Rumsfeld Dances Around Prisoner Abuse in Iraq
WASHINGTON, D.C. (HBN) – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appeared to testify with conviction in front of a panel of United States Senators yesterday. He also appeared to miss the point when it came to the errors that were made in the handling of the recently disclosed Iraqi Prisoner abuse scandal.
The Defense Secratary answered questions about prisoner abuse in Iraq today along with various military officials. These officials included General Richard Myers, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, along with Lt. General Lance Smith.
Senator Susan Collins, a Republican, hit the nail on the head when she asked Rumsfeld why he didn’t come forward and alert the President of the Iraqi prisoner abuse instead of asking CBS to delay viewing of the gruesome pictures that have recently been made public. The Secretary claimed that he wished he would have done that, but also tried to make the case that the Pentagon hadn’t even seen the pictures.
Reports of this abuse first surfaced to United States Military officials in JANUARY of 2004.
Lt. General Lance Smith slipped up a bit when he said he answered the question of when he first knew the Iraqi prisoner abuse photos existed. At one point he said June 14th, and another “towards the end of March…”.
Senator Lindsay Graham asked the Generals a very pointed question: “Did it dawn on you that we are in a world of hurt … when you first heard of the abuse?” The “leaders” of the military tripped over their words and simply concluded that they had been discussing the “damage” that this abuse was going to inflict starting back in January of 2004.
Graham continued, “Why did we not call the President and Congress to inform them so we didn’t have to find out from the television?”
Rumsfeld’s response was again very weak. He mentioned something about photos being a lot different than words written on paper. I guess in this man’s world something isn’t devestating unless you see a photograph of it. In fact, to him it’s like it almost didn’t exist. He also alluded to the fact that people cannot just “tamper” with an “ongoing criminal investigation”. Apparently the leaders of our military, and our Secretary of Defense, should have wrapped up the investigation a bit more efficiently.
Graham’s last question was “What do you say to those who are calling for your resignation?”
Rumsfeld danced around the question a bit. He reverted to answering a question that wasn’t asked. He said it came down to whether or not he could be “effective” at his job - which he concluded was indeed possible. “I would not resign simply because people are trying to make a political issue out of it.”
Again, on JANUARY 16th United States Central Command announced multiple cases of the abuse of prisoners in Iraq.
Rumsfeld did admit one failure - failure in letting the photos get out. He also felt he failed at “controlling the damage” that these photos would cause.
A bigger question exists: What about the failure that occurred in letting this atrocity happen - failures at every level of the US chain of command?
No one really even discussed that at this hearing. Would you believe it? … “World Leaders” they call the United States.
The humans pointed fingers and shuffled their feet.
Hypocrisy reigned. Politics played on another day.
*Yawn*