Nicholas F. Benton's White House Report

As Congress at long last appears anxious to do its proper job of independent scrutiny and oversight of U.S. operations in Iraq, its collective determination to "get to the bottom" of the prisoner abuse scandal through hearings and investigations tends to obfuscate the plain facts already public that fully implicate Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and others at the highest level of the Bush administration.

These are facts already conceded by Rumsfeld himself. They are more than enough to justify his removal, if not more.

• They begin with Rumsfeld's repeated assertions in the aftermath of 9/l1 that the Geneva conventions for the humane treatment of prisoners of war will not function as a norm that the U.S. will respect. This, alone, was the first and decisive breach, coming from the highest levels of the Bush administration, that established the standard under which the systematic prisoner abuse policy at the Abu Ghraib prison was subsequently carried out.

Given what has come to light, it is now clear that the systematic abuses will result in an even more egregious abandonment of any humane criteria for prisoner treatment by the other side. We saw that in the starkest of terms with the beheading of a U.S. contract worker in Iraq broadcast on the internet Monday.

Rumsfeld's public repudiation of the Geneva conventions, therefore, has under current circumstances placed every U.S. soldier and civilian in Iraq at risk of heinous torture if captured.

Moreover, it has placed every U.S. citizen at risk, as well. The danger of a wanton terrorist attack on U.S. soil increased exponentially with the revelations coming out of Abu Ghraib. If anyone felt justified to elevate the "terror alert" status in the U.S., this would be a time when it should most definitely be ratcheted up.

It is truly ironic, and tragic, how the tables have been turned in terms of global attitudes toward justifiable retaliation since 9/11. Al Qaeda perpetrated an unjustifiable act of mass homicide on innocent U.S. civilians on 9/11 and the whole world fully supported a swift and lethal reaction from the U.S. Now, as the photographs of Abu Ghraib continue to roll out, the shoe is on the other foot.

• Rumseld is also on the public record admitting that although he knew of the abuses in January, he hadn't even completed reading Gen. Antonio Taguba's report until after the story broke on CBS's "60 Minutes" April 29.

This constitutes unconscionable, if not criminal, negligence, and it's already on the record.

The first question it raises in my mind is, When did the abuses stop, assuming they have?

Frankly, I have heard no one ask this question. Maybe it's because no one knows the answer. These practices began to be "investigated" by the military beginning last November (after repeated complaints by the Red Cross, Amnesty International and other human rights groups for many months before).

But while "investigations" continued through the February completion of the Gen. Taguba report, I have not seen a reference to any specific orders to cease the practices of systematic abuse. Were those orders ever actually given? Who gave them and when?

This is particularly relevant given the clear practice of ignoring the reports of the investigations up the chain of command.

Vice President Cheney's reaction to all of this could not be more revealing of the psychological state of mind of Bush administration decision makers on matter such as this. It is truly a priceless expose of the mind set behind the whole mess.

"Get off his back and let him do his job," Cheney raged in defense of Rumsfeld last week, speaking rhetorically to Congress, to the press, and to anyone else interested in the facts.

Can't you hear Rumsfeld saying exactly the same thing to anyone trying to get him to pay attention to Gen. Taguba's report? "Get off their (the prison interrogators') backs, and let them do their job!," he very likely bellowed. That is very likely an exact quote.

So, did the "60 Minutes" report not only spur the Secretary of Defense to look at the report for the first time, but spur an order to stop the systematic abuse policy for the first time, as well, under the sudden heat of global public opinion?

As the statements of the half-dozen straw men military defendants and their attorneys hit the air waves this week, the public will discover the existence of a solid command and control military intelligence structure behind the abuses, and the role of the photographs and videotapes as integral systematic components of interrogation policy sanctioned at the highest levels.

Therefore, not only does this cause us to assume the policy has continued, but it takes culpability for the whole terrible mess right into the Oval Office.