120th in blog series on the administration push to war. As more information on the abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib and other U.S. prisons becomes public, the White House becomes more defensive. Its special new ally in the White House press corps continues his effort to defend the administration. The situation in Iraq continues to worsen, predictably, and the administration responds—not by leaving Iraq, now that Saddam is gone and WMD are shown to be nonexistent, but by upping its use of military force. This is the month which should have indicated definitively to American news media that the conquest of Iraq has become a military occupation.
May, 2004:

 

May 4, 2004 – The U.S. Army issues its report on Iraqi prisoner abuse, Article 15-6, “Investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade,” by Major General Antonio M. Taguba. The report reviews abuses of prisoners or ‘detainees’ by military and security personnel in Iraq.

 

Same day – Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld announces that instead of reducing U.S. forces in Iraq to between 105,000 and 115,000 troops, the Pentagon will maintain the current level of 138,000 through 2005. The change is attributed to security needs in Iraq.

 

May 5, 2004 – Bush asks Congress for an additional $25 billion to pay for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq through October 1.

 

May 6, 2004 – At the White House press briefing conducted by Scott McClellan, numerous questions arise about the prisoner abuses exposed at Abu Ghraib. Jeff Gannon/James Guckert asks another helpful question:

“Go ahead, Jeff.

Q We're seeing these photographs in the sterile environment of an orderly society. But do we have a sense of the root cause of these acts? Was it excessive punishment, as opposed to gratuitous sadism? And do we -- there's an implication here that some of these acts occurred as the result of punishment for misconduct by some of the inmates.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, Jeff, I'm not going to try to be the investigator from this podium. There are investigations going on, and we need to let those investigations proceed.

Q Would it make a difference, Scott?”


May 21, 2004 – The grand jury in the CIA leak matter issues subpoenas to Tim Russert of NBC News and correspondent Matthew Cooper of Time magazine.

 

May 29, 2004 – A U.S. investigation reveals that Pat Tillman was actually killed in a ‘friendly fire’ accident. The heroic story of Tillman, the pro football player who gave up millions of dollars to join the armed forces, has been held up as an example of American combat service exactly the reverse of the scandalous abuses at Abu Ghraib and other war prisons. The new information that Tillman was killed not by enemies but by other American troops in his Ranger platoon calls into question the connected narrative earlier released by the Pentagon to describe Tillman’s final action.

Questions about the narrative will remain largely unanswered for three more years.