Context of 'November 2004: Former US Army Officer Says Prisoner Abuse Scandal Makes Battlefield More Dangerous'

In a message to the US Congress, President Jimmy Carter again outlines his position on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons (see 1975-1976). Carter threatens to cut off US supplies of nuclear fuel and technology to countries that do not accept international safeguards on their use. However, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late 1979, the Carter administration will turn a blind eye to Pakistan’s nuclear program (see December 26, 1979). [Armstrong and Trento, 2007, pp. 62, 239]

Dr. Philip Arnold of the Reunion Institute of Houston offers his services as a religious consultant to FBI agent Bob Ricks, who is part of the army of agents besieging the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas (see 5:00 A.M. - 9:30 A.M. February 28, 1993 and March 1, 1993). The FBI declines Arnold’s offer. [Moore, 1995; Dean M. Kelley, 5/1995]

Phillip Landrigan, chairman of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, and a leading expert on occupational diseases, tells the Minnesota Star Tribune that acute exposure to dust and soot could cause bronchitis, eye injuries and asthma-like breathing difficulties in the short term. Landrigan says that workers who inhale the dust increase their risk of developing life-threatening asbestos-related lung diseases, like mesothelioma, an incurable cancer. [Star Tribune (Minneapolis), 9/14/2001]

Former US Army officer Phillip Carter points out that the Abu Ghraib scandal will make the battlefield more dangerous. “Those tens of thousands of Iraqis who surrendered during the two Gulf Wars did so because they believed they would be treated better as prisoners by the United States than as soldiers by the Hussein government. But in the wake of Abu Ghraib, more future battles fought by America will have to be fought to the death.” [Washington Monthly, 11/2004]