Het stinken van vis

?De vis begint aan de kop te stinken?, zegt het spreekwoord. Daarmee wordt bedoeld dat als corruptie, wreedheden en misdaad een land verzieken, dat meestal komt doordat de bestuurders ervan niet deugen. Ruik het zelf in een rapport van Human Rights Watch. Enige citaten uit en de conclusies van dit rapport:

?Some of the most serious abuses detailed in the report concern a special task force (—) stationed at an off-limits detention center at the Baghdad airport, called Camp Nama.

According to the interrogator:
He [the MI officer] was very specific about it. He didn?t say, ?I want you guys to go nuts on these guys,? but he was very specific about what he wanted … Later, we had a few dogs on these guys too [i.e., used dogs to intimidate the detainees], and all the whole thing …

Het gebruiken van honden bij de ondervraging gebeurt op bevel van een officier, bij de eerste affaire die aan het licht kwam werden misstanden geëxcuseerd door slechte training van lager personeel.

[The MI officer] said, you know, ?I?ve got these dog handlers, these MPs, they are going to come in and you?re gonna use them in the interrogation.? …

De administratieve afwikkeling van het toestemming vragen voor het toepassen van misbruiktechnieken beperkt zich tot het invullen van een standaardformulier, die door elke bevelvoerende officier altijd gesanctioneerd werd:

The interrogator stationed at Camp Nama (—) said the commander of the interrogation unit there had to authorize the use of the abuse techniques, but that the authorizations were so common that interrogators used a template to fill out authorization forms:
There was an authorization template on a computer, a sheet that you would print out, or actually just type it in. And it was a checklist … you would just check what you want to use off, and if you planned on using a harsh interrogation, you?d just get it signed off. I never saw a sheet that wasn?t signed. It would be signed off by the commander, whoever that was … He would sign off on that every time it was done.?

(—) the new report shows how soldiers who felt abusive practices were wrong or illegal faced significant obstacles at every turn when they attempted to report or expose the abuses. For example, an MP guard at the facility near al-Qaim, who complained to an officer about beatings and other abuse he witnessed, was told, ?You need to go ahead and drop this, sergeant.?

Uitvoerenden die bezwaar maken tegen deze handelwijze kregen te horen dat ze hun bezwaren voor zich moesten houden:

The guard told Human Rights Watch, ?It was repeatedly emphasized to me that this was not a wise course of action to pursue … ?You don?t want to take this inquiry anywhere else,? kind of thing. ?You should definitely drop this; this is not something you wanna do to yourself.?

Een audiointerview met de schrijver van dit rapport:

De conclusies:

“Many of the crimes detailed in this report are violations of international humanitarian law, U.S. military law, and U.S. federal criminal law. The U.S. government?s failure to properly investigate these violations is an affront to the victims of the abuses, and a violation of U.S. obligations under the Geneva Conventions, which obligate states to prosecute serious violations of the conventions? provisions (?grave breaches?). The accounts in this report are further evidence that detainee abuse was an established and apparently authorized part of detention and interrogation processes in Iraq for much of 2003-2005. The cases also show that U.S. military personnel have faced systemic obstacles to reporting or exposing abuses, that the U.S. military in numerous cases has not taken adequate measures to stop reported abuses. The report also shows that the U.S. military has often failed to properly investigate and prosecute perpetrators, including officers who allowed abuses to occur on their watch.”

And now for something completely different:
Op onderzoeksinstituut RIVO ontdekte een promovenda echter dat het spreekwoord ook letterlijk klopt. Visolie uit koppen bederft sneller dan olie uit andere delen van de vis.