Media whores IGNORE full extent of Abu Ghraib TORTURE investigation...

Although USA Today is running this excellent op-ed about how pervasive was the culture of ABUSE, SADISM, and TORTURE in US run prisons in Iraq (most notably at Abu Ghraib), overall, the American media has IGNORED this story, in a white-wash effort to maintain America's "moral values" high ground through sheer deception.

=======================================

Army, or the Mafia?
USA Today editorial board...
20 June 2006
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/06/the_army_or_the.html


Early in 2004, one man — Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba — seemed to embody guarantees of a thorough investigation into the abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison that so stained the USA's reputation.


Amid allegations that prisoners were stripped and sexually humiliated by U.S. guards at the notorious jail, Taguba was assigned to investigate the military reservists running the prison. He concluded — in a report and congressional testimony — that the "sadistic, blatant and wanton" acts depicted in the infamous photos pointed to "systemic and illegal abuse." In other words, responsibility extended beyond just a few bad apples on the night shift, as the Pentagon preferred to cast it.

Taguba's unflinching honesty showed the United States at its best: following blame wherever it led.

But that was the last the public saw of Taguba, and his brand of integrity.

The Pentagon quickly shifted the spotlight back to those at the prison. Seven low-ranking soldiers were convicted in courts martial, sentenced to federal prison time and dishonorably discharged from service. The military reserve commander was demoted.

End of story. Or is it?

This week, Taguba broke his subsequent silence to investigative reporter Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker magazine, which published the original photos in 2004. He described his ostracism after his findings pointed to wider blame. He told of how he was quickly ordered to a Pentagon desk job — then forced to resign in January this year. He confessed to feeling as if he had joined the Army, but wound up in the Mafia.

Taguba's remarks are a reminder that the scandal still lacks thorough investigation — one that might explain how abuses could have turned up not only at Abu Ghraib but also in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, if no higher-ups were culpable.

The U.S. justice system is in the process of reasserting fairer treatment for U.S. detainees, through cases in the Supreme Court and lower courts. A fuller understanding of what led to Abu Ghraib would help that effort — not to needlessly rake up the past but to establish clear standards for the future. For credibility's sake, it would even be interesting to see Taguba back on the case. But that, plainly enough, is not the way things work.

Posted at 12:20 AM/ET, June 19, 2007 in Criminal justice - Editorial, Military issues - Editorial, People - Editorial, Politics, Government - Editorial, USA TODAY editorial | Permalink
USA TODAY welcomes your views and encourages lively -- but civil -- discussions. Comments are unedited, but submissions reported as abusive may be removed. By posting a comment, you affirm that you are 13 years of age or older.