Bullypulpit
Senior Member
<blockquote>"...the fact is that we violated the laws of land warfare in Abu Ghraib. We violated the tenets of the Geneva Convention. We violated our own principles and we violated the core of our military values. The stress of combat is not an excuse, and I believe, even today, that those civilian and military leaders responsible should be held accountable. - <a href=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/06/25/070625fa_fact_hersh?printable=true>Maj. Gen.(Ret.) Antonio Taguba</a></blockquote>
So concludes General Taguba in <i>The New Yorker</i>. An honorable man thrust by circumstance into an investigation that continues to come back and bite the Bush administration in the ass long after they thought it dead. And to this date, none of those responsible for the crimes and abuses at Abu Ghraib, and elsewhere, have answered for their actions. Actions which, like a purlent infection, spread from GITMO to Iraq.
The sad fact of the matter is that the only one officer stands to be tried for the events at Abu Ghraib in August, and the only others that have been convicted were the enlisted folks that were thrown under the bus to keep those higher up the chain of command clear of any blame.
Further investigations by C.I.D. officers have been deemed a dead end because they are denied security clearances needed to access the records and personnel, many of whom operated under false names, needed to successfully conduct an investigation. But it wouldn't be the first time the Bush administration has used the excuse of "national security" to obstruct an investigation into investigations into its activities. Remember Chimpy's little domestic spying operation that got blown open last year? <a href=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12727867/from/RSS/>The NSA denied investigators from the OPR the security clearances</a> they needed to conduct their investigation into that, compared to the horrors of Abu Ghraib, minor bit of skull-duggery.
General Taguba was thrown under the bus because he refused to remain silent in the face of gross abuses of human rights under US law, treaty and international law. As we know by this point, the rule of law means little more to this administration than an impediment to its pursuit of unrestricted power.
So concludes General Taguba in <i>The New Yorker</i>. An honorable man thrust by circumstance into an investigation that continues to come back and bite the Bush administration in the ass long after they thought it dead. And to this date, none of those responsible for the crimes and abuses at Abu Ghraib, and elsewhere, have answered for their actions. Actions which, like a purlent infection, spread from GITMO to Iraq.
The sad fact of the matter is that the only one officer stands to be tried for the events at Abu Ghraib in August, and the only others that have been convicted were the enlisted folks that were thrown under the bus to keep those higher up the chain of command clear of any blame.
Further investigations by C.I.D. officers have been deemed a dead end because they are denied security clearances needed to access the records and personnel, many of whom operated under false names, needed to successfully conduct an investigation. But it wouldn't be the first time the Bush administration has used the excuse of "national security" to obstruct an investigation into investigations into its activities. Remember Chimpy's little domestic spying operation that got blown open last year? <a href=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12727867/from/RSS/>The NSA denied investigators from the OPR the security clearances</a> they needed to conduct their investigation into that, compared to the horrors of Abu Ghraib, minor bit of skull-duggery.
General Taguba was thrown under the bus because he refused to remain silent in the face of gross abuses of human rights under US law, treaty and international law. As we know by this point, the rule of law means little more to this administration than an impediment to its pursuit of unrestricted power.
