Army Major General Antonio M. Taguba met with Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, one week after the photographs were released on the Abu Ghraib torture. General Taguba's stance was that what happened at Abu Ghraib was torture! In Seymour H. Hersh, The General's Report: How Antonio Taguba, Who Investigated the Abu Ghraib Scandal, Became One of Its Casualties, reports, "Nevertheless, Rumsfeld, in his appearance before the Senate and the House of Armed Services Committees on May 7th, claimed to have no idea of the extensive abuse." Rumsfeld takes the stance that he wishes someone would have stopped the abuse and reported sooner so they could have taken care of it. General Taguba knew this was absolutely not true.
General Taguba was tasked with the intensive investigation into the Abu Ghraib scandal. He repeatedly asked the officers, why was nothing done if they knew what they were doing was wrong? Upon investigation into the role of Lieutenant Colonel Steven L. Jordan, Taguba recalls "I suspected that somebody was giving them guidance, but I could not print that." General Taguba also reports he believed Lieutenant General Sanchez, the Army Commander in Iraq, had knowledge of what was going on. He argues that General Sanchez had visited the prison on several occasions and could not have been blind to what was going on. Again.... insinuating that these MPs were getting their orders from higher up and what was going on was absolutely tolerated by everyone on the site and around. It has even been mentioned that their would have been no recourse or action taken if their had been no photos.
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