Of all the angles to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal — and there are just so damn many — I continue to be fascinated by how the failures fit into the Bush administration’s ongoing love of secrecy.
By now, nearly everyone realizes that the Taguba report was widely ignored by people (Rumsfeld, Myers, Bush) who should have taken it seriously. What seems to be overlooked by some is the fact that the report detailing the abuse was classified “Secret,” but no one can explain why.
[T]he government’s chief classifier decided to open an investigation into the appropriateness of classifying the Army’s probe of prison abuses. J. William Leonard, director of the Information Security Oversight Office, agreed to a request in a letter from Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists.
In the letter, Aftergood cited the executive order on classification, No. 12958, as prohibiting the classification of documents solely to “conceal violations of law.” Government documents are supposed to be classified if revealing their contents would harm national security. Senior Pentagon officials have been unable to explain why the report, known as an Article 15-6, was classified. In response to a reporter’s question on May 4, Pace said, “I do not know specifically why it was labeled secret.”
This may seem trivial, and considering what this scandal is doing to inflame the world, it may be, but this cover-up — classifying a document to conceal crimes — is itself a crime.
When Rumsfeld was asked last week to explain why the report would be considered secret, he said, “You’d have to ask the classifier.” That’s a cute answer to a question that needs a better answer.
In fact, the answer may point to a legal problem for the administration, on top of the military, diplomatic, and political landmine it has already apparently stepped on.
It’s never wise to jump to conclusions, but it’s hard to imagine more than one reason the Taguba report would be classified: Pentagon officials recognized the report’s explosive potential and classified it to prevent word from getting out. The problem, of course, is that the law prevents just such a tactic.
I obviously have no idea who was responsible and/or who knew about the classifying process for this report. But if there’s information pointing to Rumsfeld’s involvement in any way, he won’t be able to keep his job, no matter how much Bush is inclined to support him. And depending on who else knew, this has the potential to make an already-devastating scandal considerably worse.
While I’m on the subject, I wanted to add that the Pentagon is going to comical lengths to pretend that the report is still classified, despite having been posted online by several news outlets. I noticed (via Mark Kleiman), for example, that Pentagon staffers are being instructed not to read the report.
It’s not exactly every day that the Pentagon warns military personnel to stay away from Fox News. But that’s exactly what some hopeful soul at the Department of Defense instructed, in a memo intended to forbid Pentagon staff reading a copy of the Taguba report detailing abuse of detainees at prisons in Iraq that had been posted at the Fox News web site.
An email to Pentagon staff marked “URGENT IT (Information Technology) BULLETIN: Taguba Report” orders employees not to read or download the Taguba report at Fox News, on the grounds that the document is classified. It also orders them not to discuss the matter with friends or family members. The emailed memo was leaked to TIME by a senior U.S. civilian official in Baghdad, who did not hide his disdain for the “factotums” in the Pentagon. “I do wonder how incredibly stupid some people in the Pentagon are,” he emailed TIME. “Not only are they drawing everyone’s attention to the report — and where it can be seen — but attempting to muzzle people never works.”
Oddly enough, Senate staffers are being told the same thing.
Some top administration officials may have been slow off the mark in reading the Pentagon’s report on U.S. abuse of Iraqi prisoners. But Senate staffers, especially those on the relevant armed services, intelligence and foreign relations committees, rushed last week to check things out.
But not so fast. Some Senate aides may have forgotten to go through proper channels to obtain this very secret document by downloading it from the Internet. This is not acceptable behavior.
“As you probably are aware,” Mike DiSilvestro, director of the Office of Senate Security, said in an e-mail Wednesday afternoon, “National Public Radio obtained a copy of the DoD report, classified SECRET/NOFORN, and posted it on the NPR website. Naturally, the report is of interest to many Members and staff. If you have not already obtained an official copy of the report from DoD, please do so, rather than printing or downloading the report from NPR.”
So NPR, which during the Cold War was affectionately called Moscow on the Potomac, had the report? No matter. “DoD still considers the report classified,” DiSilvestro said, “so we do not want classified reports on our unclassified systems, or printed versions floating around outside classified document control systems.
So let’s review for a moment. A military report documenting torture was hidden, probably illegally, from everyone. The President and the Defense Secretary realized it was going to be devastating, but decided not to read it. Once it was posted online by underground websites like MSNBC and Fox News, government employees are reminded that, while everyone with web access can read the document, they shouldn’t, because it’s classified.
All the while, Rumsfeld is convinced that “the system works,” and Bush and Cheney think Rumsfeld is “doing a superb job.”
Ever feel like you’re trapped in a Twilight Zone episode?