page 42/52: April 2003, Rumsfeld had secretly given the go-ahead to use 24 harsh interrogation techniques at Guantanamo
April 16/03…memo from Rumsfeld approving techniques to Commander US Southern Command

page 44/52: late August 2003…on orders from Rumsfeld…Gen. Miller travelled to Baghdad to “gitmoize” the interrogations…Rumsfeld also arrived at Abu Ghraib.
Sept 14/03…Rumsfeld sent a memo to Commander US Central Command (Sanchez).
page 30/52: In regards to torture at Guantanamo..Rumsfeld authorized the Special Interrogation Plan on Dec 2/02. On page 29, it mentions that when the x commander of Guantanamo, MG Mike Dunlavey testified on March 17/05, he said that “his marching orders came from the President”. He met with Bush at the White House once a week, so I doubt that Bush did anything other than give verbal orders.

I can tell you from my time in the Military that a Unit takes on the Character of its Leader.

When a Leader demonstrates Honorable Character, Clear Vision and Has Faith in the Rightness of Our Cause – that Unit will be a high-performing Warrior-machine that can’t be stopped.

However, when a Leader is Immoral, Angry and Self-Righteous – that Unit will have All Kinds of Discipline and Motivation issues – performance will be low and erratic.

This is why it’s so important who We choose to be Our President – the Commander in Chief of Our Military.

When the Pentagon Papers disclosed that Nixon was Lying to Congress and the Country about the War in Vietnam – imvho, the Military lost its Motivation and Discipline.

When Abu Ghraib was exposed, at a time when Bush was still proclaiming our Moral Mandate to be in Iraq – imvho, the Military lost its Motivation and Discipline.

Soldiers won’t follow an Immoral Leader.

I say the Culture of the Military – at any given time – contains the potential for either high-performance or dereliction. What We get, in terms of which team shows-up to the fight, has everything to do with the Quality of Its Leadership.

Our Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Air Force are just like US – they are, by and large – Good People.

And, like the Rest of US, they’ve been Mis-led by Bush.

There I learned Sharon Rockefeller also serves on the Board of Directors of Pepsi Co., since 1986, along with:

Ray L. Hunt (since 1996) (yes, Chairman and CEA of Hunt Oil, and a director of EDS Corp, King Ranch, Inc), and

Lary D. Thompson (since 2004, Divisional Sr. VP/Secreary , General Counsel), our former Bush Deputy AG in the (B)US(H) Dept. of Justice

Not only does he reference the issues of Chertoff’s veracity to Congress, but also the estoppel issue that has been batted around here at times past.

73 – I just wondered about the timeline aspect – I have to think that it would have been awkward timing to foist off the “approval of torture” briefing to all 8 so near the election and so near Abu Ghraib. That means 4, not 2, Dems sitting on their hands not only while Bush lied his butt off, but also while Taguba was pushing for the Military Intelligence investigation that never happened and, more personally and more direct – while military police from Abu Ghraib were being tried and sentenced for carrying out the policies Bush was embracing and briefing to Congressional members in private, but denying in public.

That is a pretty telling statement of who you are – that you would let those soldiers face that when you know for an absolute fact, based on briefing, that they were carrying out US policies.

the presnit is on the hook for whatever the CIA does, even if the presnit doesn’t know what the CIA is doing

doesn’t anybody read the Nuremberg judgments any more ???

Hitler and his cronies were responsible for all the crimes against humanity

sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander

george bush is guilty of all the crimes against humanity that occured while georege bush was “The Decider” and the “War Presnit”

what part of “Commander in Chief” are they unclear about ???

And the behavior of some grunts shouldn’t tar the whole military. But there was too much torture by GIs in Viet Nam and waaay too much torture and abuse by troops in Afghanistan and Iraq — in all the prison camps, not just Abu Ghraib — for me to believe that the culture in which you operated in the Army was still operative.

Troops in Afghanistan in 2001 and early 2002, and in Iraq in 2003, saw themselves as avenging the attacks of September 11. I’m not going to let them all off the hook because people at the top were promoting that belief.

The CIA’s use of torture goes way back beyond this administration — and torture was taught by our military to Latin American troops for decades at the School of the Americas (in Panama and then at Ft. Benning). Our hands haven’t been clean for a long time, which does not diminish in any way the massive war crime of this regime in making it official policy.

The memos that are the topic of this post were, I agree with Mary, not to legalize the torture but to provide ass-covering and insurance: “If I go down for this, I’m not going down alone.”