June 17, 2008

When General Taguba talks about this issue will the media listen? Remember when Sy Hersh reported that the General was one of the casualties of the Abu Ghraib?

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

When we first started talking about torture on C&L and much of the liberal blogoshere we were called anti-American, traitors, unpatriotic and the like. The White House and their media enablers like the Bill O'Reilly's proclaimed that Abu Ghraib was only a few bad apples. Nothing to see hear so move along little sheep. Well, the evidence is flooding in that refutes this nonsense and now I'd like to ask them something. Who is the traitor to America? Who has been unpatriotic?

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Starr: One thing perhaps worth noting in this report, heidi, is the forward, the preface to the report was written by retired major general Anthony Teguba. He's the army general that led the investigation into the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. in this report the general says, "there is no longer any doubt that the current administration committed war crimes."

The only question is whether those who ordered torture will be held into account. pretty tough words from a man very well regarded inside the army when he conducted the investigation into Abu Ghraib. For its part, the pentagon continues to say that it deals with detainees in a humane fashion, that there is no policy towards torture, and if there was any misconduct, any abuse, it was in violation of government policy. but this report clearly a pretty damning indictment if it stands on its own.

I'd like all those that went out of their way to attack us to come out and apologize to us, our country, our soldiers and the victims of this abuse known as torture. Barbara Starr gave this report on CNN. There should be numerous investigations for war crimes on Bush Co. and everyone involved. The sooner the better. (rough transcript below the fold)

Evidence of abuse and torture. that is the conclusion of a human rights report on the treatment of u.s.-held terror suspects in iraq and cuba. barbara starr joins us now from washington. how credible is this evidence?

:: well, heidi, this is a group, fizz shunsz for human rights, which conducted medical evaluations on 11 men held at abu ghraib prison in iraq and at the u.s. detention facility in guantanamo bay, cuba. these physicians say they found evidence that these men had been badly mistreated, tore furd, if you will. the report says that there was evidence of "beatings, electrical shock, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation and sodomy." dr. allen keller was one of the medical evaluators.

:: we found clear physical and psychological evidence that torture and abuse often causing lasting suffering. whether it was scars from beatings or night marries, sexual humiliations that they endured.

:: one thing perhaps worth noting in this report, heidi, is the forward, the preface to the report was written by retired major general anthony teguba. he's the army general that led the investigation into the abu ghraib prison scandal. in this report the general says, "there is no longer any doubt that the current administration committed war crimes. the only question is whether those who ordered torture will be held into account. pretty tough words from a man very well regarded inside the army when he conducted the investigation into abu ghraib. for its part, the pentagon continues to say that it deals with detainees in a humane fashion, that there is no policy towards torture, and if there was any misconduct, any abuse, it was in violation of government policy. but this report clearly a pretty damning indictment if it stands on its own.

:: will these reports be testimony at some point, hearings on all of this that could be taking place?

:: well, there was just that long set of hearings yesterday on capitol hill that we covered where there were -- the senators were really trying to get to the question of what was the policy, what was allowed, what was not allowed. and a lot of frustration on capitol hill, because now this goes back several years, delving into old documents, who said what in what meeting perhaps many years ago. so far, of course, some low-level soldiers have been prosecuted for their role at abu ghraib, but no senior officer has been held accountable in any of these cases to date. heidi?

:: those proceedings yesterday wrapped up or are you saying that it is possible things could continue?

:: well, i think there's very likely congress will probably try to continue its role in looking into all of this. but at the moment, the pentagon still holds publicly if i were to the notion that there was no policy that condoned torture and abuse, and if it occurred, it was an isolated case by people violating policy. but the bottom line is that, to this day, no senior officer has ever been held accountable in any of these cases. heidi?

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