UPDATED X2: Scroll down for latest updates from Reuters and New York Times.
Daniel Froomkin of the Washington Post just published a special report that takes off on today's AP story by Pamela Hess on the publication by Physicians for Human Rights of a juggernaut report on medical evidence of US torture and its lasting impact (which MeteorBlades prominently covered on the Daily Kos homepage).
The story is blowing up, since AP published its story at midnight Eastern last night, and our own MeteorBlades became the first blogger to cover the breaking news. PHR's report was briefly featured as the top story on CNN's homepage this morning. CNN's "Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer" aired additional coverage from Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr tonight during the 5:00 p.m. Eastern time slot.
Froomkin writes on the WaPo blog:
The two-star general who led an Army investigation into the horrific detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib has accused the Bush administration of war crimes and is calling for accountability.
In his 2004 report on Abu Ghraib, then-Major General Anthony Taguba concluded that "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees." He called the abuse "systemic and illegal." And, as Seymour M. Hersh reported in the New Yorker, he was rewarded for his honesty by being forced into retirement.
Now, in a preface to a Physicians for Human Rights report based on medical examinations of former detainees, Taguba adds an epilogue to his own investigation.
In his preface, Major General Antonio Taguba (USA-Ret.) stated:
"The profiles of these eleven former detainees, none of whom were ever charged with a crime or told why they were detained, are tragic and brutal rebuttals to those who claim that torture is ever justified. Through the experiences of these men in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, we can see the full-scope of the damage this illegal and unsound policy has inflicted --both on America's institutions and our nation's founding values, which the military, intelligence services, and our justice system are duty-bound to defend.
"In order for these individuals to suffer the wanton cruelty to which they were subjected, a government policy was promulgated to the field whereby the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice were disregarded. The UN Convention Against Torture was indiscriminately ignored. . . .
"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."
PHR just posted a video of its CEO, Frank Donaghue, reading the "war crimes" excerpt from Taguba, and issuing a call to action -- full investigation, accountability, and reparations, including medical care and psychological treatment for survivors of US torture in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay.
Meanwhile, check out today's story by Tom Lasseter for McClatchy newspapers -- the latest installment in a five-part series revealing the Bush administration's blatant disregard for the rule of law, including the Geneva Conventions that protect detainees and prisoners of war.
Lasseter writes:
"It was largely the work of five White House, Pentagon and Justice Department lawyers who, following the orders of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, reinterpreted or tossed out the U.S. and international laws that govern the treatment of prisoners in wartime, according to former U.S. defense and Bush administration officials.
"The Supreme Court now has struck down many of their legal interpretations. It ruled last Thursday that preventing detainees from challenging their detention in federal courts was unconstitutional.
"The quintet of lawyers, who called themselves the 'War Council,' drafted legal opinions that circumvented the military's code of justice, the federal court system and America's international treaties in order to prevent anyone -- from soldiers on the ground to the president -- from being held accountable for activities that at other times have been considered war crimes. . . .
It's time to act now to stop US torture.
UPDATE: Doctor Says US Torture 'Second to None'
Deborah Charles of Reuters just published another major story on PHR's Broken Laws, Broken Lives report, quoting Dr. Allen Keller, a medical evaluator for PHR's report, who said that US torture was "second to none" in its intensity and lasting impact.
Charles writes:
Physicians for Human Rights conducted two-day clinical interviews and evaluations of each of the 11 former detainees to document psychological and physical consequences of their treatment while in custody.
Four of the men were arrested in or brought to Afghanistan between late 2001 and early 2003 and were later sent to Guantanamo. They were held for an average of three years before being released without charge.
The other seven were detained in Iraq, most in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, in 2003 and released without charge later that year or in 2004.
"As a physician with more than 15 years of experience evaluating and caring for torture victims from all over the world, the torture and abuse these men were subjected to in Abu Ghraib and the resulting trauma are second to none," said Allen Keller, one of the medical evaluators for the study.
Keller said he and his colleagues found "clear physical and psychological evidence" of torture and abuse, often causing lasting suffering.
Leonard Rubenstein, president of the advocacy group, said the men, particularly those held in Iraq, described a system of "gratuitous cruelty" by U.S. personnel.
"Another key finding is that the authorized techniques, many of which themselves amount to torture, begat yet additional forms of torture, proving once again that once torture starts it can't be contained," Rubenstein said.
UPDATE X2: Kristof Calls Taguba 'A Study in Honor'
Nicholas Kristof just posted this on The New York Times blog:
The defense lawyers for the Guantanamo inmates have done superb work, courageously bucking the political tide. The courts haven’t done so badly either. But some of the people I’m most impressed by are the military lawyers and other officers who saw what was happening and were so repulsed that they blew the whistle loudly — offending the Pentagon and sometimes shortening their careers. They went against their cohort, their bosses and to some extent their culture, for the sake of terror suspects of different nationalities and different religion, simply because they thought what was happening was illegal or inhumane.
Physicians for Human Rights, a terrific organization, has a devastating new report just out about Guantanamo. But above all, read the introduction by Major General Taguba; he’s a study in honor.