Although lower level military are taking the rap for Abu Ghraib abuse, critics contend Rumsfeld authorized the rape of Iraqi children.

Although the U.S. government is possession of video tapes of boys being sodomized at Abu Ghraib and other detention centers, the evidence and public clamor to end the torture and killing has done little to change the mindset of the Bush administration.

Lawyers for President Bush, including U.S. Attorney Gen. Alberto Gonzales, have tried to neatly package and justify skirting international law regarding the illegal detention of prisoners.

But when it comes to torture, sexual perversion and murder while holding prisoners captive, it would seem obvious there is no legal justification.

But not according to a team of Bush's crooked lawyers who concluded in a legal memorandum that President Bush was not bound by either an international treaty prohibiting torture or by a federal anti-torture law because he had the authority as commander in chief to approve any technique needed to protect the nation's security.

Besides this bogus legal finding, the administration has also taken the untenable position, according to legal observers, the reported acts of torture and sexual abuse at Abu Ghraib and other detention centers are only isolated incidents of abuse, not officially military policy handed down from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

However, critics contend the mounting number of abuse cases and evidence compiled is more than just coincidence or isolated acts of aggression, but indicate an official policy handed down from top to bottom.

Human rights groups, international legal observers and journalists contend Rumsfeld and top Pentagon brass have personally ordered the "torture policy," including authorizing the rape of Iraqi children in prisons in order to humiliate their parents into providing information about the so-called anti-American insurgency.

If there were only several cases of abuse, the Bush administration's point should be considered. But when the cases of abuse are widespread, then something definitely stinks inside the Pentagon.

Take for example journalist Seymour Hersh's quote to the ACLU in 2004 after calling attention to the numerous torture videotapes kept secret by the Pentagon.

"The worst is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking," said Hersh. "There is a massive amount of criminal wrongdoing that was covered up at the highest command out there, and higher."

Next listen to the words of Ed Cone, an observer of the military abuse, as he summarizes evidence uncovered, indicating widespread torture and sexual abuse:

"Some of the worse that happened you still don't know about. There are women there and some of you may have read they were passing letters, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib which is 30 miles from Baghdad.

"The women were passing messages saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened'. Basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys/children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has? They are in total terror it's going to come out."

And the next shocking piece of "torture evidence" is a clear example of just how bad conditions still are at Abu Ghraib and how the abuse complaints are more than just isolated incidents.

It should be noted American jurists and the U.S. legal system has done little or nothing to bring Bush and his cronies to justice for obvious violations of international law, leaving the international community stunned by this lack of humanitarian concern.

The following are portions of a translation of a sworn statement made by Abu Ghraib detainee Kasim Mehaddi Hilas, detainee No. 15551108, revealing just how deep and widespread the torture policies had become. The Hilas statement was also used against Spc. Charles Grainer for an August 2004 Article 39a hearing

The details of the Hilas statement have been watered down by the mainstream media as the acts committed against detainees are far more perverse than just leading them around on a dog leash, as previously reported. After listening, it's also hard to believe Spc. Grainer's acts were a so-called isolated incident, as the Pentagon insists, since the torture and abuse, according to Hilas, seemed to encompass every area of the detention center he witnessed.

Here is his statement:

"In the name of God, I swear that everything I witnesses, everything I witnesses and everything I am talking about is the truth and I am not saying this to gain any material thing and I was not pressured to do this by any forces.

"First, I am going to talk about what happened to me at Abu Ghraib jail. I will not talk about when I was in jail before?but it was very bad.

"They stripped me of all my clothes, even my underwear. They gave me women's underwear, that were rose-colored with flowers in it and they put a bag over my face. One of them whispered in my ear, "today I am going to f? you.

"When they took me to the cell, the translator, Abu Hamid, came with an American soldier, his rank was sergeant. And he called me a "faggot" because I was wearing women's underwear?

"The transfer from Camp B to isolation was full of beatings, but the bags were over our heads, so we couldn't see their faces. And they forced me to wear this underwear all the time - for 51 days - and most days I was wearing nothing else.

"I faced more harsh punishment and had my hands cuffed with irons behind my back to the metal of the window, to the point where my feet were off the ground and I was hanging there for about 5 hours?And then they took off all my clothes and they took the female underwear and put it over my head. After being released from the window, they tied me to my bed until dawn?Grainer and the other two soldiers were taking pictures of everything they did to me. I don't know if they took a picture of me because they beat me so bad I lost consciousness after an hour or so?They didn't give us food for a whole day and night and finally gave us one package of emergency food.

"Now I will talk about what I saw.

"They brought three prisoners completely naked and they tied them together with cuffs and they stuck one to other. I saw the American soldiers hitting them with a football and they were taking pictures. I saw Grainer punching one of the prisoners right in his face very hard when he refuse to take off his underwear and I heard them begging for help. And also the American soldiers told them to do like homosexuals (f?ing). Also female soldiers were taking pictures?And they were ordering them to crawl while they were cuffed together.

"I saw (name deleted) f?ing a kid, his age would be about 15-18 years old. The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets. Then when I heard the screaming I climbed the door because on top it wasn't covered and I saw (name deleted), who was wearing the military uniform putting his penis into the little kid's ass.

"I couldn't see the face of the kid because his face wasn't in front of the door. And the female soldier was taking pictures?

"In the cell on the north side and I was right across from it on the other side. They put the sheets again on the doors. Grainer and his helper cuffed one prisoner in Room No. 1 and he was an Iraqi citizen. They tied him to the bed and they were inserting the phosphoric light in his ass and he was yelling for God's help. This one prisoner used to get punished a lot because I heard him screaming and they prohibited us from standing near the door when they do that.

"That was Ramadan, around 12 midnight when I saw them doing that to the prisoner and the female soldier taking pictures. I saw them more than once standing on the water bucket that was upside down and they were totally naked. And carrying chairs over their heads standing under the fan of the hallway behind the wooden partition and also in the shower."

The translated version of this text was signed by Mr. Johnson, Translator Category II, Titan Corp. and then assigned to the Prisoner Interview/Interrogation Team of the 1oth Military Police Battalion of the 3rd Military Police Group. The authenticity of the text was verified by Mr. Abdelilah Alazadi, Translator Category II of the Titan Corp.

Regarding the prosecution of lower level military for torture and abuse, the ACLU recently criticized the Justice Department's double standard used for torture and abuse crimes.

Legislative Counsel of the ACLU, Christopher E. Anders, said while lower ranks of the military are being convicted for crimes, upper level officers, Pentagon officials and CIA agents working along side the soldiers are being held to a much lower standard.

"Justice should be blind, but it is now clear that enlisted men and women in a soldier's uniform are being convicted while CIA agents and civilian contractors who allegedly participated in the same crimes remain free," said Anders. "The military has already investigated and prosecuted many of its rank and file members and yet it seems that the Justice Department is incapable, or unwilling, to do the same for CIA agents. CIA agents should not be getting a free pass from the Justice Department.

"What is particularly troubling is that all but one of twenty referrals of alleged torture by civilians were sent to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Paul McNulty. McNulty's team has yet to indict any civilians. In its now typical system of rewarding top torture officials, the White House has nominated McNulty to be Deputy Attorney General, the number two position at the Justice Department. If confirmed, McNulty will oversee all law enforcement at the Justice Department, directly supervising the FBI director, the head of the Criminal Division and all U.S. Attorneys."