Actualité - Ret. Gen Accuses Pentagon of Cover-up

Washington, Jun 19 (Prensa Latina) A retired US two-star Army general accused the Pentagon of concealing the abuse and torture perpetrated in Iraqi Abu Ghraib Prison, says the New Yorker Magazine in its last issue.

Commander Antonio Taguba asserted that the secretary of defense imposed compulsory retirement on him, because his report about the scandal was too critical for the US Armed Forces.

According to Taguba, the Pentagon chief, then Donald Rumsfeld, diverted the investigations about Ghraib and minimized how much he and other experts knew about the case, which broke in May 2004.

The military expert also asserted that the Army still has unpublished photographs and videos that show worse mistreatment than those uncovered by the media.

Taguba said the US dailies ignored a short film showing a US soldier sexually subduing an Iraqi woman detained and apparently drugged.

The retired general, who led the first investigation into Abu Ghraib, asserted that top Defense Ministry officers directed the controversial policies of interrogation and torture of prisoners.

Taguba considers that the situation in the sadly notorious Iraqi prison was an international outrage and a serious stain on the US prison system.

(Prensa Latina News Agency)