伊拉克虐囚事件(4/4)
（4/4）
WHAT DID THEY KNOW?
他们知道什么?
The firestorm of outrage provoked by the Abu Ghraib pictures seemed to catch U.S. officials by surprise. Army General John Abizaid, chief of the U.S. Central Command that oversees Iraq, told TIME that after learning of the abuses in January, he sent word of it to General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Though military investigators had been aware for months that graphic photos existed, Pentagon officials showed no particular urgency in finding out how bad they were or informing anyone else about them. When Myers learned several weeks ago that CBS was about to air the pictures, he persuaded the network to delay the broadcast for two weeks. An earlier telecast might jeopardize the safety of Americans held hostage by Iraqi insurgents, he said, and further inflame anti-U.S. tensions in the country. But amazingly, Myers hadn't actually seen the pictures. When he appeared on television four days after they were broadcast, he admitted he hadn't read Taguba's report yet.
Abu Ghraib的暴行照片犹如洪水猛兽将美国官员震得半傻。陆军将军John Abizaid，美军海外伊拉克最高指挥官，对《时代周刊》说自从1月获悉此事后，他给参谋首长联席会议的主席Richard Myers将军通了电话。 虽然军方调查人已经知道了这些真实的照片的存在，五角大楼的官员却并未采取任何特别紧急措施，即没追查事态的严重性，也没通知相关人员。当Myers几周得知哥伦比亚广播公司要播出这些照片时，他劝说电视台退迟两周发布。他说过早在电视上播放这些会危机扣在伊拉克人手中的美国人质的安全，也会进一步煽动起当地的反美情绪。但是令人吃惊的是Myers并未亲眼见过这些照片。当照片公布后的四天他在电视上露面承认他还没看过Taguba的报告。
Rumsfeld's response was equally clueless. Just hours before the CBS show, says Republican Senator John McCain, Rumsfeld trooped up to S-407, the secure Intelligence Committee room in the Capitol, "and briefed us on how they're armoring the humvees. He never mentioned a word about the story that was to run that evening." Democrats and Republicans alike were furious that the Defense Secretary had kept them in the dark about the looming scandal. "If the answer is, 'He didn't know much and that's why he didn't tell us,'" said Representative John Spratt, a senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, "then the follow-up question is, 'Why didn't he know much?'" When Rumsfeld fielded questions at a press conference early last week, he still hadn't read the entire Taguba report either.
拉姆斯菲尔德的反应相对就显得无能的很。共和党议员John McCain说就在哥伦比亚广播电台播出的几小时前，拉姆斯菲尔德才集中到S-407，首都安全情报委员会的房间，“他简单向我们讲解了他们正在如何武装，对晚上将要发生的事只字未提。”国防部对这件即将公开的丑闻对民主党和共和党都三缄其口，这使得两党都极为恼火。“如果说他对此事也知之甚少，那他没告诉我们也说得通，” John Spratt代表，海陆空三军委员会的民主党高官，这样说，“但是接下来的问题是，他为什么会不知道？”拉姆斯菲尔德在上周初的记者招待会上答记者问时，他还没有完整地读过Taguba的报告。
And Rumsfeld neglected to inform the most important person of all: his Commander in Chief. Rumsfeld advised Bush in February of an "issue" involving mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq, says a senior White House aide. But he didn't warn anyone that CBS was about to document the abuse with shocking photos.
拉姆斯菲尔德甚至忘了通知最重要的人：他的顶头上司。一位高级白宫副官说拉姆斯菲尔德只提醒布什在2月会发布一些有关非正规对待伊拉克囚犯的消息。但是他没有警告过任何人说哥伦比亚公司会出示如此骇人听闻的虐囚照片。
Throughout official Washington, there is little agreement about whether the malfeasance at Abu Ghraib was isolated or is symptomatic of a broad breakdown of interrogation standards. A senior White House aide says the abuse had nothing to do with interrogations but was the work of a handful of bad hats egged on by a ringleader who was doing it for kicks. "It was the night shift," he says. Military officers tell TIME that reserve Brigadier General Karpinski was responsible for the wrong-doing. "When a commander says, 'I didn't know,' that in itself is an indictment," says a senior officer serving in Iraq.
在华盛顿全体政界，关于Abu Ghraib的渎职究竟是孤立事件还是整个刑讯标准崩溃的表象几乎仍未有统一意见。一名白宫高级副官说虐待对审问根本无济于事，这不过是那些渴望获得肮脏感官刺激的头目教唆一帮无赖犯下的罪恶。一个军官对《时代周刊》讲预备役的Karpinski准将应对此次渎职负责。一位在伊拉克供职的高级官员说“当一个指挥官说‘我不知道’时，其本身其实就是控告了。”
But the practices employed at Abu Ghraib may be more widespread than the U.S. has acknowledged. Human rights groups and many military experts say the Administration's approach to prosecuting the war on terrorism, including open-ended detention of captives, denial of due process and intense pressure to come up with "productive" interrogations, may have created a climate that fosters abuse. One U.S. official says that some FBI agents were well aware that the military was using "very aggressive" interrogation methods that would not be condoned in the U.S. An Army officer seems to confirm that. Among Arab men, he tells TIME, sexual insecurity is a powerful lever: fear of homosexuality and, almost as significant, female domination, are particular issues. "We don't like to talk about it," says the officer, "but it is working." If so, success has come at a staggering cost.
但是Abu Ghraib所发生的事的影响范围可能远远超过美国所意识到的。人权组织和一些军事专家说政府试图将战争的宗旨归为反恐，包括无限制得拘留伊拉克公民，否认为从审问中“收获大量信息”所进行的前期过程及高压政策，种种种种这些都为虐囚行为提供的生长的温床。一位美国官员说有些联邦调查局的人士很清楚的知道军方使用极具攻击性的刑讯手段审问犯人，而这些手段在美国都是违法的。一名军官对此表示认同。他同《时代周刊》讲，对阿拉伯人来说性安全感是很强大的工具：对同性性行为的恐惧几乎被视为和女性掌权一样是极为严重的事情。“我们不想谈论此事，但是这个工作。”官员说。果真如此的话，成功的代价实未免大得惊人。
LOSING THE WAR
在战争中失利
Once all the apologies were spoken, a battered Administration was searching for more tangible ways to repair the damage. Major General Miller has been hustled back to Baghdad to fix the prison system. He promised to halve the number of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and end the practice of hooding captives. But he refused to entirely rule out the use of other tactics, like sleep deprivation and "stress positions," if they were approved by a senior officer. A senior Pentagon official says Rumsfeld has taken a personal interest in coming up with a dollar figure to compensate Iraqis who have been wronged. Abizaid tells TIME that he thinks the outrage will fade as the U.S. demonstrates its willingness to take action against the perpetrators. "Our openness about it," he says, "is a lesson about the rule of law." As the President told Arab interviewers, "A dictator wouldn't be answering questions about this."
申辩的话讲了一便又一遍，一个被打垮的政府正在寻找更加切实可行的方法修复这件事带来的伤害。Miller少将已匆忙赶回巴格达整顿监狱系统。他许诺会将Abu Ghraib的犯人数量减半，停止给战俘套头套。但是他拒绝彻底废除其它问讯手段，如剥夺睡眠和“重压刑”，如果高级官员允许使用这些手段，他们就会用。一位五角大楼的高级官员说拉姆斯菲尔德对新提出的以金钱补偿那些遭受不公正对待的伊拉克人的做法很感兴趣。Abizaid同《时代周刊》说他认为这种暴行会随着美国对那些渎职罪人的审判而得到平息。“我们将坦诚地将此事视为我们执法过程的警钟。”正如总统对阿拉伯采访回答的那样“一个独裁者是无法回答这类问题的。”
Nevertheless, the scandal has made it exceedingly difficult for the U.S. to build support for its faltering project in Iraq by pointing to good intentions. Bush has always seemed his most impassioned when he railed against Saddam's "torture chambers" and "rape rooms." As other rationales for invasion--like Iraq's alleged store of weapons of mass destruction--evaporated, the purpose of human liberation had remained. Even last week Bush was telling an audience in Michigan, "Because we acted, the torture rooms are closed." The newest inhuman prison scenes struck at the very heart of his claim that the U.S. was in Iraq to promote freedom and liberty. "This is our greatest strength," says Republican Representative Christopher Shays, "and we've blown it." For many Iraqis, no amount of U.S. generosity or contrition will ever erase the taste of humiliation conveyed by the photographs, especially given the symbolic importance of Abu Ghraib. It was Saddam's torture chamber, and now it's ours.
尽管如此，该丑闻对美国希望在伊拉克举步维艰、初衷美好的重建工程获得支持增加了极大难度。布什每当谴责起萨达姆的“酷刑室”和“敛财屋”时看起来仍慷慨激昂，义愤填膺。而入侵伊拉克的另一个原因，诸如声称伊拉克藏有大规模杀伤性武器，像蒸发了一样，而为获得人类自由这个目的却贯彻了下来。就在上周布什和一名密歇根的观众说“因为我们的介入，酷刑室已经关闭了。”而更加残忍的监狱景象直击他的宣言的要害“美国在伊拉克是推行自由和民主的。”“我们已尽了我们最大的努力。”共和党代表Christopher Shays说“我们已平息了此事。”但是对大多数伊拉克人来说，无论美国有多慷慨或多么悔悟，都无法弥补这些耻辱的照片给伊拉克人带来的伤害，尤其是Abu Ghraib将会从此具有很重要的象征意义。这本来是萨达姆的酷刑室，现在是我们的了。