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

[rodeodance]

Well worth the read and pass it along:


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

The General’s Report
How Antonio Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib scandal, became one of its casualties.
by Seymour M. Hersh June 25, 2007



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.

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.”.......

[maddezmom]

1. good read

I remember chatter here that he was a bush apologist, looks like is and WAS one of the good guys in this whole disaster.

[Kagemusha]

2. Well he said he found no evidence of higher wrongdoing.

And he did not, because he was legally prevented from searching for it. But he did not mention that part at the time, because that was not his place.

And Rumsfeld still treated him like dirt.

[maddezmom]

3. I always felt that he would have presented more, because he repeated

over and over in his testimony that he was only allowed to report and investigate up to a point. I could be wrong, it's been a while. :shrug:

[rodeodance]

5. His investigation had narrow boundaries.

[Hekate]

7. You remember rightly. Taguba kept trying to tell the panel they had to dig deeper.

I could tell that's what he was saying. He didn't look happy about the limitations placed on his investigation and testimony.

Hekate

[speedoo]

4. Rumsfeld: War Criminal and Perjurer.

I want him disemboweled.

So much blood on his hands.

[Hekate]

6. My gods. Have all the ethical generals "retired" by now? Interesting that both Shinseki & Taguba...

...are from Hawaii. And Obama. What synchronicity for such a tiny state.

Thanks for the link to the whole article. I'm still plowing my way through it, and it makes for dismal reading. Rumsfeld should hang.

Hekate

[speedoo]

8. Yeah, it's tough to read.

As a veteran, it's difficult to read about this corruption of our military.

[Hekate]

9. I can well imagine.In this country we count on our military to be NON-political and uncorrupted.

Funny how that works. Politically active and corrupt militaries are for banana republics, aren't they?

Hekate