Gibbs, Pentagon “Shoot the Messenger” on Taguba Report of Rape…Updated

Simulposted at Daily Kos

While continuing to passively ignore the crimes that are being reported in those reports. How long can the Obama Administration continue a policy of passivity on the Bush War Crimes?

In 2004, [General] Taguba was assigned to head an investigation into accusations of prisoner abuse in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Taguba became known worldwide when the Taguba Report, a classified, internal U.S. Army report on the investigation, was leaked to the public and published to national attention.[2] The report was extremely critical of U.S. Army conduct and found widespread negligence and abuse.

From the Telegraph report today…

Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

Allegations of rape and abuse were included in his 2004 report but the fact there were photographs was never revealed. He has now confirmed their existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

The graphic nature of some of the images may explain the US President’s attempts to block the release of an estimated 2,000 photographs from prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan despite an earlier promise to allow them to be published.

Maj Gen Taguba, who retired in January 2007, said he supported the President’s decision, adding: “These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.

In light of these truly sensational photos….despite Obama’s now apparently disingenuous statement when he reversed his decision to comply with a court order to release them:

“I want to emphasise that these photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the painful images that we remember from Abu Ghraib.”

Barack Obama

….Taguba’s descriptions and the implications of their impact are apparently sensational enough to cause his Press Secretary to use the lowest form of propaganda flackery…..impugning the credibility of the source.

He did not even dare directly attack the primary source, General Taguba, but instead resorted to a cheap hacktastic smear attack on the British Press in general…

(Warning: 15 second commercial)

Gibbs does NOT address the charges of rape.

The evidence of which, the photos that Obama refused to (immediately) release, would indeed cause a “sensation.” A sensation certainly among Islamic fundamentalists who would surely say that there can be no greater outrage or crime than Americans raping a male Arab child AND an Arab woman.

I have the pictures. They are indeed infuriatingly sensational. I can virtually guarantee that they will also be “sensational” to ANY human being, anywhere, of any faith. Pictures of soldiers in uniform raping civilians always are. That is why it is a War Crime. And it is the crime that matters here, not the photos of the crime.

The mere appearance that Obama is even attempting to cover up….or defend these truly outrage inducing crimes is incredibly damaging.

President Obama justified this reversal of transparency, an issue on which he heavily campaigned, on the grounds that it would “inflame anti-American opinion.” And “put our troops in greater danger.”

There is a very thin line at play here. All of the published evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the Bush Administration conspired to commit War Crimes. War Crimes that are now charged to include to of the biggest taboos in the world of Islam and in Arab, if not world, culture. The Obama Administration, in its quest to prevent “anti-American opinion” that would “put our troops in greater danger,” would be wise then to tread very carefully along the line of being perceived as covering up these crimes.

President Obama has worked hard to restore America’s image and reputation after the Bush Administration blatantly exposed the very worst part of our national character through torturing innocent people and Waging Aggressive War against an ‘innocent’ nation.

It would behoove him in his efforts to remember that he risks doing even more damage to his credibility and the nations severely tarnished reputation by not remembering the caveat that “The cover-up is worse than the crime.”

If he is perceived as covering up these crimes, after staking his credibility on reversing America’s gross hypocrisy on Human Rights under Bush, the world will not forgive him….or America.

Gibbs’s glib attack on the entire British Press Corps, in lieu of actually seriously addressing these very serious charges and their implications, certainly increases the perception that Obama is not just passively seeking to “move forward,” but is willing to actively cover-up or even defend the horrid Bush Torture Policy.

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General Taguba, who was forced to retire over the accuracy of his report on the Bush Torture Program, later went on to author the preface to a report by Physicians for Human Rights on prisoner abuse and torture at Abu Ghraib prison, in Guantanamo Bay, and in Afghanistan.

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 [Bush] 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.

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With every day that passes, with every new revelation of just how abominably inhuman and pervasive the official American Policy to torture was, the continued policy of passivity of the Obama administration inches closer to a policy of ‘sin of omission.’ The omission of accountability for American War Crimes.

Mr. President, there is only one sure way to ensure against “inflam[ed] anti-American opinion” that would “put our troops in greater danger.”

And that is to ensure that those responsible for authorizing these War Crimes are held accountable to the full extent of the law.

You can only tap dance along that thin line for so long Mr. President, Mr. Gibbs. Eventually you have to actually take a stand.

If Congress doesn’t act, you will have to. Or you risk everything you have worked for in rehabilitating America’s image in the wake of the Bush War Crimes. The issue here is NOT the pictures and what effect they may have.

The issue here is that the United States raped, tortured and killed people in the process. we did that. It cannot be tapdanced away.

It is the crimes that need to be dealt with, Mr. President, not the evidence of those crimes. You simply cannot make that go away by hiding the pictures, or by having your press secretary dismiss the crimes they depict.

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Update: from the comments at DK, and per Patriot Daily..

   The limited number of photos the Court ordered released are the ones he referenced here –

     

“I want to emphasise that these photos that were requested in this case are not particularly sensational, especially when compared to the painful images that we remember from Abu Ghraib.”

      Barack Obama

   Those are not photos of rape, child abuse, and forcible sodomy with foreign objects.

The fact remains though that the overall effect of the publicity on this is that ‘the world’ now knows that these particular photos DO exist.

So yeah, there is a technicality involved, to the extent that the specific photos that Obama specifically referenced are not (may not be) sensational.

But, the overriding fact is that these sensational picture do exist, are in the possession of the government, and are not being released.

I would bet that if these specific photos of rape and sodomy are not YET the subject of a freedom of Information suit, they soon will be. And then the whole process will start again.

I am willing to entertain objections to this diary on this basis, but my initial impression is that it doesn’t change much of the point of the diary.