Rumsfeld says he shares some blame for abuse

[Nambe]

Capitol Media Services

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday he shares only a small part of the blame for the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison and brushed aside calls for his resignation.

Rumsfeld, in his first comments since release this week of two reports about what happened in Iraq, said that, by virtue of his position, he cannot be considered totally faultless.

"If you're the secretary of defense and something happens in your area of responsibility, you simply have to accept that responsibility," he said. "What happened should not have happened." ..

"So all of the press and all of the television thus far that tried to link the abuse to interrogation techniques in Iraq has not yet been demonstrated," he said. Rumsfeld said while no one should have been abused, most of the victims "were not security detainees at all, they were criminals."

But later, after being handed a note by an aide, Rumsfeld acknowledged that the Kern report has found "two or three instances" where someone being detained was abused during interrogation "or was subjected to some technique that at least the Kern report believes they should not have been, under the Geneva Convention."

The defense secretary refused to comment on a Pentagon report that said that Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, who was in charge of intelligence in Baghdad during the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, did not do her job.

[bluedog]

1. then quit..you ass

[rastignac5]

12. Not yet!

Rumsfeld is unpopular. He needs to stay on until the election.

[RobertSeattle]

2. What is this, "Confession" week in the Bush Administration?

[medeak]

9. global warming, miscalculation in Iraq

you're right indeed...what's with the turn around? Rove is up to something.

[jdj]

16. They are just watching the polls and playing to the numbers.

[hang a left]

3. Boy everyone is falling all over themselves today to take responsibility

for all the blunders in Iraq. Not mentioning the fact that we shouldn't have been there in the first freakin' place. LBN is bumming me out big time today.

[phantom power]

7. This is not good news for the Bush Campaign

It does nothing but inspire doubt in those who previously didn't doubt. I doubt people are going to think "Wow, he admitted some respondibility! What a stand-up guy, he's got my vote!"

Or, anyway, the ones who do think that can only be so deluded that they were gonna vote for him already.

[mac56]

8. Their convention is right around the corner.

Putting lipstick on the pig, polishing the turds. Lots of mea culpas right before the big dog'n'pony show, then back to business as usual.

[phantom power]

4. probably trying to defuse the articles of impeachment draft

[gratuitous]

5. Blame him all you want

He's just not culpable. You know, there was a time when the person at the top was not only responsible for what when on all through his command, but shared in the punishment. I know, an archaic idea justly put to rest by the first CEO presidency. Well-connected white guys just move on to the next plunder. Everyone else can fret over the damage done.

[Disturbed]

6. Rumsfailed is a War Criminal

Rumsfailed Admitted to Violating Geneva Convention

Rumsfailed admitted in public that when CIA Director Tenet requested that an Irai prisoner be sent to a secret Afghan/US Prison that Rumsfailed did so. After four months a DOD Attorney stated that this was an illegal act. Rumsfailed then ordered that this prisoner be sent back to Abu Graib but the prisoner was not listed at that location. That is two violations of the Geneva Convention. Tenet and Rumsfailed violated the Geneva convention, thereby also The Constitution of the USA. Not one complaint or charge was made regarding Rumsfailed and Tenet, not even by any Dem in Congress.

Does the US no longer follow the Geneva Convention or the Constitution of the USA?

It appears so.

[freeminder]

10. incredible apology

Wasn't Rumsfeld the one who decided after seeking legal advice on the matter that Geneva convention needn't apply to "unlawful combatants"?

Consider that these combatants also include, in the case of Abu Ghraib, children whose family opposed the occupation of their homeland...

This is government-approved TORTURE (not abuse) and the current administration, having nuclear weapons and showing total contempt of international treaties or ethics for that matter, should be removed by force by their own standards for Evildoers.

on Edit :
Rumsfeld approved it allright :
<snip>
The No. 2 general and civilian at the Pentagon indicated today that interrogation techniques ordered in Iraq violated the Geneva Conventions and said they did not know who approved them.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Wednesday had defended the techniques, rejecting complaints that they violate international rules. Rumsfeld said Pentagon lawyers had approved the methods and said they required that prisoners be treated humanely at all times
/<SNIP>

more at http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/iraq/2567718

[peacetalksforall]

11. Very, very revealing....in fact, it's shocking

"So all of the press and all of the television thus far that tried to link the abuse to interrogation techniques in Iraq has not yet been demonstrated," he said. Rumsfeld said while no one should have been abused, most of the victims "were not security detainees at all, they were criminals."

The press can't link abuse to interrogation techniques - yet.
Most victims were not security detainees, they were criminals.

Think about it! What a loaded sentence!

Then see if you come up with the meaning by asking yourself what the heck is going on here - are we fighting a war or did the President of the U.S. decide that we were also in charge of criminals.

Why would 'criminals' have intelligence that we would need about WMD and the whereabouts of the missing 52 deck war deck evil doers or the whereabouts of Bin Laden?

And what did he mean by saying the press hasn't established a link YET?

I have always contended that the war is phoney. We were subjects of a criminal act on 9-11 and it should have treated as such. We had no right to declare war. We approached the first WTC bombing as a criminal act. What was different?

We now know the answer to that, unfortunately.

I think that paragraph of Rumsfield's will haunt him.

I have never seen anything so convoluted in my lifetime. The top 25 people need to go from Bush on down.

[lovuian]

13. Rumsfeld had to admit it Violation of Geneva Convention

He ordered it after Bush ordered it....Its the chain of command and the Commander in Chief is Bush


The Pentagon and Rumsfeld have taken the fall for Bush

Now isn't it up to Bush to take the blame....:argh:

[Qutzupalotl]

14. Wake me when he's ready to share

a prison sentence.

[mountainvue]

15. Then he should resign. n/t