NYT Op-Ed: Abu Ghraib, the next step

[Alpharetta]

Abu Ghraib, the Next Step

Published: August 27, 2004

For months, John Warner, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has been gamely resisting pressure from Republican leaders to call off his hearings on the Abu Ghraib prison disaster - the only real sign of life on Capitol Hill on this important issue. Mr. Warner was patiently awaiting the outcome of a set of Pentagon investigations, including one by the Army and one by a civilian panel set up by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Both issued reports this week, and it's clear that Mr. Warner still has work to do.

The Army report did a painfully professional job of criticizing its own enlisted men and officers, including the three-star general who commanded American forces in Iraq at the time of the prison brutality and his two-star deputy. But it was not up to the Army to review the actions of the policy makers in Washington. It was also pretty obvious that Mr. Rumsfeld's panel - two former secretaries of defense, a retired general and a former Republican congresswoman - was not going to produce a clear-eyed assessment of responsibility.

Rest of column

[Alpharetta]

1. Warner can't kill the hearings

If he did, the rape videos would get leaked.