quote:


Not getting a lot of play here in the US, eh?

He also told the magazine he saw "a video of a male American soldier in uniform sodomising a female detainee," adding the video was never made public or mentioned in any court or in public.

Maj Gen Taguba says all high-level officials had avoided scrutiny while the jail keepers at Abu Ghraib were tried in courts-martial.

"From what I knew, troops just don't take it upon themselves to initiate what they did without any form of knowledge of the higher-ups," Maj Gen Taguba told the New Yorker, adding his orders were to investigate the military police only and not their superiors.

"These (military police) troops were not that creative," he said. "Somebody was giving them guidance, but I was legally prevented from further investigation into higher authority."

Criticism

Aware his remarks would open him to criticism from his military peers, Maj Gen Taguba said, "the fact is that we violated the laws of land warfare in Abu Ghraib".

"We violated the tenets of the Geneva Convention. We violated our own principles and we violated the core of our military values.

"The stress of combat is not an excuse, and I believe, even today, that those civilian and military leaders responsible should be held accountable."

Seymour Hersch, who interviewed Maj Gen Taguba for the New Yorker, told CNN television that officials tried to dissuade Maj Gen Taguba from disclosing the enormity of the scandal.

"He was discouraged, from the very beginning, to go all the way with the report. But he kept on doing it," Mr Hersh said.