More Scapegoating In Government (Military) & The Church

US Army Officer To Be Court-Martialed For Role In Abu Ghraib Abuses

The US Army announced Friday that it will proceed to court-martial Lt. Col. Steven Lee Jordan for his alleged role in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Jordan, the highest-ranking Army officer to face criminal charges as a result of the prisoner abuse scandal, was charged in April of 2006 with seven violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice including disobeying a superior commissioned officer, dereliction of duty, failure to obey a regulation, false swearing, cruelty and maltreatment, and interfering with an investigation. If found guilty, Jordan faces a possibly maximum prison term of 22 years. Army investigators concluded that Jordan, in one particular episode, gave military police "tacit approval" for violence against prisoners, which contributed to a downward spiral of treatment of detainees.

Jordan, a reservist trained as a civil affairs officer and former head of interrogation operations at Abu Ghraib, alleged at his Article 32 hearing that another officer, Col. Thomas Pappas, was actually in charge of Abu Ghraib's Joint Interrogation Debriefing Center. Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib abuses, recommended in 2004 that Jordan be relieved from duty and reprimanded for "failing to ensure that Soldiers under his direct control knew, understood, and followed the protections afforded to detainees in the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War," and "failing to properly supervise Soldiers under his direct authority." A subsequent report recommended that both Jordan and Pappas be punished for their roles in the abuse scandal (c.f. Fay Report). So far eleven US enlisted soldiers have been convicted and several officers, including Col. Janis Karpinski, have been reprimanded and demoted for their participation in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

If Col. Jordan is being held accountable for "tacit approval" of abuses, mistreatment and failure to enforce rules of various treaties and international law regarding the treatment of prisoners, why aren't Donald Rumsfeld (who wrote memos outlining such tacit approval), Dick Cheney (who not only supported the abuses, but defended "vigorous and rigorous interrogation techniques) and George W. Bush being held accountable and called to task for their role? Or how about the role Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller had in not only reviewing Abu Ghraib's interrogation tactics, but also insisting on the use of dogs to intimidate and abuse prisoners, as well as "suggesting" the use of embarrassment and harassment by using tactics of stripping detainees. Obviously these "superiors" in the chain of command believe they are above the law, but since someone must pay for their actions, let's punish a long list of soldiers trying to be good subordinates. It's not that these soldiers are innocent or deserve to be exempt from prosecution that bothers me, its that the people directly responsible for giving the orders and creating the climate and culture of abuse are not being prosecuted.

Karpinski, England, Jordan, Pappas, Sanchez, Cardona... and the list seems to be growing.

But then, taking a page from the Bush administration, as well as a page from the Cardinal Law theory of Christian leaders spinning atrocious abuse of children, the Roman Catholic Church seems to be following the scapegoat method of shifting blame and spinning the game.


Outspoken Catholic Pastor Replaced; He Says It’s Retaliation

In his last Mass as pastor at the inner-city parish in Detroit where he had served for 23 years, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton told his parishioners that he was forced to step down as pastor because of his lobbying efforts on behalf of the victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy, a stance that put him in opposition to his fellow bishops.

Last weekend, the archbishop of Detroit, Cardinal Adam Maida, sent a letter to the parish, St. Leo, saying Bishop Gumbleton had to be removed because of church rules on retirement. But as Bishop Gumbleton, who turns 77 on Friday and had already retired last year as a bishop, told his parish last Sunday, there are many pastors even older than he who are allowed to continue serving.

“I’m sure it’s because of the openness with which I spoke out last January concerning victims of sex abuse in the church. So we’re all suffering the consequences of that, and yet, I don’t regret doing what I did because I still think it was the right thing to do,” he said, as the congregation rose and erupted in applause.

Bishop Gumbleton, though he never led a diocese, is known nationally in church circles as a liberal maverick. He co-founded the peace ministry Pax Christi and accompanied antiwar delegations to Haiti and Iraq. He broke ranks with church teaching by preaching in favor of acceptance of gay men and lesbians and the ordination of women.

Last January, he lobbied in favor of a bill in Ohio to extend the statute of limitations and allow victims of sexual abuse to sue the church many years after they were abused. He said he was speaking out because he had been abused by a priest as a teenage seminarian and knew how hard it was to speak publicly even decades later. Bishops in Ohio opposed the bill, which failed.

A spokesman for the archdiocese of Detroit, Ned McGrath, said Bishop Gumbleton’s removal from St. Leo Parish had nothing to do with his lobbying on sexual abuse or his political stands.

All bishops are required at age 75 to submit resignation letters to the pope, Mr. McGrath said, and the pope has the option to accept or reject the resignation. Bishop Gumbleton’s resignation was accepted last year, and, Mr. McGrath said, “it was with the understanding that he would give up any pastoral office.”

In my view, the Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church have lost any legitimacy they might have had to give us Catholics any guidance or mandates on religious, moral and ethical matters... and that criticism applies all the way up to the man usurping the role of Pope at the present time. Cardinal Ratzinger's presence in the role of St. Peter is a blight on Catholicism, but is in keeping with the errors made in selecting popes throughout the centuries since the papacy was formalized in Rome.

It is not just the sexual abuse scandals that gives rise to my harsh criticism of my own church, but the increasing number of financial scandals and the undermining of various good works being done by those that step outside of the control of the bishops and then get shot down by the bishops. I have seen Franciscan, Jesuit, Benedictine and Josephine orders of nuns, priests and brothers shot down because certain bishops could not have a direct control over the ministries and activities of these courageous Christians. The case of Bishop Gumbleton appears to be yet another case where the Conference of Bishops and the Pope (at least the man posing as the Pope) have gone awry from the calling and moral mandates of the Church.

But scapegoating seems to be the political tactic of the times. When will we learn?