When General Taguba talks about this issue will the media listen? Remember when Sy Hersh reported that the General was one of the casualties of the Abu Ghraib?

How Antonio Taguba, who investigated the Abu Ghraib scandal, became one of its casualties.

When we first started talking about torture on C&L and much of the liberal blogoshere we were called anti-American, traitors, unpatriotic and the like. The White House and their media enablers like the Bill O'Reilly's proclaimed that Abu Ghraib was only a few bad apples. Nothing to see hear so move along little sheep. Well, the evidence is flooding in that refutes this nonsense and now I'd like to ask them something. Who is the traitor to America? Who has been unpatriotic?

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Starr: One thing perhaps worth noting in this report, heidi, is the forward, the preface to the report was written by retired major general Anthony Teguba. He's the army general that led the investigation into the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. in this report the general says, "there is no longer any doubt that the current administration committed war crimes."

The only question is whether those who ordered torture will be held into account. pretty tough words from a man very well regarded inside the army when he conducted the investigation into Abu Ghraib. For its part, the pentagon continues to say that it deals with detainees in a humane fashion, that there is no policy towards torture, and if there was any misconduct, any abuse, it was in violation of government policy. but this report clearly a pretty damning indictment if it stands on its own.

I'd like all those that went out of their way to attack us to come out and apologize to us, our country, our soldiers and the victims of this abuse known as torture. Barbara Starr gave this report on CNN. There should be numerous investigations for war crimes on Bush Co. and everyone involved. The sooner the better. (rough transcript below the fold)

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During an interview with Sky News, President Bush accused British journalist Adam Boulton of "slander[ing] America" when he noted that, despite the President's lofty rhetoric of spreading freedom, Guantanamo Bay and rendition are really "the complete opposite of freedom."

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BOULTON: And yet there are those who would say, look, let's take Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib and rendition and all those things, and to them that is the, you know, the complete opposite of freedom.

THE PRESIDENT: Of course if you want to slander America, you can look at it one way. But you go down -- what you need to do -- I think I suggested you do this at a press conference -- if you go down to Guantanamo and take a look at how these prisoners are treated -- and they're working it through our court systems. We are a land of law.

The standard response whenever one criticizes American policies, of course, is to proclaim that that person is an anti-American slanderer. The irony, though, is that the policies this President has pursued over the past eight years could not be more "anti-American" in the classical sense. You know, things like rule of law and respect for human rights.

But wait, there's more:

BOULTON: But the Supreme Court have just said that -- you know, ruled against what you've been doing down there.

THE PRESIDENT: But the district court didn't. And the appellate court didn't.

BOULTON: The Supreme Court is supreme, isn't it?

You see, in Bush's America, the only courts that count are the ones he controls and/or the ones who rule in his favor. Never mind the fact that, as Boulton points out, the Supreme Court is called the Supreme Court for a reason.

This man -- and the corrupt movement that sustained him for so long -- truly sicken me. January can't come soon enough.

WaPo's Dan Froomkin has more on what he calls "Bush's Senioritis" and "contempt for those who question him or doubt his accomplishments."

Full, infuriating transcript below the fold.

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By Bradley Graham

WASHINGTON - What began several months ago with the emergence of shocking photographs showing a handful of U.S. troops abusing detainees in Iraq has led this week to a broad indictment of U.S. military leadership and acknowledgment in two official reports that mistreatment of prisoners was more widespread than previously disclosed. The reports have served to undercut earlier portrayals of the abuse as largely the result of criminal misconduct by a small group of individuals. As recently as last month, an assessment by the Army's inspector general concluded the incidents could not be ascribed to systemic problems, describing them as "aberrations. Full article