of Felluga. Yes, the reactionary mentality of Ted, John, Hillary and company, you might say, is downright un-American!!!

I think that the American public is bright enough to see the antics of the "Chicken Little Club" for what they are and hopefully, hold them accountable for it on election day!!! On the other hand, I could be wrong here. Maybe Americans enjoy having their lawmakers convince the rest of the world that we are a people without dignity.

Robert

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Senator Inhofe Interview on Prisoner Abuse

The following is being transcribed from The Oklahoman, page 9A, which is not on the Net, but you all need to read this:

Sen. Jim Inhofe said Tuesday he was "more outraged at the ourtrage" over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners than he was about the American treatment of the prisoners.

Inhofe, R-Tulsa, also said at a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting, "I would guess that these prisoners wake up every morning thanking Allah that Saddam Hussein is not in charge of these prisons. When he was in charge, they would take electric drills and drill holes through hands. They would cut their tongues out, they would cut their ears off."

Inhofe's comments came at a meeting called to hear testimoney from the Army general who wrote the report about the abuse of prisoners in Baghdad by members of the U.S. armed forces.

Inhofe said the guards who abused the prisoners were "misguided and maybe even perverted" but that they represented on seven people out of the hundreds of thousands of troops who have served in Iraq since the war began in 2003.

"I am also outraged that we have so many humanitarian do-gooders crawling over these prisons looking for human rights violations while our troops, our heroes, are fighting and dying."

And now for another article which is appeared in the liberal Norman Transcript (AP) which I have excerpted:

A Republican Senator from Oklahoma inflamed partisan tempers Tuesday, charging his colleagues and the media with manipulating the images of Iraqi prisoner abuse for political gain.

Sen Inhofe, R-OK, said: "I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment." He said he believed the individuals responsible for mistreating prisoners should be punished. He also speculated on how the prisoners must feel since Saddam Hussein has been ousted... But Inhofe also said the prisoners in Iraq are being held there for crimes.

"You know, they're not there for traffic violations," he said. "If they're in cell block 1A or 1B, these prisoners -- they're murderers, they're terrioritsts, they're insurgents. Many of them probably have American blood on their hands. And here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals."

Inhofe read aloud from an e-mail issued by the presidential campaign of Senator Kerry, D-MA., that coupled a demand for President Bush to fire Defense Sec Donald H. Runsfeld with a solicitation for campaign contributions.

"I'm also outraged by the press and the politicians and the political agendas being served by this, and I sway to political agendas because that's actually what's happening," ...

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showing photos...

Why doesn't the military or the U.S.Government show the photos of how the IraQ people treated the Americans they captures, they were burned and drug through the streets and hung on a bridge,aj

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Senators Ignored Prisoner Abuse Reports May 11, 2004 Listen to Rush (...on the whistleblower soldier whose abuse letters Dems ignored) BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

A follow-up on what I considered an important story yesterday, and I'll put this in context again. The reason why this is important is because we've got a whole bunch of elected officials acting surprised and stunned and outraged that they were "kept in the dark" about all this, and they're out there pontificating and saying things like, "Well, if the Pentagon and the military had just come to us, we might have been able to help them in this, and limited this, and kept this from becoming such a big brouhaha, but we can't help if we're kept in the dark." Yesterday we had this story from the New York Times:

"Ivan Frederick was distraught. His son, an Army reservist turned prison guard in Iraq, was under investigation earlier this year for mistreating prisoners, and photographs of the abuse were beginning to circulate among soldiers and military investigators. So the father went to his brother-in-law, William Lawson, who was afraid that reservists like his nephew would end up taking the fall for what he considered command lapses, Mr. Lawson recounted in an interview [to the New York Times] on Friday. He knew whom to turn to: David Hackworth, a retired colonel and a muckraker who was always willing to take on the military establishment. [So] Mr. Lawson sent an e-mail message in March to Mr. Hackworth's Web site and got a call back from an associate there in minutes..."

And: "That e-mail message would put Mr. Lawson in touch with the CBS News program 60 Minutes II and help set in motion events that led to the public disclosure of the graphic photographs and an international crisis for the Bush administration. It is still not entirely clear who leaked the photos and how they got into the hands of a 60 Minutes II producer. What is clear, however, is the furor of the photos..." Anyway, "The irony of all this," says Mr. William Lawson, "is that the public spectacle might have been avoided if the military and the federal government had been responsive to his claims that his nephew was simply following orders. Mr. Lawson said he sent letters to 17 members of Congress about this case earlier this year, with virtually no response, and that he ultimately contacted...Hackworth's website out of frustration leading him to cooperate with a consultant for 60 Minutes II." Well, I read this yesterday, "Well, who are these people? Who are these 17 members of Congress that William Lawson sent this letter off to?" Well, we now know. We now know. "The uncle of the soldier who revealed the mistreatment said that 17 members of Congress..."

The New York Times says "Democrats and Republicans," but it's one Republican; all the others are Democrats, were contacted about this when they blew him off. Now, here's the list of who received letters and notification -- and, by the way, the reason that most of these are Democrats is that Lawson says -- and you'll hear him say it in just a moment; he was on MSNBC last night with Lester Holt. But Lawson said that the reason they focused on Democrats when they started their letter and e-mail campaign was they thought that the Democrats would be anxious to take up the cause, but they got blown off by everybody on the list.

In fact, Robert Byrd even said to him, "We don't accept e-mails or letters here of less than 500 words." So here is the list of names that William Lawson sent information to members of Congress telling them all about what they are now investigating from what they claim is a knowledge baseline of zero. "We didn't know anything. Nobody told us a word! They kept it from us. You can't keep things like this from Congress. If we'd been involved, why, we might have been able to help and limit the damage here, but this just goes to show you can't keep us out of the loop." Here are the 17 people in the Senate and the Congress who were first informed of this by an uncle of a man implicated in these photos in Iraq:

Jack Reed, Democrat, Rhode Island, got an e-mail. He's on the committee. Mark Dayton, Democrat, Minnesota, got an e-mail. Robert Byrd, West Virginia, got an e-mail but responded, the office responded, saying, "We don't respond to e-mails unless they're 500 words or more." Bill Nelson, senator, Democrat Florida, got an e-mail. Evan Bayh, Democrat, Indiana, got an e-mail. Mark Pryor, Democrat, Arkansas, got an e-mail. Teddy Kennedy, Democrat, Massachusetts, got an e-mail. Ben Nelson, Democrat Nebraska, got an e-mail. Hillary Clinton, Democrat, New York, got an e-mail. Joseph Lieberman, Democrat, Connecticut, got an e-mail. Daniel Akaka, Democrat, Hawaii, got an e-mail. Congressman [The only House member and sole Republican] Roscoe Bartlett, Republican, Maryland, was sent a letter. Paul Sarbanes, Democrat, Maryland, was sent a letter. Jay Rockefeller, Democrat, West Virginny, was sent a letter, and Governor Mark Warner, Democrat, Virginia, was sent a letter. Last night William Lawson, uncle of accused soldier, was the guest via telephone on MSNBC. This is Lester Holt Live. The anchor is Amy Roback. She said, "You say you tried many different avenues to bring your nephew's story to light. Tell us who you wrote, who you called, and what their responses were."

LAWSON: We contacted Governor Warner of Virginia by mail. The Democrats we contacted because we felt that they would be more in favor of what we were looking for here, that they would be more receptive to us. We contacted Jack Reed from Rhode Island, Mark Dayton from Minnesota, Robert Byrd from West Virginia. They're all on the Armed Services Committee -- and Bill Nelson from Florida, Evan Bayh from Indiana, Mark Pryor from Arkansas, Edward Kennedy from Massachusetts, Benjamin Nelson from Nebraska, Hillary Clinton from New York, Joseph Lieberman from Connecticut, Daniel Akaya [sicÑAkaka] from Hawaii, Roscoe Bartlett, a Republican from Maryland, Paul Sarbanes from Maryland. I contacted Jay Rockefeller, and the results that we got back were -- Robert Byrd said, "Well, we don't accept e-mails that are less than 500 words." The rest of them sent letters that say, "Well, we're turning this over to the Army, and it's going to be investigated." Nobody else responded in that entire group, and we only got form letters, and we still haven't heard from anybody at all.

RUSH: Now, this is interesting. I'm not going to say "important," because nothing is going to come of this other than your knowledge of it and your being able to think of it what you will and do with it what you will. But the fact is all of these people on this Senate committee who are named in this list have been pontificating -- except Lieberman -- a bunch of them have been pontificating about how they were kept in the dark, nobody knew anything. Of course, what was not included in the letters obviously was pictures. It's the pictures that have turned the tails here, so to speak, which is understandable. I'm not complaining about it, but I just think it's a little phony and a little grandiose to stand up there and start talking about how, "We didn't know anything and they kept us in the dark and the administration wasn't telling us anything." People involved were trying to get members of this committee.

People in Iraq were trying to get this committee interested because this uncle, Mr. Lawson, obviously thinks that his nephew is going to get railroaded here -- and there was an attempt here to, obviously among the family, protect a member of the family. So just wanted you to know this, as other things that I want to discuss as this unfolds today. We learn any more about what actually went on at this prison. It was a hellhole, and many of the people in this prison were among the 54 Saddam deck of cards leadership, ladies and gentlemen. There are former MP prison guards who have come back after doing their tour, who are still having nightmare flashbacks of their experiences in this hellhole of a prison, which is what this is, or was.

END TRANSCRIPT