'The General's Report' by Seymour M. Hersh (Abu Ghraib scandal)

Breeze54

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Sun Jun-24-07 08:55 AM
Original message

'The General's Report' by Seymour M. Hersh (Abu Ghraib scandal)

Edited on Sun Jun-24-07 09:24 AM by Breeze54

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061707A.shtml">The General's Report

By Seymour M. Hersh

The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/06/25/070625fa_fact_hersh

25 June 2007 Issue

How Antonio Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib scandal, became one of its casualties.

On the afternoon of May 6, 2004, Army Major General Antonio M. Taguba was summoned to meet, for the first time, with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in his Pentagon conference room. Rumsfeld and his senior staff were to testify the next day, in televised hearings before the Senate and the House Armed Services Committees, about abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, in Iraq. The previous week, revelations about Abu Ghraib, including photographs showing prisoners stripped, abused, and sexually humiliated, had appeared on CBS and in The New Yorker. In response, Administration officials had insisted that only a few low-ranking soldiers were involved and that America did not torture prisoners. They emphasized that the Army itself had uncovered the scandal.

Taguba knew his report would make him unpopular: "If I lie, I lose. And, if I tell the truth, I lose."
(Photo: Mary Ellen Mark / The New Yorker)

If there was a redeeming aspect to the affair, it was in the thoroughness and the passion of the Army's initial investigation. The inquiry had begun in January, and was led by General Taguba, who was stationed in Kuwait at the time. Taguba filed his report in March. In it he found:

Numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees ... systemic and illegal abuse.

Taguba was met at the door of the conference room by an old friend, Lieutenant General Bantz J. Craddock, who was Rumsfeld's senior military assistant. Craddock's daughter had been a babysitter for Taguba's two children when the officers served together years earlier at Fort Stewart, Georgia. But that afternoon, Taguba recalled, "Craddock just said, very coldly, 'Wait here.' " In a series of interviews early this year, the first he has given, Taguba told me that he understood when he began the inquiry that it could damage his career; early on, a senior general in Iraq had pointed out to him that the abused detainees were "only Iraqis." Even so, he was not prepared for the greeting he received when he was finally ushered in.

"Here ... comes ... that famous General Taguba - of the Taguba report!" Rumsfeld declared, in a mocking voice. The meeting was attended by Paul Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld's deputy; Stephen Cambone, the Under-Secretary of Defense for Intelligence; General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (J.C.S.); and General Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, along with Craddock and other officials. Taguba, describing the moment nearly three years later, said, sadly, "I thought they wanted to know. I assumed they wanted to know. I was ignorant of the setting."

More.....

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acmavm

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Sun Jun-24-07 08:59 AM
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1. There is no punishment too drastic for Donald Rumsfeld (or Dick

Cheney). And history will judge them harshly. And us too. Because we allowed them to do these things.

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Breeze54

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Sun Jun-24-07 09:09 AM
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4. I didn't "allow" them to do this shit!!

Impeach and convict all of them!!

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MannyGoldstein

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Sun Jun-24-07 09:05 AM
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2. Don't Worry! The Battlin' Congressional Dems Are On Top Of This!

(Unless Sir Rupert's throwin' a soiree, or something good is on the tube.)

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seemslikeadream

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Sun Jun-24-07 09:11 AM
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5. How long has it been now

that they have seen the photos? DO SOMETHING YOU COWARDS!!! You've been silent way too long.

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MannyGoldstein

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Sun Jun-24-07 09:29 AM
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7. Nah - They Ain't Doing Nothing

That would be taking a stand. The "we suck a little less" strategy is working incredibly well for them - most of us are too afraid to vote for a third party, or a candidate that is other than a windsock, so this is what we're stuck with.

Torture? Peeing on the Constitution? Thousands dead and trillions wasted in Iraq?

Whatever.

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seemslikeadream

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Sun Jun-24-07 09:09 AM
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3. What a bastard

"Here ... comes ... that famous General Taguba - of the Taguba report!" Rumsfeld declared, in a mocking voice. The meeting was attended by Paul Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld's deputy; Stephen Cambone, the Under-Secretary of Defense for Intelligence; General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (J.C.S.); and General Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, along with Craddock and other officials.

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Breeze54

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Sun Jun-24-07 09:12 AM
Response to Reply #3

6. Devil incarnate!

"The whole idea that Rumsfeld projects - 'We're here to protect the nation from terrorism' - is an oxymoron," Taguba said.

"He and his aides have abused their offices and have no idea of the values and high standards
that are expected of them. And they've dragged a lot of officers with them."

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Frustratedlady

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Sun Jun-24-07 12:07 PM
Response to Reply #3

9. I forget why Wolfowitz resigned or was reassigned.

Wasn't that about the same time as the Abu Ghraib scandal?

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Breeze54

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Sun Jun-24-07 10:13 AM
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8. "In the Army 32 years...it was the first time that I thought I was in the Mafia." - Gen. Taguba

"Taguba got a different message, however, from other officers, among them General John Abizaid,
then the head of Central Command. A few weeks after his report became public, Taguba, who was still
in Kuwait, was in the back seat of a Mercedes sedan with Abizaid. Abizaid's driver and his interpreter,
who also served as a bodyguard, were in front. Abizaid turned to Taguba and issued a quiet warning:
"You and your report will be investigated."

"I wasn't angry about what he said but disappointed that he would say that to me," Taguba said.
"I'd been in the Army thirty-two years by then, and it was the first time that I thought I was in the Mafia."

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