... there is also a video....I cried for my country today....this behavior by high level bush* appointees is totally immoral and unethical....
----------------------------
Defense Department Operational Update Briefing
(Also participating; Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace)
SEC. RUMSFELD: Good afternoon.
-snips-
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major increases of troops in Iraq
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Finally, on a different subject, General Abizaid has now indicated his desire to retain the current level of forces in Iraq, roughly 135,(000), (1)38,000 forces, for longer than the 90 days that we recently extended about 20,000 forces to get up to that higher figure.
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on American soldiers torturing and killing POWs....
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Q .....I guess I'd ask you more broadly, is this a major setback for U.S. efforts in Iraq?
SEC. RUMSFELD: Oh, I'm not one for instant history, Charlie. The fact is this is an exception.....
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claims that they haven't read the reports, and haven't seen the photos of American Soldiers torturing and KILLING POWs
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Q Mr. Secretary, General Myers said on Sunday that he had not seen the report. I don't believe you had seen the report even if -- I don't know if you have now. Isn't this something you would have liked to have been flagged about? ....
SEC. RUMSFELD: .... It takes time for reports to be finished -- correction -- to be gathered. This is a very comprehensive report. There are a number of -- I listed six investigations that are in various stages. And they move up in a process, as General Pace described. And it seems to me that the people who should be seeing it at each stage were seeing it at each stage.
Q But to plan for a response. I mean, it's been one week now since it was on "60 Minutes II." It's the first time we've heard you talk about it. In effect, the damage has already been done. There didn't seem to be a plan to even deal with this.
SEC. RUMSFELD: Are you critiquing the Department of Defense's PR handling of it? Is that what the question is?
Q I'll leave that to you.
SEC. RUMSFELD: I mean, the fact of the matter is that this is a serious problem. And it's something that the department is addressing.
The system works. The system works. There were some allegations of abuse in a detention facility in Iraq. It was reported in the chain of command. Immediately it was announced to the public. Immediately an investigation was initiated. Six separate investigations have been undertaken over a period of months since January.
Q (Off mike.)
SEC. RUMSFELD: January 16th. February, March, April. Three months. These things are under way.
I recognize the appetite of people for instant information and instant conclusions. These things are complicated. ....
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on why Congress wasn't told....
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Q But you gave no idea of the scale of what –
SEC. RUMSFELD: We didn't know the scale.
Q Well, you did when this report came back -- when General Taguba's report came back, and that was in -- that's been available for quite some time. Members of Congress are outraged that they're just hearing about it today.
Q General, a quick follow-up on that, please. Could you explain to us why the Taguba report was classified secret, no foreign distribution?......
GEN. PACE: First of all, I do not know specifically why it was labeled secret....But as the secretary pointed out, immediately we told the world that we thought we had a problem. So there has been no attempt to hide this.
Q Mr. Secretary, can you say why it was classified secret? Do you know?
SEC. RUMSFELD: No, you'd have to ask the classifier.
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on 'abuse' as opposed to 'torture' of POWs by American soldiers
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Q Mr. Secretary, a number of times from the podium you've said U.S. troops do not torture individuals. ......-- is this one of those rare exceptions here that torture took place?
SEC. RUMSFELD: I think that -- I'm not a lawyer. My impression is that what has been charged thus far is abuse, which I believe technically is different from torture.
Just a minute.
Q (Off mike.) SEC. RUMSFELD: I don't know if the -- it is correct to say what you just said, that torture has taken place, or that there's been a conviction for torture. And therefore I'm not going to address the torture word.
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again, rumsfeld denies reading full report or seeing photos of American Soldiers torturing and killing POWs
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Q Mr. Secretary, have you yet read the Taguba report?
SEC. RUMSFELD: It's -- which –
Q (Off mike.)
SEC. RUMSFELD: Yeah. You're -- I think you're talking about the executive summary. That's -- I've seen the executive summary, the –
Q Have you read through it, sir?
SEC. RUMSFELD: I've been through it. Whether -- have read every page -- no. There's a lot of references and documentation to laws and conventions and procedures and requirements. But I have certainly read the conclusions and the other aspects of it.
SEC. RUMSFELD: I think I did inquire about the pictures and was told that we didn't have copies.
(To staff.) Is that correct?
STAFF: We didn't have them here, that's for sure.
SEC. RUMSFELD: Yeah, I didn't have them.
STAFF: We didn't.
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denial of any torture/abuse at American Prisons in Guantanamao Bay, Cuba or Afganistan ot Charleston or any other military prisons....
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Q Mr. Secretary, you mentioned the Navy looking into detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay and Charleston. Was that triggered by some allegations of abuse, or what are they looking at?
SEC. RUMSFELD: I'm not in the position to say whether -- there are other allegations of abuse. That is a pattern and a practice of terrorists, to allege abuse. We've seen that in their training, that they do that.....
Q Mr. Secretary, any indications thus far that this problem may be more widespread, that it may have taken place at other facilities in Iraq or Afghanistan, sir?
SEC. RUMSFELD: As I say, at any given time there are always allegations and charges of abuse in detention facilities, whether it's jails or prisons, military or civilian. That that is a pattern.....
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refusal to apologize to the Victims of abuse by American Soldiers
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Q Mr. Secretary, do you think, given what we do know so far, at least about the six individuals and their alleged actions, do you think it's legitimate to call for us to apologize, not only to the people that were specifically abused, but also to the Iraqi people?
SEC. RUMSFELD: I think you're -- I haven't been focused on the war of ideas, to be honest with you, since this issue -- with respect to this issue....
Yes?
Q Mr. Secretary, I did ask how you felt this episode has in fact damaged the U.S. efforts –
SEC. RUMSFELD: I've answered that. I answered that earlier. I'm not in a position to make a judgment. Time will tell. Clearly we would wish it would not because it is an exceptional, isolated....
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nobody knows who will govern Iraq on June 30th
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SEC. RUMSFELD: .....
It is a -- a transition period is a period of uncertainty. A period of uncertainty is something that causes people concern and worry and apprehension. We are -- we are today, whatever it is, May 5th, 4th, heading towards June 30th, or thereabouts, to pass sovereignty and responsibility, political responsibility for that country to the Iraqis. It very likely will be in something approximating what the U.N. special representative, Mr. Brahimi, recommended. Who those people are is not known at the present time. And therefore people wonder, are we in, are we out, how do we feel about the people that might get that responsibility. And so expect that kind of uncertainty during this period. It's inevitable.
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on Fallujah
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Q Could you just quickly clarify the situation in Fallujah? We have Marine commanders signing off on this first General Saleh, and then he was out. Now there's another general on the Iraqi forces; he's in. What is the situation?
SEC. RUMSFELD: I'm told that this individual named Saleh was recommended by someone on the Iraqi Governing Council, and was asked to, at a lower level in the U.S. CENTCOM command, to begin assisting and organizing Iraqis to help out in Fallujah. He had some success. At that point there was a vetting process that took place in the public.
And that -- I should caution you, this has happened a lot in Iraq. You try to vet against a list -- a database. But the real vetting comes when someone's head pops up. People look at him and say, no, no. And a public vetting is going on for mayors, for police chiefs, for Iraqi governors. For lots of times, people have been put in and eventually taken out.
In this case, this man -- the vetting was imperfect. There are not conclusions that he has blood on his hands at this moment. I've not seen anything that's definitive or conclusive.
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full transcript here...for this overview, only tiny clips off major paragraphs have been included, and only a few paragraphs...the whole transcript is considerably longer...-snips- are designed to give readers a very shortened overview and encourage reading complete transcript....
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20040504-secdef1423.htmlhere's the video link
http://www.defenselink.mil/briefings/
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