Word: mps
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Time, at least, seems to be on Brown's side. Parliament's seasonal recess from Dec. 18 to Jan. 7 should give him a little breathing space. (Asked during his weekly grilling by MPs what he'd like for Christmas, Brown sighed: "I might have one day off.") He doesn't have to hold elections until 2010. But by then, he may be forced to fathom another observation from Robert Louis Stevenson: "Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences...
...Brown delivered his promised announcement on Iraqi troop levels on Oct. 8, the day MPs finally returned to work after a long recess. The green benches of the Commons, often sparsely populated, were crammed, with well-upholstered MPs spilling into each others laps and those too slow to claim their seats forced to stand to listen to Brown's plans. "Let me affirm," Brown told them, "as I told [Iraqi] Prime Minister Maliki last week, and as I have agreed with President Bush and our other allies, we will meet our obligations, honor our commitments and discharge our duties...
...Iraqis have low to no expectations from their MPs. "What difference does it make if the parliament is on a break?" says Maha Hussein, a Baghdad schoolteacher. "For all the work they do, they might as well give themselves a yearlong vacation...
...soldiers were following orders, why did they photograph themselves in the act? The MPs claim the pictures too were meant to serve as a psychological tool to scare new prisoners into talking. Frederick's uncle says the platoon had tried to soften them up with techniques like sleep deprivation, "but they found the best way was with these photographs, and it apparently worked very effectively." Lawson says his nephew complained about some of the measures and was told, "Don't worry about it." Yet the photos, showing MPs smiling and mugging as they degrade their prisoners, suggest that the accused...
Taguba's report supports the contention of MPs like Frederick that the soldiers were told that inflicting such indignities would "set the conditions" for favorable interrogation by military-intelligence officers, CIA officers and private contractors. Taguba concluded that a quartet of military-intelligence officers and civilian contractors "were either directly or indirectly responsible for the abuse at Abu Ghraib." According to testimony from another accused abuser, Sergeant Javal Davis, military-intelligence officers essentially egged the guards on: "Loosen this guy up for us. Make sure he gets the treatment." Davis testified that military-intelligence officers praised Specialist Charles Graner, another...