The Levin Report Prompts A Second Look At Other Bush-Era Whitewashes

When General Antonio Taguba investigated the abuses at Abu Ghraib, he soon realized that General Ricardo Sanchez, the army commander in Iraq, "knew exactly what was going on." But Taguba's report did not implicate Sanchez, because his assignment had a very limited scope.

As directed by Sanchez, the inquiry was limited to the operations at the 800th Military Police Brigade, under Brigadier General Janice Karpinski, beginning on November 1, 2003. Weeks before that date, Guantanamo commander General Geoffrey Miller made a 10-day visit to Iraq, between August 31 and September 9, 2003, when he recommended that soldiers start "GITMO-izing" interrogations at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. Five days after Miller's visit, Sanchez signed a memo authorizing interrogation techniques that violated both the Geneva conventions and the army field manual. A few weeks later, during October 2003, Miller briefed Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Under Secretary Steven Cambone as to his recommendations for interrogating civilian detainees in Iraq.

Taguba's report had suggested that Miller's actions had contributed to the atmosphere of abuse at the prison. Nonetheless, following the release of the report in March 2004, Miller was brought back to Iraq to replace Karpinski and to assume control of Abu Ghraib operations.

The story of Taguba's report reflects a truism applicable to every investigation: When large swaths of information are declared off limits, the resulting work product may be fatally flawed. The findings may be used as a whitewash, if not a cover-up. This truism is ignored constantly by the media, in stark contrast to the time of the Watergate hearings, when an 18-minute gap in Nixon's White House tapes was considered a very big deal.

The Levin Report, which traces the culpability for torture at Abu Ghraib to Donald Rumsfeld, shows the limits of the Taguba report. (It also offers up abundant evidence that Miller obstructed justice and Rumsfeld committed perjury.) But the flaws of the Taguba report were always hiding in plain sight, and were always ignored.

Consider Rumsfeld's response to the Levin Report:

"To date there have been 12 major nonpartisan reports on detention operations. None of those reports concluded that there was any DoD policy or DoD officials that condoned or tolerated abuse."

Exactly. As Seymour Hersh reported in The New Yorker:

"A dozen government investigations have been conducted into Abu Ghraib and detainee abuse. A few of them picked up on matters raised by Taguba's report, but none followed through on the question of ultimate responsibility. Military investigators were precluded from looking into the role of Rumsfeld and other civilian leaders in the Pentagon; the result was that none found any high-level intelligence involvement in the abuse."

Rumsfeld used those 12 reports as a distraction, a vehicle for deceit. He wants us to believe that his culpability had been investigated, when in fact the opposite is true.

Hersh's article illustrates the defining characteristic of all major scandals, from Enron to the Holocaust. In every case, large numbers of people opt for willful blindness, looking the other way in the face of obvious signs of wrongdoing. Hersh describes a meeting with Rumsfeld during May 2004, several months after Taguba's report was completed, and weeks after the milder Abu Ghraib abuses had been broadcast on 60 Minutes:

"Rumsfeld also complained about not being given the information he needed. 'Here I am,"' Taguba recalled Rumsfeld saying, 'just a Secretary of Defense, and we have not seen a copy of your report. I have not seen the photographs, and I have to testify to Congress tomorrow and talk about this.'

"Taguba had submitted more than a dozen copies of his report through several channels at the Pentagon and to the Central Command headquarters, in Tampa, Florida, which ran the war in Iraq. By the time he walked into Rumsfeld's conference room, he had spent weeks briefing senior military leaders on the report, but he received no indication that any of them, with the exception of General Schoomaker, had actually read it... When Taguba urged one lieutenant general to look at the photographs, he rebuffed him, saying, 'I don't want to get involved by looking, because what do you do with that information, once you know what they show?'

"Taguba also knew that senior officials in Rumsfeld's office and elsewhere in the Pentagon had been given a graphic account of the pictures from Abu Ghraib, and told of their potential strategic significance, within days of the first complaint."

For his current defense, Rumsfeld uses the standard ploys invoked by conservatives for the past eight years. He invokes Bush-era investigations, which, circumscribed in their pursuit of evidence, were used to whitewash the truth. And he relies on the willful blindness of others, notably the media, who ignore the damning evidence hiding in plain sight. Other examples abound. David Brooks' defense of the Bush White House is typical:

"Are they guilty of manipulating intelligence on WMD? That, I think, is the thing they are least guilty of. I think Randy Scheunemann mentioned the Robb report, which showed there was no political pressure...And there was a Senate intelligence report; there was a Butler report. There were all of these reports. None of them found manipulation of intelligence." The News Hour, November 5, 2005

Neither the Silberman-Robb Report, nor the July 2004 Senate Intelligence Report, nor the Butler report considered how the Bush administration dealt with WMD intelligence. Those reports, like the Taguba report, failed to pursue evidence going up the chain of command. Those WMD reports, like the Taguba report, sidestepped the timeframe that mattered most, beginning on March 7, 2003. Brooks invoked those reports to mislead PBS's viewers.

Brooks was enabled by the willful blindness of mainstream media, which ignored the evidence of Bush's bad faith at the time of the invasion. On March 7, 2003, Hans Blix and Mohammed ElBaradei presented the U.N. inspectors' findings, which discredited the CIA intelligence submitted by Colin Powell. Did Bush try to reconcile the differences? Did he attempt to explain to Security Council members, or anyone else, why he thought the inspectors were wrong? Of course not.

On March 7, 2003, the most up-to-date intelligence from the on-the-ground inspectors put Bush and the world on notice that the CIA's intelligence was faulty. Showing a reckless disregard for the truth, Bush invaded anyway. No investigation into the CIA's intelligence process could possibly ameliorate the willful blindness of the Bush administration after that date. Think about it. No one ever said, "You can't blame the captain because there were no iceberg warnings when the Titanic left Southampton."

Yet on December 1, 2008, Charlie Gibson asked Bush, "If the intelligence had been right, would there have been an Iraq war?" Bush responded with an obvious and transparent lie, "Saddam Hussein was unwilling to let the inspectors go in to determine whether or not the U.N. resolutions were being upheld." Willfully blind, Gibson offered no follow up.

The Levin report should remind us that most Bush-era investigations were circumscribed to preempt accountability and to serve as distractions to distort the mainstream media narrative. After the Pentagon withdrew its Bush-era report, which attempted to refute The New York Times article on the Pentagon campaign for Milli Vanilli journalism, Frank Rich reminded Rachel Maddow that many other investigative reports from the Pentagon's former inspector general were similarly tainted. But the problem extends far beyond the Pentagon.

There are many other counterparts to the Taguba report, reports that were fatally flawed because critical evidence was kept off-limits, and which were used as distractions from the incriminating evidence hiding in plain sight. All of the Katrina reports fit that profile. None of the investigations were allowed access to communications among senior White House officials, Pentagon officials, DHS officials and the governors of Alabama and Mississippi. Yet Michael Chertoff's open refusal to follow the procedures of the National Response Plan, and his lies about it afterwards, were always hiding in plain sight.

Let's not forget that, so far, nothing related to Karl Rove has been adequately investigated. Rove has been implicated in scandals pertaining to the U.S. attorney firings, Jack Abramoff's bribery schemes, the smear campaign against Valerie Plame Wilson, and the prosecution of Gov. Don Siegelman. Rove consistently flouted the Presidential Records Act, sending 95% of his emails through an RNC account. There is abundant circumstantial evidence that Rove used the RNC as a criminal enterprise, as a vehicle for obstructing justice. If U.S. Attorney Nora R. Dannehy, the prosecutor investigating the U.S. attorney firings, fails to obtain access to Rove's emails, her investigation, like Taguba's, may be fatally flawed.

Comments

[MikeRdg]

“Let's not forget that, so far, nothing related to Karl Rove has been adequately investigated. Rove has been implicated in scandals pertaining to the U.S. attorney firings, Jack Abramoff's bribery schemes, the smear campaign against Valerie Plame Wilson, and the prosecution of Gov. Don Siegelman. Rove consistently flouted “

Least we not forget, Rove was sent to George Bush Jr. by Bob Bennett from Utah, delivering him a car and a friendship formed. If you feel this is on only one political side == wrong again.

Valerie Plame? Plames friend a former CIA friend Marcinkowski, ran against Mike Rodgers. Mikey not letting anyone know he was getting a divorce, which his wife filed for right after the campaign, and walked off with everything. Marcinkowski, was strangely not showing up in pictures with people in his political party. Wonder why? Of course Marcinkowski, lost hands down to Rogers—
Rove was a Twit Supporter -- big time, what a shock, (not)

[dwright]

Here is another one that needs further study:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/12/david-barstow-tv-networks_n_202610.html

[lyta]

"The average conservative was being used and most of them still dont realize it because Rush and Hannity will never tell them that."

On the contrary Rush has been caught and also bragged about this very thing. "I am just an entertaine­r." There was more I've forgotten in disgust at those who continue to espouse his trash.

[RandVictims]

Since it's clear no one will bring these a**holes to justice, I don't want to hear anymore of this, I only get frustrated at being helpless.

Move on to issues regarding the Middle Class, please.

[Amerigucci]

Waterboarding Far Down The List Of Things They Did, Gitmo Detainee’s ‘Genitals Were Sliced With A Scalpel’

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/09/mohamed-torture-uk-us/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/4551441/UK-government-suppressed-evidence-on-Binyam-Mohamed-torture-because-MI6-helped-his-interrogators.html

After George W. Bush got into the White House, I used to say that he was proof that anyone could become the president of the US.

After the last 8 years of the most criminal administration in our history, of mo' better crimes against more people on unparalleled scales committed with no consequences whatsoever, I say that anyone can get away with anything.

The Republic is dead. If you don't believe it, read this:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/12/obama/index.html

[zlohcuc]

Thanks for the link. Depressing read for anyone who grew up believing the American ideals concerning freedom, morality and the notion that we are a nation of laws.

[lbrillante]

Nothing will change if 'we' don't fight for what we want. If 'we' want accoutability, if it is 'worth' pursuing, then what are we wiling to do, how far out of our comfort zones are 'we' willing to go to fight for it?

I am recognizing in myself and in our country that 'we' are our own worst enemy because we sit in our living rooms and at our computer desks and point fingers at the people who are doing what needs to be done, we hope that 'somebody' will do something to make sure that they are held accountable. It's time to look in the mirror and ask yourself 'what am I willing to do' to make sure that the people working for me, my government knows that I demand accountability?

It's not up to 'someone' out there. It is 'our' hands, it is up to us.

[RobertHenryEller]

We are the ones we are still waiting for.

[schatsie]

It is all about PLAUSIBLE DENIABILIT­Y... Boy I wish I could rob a bank and use that as an excuse....

[ConnieInCleveland]

Peggy Noonan recently said it's time to 'move forward' and not reflect on the past. Somethings are better left a mystery. Then, she stated she would like to see more investigative journalists in the future. How convenient! George W. gets a pass and President Obama gets the microscope.

I would like to see more investigative journalists also. I would like to see them gain their investigative credentials, investigating the Bush Administration. The facts are already out there. All they have to do is put two and two together using fact not spin. We are tired of being spun. Distorted facts and real facts should not be spun as equal. The truth matters.

[Loompa]

You are right, connie, about the constant spin - I am getting quite sick of the mainstream media's total disregard for facts in lieu of total unadulterated anti-Bush rhetoric which doesn't even come close to any truth.

[larry278]

Check out how Urban Dictionary defines whitewash. Perhaps the Repoopliecons aren't completely impotent--yet.

[Articulator]

Absolutely excellent. Now that you review them, I remember exactly these issues when they were going on. The level of deceit was unbelievable and appalling - and yes is was hiding in plain sight for those who looked beyond their ideology. If all those who mouthed the GOP talking points all those years ever realized what it truly was that they were trying to cloak by mouthing those words, they would realize what fools they made of themselves doing it. The average conservative was being used and most of them still dont realize it because Rush and Hannity will never tell them that. By so vigorously defending George, Dick, Karl, Rummy and others, the Bush administration will always be viewed as the culmination of the conservative ideology which may become quite an anchor as time moves on and more information gets out about the inner workings of that regime. It did not have to be that way, the conservatives have a lot to offer but by letting the extremes of Rush and Hannity become their leaders, they became blind to the facts on the ground as their leaders spun their own conveniant reality.

[MinerSam]

Propaganda coupled wAmnesia prevailed.

We've already had such crap during (Reinvented) Reagan/Bush1 Era. 21 appointees indicted. Reagan told Americans the root of economic woews: single welfare mothers.

Hevery afternoon, confuse movie plots with history, increased budget deficit 1000%, took Solar Panels off White House roof! Second earner was needed just so Middle Class people could maintain standard of living.

Savings&Loan debolce cost tax payers 500B...W's brother a key player. Reagan dropped the Middle East Peace process, Carter worked hard on, as did "W" for 18 months after Clinton.

Reagan appointed people to head federal agencies who did not believe in their missions..­.75% of beef became contaminated w/fecal matter with USDA inspectors let go. We learned how they outsourced to contractors ($2000 toilet seats, $800 Allan wrenches.

They warned Clinton not to run...with all other Democrats they will win calling them "too liberals" but not him so if he runs they will destroy him. which they tried to do...count­less things He&Hillary were innocent of!

Next chapter Reps fought like dogs to stop recount of popular vote. GWB left Texas bankrupt, Cheney worked w/ Burmese Junta against shareholder wishes.

Each time the Republican propagandists come back they come back worse/stronger.

Latest strategy is make Democrats looks bad to their constituan­ts...helpe­d by Republican controlled media beholden to them for media consolidat­ion...gave Swiftboat liars billions
in free air time. Teaching facts to brainwashed electorate MUST BE A priority!.

[dutch163]

I agree, fantastic post

You are an incredibly good researcher!!

the problem is memories can be short and we need someone like you to keep the facts straight..
I hope this article gets more attention

[GardenerNorCal]

Carl Rove will never be investigated. All one can assume is that he has dirt on everyone.

[CrankyCurmudgeon]

This article is so good, and so to the point, it probably won't get more than a few dozen comments. It's too scary for even us so-called progressives. I, for one, would like to see some kind of culpability. These bastards got away with waaaaaaaaaaay too much and we're going to pay for it for decades to come.

[janeypearl]

Excellent!

[petef59]

How many political operatives were appointed to how many federal agencies? This was a power-hungry, manipulative adminsitration quite adept at escaping personal responsiblity for any of their actions.