Rumsfeld Approved Iraq Interrogation Plan -Report

[zimv20]

link (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=5&u=/nm/20040515/ts_nm/iraq_abuse_pentagon_dc)


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved a plan that brought unconventional interrogation methods to Iraq (news - web sites) to gain intelligence about the growing insurgency, ultimately leading to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, the New Yorker magazine reported on Saturday.

Rumsfeld, who has been under fire for the prisoner abuse scandal, gave the green light to methods previously used in Afghanistan (news - web sites) for gathering intelligence on members of al Qaeda, which the United States blames for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the magazine reported on its Web site.


The New Yorker said the interrogation plan was a highly classified "special access program," or SAP, that gave advance approval to kill, capture or interrogate so-called high-value targets in the battle against terror.

Such secret methods were used extensively in Afghanistan but more sparingly in Iraq -- only in the search for former President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and weapons of mass destruction. As the Iraqi insurgency grew and more U.S. soldiers died, Rumsfeld and Defense Undersecretary for Intelligence Stephen Cambone expanded the scope to bring the interrogation tactics to Abu Ghraib, the article said.

The magazine, which based its article on interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials, reported the plan was approved and carried out last year after deadly bombings in August at the U.N. headquarters and Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad.


The rules governing the secret operation were "grab whom you must. Do what you want," the unidentified former intelligence official told the New Yorker.

Rumsfeld left the details of the interrogations to Cambone, the article quoted a Pentagon consultant as saying.

"This is Cambone's deal, but Rumsfeld and Myers approved the program," said the Pentagon consultant in the article.

[3rdpath]

but rummy's plan only contained words and not pictures...so he really had no idea just how bad things would be...

even though i don't believe in hell, i like to think there is a special place there just for rummy...he'd better hope the devil has a more humane interpretation of the geneva convention...

[skunk]

but rummy's plan only contained words and not pictures...so he really had no idea just how bad things would be...
He should have been on hand when the container trucks full of Afghani prisoners arrived from Kunduz.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn05152004.html

Recall that after the surrender of the Kunduz fortress in November 2001 hundreds of Taliban were taken prisoner along with an American called John Walker Lindh. Rumsfeld had originally stated that the US was "not inclined to negotiate surrenders". He then amended this to say that the Taliban should be let out of the net but that foreign fighters should expect no mercy: "My hope is they will either be killed or taken prisoner."

It turned out they endured both Rumsfeld's options. A year later Jamie Doran, a British television producer, aired his documentary establishing beyond reasonable doubt that hundreds of these prisoners - with no distinction between Taliban or "foreign fighters"- died either by suffocation in the container trucks used to transport them towards the Shebarghan prison, or by outright execution near Shebarghan.

On the basis of interviews with eyewitnesses, Doran said U.S. soldiers were present when the containers were opened. "When the containers were finally opened, a mess of urine, blood, faeces, vomit and rotting flesh was all that remained ... As the containers were lined up outside the prison, a [U.S.] soldier accompanying the convoy was present when the prison commanders received orders to dispose of the evidence quickly. Newsweek's investigation into the Afghan atrocities ("The Death Convoy of Afghanistan," 26 August 2002) stated that "American forces were working intimately with 'allies' who committed what could well qualify as war crimes."

Witnesses also stated "600 Taliban PoWs who survived the containers' shipment to the Shebarghan prison ... were taken to a spot in the desert and executed in the presence of about 30 to 40 U.S. special forces soldiers" (The Globe and Mail, 19 December 2002). Other U.S. soldiers are said to have involved themselves directly and enthusiastically in the "dirty work" of prisoner torture and the disposal of corpses. "The Americans did whatever they wanted," stated one Afghan witness. "We had no power to stop them. Everything was under the control of the American commander."

This Rumsfeld should be put down. Preferably with a glowstick. :mad:
The man has debased your nation.

[Sayhey]

He should have been on hand when the container trucks full of Afghani prisoners arrived from Kunduz.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn05152004.html

[indent]

This Rumsfeld should be put down. Preferably with a glowstick. :mad:
The man has debased your nation.

While I agree with the emotion, I don't like to rely on counterpunch for my news. If this is true then war crimes need to be prosecuted.

I'm amazed by the Hersh article, although at this point I shouldn't be. What amazes me is the number of folks inside the Pentagon and the CIA that are willing to point the finger at Rumsfeld and the political appointees in the Defense Dept. Almost anybody with a brain new this was not the work of six or seven grunts in the Military Police, but the speed by which the people responsible are being exposed is amazing. Undersecretary Cambone is the immediate name on the hot seat, and if any of this pans out Rumsfeld is going to wish he resigned when he could have played it as a "noble sacrifice for the good of the nation."

[zimv20]

hersh's article is available here (http://newyorker.com/printable/?fact/040524fa_fact)

i'm about halfway through it

[IJ Reilly]

I'm amazed by the Hersh article, although at this point I shouldn't be. What amazes me is the number of folks inside the Pentagon and the CIA that are willing to point the finger at Rumsfeld and the political appointees in the Defense Dept.

There seems to be kind of a classic "prisoner's dilemma" dynamic at work here. If you think somebody is eventually going to rat, everyone's going to want to be the first to turn state's evidence, and certainly not the last one. The Bush administration beating up on the intelligence community also hasn't helped. No love lost there.

[skunk]

While I agree with the emotion, I don't like to rely on counterpunch for my news.
I know it's sometimes almost the equivalent extreme to some of Von Troll's links, but I have a soft spot for the Cockburns: Alexander's father Claud was a brilliant journalist over here, writing for the satirical Private Eye for years. To be taken with a pinch of salt, I agree.

[Sayhey]

I know it's sometimes almost the equivalent extreme to some of Von Troll's links, but I have a soft spot for the Cockburns: Alexander's father Claud was a brilliant journalist over here, writing for the satirical Private Eye for years. To be taken with a pinch of salt, I agree.

I agree. I enjoyed Cockburn's column in the Nation for years, but find him more of a polemicist than a journalist. For example, I sharply disagree with their coverage on Kosovo - they seemed willing to accept Milosevic's propaganda without any real proof. That doesn't mean the story you linked to is not true, and if true very important.