Article: ABU GHRAIB INVESTIGATOR DETAILS PENTAGON COVER-UP

and it was the first time that I thought I was in the Mafia."
Abu Ghraib Investigator Details Pentagon Cover-Up: 'I Thought I Was
In The Mafia' <http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/17/hersh-taguba/>
»
[taguba.jpg] In a New Yorker article today, Seymour Hersh interviews
Army Major General Antonio M. Taguba, who led the Pentagon's
investigation into the abuses at Abu Ghraib. This article is the first
time that Taguba has publicly spoken out about the scandal, revealing
that the Pentagon forced him to retire early
<http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/06/25/070625fa_fact_hersh?print\
able=true> because of his aggressive pursuit of the issue.

Taguba also reveals that he believed high-level military officials,
including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, knew about the abuses but
feigned ignorance, putting all the blame on low-level soldiers. Key
highlights:

Taguba was threatened by Gen. John Abizaid:

A few weeks after his report became public, Taguba, who was still in
Kuwait, was in the back seat of a Mercedes sedan with Abizaid. …
Abizaid turned to Taguba and issued a quiet warning: "You and your
report will be investigated."

"I wasn't angry about what he said but disappointed that he
would say that to me," Taguba said. "I'd been in the Army
thirty-two years by then, and it was the first time that I thought I was
in the Mafia."

White House "didn't think the photographs were that bad":

The former senior intelligence official said that when the images of Abu
Ghraib were published, there were some in the Pentagon and the White
House who "didn't think the photographs were that bad" —
in that they put the focus on enlisted soldiers, rather than on secret
task-force operations. Referring to the task-force members, he said,
"Guys on the inside ask me, 'What's the difference between
shooting a guy on the street, or in his bed, or in a prison?'" A
Pentagon consultant on the war on terror also said that the "basic
strategy was 'prosecute the kids in the photographs but protect the
big picture.'"

Taguba was demoted and eventually forced to retire because of his
investigation: expand post »
<http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/17/hersh-taguba/>