Senator Carl Levin appeared on 'Fox News Sunday' yesterday to press the attack against the administration, this time for the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. In spite of Chris Wallace's references to contradictory evidence, the Senator completely ruled out the possibility that the abuses committed by prison guards were acts performed by individuals: So it's a combination of the report by General Taguba himself, with statements, plus the pictures themselves, and also, by the way, the International Red Cross has those findings, that this was all part of an intelligence-gathering operation, and it was, quote, "part of the process," the acts of humiliation and the abuses were a part of a process, not just the spontaneous actions of a few MPs.
Fox commentator Chris Wallace asked for Levin's explanation of this possible contradiction: Specialist Jeremy Sivits, who faces a court martial this week, it's turned out that he has told military investigators that the chain of command didn't know about it. Here's what he had to say: "Our commanders would have slammed us. They believe in doing the right thing. If they saw what was going on, there would be hell to pay."
Senator, is there any reason not to believe Jeremy Sivits?
LEVIN: Yes, a lot of reasons: the ones I just gave, including the testimony to General Taguba… Chris Wallace asked for clarification: WALLACE: Senator, I want to pick up on General Taguba, who you keep bringing up, because he was asked directly at the hearings that you were at who ordered these actions, and here's what he had to say. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJOR GENERAL ANTONIO TAGUBA: Sir, we did not find any evidence of a policy or a direct order given to these soldiers to conduct what they did. I believe that they did it on their own volition.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Senator?
So what was Levin's reply after seeing the Tagouba clip?
Posted by: sf | May 25, 2004 at 01:31 PM