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Independent Panel Faults Rummy


BRH

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Independent Panel's report faults Rummy and other senior Pentagon officials for abuse.

 

The outside four-member panel headed by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger found that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Joint Chiefs of Staff failed to exercise proper oversight over confusing detention policies at U.S. prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

 

"Command failures were compounded by poor advice provided by staff officers with responsibility for overseeing battlefield functions related to detention and interrogation operations," the report said. "Military and civilian leaders at the Pentagon share this burden of responsibility."

 

The panel did not find that Rumsfeld or military leaders directly ordered abuse such as stripping prisoners naked and sexually humiliating them. It said, however, that the abuses were not carried out by just a few individuals, as the Bush administration has consistently maintained.

 

The report said prisoner interrogation policies in Iraq were inadequate and deficient, and changes made by Rumsfeld between December 2002 and April 2003 in what interrogation techniques were permitted contributed to uncertainties in the field as to what actions were allowed and what were forbidden.

 

The report said an expanded list of more coercive techniques that Rumsfeld allowed for Guantanamo "migrated to Afghanistan and Iraq, where they were neither limited nor safeguarded."

Wow. And this from a panel that Rumsfeld appointed, whose chair was SecDef under Nixon and Ford.

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This makes it okay?

6251[/snapback]

 

I don't know. I generally recluse myself on this subject because I believe it to be a non-issue. If a naked guy with a dog barking at him is unacceptable torture to you, well-then it matters. It's not to me, so it doesn't. I've stated my position on this in the "old" posts. Depending on the circumstances, and what I wanted to learn, I would be a lot more nasty than they were.

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Typical stupid liberal posts a link and they have to register for it  <_<  :)

6299[/snapback]

 

www.bugmenot.com

 

Bypass registration by using shared registrations. Download bugmenot, go to the registration page, right click, click on Bugmenot and about 80% of the time you get a username and password...and sometimes multiple usernames and passwords.

 

Works like a charm for the Washington Post.

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Gee, anyone want to debate the lack of leadership in the military with me again?  Let's pretend that everyone who has ever served at least 4 months is now a competent leader.

 

:)

6376[/snapback]

 

But you yourself said the military breeds incompetent leaders. Debbie told me so... <_<

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But you yourself said the military breeds incompetent leaders.  Debbie told me so...  <_<

6378[/snapback]

 

Hey! My computer works!

 

This entire argument has gone WAY past stupid. I heard more Kerry snippets on the radio coming in. Campaigning in NYC. Something about "Vihid Nahm" being smeared and how he'd never lie as Commander in Chief. This has gotten WAY out of hand.

 

We...the people...are in serious trouble. :)

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Hey! My computer works!

 

This entire argument has gone WAY past stupid. I heard more Kerry snippets on the radio coming in. Campaigning in NYC. Something about "Vihid Nahm" being smeared and how he'd never lie as Commander in Chief. This has gotten WAY out of hand.

 

We...the people...are in serious trouble.  <_<

6393[/snapback]

If he accuses Bush of lying about WMD, I would have to honestly consider making a political donation to whomever I thought had the best chance to beat him. (Ken Crippen, maybe???)

 

Is that his gig now? Bush lied?

 

Can't wait to see THAT come up in the debates.

 

Kerry needs a new campaign committee. Fast.

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After reading a variety of sources, it seems to me that the JCS & Secretary Rumsfelt are a very small part of the problem.

 

A couple of quotes from Mr. Schlesinger:

 

"The report notes that military police units were undermanned, underequipped and poorly trained. The ratio of military police to inmates was roughly one for every 75 versus the roughly one-to-one ratio at Guantanamo Bay."

 

That goes pretty directly to my continual: There are way too many chiefs not nearly enough braves in the armed forces - especially in combat/post-ops MOS'. We sure do have some pretty bases out there though. Perhaps if we spent a little more money on training and gear and a little less on "weeds and seeds" & paper pushers?

 

"There was direct responsibility for those activities on the part of the commanders on the scene up to the brigade level, because they did not adequately supervise what was going on at Abu Ghraib," Schlesinger continued. "There was indirect responsibility at higher levels, in that the weaknesses at Abu Ghraib were well-known and that corrective action could have been taken and should have been taken."

 

Again, weak leadership. I'd venture to guess that the folks below the brigade level probably did their best to cover it up, less they end up with a not so favorable promotion evaluation. That snowballed out of control at the brigade level and now ends up touching folks far too high up the chain - who rightly expect those below them to behave in a professional manner.

 

The Armed Forces have been broken for a LONG time. The 3 big services need to take some examples from their smallest and most effective brother on duty and honor.

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Hey! My computer works!

 

This entire argument has gone WAY past stupid. I heard more Kerry snippets on the radio coming in. Campaigning in NYC. Something about "Vihid Nahm" being smeared and how he'd never lie as Commander in Chief. This has gotten WAY out of hand.

 

We...the people...are in serious trouble.  <_<

6393[/snapback]

 

And just think...it's not even September. We've got more than two more months of this nonsense... :)

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