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Rumsfeld Admits U.S. Could Fail in Iraq

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testified Wednesday before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the Pentagon's request for an additional $25 billion to fund the Iraq war. For the first time publicly, he admitted the U.S. might lose the war in Iraq.

Rumsfeld said the prison abuse scandal had delivered a "body blow" to the nation-building effort in Iraq that has cost the lives of more than 770 U.S. troops. "Will it happen right on time? I think so. I hope so. Will it be perfect? No ... Is it possible it won't work? Yes," Rumsfeld said.

There was a great exchange between Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Rumsfeld and Generaly Myers--we've posted the transcript here--in which Rumsfeld defends the treatment of Guantanamo prisoners and engages in legal hair-splitting over the Adminstration's refusal to apply the Geneva Convention to them.

We've reproduced an exhibit introduced at the hearing consisting of the Interrogation Rules for Prisoners in Iraq (pdf.) Rumsfeld insisted they complied with the Geneva Convention. Durbin vociferously disagrees. Monday, Sen. Durbin delivered a blistering floor speech on the Iraq War and Bush's judicial nomination of William Haynes for a lifetime seat on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Some of the most flagrant legal violations have taken place at Guantanamo Bay. The administration claims that the detainees are not entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions, though they may be treated in accordance with some provisions of the conventions ``to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity.'' There is no room for hairsplitting when it comes to the law. This kind of policy sends a signal to lower ranking officials that the law is an obstacle to be overcome, not a bright line that cannot be crossed.

Contrary to this position, the Geneva Conventions protect all captured combatants and civilians. The official commentary on the conventions explains: ``There is no intermediate status; nobody in enemy hands can fall outside the law.'' The Geneva Conventions do not allow the hairsplitting which this administration has engaged in at Guantanamo and other places where there are detainees in this war on terrorism.

The Geneva Conventions govern the status and treatment of those in a wartime detainee situation. The U.S. Government has long held that as a party to the conventions, we are legally bound by its terms. The Geneva Conventions make clear that there are no exceptions to this prohibition against torture and such treatment during armed conflict.

Durbin recited these provisions of the Geneva Convention:

Article 13 of the Geneva Conventions says: Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated. Prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity. Measures of reprisal against prisoners of war are prohibited.

Article 14 of the Conventions states: Prisoners of war are entitled in all circumstances to respect for their persons and their honor.

Article 17 states: No physical or mental torture, nor any form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatsoever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted, or exposed to unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind.

Durbin moves on to the Taguba report:

Let me say, before I read on, that you would know by human instinct that the things I have just read were wrong. You should know at the moment such an order is given that it is an unlawful order. But the fact is, when General Taguba looked into the background and training of these soldiers, little or nothing was done to prepare them for their assignment. I will read further from the Taguba report:

Neither the camp rules nor the provisions of the Geneva Conventions are posted in English or in the language of the detainees at any of the detention facilities . . . There is a general lack of knowledge, implementation, and emphasis of basic legal, regulatory, doctrinal, and command requirements . . . I find that the 800th MP Brigade was not adequately trained for a mission that included operating a prison or penal institution at Abu Ghraib Prison Complex.

Unfortunately, the abuses in Iraq are, in some ways, the logical byproduct of the administrations's policies. In the aftermath of 9/11, the Bush administration made it clear that they believed that international legal order, which served us so well during the cold war, was not good enough for the war on terrorism. The administration has created a secret detention system, outside the strictures of domestic and international law, that stretches from Norfolk, VA, and Charleston, SC, where American citizens Jose Padilla and Yasser Hamdi are detained as enemy combatants, to Guantanamo Bay, where hundreds have been detained since the commencement of hostilities in Afghanistan. The administration denies public access to these detainees and asserts that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to the war on terrorism.

There's lots more, you can read his entire statement, inlcuding the portions about nominee William Haynes here. The Washington Post details Rumsfeld's grilling here.

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  • Display: Sort:
    family values (none / 0) (#2)
    by Edger on Tue Oct 31, 2006 at 07:32:57 AM EST
    These kinds of posts never used to happen till the election season heated up.

    Now the "party of family values and morality" wouldn't stoop to such tactics.

    Would they?