July 11, 2007
Major General Antonio Taguba
Major General Antonio Taguba, U.S. Army (Ret.), was
given the untenable task of investigating the widespread abuse of
Iraqi
detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.
Rather than doing what the Bush administration expected of him
(sweeping the scandal under the rug), General Taguba -- knowing
full well it would likely cost him his career -- chose to aggressively
investigate the crimes committed at Abu Ghraib, and, more importantly,
to honestly report his findings up his chain of command and then
to the appropriate Congressional oversight committees.
Here are the closing paragraphs of Sy Hersh's excellent June 25
New Yorker accounting of
General Taguba's heroic fight to tell the truth:
"There was no doubt in my mind that this stuff
[the torture] was gravitating upward. It was standard operating
procedure to
assume
that this had to go higher. The President had to be aware of this."
"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."
In 2006, Taguba was forced to retire by the Pentagon. He believes
it was in retaliation for revealing the truth about the policy
of torture implemented by the Bush Administration.
Major General Antonio Taguba, you are an honorable soldier and
merit this week's BuzzFlash Wings of Justice Award.
* * *
Nominated by Stephen A. Justino of Centennial, CO.
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