Amerikaanse Generaal beschuldigt Bush van 'War Crimes'

[Hein van Meeteren]

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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.

*http://www.truthout.org/article/us-general-accuses-bush-administration-war-crimes?print


      US General Accuses Bush Administration of War Crimes
      <http://www.truthout.org/article/us-general-accuses-bush-administration-war-crimes>

Wednesday 18 June 2008

by: Matt Renner and Maya Schenwar, T r u t h o u t | Report

photo
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
<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4894001/>) 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 <http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/>.


      Preface to Broken Laws, Broken Lives
      <http://brokenlives.info/?page_id=23>

    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
<http://www.truthout.org/article/human-rights-group-says-it-has-proof-detainee-abuse>

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