On Sat, 16 Jun 2007 23:04:47 -0700, Docrodile wrote:
US defense chiefs denied knowledge of Abu Ghraib abuse
Sat Jun 16, 7:47 PM ET
NEW YORK (AFP) - A general who investigated US troops sexually humiliating
Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison said in a report out Saturday that top
Pentagon officials denied knowledge of lurid photographs of the acts.
Of course they did.
Army Major General Antonio Taguba said he met with then secretary of
defense Donald Rumsfeld and other top officials and described to them some
of the contents of a report he had prepared on the notorious prison.
But Rumsfeld testified before Congress the following day that he had no
idea of the extent of the abuse, Taguba told the New Yorker magazine in an
interview.
Of course he did.
"He's trying to acquit himself and a lot of people who are lying to
protect themselves," the magazine quoted him as saying, referring to
Rumsfeld's May 7, 2004 testimony.
The photographs taken by US jailers humiliating prisoners who were naked
or hooded, on leashes or piled in a pyramid, rocked the world, becoming
one of the few things President George W. Bush has said he regretted about
the war.
What he regretted was that the photographs were leaked. He's fixed that
now, by not permitting soldiers to have cameras in prisons. Thank
goodness we have someone like good ol' George to go right to the heart of
the problem!
Taguba said that he described to Rumsfeld what he termed the "torture"
of "a naked detainee lying on the wet floor, handcuffed, with an
interrogator shoving things up his rectum," the magazine reported.
He said that all high-level officials had avoided scrutiny while the
jail keepers were tried in courts-martial.
No kidding.
"From what I knew, troops just don't take it upon themselves to initiate
what they did without any form of knowledge of the higher-ups," Taguba
told the New Yorker, adding that his orders were to investigate the
military police only and not their superiors.
"These (military police) troops were not that creative," he said.
"Somebody was giving them guidance, but I was legally prevented from
further investigation into higher authority," he told the magazine.
No surprise there.
Woods
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070616/pl_afp/usiraqmilitaryprison_070616234741
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