But seriously, folks...

How seriously did the Bush administration take prisoner abuse BEFORE it became a public relations problem?

Not seriously enough to inform Congress.

And not seriously enough to actually punish any perpetrators.

Here’s a Reuters story:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twenty-five prisoners have died while being held by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and two of them were murdered in Iraq by Americans, U.S. Army officials said on Tuesday.

An Army official said one soldier was convicted of murder in the U.S. military justice system for shooting a prisoner to death in September 2003 at a detention center in Iraq, and another prisoner was killed at the Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad in November 2003 by a private contractor who worked as an interrogator for the CIA.

The soldier was reduced in rank to private and thrown out of the service but did not serve any jail time, the official said. The official said the soldier shot the prisoner after the prisoner had thrown rocks at the soldier, and the soldier was found to have used excessive force.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said because the CIA contractor was not in the U.S. military no legal action was taken because of lack of jurisdiction, but Army officials referred the case to the Justice Department for possible action. The official did not offer details of this killing.

So there you have it: there have been two known murders (at LEAST). And we know who the murderers are.

Our response?

“The soldier was reduced in rank to private and thrown out of the service but did not serve any jail time.”

He murdered somebody, so he got to go home. He received NO jail time and NO real punishment, and got to go home. Some would view it as a reward.

And in the second case, we have a mercenary who killed somebody.

“[B]ecause the CIA contractor was not in the U.S. military no legal action was taken because of lack of jurisdiction.”

And we CAN’T do anything about it because we have no jurisdiction over mercenaries. Mercenaries are answerable to NO nation and go to war under NO flag. We hire them. They murder. And we can’t do anything to punish them.

You can certainly see how intensely concerned the Bushies were concerned about this stuff, can’t you?

Now they are concerned, of course.

Because it’s begun to affect them politically. Which has always been their only real concern. Not morals. Not ethics. Not decency. Politics and PR.

Gee – I wonder why we’re having a hard time winning the “hearts and minds”?