Just Trust Us
Paul Krugman published an editorial in the New York Times explaining the Bush administration slogan of "Just Trust Us," which they used in regard to the Patriot Act, the war in Iraq, and the prison abuse scandal.
There's more evidence that Krugman was right. Congress has complained that at least 2,000 pages were missing from the supposedly "complete" Taguba report given to them, including some very significant items:
Congressional sources told NBC News that the missing documents included a written report from Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller that apparently lays out aggressive interrogation tactics for Abu Ghraib. Miller was recently reassigned to Iraq after spending 17 months as commander of operations at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Also missing was key testimony from Col. Thomas Pappas, the commander of military intelligence at Abu Ghraib, the sources said.
Time reported that last week, Pentagon spokesman Larry Dirita insisted that "If there is some shortfall in what was provided, it was an oversight." This week, he's apparently changed his story:
Lawrence Di Rita, a spokesman for the Defense Department, characterized the missing documents Wednesday as insignificant, saying the information was "available otherwise."
Exactly how can members of congress conclude that the information is "available otherwise" when they haven't seen the missing information? "Just trust us," says Di Rita (figuratively). Congress did trust them--it trusted them to hand over all 6,000 pages of the Taguba report.