Antonio Taguba and his report, May 2004

Numerous occurrences of detainee abuse; for example , “punching, slapping, kicking detainees; forcing naked male detainees to wear women’s underwear; a male MP having sex with a female detainee.” The events described and listed in General Taguba’s report are corroborated by statements of confession by several MPs from the 372nd MP Company. Taguba and his team of investigators also interviewed several detainees who gave credible descriptions of abuse they themselves experienced and which were much more graphic and harsher than what MPs stated. Furthermore, his report indicates that the previous report Ryder’s Report was inaccurate, and Military Intelligence and Other Government Agencies did in fact request MPs to “prepare” or “set conditions” for detainees who would be interrogated. Lastly, he assessed that MPs were never trained for interrogation or detainee procedures, and that these MPs were in poor leadership. After reading Seymour Hersh’s “How Antonio Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib scandal, became one of its casualties.” It is clear to me that what General Taguba revealed only hurt his career. It seems as if he was seen as a traitor for revealing the military’s “secrets”.