 Dehumanizing of inmates at Abu Ghraib |
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| 13 February 2008
[Major Gen. Antonio] Taguba cited one former administration official, Berkeley law professor John Yoo, for special mention. Yoo, who served in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel from 2001 to 2003, is widely credited with - or blamed for - a series of controversial memos he wrote arguing for vastly expanded presidential powers in time of war, including those that govern the treatment of captive suspects.
Those so-called "torture memos," Taguba charged, "paved the way for the ambiguity of rules of war" and "placed our country at greater risk in fighting terrorism." It is "truly disingenuous and irresponsible," he added, for the White House to promulgate policies that contradict both national and international law - including the Geneva Conventions - and then blame abuses on "aberrant behavior" by those on the lower rungs of the chain of command.
"the stresses of combat is not an excuse for abusive or illegal actions at war."
Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Major General Antonio M. Taguba for a discussion of the inquiry into Abu Ghraib. They discuss the relation of the military to the rule of law and the relevance of the Geneva Conventions to the War on Terror. In the discussion, the general analyzes the problems he found at the Abu Ghraib prison and talks about the aftermath of the investigation in Washington and for his career.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9J784PH6Ds
(they get to the actual inquiry about 20 minutes in)
