- US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved the use of aggressive tactics to frighten Guantanamo Bay detainees, according to newly-released documents.
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He also approved the forced shaving of facial hair, stripping prisoners naked and the use of dogs to induce fear - tactics of particular interest as they were later used in Abu Ghraib.
BBC.
Given that the defense thus far has been this didn't come from a high level, is there really any room left to defend this? I'm keen to hear how the brightest minds on the board can explain how we done good here.
My prediction: Bush announces days after 6/30 that Rumsfeld will not serve as Secty in Term II, but will complete tenure in Term I. After the election, if 43 wins, he'll appoint him to some other post as a big FU to the 70% of Americans who wanted him gone in disgrace. Ambassador to France, maybe?
ETA: Meanwhile, in Colin Powell's No-Spin Zone,
the restated financials for the War on Terror are out. The number of deaths due to terrorist attacks in 2003 was 200% of that reported in the Administration's first version of the report. (Insert bitter Arthur Anderson joke here.) The word from the Terrorist Threat Integration Center is that the intelligence mistakes leading up to Cofer Black's crowing about the beneficial effect of U.S. initiatives against terror were entirely innocent and non-partisan, but anyone now doubting this is engaging in non-innocent and partisan attacks on the Administration. See how they turned that around on us pre-emptively? That's leadership in action.
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