The Iraqi Governing Council said no thanks to Bush's offer to tear down Abu Ghraib and build a new prison in its place.
President Bush's offer to demolish Abu Ghraib prison — made in a speech Monday night — found little support among Iraqis, with the head of the Governing Council yesterday calling the idea "a waste of resources."
[...]
Bush told an audience Monday night at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., that Abu Ghraib, scene of prisoner abuse by U.S. troops and notorious for torture under Saddam Hussein, will be destroyed "as a fitting symbol of Iraq's new beginning."
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Interior Minister Samir Shaker Mahmoud al-Sumeidi said he understood Bush's desire to "remove the memory and the stain" of the prisoner-abuse scandal. Still, he argued it would be better to change the way the prison is managed rather than construct a new building.
Don't they understand that all crises must be treated as an opportunity to send sweetheart contracts to Bush's friends? What will Bechtel and Halliburton stockholders do without the several hundred million that the prison construction job would have brought? If the Iraqis can't grasp as fundamental s principle of democracy as pork, how can they be said to be ready for self rule? Good thing the turn-over of power is a cosmetic sham; they need more time.
Snort. Good for them.
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