The Taguba Report
I don’t routinely solicit comments on my blog posts. And I never accept comments here at my blog (mostly for reasons of Spam, and the lack of any real value being added by the large majority of said comments). But I did invite comments at Orkut on my post yesterday regarding Iraqi Prisoner Abuse, and I did receive several good comments in return.
The comments I received made several references to the Taguba Report, while a smaller majority made references to events that I can not validate as they were published only in the media. If a military report was published regarding those events, I am unable to locate it.
The following post is my reply to those comments that referenced the Taguba Report.
The Taguba Report lists 13 allegations of abuse that are supported by the testimony of American Soldiers. I find these allegations to be credible. The 13 allegations that I refer to here, and as listed in the Taguba Report, are as follows:
a. (S) Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet;
b. (S) Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees;
c. (S) Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing;
d. (S) Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time;
e. (S) Forcing naked male detainees to wear women’s underwear;
f. (S) Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped;
g. (S) Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them;
h. (S) Positioning a naked detainee on a MRE Box, with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture;
i. (S) Writing “I am a Rapest” (sic) on the leg of a detainee alleged to have forcibly raped a 15-year old fellow detainee, and then photographing him naked;
j. (S) Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee’s neck and having a female Soldier pose for a picture;
k. (S) A male MP guard having sex with a female detainee;
l. (S) Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee;
m. (S) Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees.
It is my opinion, however, that only three of those allegations are abusive. The remaining ten are no worse than college fraternity and/or sorority hazing. It may be inappropriate for personnel assigned to guard these prisoners to haze their inmates, but that is not abuse. It’s a cause for corrective action, and possibly Non-Judicial punishment. Not a Courts Martial.
For the record, the following allegations, as listed in the Taguba Report, are the one’s I find to be abusive, and would support charges of abuse on:
a. (S) Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet;
k. (S) A male MP guard having sex with a female detainee;
l. (S) Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee;
In the spirit of two wrongs not making a right, I do support charges being filed here. However, three incidents of abuse in a facility as large as Abu Ghraib is hardly newsworthy. And it’s certainly not worthy of the sensationalism the media is giving it.
There are 8 additional allegations of abuse in the Taguba Report. But only the prisoners detained in Abu Ghraib are able to substantiate those allegations. The 8 allegations in question, and as listed in the Taguba Report, are as follows:
a. (U) Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees;
b. (U) Threatening detainees with a charged 9mm pistol;
c. (U) Pouring cold water on naked detainees;
d. (U) Beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair;
e. (U) Threatening male detainees with rape;
f. (U) Allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell;
g. (U) Sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick.
h. (U) Using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.
Since these allegations can not be supported by the testimony of even ONE American Soldier at Abu Ghraib, I choose not to share Maj. Gen. Taguba’s findings of credibility on these 8 allegations.
This being the free country that it is, you are free to believe the word of prisoners and suspected terrorists if you wish. But it is my opinion that someone that is committed enough to fly an airplane into a building would find it considerably less difficult to have a fellow inmate testify to fabricated allegations, and assist him/her in fabricating evidence to support said testimony. Perhaps the reason Maj. Gen. Taguba found consistency with the testimony of those prisoners claiming abuse is because their testimony was well rehearsed.
It’s been my experience in life that there are three sides to every story; one side, the other side, and the truth. Stories told after the fact, and by multiple witnesses, are rarely consistent. In fact, they tend to be considerably different versions of what actually happened.
Furthermore, it seems there are pictures of pretty much everything that happened in Abu Ghraib; everything except those 8 unsubstantiated allegations of abuse made by the prisoners in Abu Ghraib.
If you choose to believe the unsubstantiated testimony of prisoners, you need look no further than your nearest prison to find a great many prisoners wrongfully incarcerated, and thusly abused.
It’s also advisable to remember that this is a war, that wars are NEVER popular, and that the standards of care for Prisoners of War may not be everything that you might expect it to be. After all, they ARE prisoners, in most cases they ARE enemy combatants, and this IS a war.
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