corrente

You know, the civilians who were giving soldiers orders?

The Army general who first investigated abuse in an Iraqi prison told Congress on Tuesday the mistreatment resulted from faulty leadership, a "lack of discipline, no training whatsoever and no supervision" of the troops.

Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba also left open the possibility that members of the Central Intelligence Agency as well as armed forces personnel and civilian contractors were culpable in the abusive treatment of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison.

"A few soldiers and civilians conspired to abuse and conduct egregious acts of violence against detainees and other civilians outside the bounds of international laws and the Geneva Convention," Taguba told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
(via AP)

Taguba's looking more and more like the administration's second line of defense, to me.

Taguba keeps saying "few."

Taguba doesn't dissect the chain of command that enabled civilians to give orders to soldiers ("the fog machine").

And Taguba resolutely refuses to ask on what system the photo and video data was stored, who built the system, who had access to the system, what the distribution list for the photos was, whether there were backups, and where these backups were now.

Keep that word, "systemic," in the front of your mind.

And let's hope Seymour Hersh doesn't go up in any small planes, meet anyone in a deserted parking garage, or take candy from strangers....