Amazing. Another military official steps forward on Iraq War corruption, this time alleging that Rumsfeld authorized the use of “harsh interrogation methods” in writing.
[Former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis] Karpinski, who ran the prison until early 2004, said she saw a memorandum signed by Rumsfeld detailing the use of harsh interrogation methods.
“The handwritten signature was above his printed name and in the same handwriting in the margin was written: “Make sure this is accomplished”,” she told Saturday’s El Pais.
…
Rumsfeld also authorized the army to break the Geneva Conventions by not registering all prisoners, Karpinski said, explaining how she raised the case of one unregistered inmate with an aide to former U.S. commander Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez.
“We received a message from the Pentagon, from the Defense Secretary, ordering us to hold the prisoner without registering him. I now know this happened on various occasions.”
To quote my buddy Will: like Kissinger, he’d be up for war crimes if he ever set foot outside the United States.
Rumsfeld’s “resignation” was intended to show the public that Bush is recognizing faults and trying to fix things. Since Rummy was the face of Iraq War incompetence, dropping him means we’re moving toward progress.
Problem: it also exhibits Bush’s lovely tendency to think that he can throw us a bone and then the mistakes of the past are all forgotten. I refuse to accept that. Just because Rumsfeld is gone doesn’t mean we can ignore what happened under his watch. Every innocent person illegally tortured, and even the guilty ones who were illegally tortured, deserve that much.
Interesting. The elephant in the room of the Democratic Congress has been what to do about Bush. No one wants to pull a Clinton-era and just start launching investigations that don’t yield anything, and I can’t imagine the redcoat machine accepting the kind of poison they spat at Willie.
