Seymore Hersh: The General's Report

[Obadiah Plainman]

Seymore Hersh the best investigative reporter around does it again.

The General’s Report
How Antonio Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib scandal, became one of its casualties​

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by Seymour M. Hersh

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.......Full report ​

 

[Makkonnen]

Its people like Taguba that give me hope.

Very good read. 9 pages long. I get upset that I don't get the magazines early enough to already have seen this. This is why I subscribe to the New Yorker. Real journalism. Seymour is the man and has been for 30 years.

 

[muckraker10021]

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Army Major General Antonio M. Taguba who investigated the sexual abuse and torture of Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib by US soldiers <b>was prevented by Donald Rumsfeld and other top Pentagon officials from investigating "higher" authorities" (Cheney, Rove, Rice, Libby, Gonzales, <font size="1">Bush</font>)</b>

General Taguba said some of the most graphic evidence of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib has not been made public,<b> including videotapes he saw of American male soldiers in uniform sodomizing Iraqi female detainees</b>

General Taguba was "fired" for conducting a thorough and empirical investigation of the sexual abuse and torture of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib. <b>Because he did not COVER UP the facts & evidence that he uncovered Taguba was "fired". </b> Thomas Hall, the assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs, was the first to tell him, in January 2006, that he was being forced out.

Taguba said:
“He called me in and said I was no longer part of the team,” Taguba said. “When someone calls you in and says ‘I have to let you go,’ and offers no explanation, you connect the dots.” That same month, he added, Gen. Richard Cody, the Army’s vice chief of staff, told him that he would have to retire within a year.
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[Fuckallyall]

I read this story and it enraged me. It confirmed my belief that we should re-decentralize the military. Prior to WWII, the majority of troops sent to war were state militias and volunteer regiments. The belief behind that was that it should not be the federal goivernment going to war, but the United States that went to war. And considering the fact that enlistments rose after 9/11, I am led to believe that this country has no hesitancy in standing up to defend itself. Shit, that is what the Bush administration used to manipulate us into backing this clusterfuck in Iraq.