• Prisoner abuse: An independent inquiry Prisoner abuse: An independent inquiry By the St. Louis Post-Dispatch – September 15, 2004 The Pentagon has conducted 11 investigations, issued 13,000 pages of reports and referred 45 low-level soldiers for court martial in
• Prisoner abuse: An independent inquiry
Prisoner abuse: An independent inquiry
By the St. Louis Post-Dispatch – September 15, 2004
The Pentagon has conducted 11 investigations, issued 13,000 pages of reports and referred 45 low-level soldiers for court martial in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. But none of the investigations has been the truly independent inquiry warranted by the allegations of high-level complicity in prisoner abuse.
Two developments underscore the need for an independent investigation. One is the testimony last week by Gen. Paul J. Kern that up to 100 “ghost” detainees were hidden from the International Red Cross in violation of the Geneva Conventions. The other is a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersh charging that the White House, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and top commanders in Iraq had been warned about prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib months before the scandal broke.
Congress should follow the advice of eight former generals and admirals who called last week for a 9/11-style inquiry. They noted that Pentagon investigations didn’t require sworn testimony and didn’t have subpoena power.
The inadequacy of the investigations to date was illustrated by Gen. Kern’s acknowledgment that the CIA had refused to turn over documentation on the dozens of ghost prisoners held in violation of international law.
This is an elaborate charade. If President George W. Bush had wanted to get to the bottom of the prisoner abuse scandal, he simply would order the CIA to turn over the documents. But the president himself authorized the secret program for snatching terrorist suspects and interrogating them at undisclosed locations around the world, according to Mr. Hersh’s recently published book, “Chain of Command: The road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib.”
Mr. Hersh also reports that a CIA official found on a 2002 visit to Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that prisoners were being held in abusive conditions and that many shouldn’t have been held at all. Retired Gen. John A. Gordon, deputy national security adviser, called the problem to the attention of his boss, Condoleezza Rice. In turn, Ms. Rice summoned Mr. Rumsfeld to a meeting in the situation room, focusing on the excessive detentions. Mr. Rumsfeld reportedly indicated he would look into the problem, but nothing happened.
At the same time, Mr. Hersh reports, FBI agents were complaining to superiors about prisoner treatment at Guantanamo. One would think the proper response from the FBI would have been to launch a criminal investigation. Senior military legal officers from the Judge Advocate General’s office took their complaints to the New York Bar Association.
But by the fall of 2003, Mr. Rumsfeld, with White House approval, was importing Guantanamo ghost-prisoner tactics to Iraq, Mr. Hersh reports. A military officer reported to Gen. John P. Abizaid that systematic abuses were occurring at Abu Ghraib. “Abizaid didn’t say a thing,” the officer is quoted as saying. “He looked at me – beyond me, as if to say, ‘Move on.’ “
As much as the nation wants to move on, too much is at stake to whitewash scandal. Congress should appoint a commission that includes experts in military justice and international law to trace the higher-level complicity in prisoner abuse. Not only is America’s reputation for justice at stake, but so is the welfare of our fighting men and women whose humane treatment depends in part on our humane treatment of our enemy prisoners.
