How explosive will Taguba's testimony be this morning ?

How much will he expose? How much will he be permitted to expose? Since he is the man that has all the information about the investigation, his decision to explain his investigation and to explain who was responsible in this scandal, may make or break the Bush Administration? He has the power to do that. But will he? Will his loyalty to the military prevent him from full exposure? Or will just be a patriotic American and open up the books and tell about everything he found?

Thanks

to taguba being flanked by two of his superiors, i think it is obvious that the pentagon feared that he is the patriotic american he swore an oath to be.

we will see how easily he is intimidated.

I had not thought of that....

as he testifies. "Go ahead, Tony...tell the nice Senators what 'cha told me and the boys last night"

and I don't trust my government one bit. Don't know what to expect this morning.

I will be watching with a leery eye.

Kentuck, today we'll see a face to the report...someone in a military uniform who can shoot straight and isn't protecting their ass. Let's call this a possible anti-Oliver North. It'll boil down to Tabuga's credibility vs. Rummmy and I'll give Taguba a big advantage.

I wonder how much will come out in the testimony vs. the "leaks" of private testimony or other sources. It'll be interesting if Taguba has a lawyer with him. Any idea of what his military status is? Is he still on active duty? I have a feeling he's got a lot to say and this is not gonna be a very good day for the evil empire.

Listen to some of the C-Span callers today. I've noticed a couple of "Lifelong Repugnicans" who are having some real problems squaring this whole sleezy mess.

He wrote the report. He knows more than anyone at this time.

The Senators don't know, the media doesn't know...how in depth his report really went. He had to know back then that blowing the shit downward was OK, upward was asking for trouble. Now he doesn't have that worry.

Listening to Hackworth last night, he senses a real revolt starting to break open within the ranks as the buck keeps getting passed around. Taguba's position will be tough...will he be a soldier's soldier or a regime soldier?

I recall when Rumsfeld was asked if he read the report, he whined that the whole report was inches thick, but he read the Executive Summary (70 pages?)

There could have been a bit of whitewash/backside covering in the Executive Summary, if someone higher up in the Pentagon hoped to protect the higher levels of Army command, etc.

Did the Executive Summary give specific examples of torture and abuse? Name names? Include any photos within the report? were the examples representative or toward the tamer end of the spectrum? If it was 70 pages long, which is the number I recall hearing, it should have given very explicit examples.

She posted about it last night, I believe. It seemed pretty damning, even just from the summary...

whose 53-page report found "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad has already exposed a hell of a lot. Thank god he took the initiative to get this report out. There is so much more to come, we can't even know. We know these reckless abuses and tortures were widespread and no one in the chain of command has admitted ANYTHING. Get Rumsfeld back on the hot seat and hold everyone, EVERYONE including mr. bush accountable. bush is the commander-in-chief, he takes credit when he thinks things have gone right (has anything gone right?), he needs to take responsibility when things go wrong and he is uncapable of doing that. This is why he must resign his position.


As President Bush put it, they are an exceptional "few bad apples"
whose actions "do not reflect the nature of our country."

Taguba wrote a fairly honest report, but we must remember that he also rated many paragraphs as "(S/NF)" (Secret/NoForeigners) that had no apparent disclosure of Methods and/or Sources nor clear National Security implications of any kind. (These paragrapsh included some that infer serious culpability of MajGen Miller, whose authority has since been increased despite such inferences.) The author of a report is, with proper consultation, the primary classifying authority for such a document. Taguba blew it on that one.

It's important to appreciate the "military mind" that's steeped over a lifetime in notions of pecking order and authoritarianism. It's an ethic that's very utilitarian, not deontological.

I expect to see a large dose of "damage control."


On edit: Let's also be very clear about the boundaries of MajGen Taguba's investigation. It was limited in scope to the operations of a specific unit (the 800th MB Brigade) within a specific time period (1 November 2003 through 31 January 2004). Matters outside those specific boundaries can go unreviewed.