What Donald Rumsfeld Wants You To Forget
What Donald Rumsfeld Wants You To Forget
How long does Donald Rumsfeld think the American public can remember something? Only about eight months.
Last October, the LA Times reported Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was itching to promote Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the man who had been in charge of American troops in Iraq. Rumsfeld, however, realized Sanchez was politically “radioactive.” The American public was still too steamed about Sanchez’s role in the torture at Abu Ghraib prison. Rumsfeld, counting on the short attention span of the American public, decided to “wait until after the Nov. 2 presidential election and investigations of the Abu Ghraib scandal have faded” to hand Sanchez his promotion.
Well, that day came yesterday. The New York Times reported Gen. Ricardo Sanchez is now being considered for a new, top-level position: the head of American military operations in Latin America. It would be a big promotion.
In case you actually have forgotten what made Sanchez so “radioactive,” here’s a refresher:
First, there was the 9/14/03 classified memo signed by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez which authorized prisoner interrogation tactics that were harsher than accepted Army practice. These tactics ended up setting the scene for the subsequent abuse at Abu Ghraib and included sleep “management,” the inducement of fear at two levels of severity, loud music and sensory agitation, and the use of canine units to “exploit [the] Arab fear of dogs.”
Sanchez also issued an order on 10/12/03, shortly before the most publicized abuses occurred at Abu Ghraib, “explicitly calling for interrogators to assume control over the ‘lighting, heating…food, clothing, and shelter’ of those being questioned there.” Sanchez directed intelligence officers to work with the military police to “manipulate an internee’s emotions and weaknesses.” Many in Congress believe the “language in the memo helped set the stage for the abuses and were part of a Washington-inspired effort to squeeze more information from Iraqis.”
Sanchez also was involved in the development of “‘wish lists’ of harsh interrogation techniques” which included tactics such as “low-voltage electrocution, blows with phone books and using dogs and snakes.”
Finally, when Department of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wanted to secretly hold a prisoner in Iraq away from the eyes of the Red Cross (which was monitoring prisoner abuse at the time), he told Sanchez not to assign the prisoner a serial number and not to “acknowledge that we are detaining him to any international organization.” A Pentagon official acknowledged Sanchez’s decision to comply with Rumsfeld’s order was in violation of international law.
Prove Rumsfeld wrong. Remember why Sanchez does not deserve a promotion.
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Is it Groundhog’s Day again (still)…
June 20th, 2005 at 2:38 pmThere’s other idiocy. Consider the grounds for promotion quoted in the NYT piece:
Senior Army officers say selecting General Sanchez would reward his loyal service in handling one of the military’s toughest assignments in Iraq at a time when the military did not supply him with the full support and personnel required by Army doctrine.
So he’s promoted because he didn’t have enough troops! Tommy Franks gets a medal of freedom and a fat book deal for a war plan that didn’t have enough troops, except that no-one in the administration will admit that fault, until it comes time for a promotion for Sanchez. Soft bigotry of low expectations indeedy.
June 20th, 2005 at 2:41 pmP O’Neill,
Thanks for a fine example of applied logic.
It’s a wonderful tool isnt it?
Now if the rest of the country would adhere to it’s usage Bushco would be liquidated by now.
June 20th, 2005 at 5:38 pmYou Want More? You Get More
June 20th, 2005 at 8:46 pmJust a quick update from The WB42 5:30 Report with Doug Krile. A few random links to raise your blood pressure.
We have all the ingredients to be an Iraq. Two warring factions ie; Conservatives vs. Liberals. A country sharply devided in religious views. The only thing we really lack is to have China decide it has a moral perogative to invade this country for the benefit of the rest of the world.
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June 21st, 2006 at 9:46 am[...] ROME: Dozens of works by Colombian artist Fernando Botero depicting abuse of prisoners by US troops at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq went on display in Rome on Thursday. [...]
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