Taguba Report Confirms Abuse by U.S. Military at Abu Ghraib Prison
The Taguba Report, released on this day, is the commonly used name of an official military investigation into the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the U.S. military prison, Abu Ghraib, in Baghdad, Iraq. The report confirmed allegations that U.S. military personnel had subjected Muslim prisoners to degrading physical and religious abuse, which included photographing men forced to masturbate while wearing women’s clothing.
The abuse was first revealed to the public by 60 Minutes II on April 28, 2004, and created an international scandal. Many people regarded the abuse as torture, in violation of the UN Convention Against Torture (which the U.S. ratified on October 21, 1994) and U.S. law. The U.S. government consistently denied the allegations of torture. See, for example, the notorious “torture memo” justifying CIA interrogation techniques, which was issued on August 1, 2002.
Read the Taguba Report: http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/operation_and_plans/Detainee/taguba/TAGUBA_REPORT_CERTIFICATIONS.pdf
Read: Seymour Hersh, Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib (2004)
Read more: Mark Danner, Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror (2004)