New York Times: Rumsfeld Admits He Told Jailers to Keep Detainee in Iraq Out of Red Cross View
Could there be another brewing prison scandal in Iraq?
Fresh on the heels of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, Pentagon officials have admitted that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ordered that a suspected Iraqi terrorist be detained off the record, and out of sight of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The man was held captive for seven months without registration at Camp Cropper near Baghdad International Airport. Rumsfeld issued the order at the request of former CIA chief George Tenet.
"Once he was placed in military custody, people lost track of him. The normal review processes that would keep track of him didn't," said one senior intelligence official.
During a news briefing yesterday afternoon at the Pentagon, Rumsfeld admitted that it was not a lone case, either. "There are instances where that occurs," he said. Tom Malinowski, a spokesman for the Human Rights Watch, believes that such conduct is a violation of the Geneva Conventions: "I can't see what legitimate national security purpose is served by hiding people from the Red Cross. The only thing it achieves is to further tarnish America's reputation and to invite similar treatment of captured Americans."
This much is clear: between the tough interrogation tactics, and this maneuvering, the Bush administration developed a predetermined plan to skirt the edges of the Geneva Conventions to suit their needs, setting the tone for later abuses. This amounts to a huge culture shift, not the isolated work of a few bad apples.
Read it here (registration required).
Fresh on the heels of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, Pentagon officials have admitted that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ordered that a suspected Iraqi terrorist be detained off the record, and out of sight of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The man was held captive for seven months without registration at Camp Cropper near Baghdad International Airport. Rumsfeld issued the order at the request of former CIA chief George Tenet.
"Once he was placed in military custody, people lost track of him. The normal review processes that would keep track of him didn't," said one senior intelligence official.
During a news briefing yesterday afternoon at the Pentagon, Rumsfeld admitted that it was not a lone case, either. "There are instances where that occurs," he said. Tom Malinowski, a spokesman for the Human Rights Watch, believes that such conduct is a violation of the Geneva Conventions: "I can't see what legitimate national security purpose is served by hiding people from the Red Cross. The only thing it achieves is to further tarnish America's reputation and to invite similar treatment of captured Americans."
This much is clear: between the tough interrogation tactics, and this maneuvering, the Bush administration developed a predetermined plan to skirt the edges of the Geneva Conventions to suit their needs, setting the tone for later abuses. This amounts to a huge culture shift, not the isolated work of a few bad apples.
Read it here (registration required).
posted by Price at 2:43 PM
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