[Salon] Stories from Abu Grahib. (Interview with Rummys Scapegoat)

[praxiz]

(snip)

In late August <2003> they started these very aggressive raids. The first operation, up in Mosul, resulted in 37 security detainees arriving in Abu Ghraib. Within about 30 hours, the military interrogation teams had interviewed each one of those 37 and determined that only two of them had value and needed to be held. The other 35 were eligible to be released. And that was a firestorm, because nobody was going to be released.

I was at a briefing over at Sanchez's headquarters and the deputy commander, Gen. Wodjakowski, turned around to me and said, "You are not to release any one of them, Janis." And I said, "Sir, that information came from the military intelligence." And he said, "Get me somebody from the military intelligence." So this captain comes over and is trying to explain that none of these 35 had any further value. They were in fact in the wrong place at the wrong time, up with the target individuals. So, Gen. Wodjakowski now turns on this guy and tells him, "You are not to release any of them. Do you understand me? Am I making myself perfectly clear? You are not to release any one of them." And this captain tries valiantly to explain that we'll be holding innocent people, and Gen. Wodjakowski says he doesn't care.

(snip)

I thought, "How can we hold hundreds or thousands of these people in Iraq? We'll never get out of here." But that was the plan. And Gen. Wodjakowski said, "I don't care if we're holding 15,000 innocent Iraqis, we're winning the war." And I said to him, "No, sir, not inside the wire you're not, because every one of those detainees becomes our enemy when they're released, and they will be released one day."


more @ http://www.salon.com/books/int/2005/11/10/karpinski/

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Ahhhhh, Janis was a thinking person. How odd is that? nt.

[Kagemusha]

2. Odd enough I count myself somewhat surprised.

Oh, anyone notice that her testimony would be enough to get Rumsfeld tried for war crimes if it wasn't for the US being a so-called hyperpower with super duper sovereignty that (in spite of Rice's claims to the contrary) only believes in international law when it's international law the US likes? Or has recently rewritten?

Seriously, the "Rumsfeld sends" detail in the above piece is more than enough to establish full command responsibility and a probability that Rumsfeld technically violated war crimes statutes, however much Rumsfeld might have a "Get out of Jail Free" card from the President.