Sunday, June 17, 2007

What did they know and when?

Earlier this year, Sy Hersh interviewed General Antonio Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib scandal. This week's issue of the New Yorker reports on this and related interviews. It's not a pleasant story. I think Hersh demonstrates quite convincingly that 'they' knew about Abu Ghraib from day 1, that is before it became public knowledge. In fact, 'they' initiated the system used to extract information from prisoners.

The article ends with a quote from Taguba. “From the moment a soldier enlists, we inculcate loyalty, duty, honor, integrity, and selfless service. And yet when we get to the senior-officer level we forget those values. I know that my peers in the Army will be mad at me for speaking out, but 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.”

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