Three things I've read about the first report on prisoner abuse in Iraq aroused my suspicions:
(1) The Taguba report was limited in scope to one MP brigade, and Taguba could not investigate higher-ups.
(2) The generals who assigned Taguba to write the report themselves are implicated in mandating aggressive interrogation methods that could reasonably be expected to lead to abuse and that the Red Cross had condemned last year.
(3) The highest command General Taguba himself has held was at the brigade level, and in the Army lower-ranking soldiers generally do not investigate their superiors.
Taken together, do these three circumstances lead you to believe that the Taguba report was intended as a coverup, to limit accountability for abuse of Iraqi prisoners to the commanders and personnel of the 800th MP Brigade? IMO, had the media not published photos of the abuse, the Taguba report would have ended the matter with prosecution of officers no higher than Brigadier Gen. Janis Karpinski of the 800th.
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Here are my sources for the three suspicious observations:
(1) CNN.com - Transcript of Taguba opening statement - May 11, 2004
"Again, my task was limited to the allegations of detainee abuse involving M.P. personnel and the policies, procedures and command climate of the 800th M.P. Brigade."
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/05/11/taguba.transcript/(2) 'A top Rumsfeld deputy, Under Secretary of Defense Stephen A. Cambone, told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that until "last week, the scale of this was unknown to us. Until the photographs started appearing in the press, I had no sense of it." Investigative reports by the Army and the International Committee of the Red Cross, Cambone testified, went to commanders in Iraq and did not reach the Pentagon.
Yet the responsibilities of those commanders -- Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan, ground forces commander, and Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who heads all forces in Iraq -- were never mentioned in the lengthy investigation by Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba. He pinpointed the leadership failure at a far lower level, "the brigade commander on down," he said this week.
Taguba, a deputy commanding general serving under McKiernan, undertook his investigation at the direction of Sanchez and Gen. John Abizaid, commander of all U.S. military forces in the region,...'
http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/wood051304.html(3) "Head of Inquiry on Iraq Abuses Now in Spotlight Published: May 11, 2004
General Taguba's team spent about a month gathering evidence and completing its report, and presented its findings to General McKiernan on March 3, the report says. Under the scope set by his superiors, the inquiry was limited to the conduct of a military police brigade.... General Taguba has served as a brigade commander, but he has not held a division command, a step often seen as as a prerequisite for those who aspire to the Army's very highest ranks."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/11/politics/11TAGU.html?pagewanted=2
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