What Did Congress Know and When Did They Know It?

Yahoo! News - Congress Members Told of Abuse Months Ago

Two months before pictures of Iraqi prisoner abuse became public, the family of one accused soldier wrote to 14 members of Congress that "something went wrong" involving "mistreatment of POWs" at Abu Ghraib prison.

Separately, a suspended Army officer in Iraq wrote to Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania that he was being unfairly punished after "pictures of naked prisoners" were discovered. He sent the letter six weeks before the CBS program "60 Minutes II" first broadcast photographs of the prisoners on April 28.

The strongest reply any of them got was a note saying what they already knew — that the Army was investigating, according to documents released last week by Specter's office and the family of Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Ivan L. "Chip" Frederick.

[...]

On March 18, Lt. Col. Jerry Phillabaum, formerly second-in-command at Abu Ghraib, wrote an e-mail to Specter mentioning "digital pictures of naked prisoners," The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Saturday. At the time, Phillabaum had been suspended as commander of the 320th Military Police Battalion while Army investigators probed the alleged abuse. He has since been reprimanded and relieved of command.

In the letter, Phillabaum sought Specter's help in expediting the investigation so he could return to his family in Lansdale, Pa.

And for those keeping score at home, the 60 Minutes II story was aired, as noted above, on April 28, but the letters in question came two months before that and on February 23rd Senator Rockefeller (D-WV) received a letter from a guard who had been relieved of duty and that on January 12th the army announced they were investigating the prison. Further, Specter had correspondence on March 18th that informed him an investigation was under way.

(I note the dates not to exonerate, or to state that all was done properly, but to establish a basic timeline).

First off, Senators can't be expected to go to red alert over a letter from a service member's family. Second, criticism can be levied that a full report was made sooner to the Congress, given the obvious knowledge of the photos prior to their airing on TV.

However, several other things are clear as well: 1) righteous indignation by Congress at not being informed has been a tad overblown, 2) there was an investigation ongoing, and one suspects that one it was complete, a report would have been made to the appropriate committees in Congress, and 3) the affair illustrates, however, how the timeline for reporting to the Congress, the upper echelons of the Pentagon and to the President likely need to be re-assessed given the ease at which digital images are taken, and distributed. Even ten years ago had this abuse taken place, the odds of there being any pictures, let alone so many high-quality easily copied ones, is unlikely. As with most technology, the government is clearly taking its time to adjust--ditto the mass media.

Indeed, both the Abu Grhaib photos, and the Berg video, clearly demonstrate that the availability of images of just about anything that happens has radically increased, and that their distribution has become the stuff, literally, of child's play.

Posted by Steven Taylor at May 16, 2024 07:21 PM | TrackBack