Army Gen. Taguba says he was guided by conscience
In the middle of a tough week for the U.S. Army, Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba said he had stuck fast to "Army values" in putting together his report spelling out soldiers' abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
In the middle of a tough week for the U.S. Army, Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba said he had stuck fast to "Army values" in putting together his report spelling out soldiers' abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
"Bottom line," Taguba said at Tuesday's Senate hearing, he told his investigative team to "follow our conscience and do what is morally right."
"Sir, I think you've done that," responded John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Senators of both parties praised Taguba, a 53-year-old two-star general who was born in the Philippines.
Now deputy assistant secretary of defense for readiness, training and mobilization, Taguba was deputy commanding general of the 3rd Army when he was assigned to investigate reports of wrongdoing among American military jailers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. "Your report reflects an honest and detailed assessment of the situation there and includes sensible recommendations on how to begin fixing those problems," said Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the committee's top-ranking Democrat, whose questioning followed that of Virginia Republican Warner.
The general's father, Tomas Taguba, was in the U.S. Army, and Antonio Taguba and his seven brothers and sisters were reared mostly by their mother and grandmother.
Tomas Taguba was captured by the Japanese during their attack on the Philippines in 1942. He survived a Japanese prison camp, escaped during the Bataan death march and joined the underground, reporting on Japanese troop movements. He went on to serve more than 20 years in the Army, attaining the rank of sergeant first class. In 2001, Antonio Taguba gave a speech recalling that his father left the Army in 1962 "without so much as a retirement ceremony to thank him for those 20 years of hard work and faithful service." "It's part of our culture to respect elders, give thanks to the Lord, to be forgiving and be supportive of your family," Taguba said in a 1997 interview with the San Francisco weekly AsianWeek. Taguba, who is known as Tony, grew up in the Philippines and, later, Hawaii. He attended Idaho State University, where he graduated in 1972, and joined the Army soon after. Taguba attended several military-training schools and received master's degrees in public administration, international relations and national security and strategic studies. He held command positions with U.S. forces in Germany and South Korea. He is married with two children.
Taguba told the Senate panel that he assembled his investigation team with these instructions: To "maintain our objectivity and integrity throughout the course of our mission in what I considered to be a very grave, highly sensitive and serious situation; to be mindful of our personal values and the moral values of our nation and to maintain the Army values in all of our dealings, and to be complete, thorough and fair in the course of the investigation."
