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Why were 2,000 pages removed from the copy of the Taguba report delivered to the Senate Armed Services committee investigating abuses at Iraq's soon-to-be razed Abu Ghraib prison?
Time reports:
Committee aides discovered belatedly that their copy of the 6,000-page report on prison abuses produced by Major General Antonio M. Taguba might not be complete. The copy they got after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's testimony on May 7 was a thick document with 106 annexes, and it was quickly arranged into separate binders. Only later did the committee stack up all the pages, compare them with a ream of 6,000 blank pages and decide that at least 2,000 pages were missing. "We'd certainly like to know why they're missing," said Republican Senator John McCain. Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita insisted, "If there is some shortfall in what was provided, it was an oversight." Committee staff members haven't actually counted the pages. Chairman John Warner will investigate this week to see what is missing.
Oversight? The New York Times reports that the missing pages include "200 pages from Colonel Pappas's sworn statement, including a document titled, Draft Update for Secretary of Defense."
Meantime, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski is relieved of her command, and the Pentagon announces that the top Iraq ground commander Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez will be replaced, and the DoD says Sanchez's dismissal has nothing to do with Abu Ghraib? Because they want a four-star general to head the multi-national force in Iraq after June 30? Hmm. That sounds about as convincing as the bogus explanation William Cohen gave for dismissing Wes Clark in the wake of the Kosovo war involving Ralston needing to get promoted within a two month time window of finishing his other command, or something.