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Donald Rumsfeld - Damning Revelations ...
Tempted to take tonight off. Terrible toothache. Two days, now.
Ow!
But they tell me the show must go on. So instead of simply skulking off and sending in a sick note - lets just do it - but lets keep it short and sweet.
Here's the headline for Majorie Cohn's marvellous interview piece.
Abu Ghraib General Lambastes Bush Administration
By Marjorie Cohn
As to how the hell I missed this for three days ... well ... well ... I'm gonna blame me pain.
Wednesday 24 August 2005
I had been hesitant to speak out before because this Administration is so vindictive. But now I will ... Anybody who confronts this Administration or Rumsfeld or the Pentagon with a true assessment, they find themselves either out of a job, out of their positions, fired, relieved or chastised. Their career comes to an end. -- Janis Karpinski, interview with Marjorie Cohn, August 3, 2005
In the hope you're already hooked enough to hurry looking for more I'll just leave you with this extra bit of bait.
Army Reserve Brigadier General Janis Karpinski was in charge of the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq when the now famous torture photographs were taken in fall of 2003.Oh, alright then -- I can manage another minute, I suppose.
She was reprimanded and demoted to Colonel for her failure to properly supervise the prison guards. Karpinski is the highest ranking officer to be sanctioned for the mistreatment of prisoners.
On August 3, 2005, I interviewed Janis Karpinski.
Heck, the things I do for love. This time I mean it - this tasty teaser's your last."It was a memorandum signed by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, authorizing a short list, maybe 6 or 8 techniques: use of dogs; stress positions; loud music; deprivation of food; keeping the lights on, those kinds of things," Karpinski said.
"And then a handwritten message over to the side that appeared to be the same handwriting as the signature, and that signature was Secretary Rumsfeld's. And it said, 'Make sure this happens' with two exclamation points.And that was the only thing they had. Everything else had been confiscated."
Karpinski said, however, "The truth has been uncovered, but it's been suffocated and it has not been released with the results of the investigation." She added, "McClellan and Rumsfeld can get up on their high horse and say that there've been no fewer than 15 investigations that were conducted.And you'd better believe it -- you ain't seen nothin' yet. There is sooo much more where this came from that it's probably best you put your slippers on and your feet up -- 'cos reading the rest could take quite some considerable time. I mean it. Trust me.
But every one of those investigations is under the control of the Secretary of Defense. And every one of those investigations is run and led by a person who can lose their job under Rumsfeld's fist."
"We're never going to know the truth until they do an independent commission or look into this independently," Karpinski maintains. "This is about instructions delivered with full authority and knowledge of the Secretary of Defense and probably Cheney.
I don't know if the President was involved or not. I don't care. All I know is, those instructions were communicated from the Secretary of Defense's office, from the Pentagon, through Cambone, through Miller, to Abu Ghraib."
Now where's that hay? Because boy-oh-boy, right now I am really ready to hit it.
( While I snore - you read more - much more.) http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/082405Z.shtml
posted by Richard at Saturday, August 27, 2005
27 Comments:
Richard: Sorry about the toothache. Hope you have a good NHS Dentist!! Rumsfeld is enough to give anyone pain. Read you every day and love it. EV
Ev, glad you love it.
Re;dentist. I've been lucky to have a great guy for 30 years - but he's just retired & sold up. I hope the one[s] that took over are as good.
Elaine, I'm going to get this lost cause one pulled too. I've already got a pallet with a couple on, so it's simplest just to get one added to that. Ouch! ;^)
Auggh -- sympathies to all on the dental pain, I am all too familiar of late with same!
And Richard, I'm glad you found the Karpinski interview as mind-blowing as I did. The underlings are turning on their erstwhile masters, revealing all the ugly details.
Pass the piano wire!
Ouch - thanks Mark. Thanks too, for your initial heads up at Tapa.
As for passing the piano wire - friend or no friend - you're gonna have to get in line. [G]
Noel, I wish I knew what point it was that would eventually prove 'too much' for them.
What in God's name WILL it take, I wonder?
Richard,
Thank you for pointing this out. I am behind in my reading. This interview is a BOMBshell.
Not surprising, of course, but filling in the details.
Ugh!
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Cosmic, I thought it was a bombshell too, As did others I know.
Unfortunately, so far it seems more like a damp squib.
Jeeze. How many DEAF, DUMB and BLIND folk are there ?
"Jeeze. How many DEAF, DUMB and BLIND folk are there ?"
Let's see... start with the population of the American Midwest... add a portion of S.W. Australia, plus 30% of Wales... set aside to cool... divide 3 by 20... carry the 5 over there, add that to the remanent of last Christmas's fruit cake, carry the 6 to the other side of the room and divide the whole mess by the square root of Afganistan and that gives you... LOTS! Let's Face it Richard, It's as my Grandpa said, "Y'll should never under estimate the power or pervasiveness of human stupidity."
Right from the git-go we all knew that there HAD to be knowledge if not complicity from MUCH higher up the chain of command. It could never have been just a few non-coms getting their sadistic ya-yas! That might have been enough for the 1940's or 1950's, or even today it might make for a quick, crappy cover story especially if you have some convenient fall guys already waiting in the wings... but it could never hold up for long. No... The former General still isn't anywhere near the top... Rummy HAD to know and since Cheney pulls his chain... well...
OH! And sorry about the Teeth Ache! I'm down to my last 11 or so myself! I'm not sure which I hate more... tooth aches or dentists!
juliedee - "S.W. Australia"? thats an odd reference.
richard - if you have to go to the dentist - im told that its best not to get a 2.30 appointment. (tooth-hurty - geddit?)
oops - the above comment was mine.
lukery, duh! And aarghhh!
From personal experience, I can relate that such bull-headed stupidity has permeated all levels of Fed. Govt. management, despite continuing to pay lip-service to things such as the Civil Service Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the F.A.I.R. act.
After 15 years of honorable and diligent Federal Service, I had the temerity to point out that our office of one of the smaller, run-on-a-shoestring-with-begged-money Federal agencies would not benefit from a move to a glizty office building that would replace current large individual offices with tiny cubicles and double the annual rental cost.
Within 6 months I was told that I would be demoted because I was "too negative". Yup, really. No other reason.
Needless to say, I've found better things to do in public service than to continue to work for that Federal Agency. And as usual, I'm doing quite well in my new endeavors. Their stupidity; their loss.
-Capt. B
Capt.B, Sorry to hear the bad news re your job - but happy that you had the last laugh. As you say - their stupidity;their loss.
I've a feeling they'll be experiencing more & more losses, of varying types, due to their stupidity - big time.
I met some REAL dense types from there Lukery... including one bible thumping station manager who thought he was the new messiah! SHEEZE! Made Pat Robertson sound like a gay rights advocate!
Ah yes Capt. B... know that syndrome well... then there is the flip side of it, the guys who constantly fail up because it's easier to advance them out of your office than it is to fire them. Gotta love our Civil Cervix system. GEEZE!
I've only had ONE employer that I didn't have to threaten to sue under the ADA for one thing or another... and the was ME. I had one place where the bathroom door knob was up at shoulder hight to someone STANDING! Now I'm in a wheel chair... that just won't work for me. So I asked them tomove it down where I could use it. Do you know what they said? Honest to god, they told me that the office manager could get the door for me when I needed to use it! SERIOUSLY! Now I'm a big girl and have been going potty all by my self for a very very long time and the LAST thing I want is to have to go get some one to let me in and out of the bloody bathroom! CHEEZE! And do you know what kind of business it was? It was a contract fundraising company for LEFT WING PROGRESSIVE NON-PROFITS!!! IN-BLOODY-CREDIBLE!!!!!
I looked at the person who made that suggestion, suggested that they MUST be joking, told them the joke wasn't funny, and let them know that if the knob wasn't moved in a reasonable amount of time I would be complaining under the ADA about it. The knob was in the normal place the very next day.
juliedee - that sounds like a helluva trip! that part of the country is basically unpopulated - we dont even think about it (except for perth)
the bad news is that we re-elected our stupid prime minister despite the fact that we have all the presumed failsafes - paperballots, provisional voting and compulsory voting. so we can proudly say that at least half of the population truly is deaf, dumb, and blind. and racist, and stupid. or maybe we can just blame murdoch. grrr.
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I was reading one of my favorite American news papers, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, op-ed page a bit ago and a piece I was reading there brought me back to this post and your blog Richard. It reminded me about how when we discuss todays news we are mostly discussing morals and values (or the lack there of) when we get right down to it.
So with that in mind I'd like to call your attention to the article I just read First Person: Moral Drift - Must lying and dying be the American way?. I hope you get as much out of it as I did.
Hey Lukery, at least you guys try to get the job done by more than 5% of the morons... er .... voting public! You really ought to pay more attention to those "unpopulated" places...yer breeding a real... um... 'unique'....yea... 'unique' sort of kook out there! EUWWWWWWE! And then there's the NW Territories...
OH AND LOOKIE! It's one of Noel's pet trolls! Should we feed it? I have a cat box with some fresh droppings in it if it's hungry!
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Let us not forget the America media covers for the government and owns armemnet and oil companies so the people of the States when they are told of this stuff it is very sugar coated and labeled as hate toward America and its "freedom". It's always been bad but not as bad as it has been in the last 10 years, a good and factual book on this is "War Made Easy" by Normon Solomon.
Amnesty Iternational was beaten up and their reports refuted in May by the press and goverment. If you dare ask any questions you are unAmerican and support the terrorist (whoever they may be, it's not us of course). If you quote outside news outlets, you are unAmerican and buying the spin (even if you quote ABC Australia)of foreign countries. We are taught very well from the time we can talk that we are number one and no one is as free as we are or technically advanced. I just mention this because it's important to understand the mindset and upbringing, even though they are all lies. I learnt that the hardway when I moved to the UK in 90.
A number of Congress critters have asked for Rumsfield to stand down but he refuses because Bush wants him to stay. A Senator reading a FBI report on the floor of the Senate on the abuses was torn apart by the media and government as though he had made up the report of the abuses from the top of his head to slam American GIs.
A few other things to remember Iran-Contra. The CIA funded torture group Battalion 3-16 and trained them and a lot of those involved with these very illegal and grotisque acts are in Bush's cabinet. This comes from the top and anyone that questions or refuses to do what the higher ups say are screwed. Of course none of the big players will ever be charged, it will be the peons following orders. Just as before those speaking the truth are ignored or demonised and when this finally sees a real investigation, none of the big players will get in trouble.
We truly are a sick nation
Sandra in the lost US
I hope you are having a nice holiday and the toothe is sorted :)
It's so corrupt here that no press person even asked how it is that flight 93 (737 traveling at 500mph) is upside down and reportedly has tapes of passengers beating in the door, yes I typed upside down.
Or how 3 not 1 but 3 buildings managed to fall into their own footprints, etc, etc, etc
juliedee, thanks for that 'Moral Drift' piece - I couldn't agree more with the writer's sentiments & assertions.
Likewise, with Sandra's latest post which seems to touch almost all the bases.
[Incidently, a dentist appointment is made for later this week. Meantime, the pain-killers are helping - so long as I keep o/d-ing.]
Ah yes... opiates are our friend!
Hopw you got that NY Times doc I sent you last night/this morning and can read it OK. LOTS of interesting info on the RR and their link to the Bush admin in there!
OH! And glad you liked the Moral Drift piece! I find the lesser known papers often have a clearer take than the big boys on the real issues.
At this point - are we suprised at anything Cardinal Richlieu-Rumsfeld does? At the time the Abu Ghraib scandal broke, the only people to be reprimanded were Appalacia Annie etc., i.e. poor, uneducated NCO's and of course, Karpinksi - a woman and not regular army. Yet another reason for the US to hold our head high.
Sorry about your tooth! and you can't get in before the end of the week to see the dentist. Be sure to drink plenty of alcohol - hold off infection!
graniab,
So right, I don't think anything is 'surprising' any more - still plenty of shocking stuff - but not many surprises.
(Long holiday weekend followed by short work week is main dentist prob, btw.)
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