To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (161514 ) 5/5/2005 10:40:00 PM From: Win Smith Read Replies (2) | Respond to General Taguba issued his report and made it public BEFORE the pictures came out. A month later, General Karpinski was formally admonished and quietly suspended, and a major investigation into the Army’s prison system, authorized by Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior commander in Iraq, was under way. A fifty-three-page report, obtained by The New Yorker, written by Major General Antonio M. Taguba and not meant for public release, was completed in late February. Its conclusions about the institutional failures of the Army prison system were devastating. Specifically, Taguba found that between October and December of 2003 there were numerous instances of “sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses” at Abu Ghraib. This systematic and illegal abuse of detainees, Taguba reported, was perpetrated by soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company, and also by members of the American intelligence community. (The 372nd was attached to the 320th M.P. Battalion, which reported to Karpinski’s brigade headquarters.) Taguba’s report listed some of the wrongdoing: newyorker.com The FAS Secrecy Project continued to push for greater openness where disclosure is legitimate. In early May when shocking images of U.S. personnel at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison abusing Iraqi prisoners burst into public view, the Secrecy Project was among those pressing for full disclosure of the internal Army report on the matter. The March 2004 report is known as the “Taguba report” after its author, Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba. fas.org
