New Info About Old Issues

As I've said (and keep saying, much to my dismay), I've been very, very busy lately and haven't had time to keep up with the very latest on the Interwebs. For instance, The New Yorker put the latest Seymour Hersh piece about Abu Ghraib went up on Monday. I've seen a few people refer to it, but I didn't get a chance to read the whole thing until this evening. Some people are discussing it, because I found out about it from reading blogs and other sources. But now that I've digested it for myself, I have to wonder, why are we talking about anything else?

General Antonio Taguba investigated the Abu Ghraib atrocities (or fraternity pranks, take your pick). He was restricted from investigating anything beyond the military police who were directly involved in the activities, no matter how obvious it might have seemed to him that the stench rose higher. He was forced out of the military earlier this year, and now he's decided to talk to Hersh.

"From what I knew, troops just don't take it upon themselves to initiate what they did without any form of knowledge of the higher-ups," Taguba told me. His orders were clear, however: he was to investigate only the military police at Abu Ghraib, and not those above them in the chain of command. "These M.P. troops were not that creative," he said. "Somebody was giving them guidance, but I was legally prevented from further investigation into higher authority. I was limited to a box."

Taguba didn't get to investigate the "higher-ups," but he certainly got to meet with and talk with them. Rumsfeld told him he was shocked, but Teguba didn't buy it. Read his reaction to Rumsfeld's congressional testimony.

Taguba, watching the hearings, was appalled. He believed that Rumsfeld's testimony was simply not true. "The photographs were available to him—if he wanted to see them," Taguba said. Rumsfeld's lack of knowledge was hard to credit. Taguba later wondered if perhaps Cambone had the photographs and kept them from Rumsfeld because he was reluctant to give his notoriously difficult boss bad news. But Taguba also recalled thinking, "Rumsfeld is very perceptive and has a mind like a steel trap. There's no way he's suffering from C.R.S.—Can't Remember Shit. He's trying to acquit himself, and a lot of people are lying to protect themselves." It distressed Taguba that Rumsfeld was accompanied in his Senate and House appearances by senior military officers who concurred with his denials.

"The whole idea that Rumsfeld projects—'We're here to protect the nation from terrorism'—is an oxymoron," Taguba said. "He and his aides have abused their offices and have no idea of the values and high standards that are expected of them. And they've dragged a lot of officers with them."

I ask again, why isn't this all we're talking about? Rumsfeld is no longer part of the administration, but he's still out there. Bush is still president, for God's sake. We've finally got a Congress that's at least a little bit willing to do some investigating. I'm waiting.

Maybe because Hersh realized that Abu Ghraib would be treated as old news, that whether we've got enough evidence to convict in a court of law we all have a basic intuitive understanding of what was really going on, he left perhaps the most explosive accusation to the end of the article:

Taguba went on, "There was no doubt in my mind that this stuff"—the explicit images—"was gravitating upward. It was standard operating procedure to assume that this had to go higher. The President had to be aware of this." He said that Rumsfeld, his senior aides, and the high-ranking generals and admirals who stood with him as he misrepresented what he knew about Abu Ghraib had failed the nation.

"From the moment a soldier enlists, we inculcate loyalty, duty, honor, integrity, and selfless service," Taguba said. "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."

As I said, I'm waiting.