By Max J. Castro                                                                      Read Spanish Version
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“…there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”

That damning conclusion does not come from liberal critics of the administration, Amnesty International, or Human Rights Watch. It is that of Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba (Ret.), the man who conducted an official Army investigation of the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and wrote a report that belied the official story that it was all the fault of a few low-ranking “bad apples”. Taguba subsequently testified before Congress. As a reward for his unbending integrity, Taguba was forced out of the Army.

The words quoted above are from the General’s preface to a new report by Physicians for Human Rights, "Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by US Personnel and Its Impact” (http://brokenlives.info/).

The doctors’ report, based on examination of 11 former U.S. “war on terrorism” detainees, found medical evidence of “torture and cruel or degrading treatment or punishment.” The study, the cover of which shows a painting by Colombian painter Fernando Botero from his Abu Ghraib series, gives a detailed account of the cases of three detainees who suffered from horrific abuse including one who was sodomized with a broomstick and had his testicles stepped on.

According to the findings:

“All the detainees experienced severe, even excruciating physical pain from being kicked, punched, choked, shocked or sodomized, and many were terrorized by both the experience of the assaults on them and threats of more to come. Most of the detainees lost consciousness at least once as a result of beatings or other physical assaults. Some experienced bruising and trauma to their genitals. Some of the men were not only severely injured as a result of torture, but they then had to endure additional pain from the exploitation of those injuries by their tormenters.”

The pain of these men has not ended. After release, most of them have continued to suffer from the physical after-effects of abuse. Ten of the eleven former detainees continued to display severe psychological effects from the torture.

While the report notes that, given the small number of cases, the findings cannot be generalized to all detainees, the fact that of the eleven none were ever charged with a crime and eventually all were released suggests that if anything this group might not have received as harsh or as prolonged abuse as some other detainees who are still being held.

The report throws an especially harsh light upon physicians and psychologists who were found to facilitate the abuse of detainees. They “became complicit in the willful infliction of harm against those the Hippocratic Oath demands they protect,” writes General Taguba.

Ultimately, however, the greatest responsibility of all falls upon top policy makers who made the fateful decisions that led to torture and abuse. Taguba writes:

“In order for these individuals to suffer the wanton cruelty to which they were subjected, a government policy was promulgated to the field whereby the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice were disregarded. The UN Convention Against Torture was indiscriminately ignored.”

Yet the chances that Taguba’s question -- whether the culprits in this case will be held to account -- will be answered in the affirmative are slim. When it came to office -- and long before 9/11 and Iraq -- the Bush administration opted out of the International Criminal Court. The result, as intended, is that Americans judge themselves and impunity reigns.

If, as is the case, no one at any level will be held accountable for the wanton killings of 24 Iraqis, including women and children, in Haditha, can we expect that top officials will ever be indicted for torture in the United States?

Meanwhile, because of political calculation, and with exception of Dennis Kucinich and a few fellow mavericks, there is no interest, even among Democrats in Congress, in impeaching the President or other members of the administration.

There is always a chance that, once Bush has departed the scene, a bold and brave prosecutor or judge in a foreign country might go after a top former Bush administration official who sets foot in his or her jurisdiction. But can any government withstand the ensuing fury of the sole superpower?

It is true, as General Taguba wrote, that “Our national honor is stained by the indignity and inhumane treatment these men received from their captors.” It is a stain that will endure as long as those who brought such disgrace upon this nation are not brought to justice.