Newsday Opinion: Blame for Abu Ghraib goes higher

[UpInArms]

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpqabu283945107aug28,0,7477984.story?coll=ny-editorials-headlines

Independent assessments of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib should lay to rest White House attempts to limit blame to a few bad apples on the night shift. A panel headed by former Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger found the Pentagon's civilian and military command responsible for conditions that led to "egregious abuses" at the U.S.-run prison. That includes Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. A separate Army investigative report said the involvement of intelligence operatives with wider latitude in interrogation techniques also contributed to abuses at Abu Ghraib.

But responsibility goes farther up the line than that: All the way to President George W. Bush.

"The abuses were not just the failure of some individuals to follow known standards, and they are more than the failure of a few leaders to enforce proper discipline," the Schlesinger panel said. "There is both institutional and personal responsibility at higher levels." Actually, at the highest level.

Bush set the stage for abuse in February 2002 when he declared that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to al-Qaida prisoners and the Taliban were unlawful combatants unqualified for prisoner of war status. When the man at the top says the rules don't apply, abusive excesses are a predictable result.

...more...