Gen. Taguba: US guilty of war crimes

Similar to how Attytood worded it yesterday, the headline above doesn't come from a partisan Website, or from Keith Olbermann or Air America Radio - it comes from a retired hero, Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, the general that President Bush asked to look into our military disgrace, Abu Ghraib. From the Boston Herald:

WASHINGTON - A Cambridge-based human rights organization said it has found medical evidence supporting the claims of 11 former detainees who were allegedly tortured while in American custody between 2001 and 2004, in what a former top U.S. military investigator said amounts to evidence of war crimes.

Medical evaluations of the former inmates found injuries consistent with the alleged abuse, including the psychological effects of sensory deprivation and forced nudity as well as signs of "severe physical and sexual assault," Physicians for Human Rights said in a report scheduled for release today.

The report also alleges that in four of the cases, American health professionals appeared to have been complicit by denying the detainees medical care and observing the abuse but making no effort to stop it - charges that, if true, represent gross violations of medical ethics.

Incidentally, of the 11 mentioned in the report above detained at Guantánamo, Afghanistan or Iraq was ever charged with a crime. Their fate? The doctors found:

One detainee who said he was repeatedly stabbed in the cheek with a screwdriver had wounds consistent with such treatment, the doctors reported. Another who said his captors sodomized him also had physical signs that supported the allegation, while several others had burns and psychological problems the doctors concluded were consistent with electrical shocks.

Above, Barbara Starr yesterday gave a report on CNN about Taguba's opinion on what went on at Abu Ghraib. A partial transcript:

Starr: One thing perhaps worth noting in this report, Heidi, is the forward, the preface to the report was written by retired Major General Anthony Teguba. [right] He's the army general [who] led the investigation into the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. in this report the general says, "there is no longer any doubt that the current administration committed war crimes."

The only question is whether those who ordered torture will be held into account. Pretty tough words from a man very well regarded inside the army when he conducted the investigation into Abu Ghraib. For its part, the Pentagon continues to say that it deals with detainees in a humane fashion, that there is no policy toward torture, and if there was any misconduct, any abuse, it was in violation of government policy. but this report clearly a pretty damning indictment if it stands on its own.

I distinctly remember the likes of Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh bending over backward (metaphorically, of course, because we know Rush couldn't really do that without a fistful of OxyCodone). Limbaugh even went so far as to say that it appeared that troops who were torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib were "blowing off steam." Hmm, I guess if blowing off steam were a synonym for torture, then he's be in the ballpark there. Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy that this report concludes what it does - far from it. Something like this isn't a stain on the military - it's a stain on America.

However, I'm not holding my breath that the likes of Limbaugh, O'Reilly or Hannity are going to apologize anytime soon.

As for Taguba, a highly decorated officer who gave 34 years of his life to the military? He was ordered to retire in in 2006 no later than January 2007 by by Gen. Richard Cody, the Army's Vice Chief of Staff. No explanation was given as to why he was being ordered to retire.

Thus ended a 34-year military career, all because he did his duty and reported the ugly truth about Abu Ghraib. Maybe now those responsible within the Bush administration will be held responsible. I'm not holding my breath, since our Democratically controlled Congress has shown little backbone in punishing those in the Bush administration who deserve it.