SCOOP LINK:
The 10 inquiries into prisoner abuse have let Bush and Co off the hook.
By Seymour Hersh
The Guardian UK
Saturday 21 May 2005
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It's been over a year since I published a series of articles in the New Yorker outlining the abuses at Abu Ghraib. There
have been at least 10 official military investigations since then - none of which has challenged the official Bush
administration line that there was no high-level policy condoning or overlooking such abuse. The buck always stops with
the handful of enlisted army reservists from the 372nd Military Police Company whose images fill the iconic Abu Ghraib
photos with their inappropriate smiles and sadistic posing of the prisoners.
It's a dreary pattern. The reports and the subsequent Senate proceedings are sometimes criticised on editorial pages.
There are calls for a truly independent investigation by the Senate or House. Then, as months pass with no official
action, the issue withers away, until the next set of revelations revives it.
There is much more to be learned. What do I know? A few things stand out. I know of the continuing practice of American
operatives seizing suspected terrorists and taking them, without any meaningful legal review, to interrogation centres
in south-east Asia and elsewhere. I know of the young special forces officer whose subordinates were confronted with
charges of prisoner abuse and torture at a secret hearing after one of them emailed explicit photos back home. The
officer testified that, yes, his men had done what the photos depicted, but they - and everybody in the command -
understood such treatment was condoned by higher-ups.
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