Tuesday

PENTAGON CENSORS CHAIN OF COMMAND ON ABU GHRAIB

Taguba Report Named Names of Abusers and Commanders
Names Blacked Out in Documents Released Last Week to ACLU



Washington D.C.: The Department of Defense has refused to release the names of military officers in the chain of command over the soldiers charged with prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, according to an analysis of the documents posted today on the Web by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. DOD also refused to release the names of the officers who reviewed the so-called "Taguba Report," which recommended disciplinary and administrative actions for the abuses perpetrated at Abu Ghraib.

The redactions of the names of the officers are in documents ordered to be released by a federal court in New York, in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. The judge's order stated: "No one is above the law: not the executive, not the Congress, not the judiciary." Thomas Blanton, the National Security Archive director commented, "Either the black magic marker got completely out of control, or the Department of Defense is covering up the names of the accused abusers and the superior officers who allegedly condoned the abuse."

The names hidden by the black redactions in the Department of Defense's court-ordered release are known because many of the same records are widely available on a variety of news media web sites, including the National Security Archive's own posting of July 13, 2004. "It is certainly possible that the redactions resulted from incompetence or more benign reasons," said Blanton. "Maybe it is just a case of trying to protect individual privacy. But I don't see how the privacy concern could apply to the name of Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, who was the top commander in Iraq."

A sample of the censored documents can be viewed at the National Security Archive web site at: http://www.nsarchive.org
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THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication royalties and donations from foundations and individuals.

For more information contact
Thomas Blanton - 202/994-7000
National Security Archive Update, October 29, 2004
http://www.nsarchive.org

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