corrente

From the beginning, it was the images that counted, not the words.

Spc. Joseph M. Darby, a 24-year-old Army Reserve soldier with the 372nd Military Police Company of Cresaptown, Md., heard about the computerized photos and video of the detainees, naked and in humiliating poses, with his fellow soldiers smiling nearby.

He got a set of the photos on a computer disk, said an Army official familiar with the investigation. Troubled by the images that flashed on the screen Jan. 13, Darby turned them over to a sergeant in his unit, who immediately notified Army criminal investigators.

Within hours, the investigators seized computers and disks from members of the unit.

The next day, Gen. John Abizaid, commander of all U.S. forces in the region, was on the phone to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

The photos and video were locked in the safe of the Army Criminal Investigation Division in Baghdad.
(via ChicagoTribune)

So they put the photos on ice. But that didn't help them. Why? Power of the Internet...

Officials now think that before the scandal erupted, the Maryland soldiers might have e-mailed those pictures back to the United States, where they fell into the hands of CBS's 60 Minutes II, which first ran them last Wednesday.

Other news organizations were also on to the story, including The New Yorker magazine. But the most concern centered on CBS. "The New Yorker was not going to run any pictures," said a senior Pentagon official.

"The concern was the images would get out before we could absorb the legal significance of what we had to do," a senior official said. "We couldn't believe the media hadn't gotten them earlier."

Apparently the generals think the SCLM is something to fear.

By the second week in April, it happened. CBS called the Pentagon about the story, saying they had interviewed one of the soldiers charged and had the horrifying images of the Iraqi detainees.

And now a word from the "Commander" in "Chief":

"The first time I saw or heard about pictures was on TV," [Bush] told the U.S. government sponsored Arabic language network Al-Hurra. His spokesman, Scott McClellan told reporters yesterday that Rumsfeld had told the president about the allegations of detainee abuse but McClellan said he did not know precisely when.

Notice the very artful wording Bush uses. He doesn't say he hadn't been briefed on the facts. He just says he hadn't seen the pictures (plausible deniability, don't you know). And given McClellan's vague statement, I'd say Bush set the policy, and knew about the torture right after Rummy knew. Either that or when Rove told him, when someone from the CPA told Rove.

Eesh. A total failure of leadership.