Antonio Taguba and his report, May 2004

A blatant disregard for the rules of the Geneva Conventions and the lack of any effective leadership and control had created a veritable world of torture that was purposely manufactured directly by those within the Bush administration. There was no institutional control imposed at Abu Ghraib and all involved with the torture and abuse of Iraqi detainees needed to be held accountable. These were the findings of Antonio Taguba who was the deputy commanding general for support in Iraq. Taguba presented his findings to the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 11, 2004. Taguba recognized the impossible position he was in but he vowed to tell and reveal the truth of what had happened a t Abu Ghraib. Every company of soldiers from the 800th MP Brigade to the 320th MP Battalion were at fault and the "rampant lack of leadership" led to the unspeakable acts at Abu Ghraib. His report filed in March stated that there had been "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" committed against many detainees at Abu Ghraib. The ugly truth was revealed to the world with the release and publishing of the more than 100 images captured on the cameras of MPs within Abu Ghraib. The photos were astonishing and self-incriminating. Though all recognized that Abu Ghraib was a pressure cooker unlike any other in the world, this kind of behavior and abuse by American's would not be tolerated. Taguba's report showed that the MPs were severely under qualified and lacked any formal training as corrections officers or guards. This report also cited that the methods used at Abu Ghraib were not approved and the MIs and MPs who had collaborated and used these techniques had done so without the required authorizations of the proper authorities. Taguba also uncovered that Janis Karpinski had lied to him about her presence at Abu Ghraib as the commander of the 800th brigade, had not visited Abu Ghraib as often as she had claimed.

 

Taguba had noticed that Donald Rumsfeld was in denial. Rumsfeld was desperate to control the information that would be found in the many ongoing investigations into the abuse scandal but the proverbial cat was out of the bag. So the Bush administration was in total spin control mode. The hard truth was that Rumsfeld and everyone involved at Abu Ghraib knew exactly what they were getting at Abu Ghraib when Geoffrey Miller was brought in from Guantanamo Bay. Rumsfeld was so bold to claim that the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib had in no way violated the Geneva Conventions. His defense for this statement was the company line of the Bush administration in the war on terror, these enemy combatants had no protected status to claim under the guidelines of the Geneva Conventions. The world seemed to disagree with Rumsfeld as they believed the evil experiment at Abu Ghraib was filled with clear violations of humanitarian law. It was evidently clear to everyone that this was not the failure of a few "bad apples" within the U.S. military but was a designed effort by the U.S. military to purposefully and knowingly torture these detainees. Their orders had been given to them from someone higher up than them but when Senator John McCain questioned Rumsfeld with the simple question of "Who was in charge?" Rumsfeld would not give a straight answer. General Miller would claim to have cleaned up the interrogations at Abu Ghraib but it was too little too late. The damage had been done and those guilty of these atrocities would face criminal prosecutions for their crimes.

 

Taguba reported that he spoke with officer after officer asking them why they never did or said anything about the known abuse. The typical response was that they were only following orders and the blame would ultimately fall on the young MPs that had been exploited by the Military Intelligence officers and ultimately the Bush administration. As Taguba saw it, the U.S. military had plainly violated the Geneva Conventions and the laws pertaining to land warfare at Abu Ghraib. This would make Taguba unpopular, but finally someone had to do the right thing and it would be General Taguba. Taguba would define honor by the honesty and integrity of his report that further exposed the truth and disgusting behavior of U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib.  Warfare and conditions of war are no excuse for the torture that took place at Abu Ghraib. Consider this question, who are the REAL terrorists?