[CitizensTruth] US General Accuses Bush of War Crimes

[Jay Becker]

Truthout Original

US General Accuses Bush Administration of War Crimes
Wednesday 18 June 2008
by: Matt Renner and Maya Schenwar, T r u t h o u t | Report

Abu Ghraib 37 (2005), by artist Fernando Botero 

    Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba (now retired) served as the deputy
commanding general for support for the Third Army for ten months in
Kuwait during the early days of the Iraq occupation. In a statement
released today, he bluntly accuses the Bush administration of war
crimes and lays down a challenge for prosecution.
    In 2004, Taguba released a classified report detailing abuses committed at Abu Ghraib Prison. The "Taguba Report" (executive summary) urged Pentagon officials to follow up on its findings by enforcing adherence to the Geneva Conventions in interrogations.
    Taguba retired in January 2007, later alleging that Pentagon
officials had ordered him to retire for being "overzealous" in his
criticisms of the military.
    In light of ongoing Congressional investigations into so-called harsh interrogation techniques,
and on the heels of Congressman Dennis Kucinich recently issuing
articles of impeachment accusing President Bush of, among other
offenses, authorizing torture, we present Taguba's latest statement for
your consideration.     The full Physicians for Human Rights report outlining the
medical evidence of torture perpetrated by the United States can be
read at their website.
 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 
     
Preface to Broken Laws, Broken Lives
    By Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, USA (Retired)
    Maj. Gen. Taguba led the US Army's official investigation
into the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and testified before
Congress on his findings in May 2004.
    This report tells the largely untold human story of what
happened to detainees in our custody when the Commander-in-Chief and
those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture. This story
is not only written in words: It is scrawled for the rest of these
individuals' lives on their bodies and minds. Our national honor is
stained by the indignity and inhumane treatment these men received from
their captors.
    The profiles of these eleven former detainees, none of whom were
ever charged with a crime or told why they were detained, are tragic
and brutal rebuttals to those who claim that torture is ever justified.
Through the experiences of these men in Iraq, Afghanistan and
Guantanamo Bay, we can see the full scope of the damage this illegal
and unsound policy has inflicted - both on America's institutions and
our nation's founding values, which the military, intelligence
services, and our justice system are duty-bound to defend.
    In order for these individuals to suffer the wanton cruelty to
which they were subjected, a government policy was promulgated to the
field whereby the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military
Justice were disregarded. The UN Convention Against Torture was
indiscriminately ignored. And the healing professions, including
physicians and psychologists, became complicit in the willful
infliction of harm against those the Hippocratic Oath demands they
protect.
    After years of disclosures by government investigations, media
accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no
longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed
war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.
    The former detainees in this report - each of whom is fighting a
lonely and difficult battle to rebuild his life - require reparations
for what they endured, comprehensive psycho-social and medical
assistance, and even an official apology from our government.
    But most of all, these men deserve justice as required under the
tenets of international law and the United States Constitution.
    And so do the American people.
    ---------
    Also See: Human Rights Group Says It Has Proof of Detainee Abuse
 

    Declare It Now! Wear Orange!
Impeach Bush & Cheney for War Crimes
& Crimes against Humanity!



      
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