Who knew about abuse?

last updated 8 January 2015

Washington, D.C.

The White House ignored warnings in 2002 and 2003 that prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base were being abused, according to a book released this week. The author, Seymour Hersh, was one of the first journalists to write about the mistreatment of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison. He said that after his articles appeared in The New Yorker, “people who worked inside the White House came to me and said, ‘Look, this is much more far-reaching than you think.” In his book, Chain of Command: The Road From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib, Hersh writes that a general personally told National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice about one complaint. Rice this week issued a denial. “I do not recall being told of anything concerning prisoner abuse,” Rice said.