The Senate Armed Services Committee Report on Treating of Detainees in December 2008

ABC News Report on Senate Report on Abu Ghraib

The Senate Armed Services Committee released their report on December 11, 2008, detailing the treatment of prisoners and detainees held within U.S. custody as well as revealing the findings of their investigation as to who was responsible for the lack of control and the abuse that had taken place. The report identifies top officials within the Bush administration, primarily Donald Rumsfeld as the key figures in creating the horrifying environments of Abu Ghraib Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. This report was released by Senator Carl Levin, the Democratic chairman of the committee and Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona. The report also disagreed with the contention of the Bush administration that enhanced interrogation techniques had protected the U.S. and were required to protect American lives at home and in Iraq. This report seemed to reiterate the findings of Antonio Taguba's report which also shared that the abuse was not simply the results of bad decisions by a few "bad apples" but was a direct result of the failure of the U.S. leadership specifically the authority of Donald Rumsfeld. It concludes that officers in Iraq were following the orders under the instruction for these enhanced interrogation techniques which had been signed into place by Rumsfeld himself.

One of the most damning results of the abuses at Abu Ghraib was the loss of moral high ground for any American on foreign soil. The world believed that the U.S. and its leaders condoned the torture of detainees in military prisons the world over. Senator McCain said that it was inexcusable for the U.S. to implement and subject foreign detainees to the measures under the SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) training that was used to train U.S. military personnel to endure what they may face if captured by foreign forces. McCain himself had suffered torture in a prison in North Vietnam himself and was a leading voice condemning the actions at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. The report also revealed the admission by C.I.A. agents that water boarding had been used in secret prisons housing known member of Al-Qaeda following the 9/11 attacks. It was irresponsible of the Bush administration and it was a direct effect of this administrations behavior that created the horror and culture of torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. These standards and behaviors would have to be cleaned up if America was ever to regain the respect of the world. Basic human rights had been trampled on by those attempting to spread democracy and freedom. The chain of responsibility linked from Abu Ghraib in Iraq back to our nation's capital and the leaders of our nation were complicit and needed to be held accountable.