Rumsfeld Plans Focus on Courts-Martial

[G_j]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4091283,00.html

Rumsfeld Plans Focus on Courts-Martial

Friday May 14, 2004 8:46 PM

By ROBERT BURNS

AP Military Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Donald H. Rumsfeld appears to have settled on a strategy for trying to overcome the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, which threatens America's prospects for success in Iraq as well as his tenure as defense secretary.

Rumsfeld is trying to focus the public spotlight on the upcoming courts-martial of lower-level soldiers implicated in the abuse, even as lawmakers ask if anyone up the chain of command is culpable.

Meanwhile, U.S. commanders in Iraq are trying to improve prison conditions - and unload Iraqi prisoners - as fast as they can.

Rumsfeld also is trying to strike back at critics who say, incorrectly in his view, that the Bush administration's overall policy on treatment of prisoners in the war on terrorism created a climate in which abuse could happen. He has called such assertions ``garbage.''

..more..

[WEagle]

1. completely predictable

though he should be the one on trial

[MarianJack]

2. WHAT!?!??

He's not blaming Clinton?

We all know that this is such a band of evil bastards that they would have no difficulty in making the soldiers take all of the blame for acting in a manner that they made clear was expected of them.

Sickening. This administration is soooo evil that they make me miss nixon's administration, where at least they were semi-competent crooks and bastards, instead of the gang that couldn't shoot straight!

[G_j]

3. in short

they will sacrifice anyone to avoid accountability or to further their agendas.

[damnraddem]

4. Can you say 'scapegoat'?

Yeah, the low-level troops who perpetrated the torture are guilty of what they did, and should be punished. But even if the torture was not 'policy' or 'orders,' the commander must take responsibility for what was done on his/her beat -- all the way up to Rummy and Dummy. And there is evidence that there was policy and that there were orders.

[G_j]

5. and plenty of it..

"there is evidence that there was policy and that there were orders."

[Stone_Spirits]

6. What a bunch of "garbage" Rummy

this was policy, nurtured and condoned.