Chain of Command

www.guardian.co.uk...
books.guardian.co.uk...

part one and two of an extract of 'Chain of Command' by Seymore Hersh, describing Rumsfeld's role in mistreatment of WoT suspects and Abu Gruiav prison torture. I dont know if this has been released in the US yet, but it's certainly raising some eyebrows here in Europe...

its a big extract.. but this little bit struck me...

One of the marines assigned to guard duty at Guant�namo in 2003, who has since left the military, told me, after being promised anonymity, that he and his enlisted colleagues at the base were encouraged by their squad leaders to "give the prisoners a visit" once or twice a month, when there were no television crews, journalists, or other outside visitors at the prison.

"We tried to # with them as much as we could - inflict a little bit of pain. We couldn't do much," for fear of exposure, the former marine, who also served in Afghanistan, told me.

"There were always newspeople there," he said. "That's why you couldn't send them back with a broken leg or so. And if somebody died, I'd get court-martialled."

The roughing up of prisoners was sometimes spur-of-the-moment, the former marine said: "A squad leader would say, 'Let's go - all the cameras on lunch break.'" One pastime was to put hoods on the prisoners and "drive them around the camp in a Humvee, making turns so they didn't know where they were. [...] I wasn't trying to get information. I was just having a little fun - playing mind control." When I asked a senior FBI official about the former marine's account, he told me that agents assigned to interrogation duties at Guant�namo had described similar activities to their superiors.

In November 2002, army Major General Geoffrey Miller had relieved Generals Dunlavey and Baccus, unifying the command at Guant�namo. Baccus was seen by the Pentagon as soft - too worried about the prisoners' well-being. In Senate hearings after Abu Ghraib, it became known that Miller was permitted to use legally questionable interrogation techniques at Guant�namo, which could include, with approval, sleep deprivation, exposure to extremes of cold and heat, and placing prisoners in "stress positions" for agonising lengths of time.

In May 2004, the New York Times reported that the FBI had instructed its agents to avoid being present at interrogation sessions with suspected al-Qaida members. The newspaper said the severe methods used to extract information would be prohibited in criminal cases, and therefore could compromise the agents in future legal proceedings against the suspects. "We don't believe in coercion," a senior FBI official subsequently told me. "Our goal is to get information and we try to gain the prisoners' trust. We have strong feelings about it." The FBI official added, "I thought Rumsfeld should have been fired long ago."

Have people in the US made up their minds about US actions against suspected terrorists and Iraqi detainees??? Or is the Jury still out on Rumsfeld particularly???


Q

since we cant count on the media to fan the flames, he will probably not be held accountable. this is really small potatoes when you consider rumsfield is also resposnible for 13000 dead iraqis : /

well sure, but the majority of mainstream opinion still feels that the war was *somehow* justified, surely if the supposed war was just (*scoff*) then breaking the Geneva convention doing it should ring bells with at least SOME pro war opinion...

People dont mind bombing civilians if they think their stupid leaders are right... but toture n stuff... stinks to most people (unless you're really callous or zealous.. or both)...

but yeah... knowing US politics, he'll have more screwup time before he gets pushed...

Q

[edit on 15-9-2004 by Qoelet]