Like much of the rest of the world, News Hits has been transfixed by the photos coming out of Iraq’s Abu Ghraib Prison. But the folks at the Blue Triangle Network, an anti-discrimination group based in Dearborn, want to make sure that we don’t lose sight of the bigger picture.
“The Blue Triangle Network shares the horror, disgust and outrage felt by people throughout the world in the face of the revelations of the torture and murder of detainees at the infamous Abu Ghraib Prison and elsewhere in Iraq and Afghanistan,” says the organization. “… All of this saddens and sickens us, but does not surprise.”
It does not surprise because the abuse of detainees is not limited to one prison in Iraq, the group points out. Arbitrary detention, lack of legal recourse, and the humiliating and abusive treatment of Muslim prisoners have already been well-documented elsewhere, including at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Violations of “human rights and decency,” the Blue Triangle Network points out, “were commonplace for those detained in the U.S., on no more pretext than their religion, national origin or political beliefs, under the cloak of ‘homeland security.’”
“The claim that the abuses of these Iraqi prisoners are an ‘aberration’ would be laughable if it weren’t so disgusting,” says Mark Sheppard of the Blue Triangle Network.
The group wants to spread this message:
“We encourage everyone to witness and speak out on the connections between the abuses at home and those emerging in Iraq and Afghanistan. … Mobilize in any and every way you can. The terrible pictures we see today are representative of evils at home as well as abroad.”
Contact the Blue Triangle Network at 313-942-7187 or visit its Web site at www.bluetriangle.org.
Contact News Hits at 313-202-8004 or [email protected]
