Vice President Dick Cheney’s office was responsible for directives that led to U.S. soldiers’ abusing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, a former top State Department official said Thursday.
Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, then the secretary of state, told National Public Radio he had traced a trail of memos and directives authorizing questionable detention practices up through Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s office directly to Cheney’s staff.
“The secretary of defense under cover of the vice president’s office,” Wilkerson said, “regardless of the president having put out this memo” – “they began to authorize procedures within the armed forces that led to what we’ve seen.”
“There was a visible audit trail from the vice president’s office through the secretary of defense, down to the commanders in the field,” authorizing practices that led to the abuse of detainees, Wilkerson said.
The directives were “in carefully couched terms,” Wilkerson conceded, but said they had the effect of loosening the reins on U.S. troops, leading to many cases of prisoner abuse, including at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, that were contrary to the Geneva Conventions.
“If you are a military man, you know that you just don’t do these sorts of things,” Wilkerson said, because troops will take advantage, or feel so pressured to obtain information that “they have to do what they have to do to get it.”
He said that Powell had assigned him to investigate the matter after reports emerged in the media about U.S. troops abusing detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both men had formerly served in the U.S. military.
Wilkerson also told National Public Radio that Cheney’s office ran an “alternate national security staff” that spied on and undermined the president’s formal National Security Council.
Yes, I know that none of this is a surprise. But, cracks in the White House stonewall continue to appear.
“There was a visible audit trail from the vice president’s office through the secretary of defense, down to the commanders in the field.”
Gee, Gary — I guess someone should sue the Colonel. On the other hand, “plausible deniability” has been around for longer than this administration. Look it up, sometime.
Compare anything we might have done to the Bataan Death March of WWII………….
Quit whining and grow up. We have a war going on here and we are all at risk.
II saw Mr. Lawrence Wilkerson on C-Span and he said that time will uncover some really bad things about this administration. I was really surprised at what he said and so was the host that morning. I have felt bad about this administration but that is not the same as a paper trail. I think that Colin Powell is just waiting for the timbers to fall before he adds fuel to the burning fire. I can sense that.
Personally, I could care less about this. It’s nothing more than a media-created scandal aimed at the President. Grow up and realize that we’re in a war people. In war, bad things sometimes happen. With over 100,000 troops over there, there are bound to be some a-holes who decide to take matters into their own hands. Was it right? No! But in the grand scheme of things, a few third world neanderthalls being made to put women’s underwear on their heads doesn’t concern me. In fact, it serves them right!
I’m so tired of all this whining. “Oh heavens, we’re not being nice to the prisoners.” Heads up morons. There’s a reason they’re prisoners.
On the topic of abuse to “get answers”, well……..duh!!!!!. Do you think they’re going to just tell us, out of the kindness of their hearts, their plots and strategies which WILL result in more American troops being lost? If so, perhaps you can tell me where I can get some of what you’re smoking cause you’ve left the realm of reality a long long time ago.
Please consider this – one reason (in theory) that you take prisoners and treat them well is to encourage them to surrender rather than fight to the death. This generally works, but the jury’s still out on how well it works with fanatics.
Also – While torture may seem time and cost effective, there are many better interrogation techniques – the simplest is to respect the prisoner and treat him (with in obvious limits) as an equal and LISTEN. Most people when in an uncomfortable situation, when they think they’ve found someone simpatico, they can’t keep their mouths shut.
People who are tortured have a tendency to tell you what they think you want to hear (as opposed to the truth) so you’ll stop torturing them.
I just don’t think torture works as well as other methods. I’m a big fan of chemical interrogation methods. I’ve never seen anyone yet who could keep their mouth shut when drunk.
Steve, this information perhaps could be gotten another way. Even if it couldn’t that doesnt justify torture. If they were simply shooting prisoners thats ok.
Unfortunately, the enemies (yes, enemies) that we’re forced to deal with aren’t nearly as civilized as those we were faced with in WWII. “Be nice to them and they’ll give us what we want”. Hogwash! These people (and I use the term loosely) have been so brainwashed by those who are pimping their agenda through their twisted portrayal of Islam that their ONLY concern is of furthering their cause. And don’t be fooled into thinking it’s a small sect of fanatics. If so, why did the counsel on American and Islamic affairs (or whatever the proper name is) wait 3 weeks to condemn the perpetrators of 9/11? And even a “small percentage” numbers in the millions. Estimates are that roughly 10 percent of Muslims are followers of the Wahabi sect. Hello! Can you say Bin Laden?
The bottom line is this IS a major war. “Kindness” & “understanding” will get us nowhere. Cite all the studies you want & I’ll cite history. Once again, it’s a war. It must be treated as such. One of the oldest methods of warfare is to take advantage of an enemies weaknesses. Ours is 1)our compassion and 2)Our government caring too much what the rest of the world thinks. In a situation like this it has to be survival 1st, foreign relations second.
The rest of the world used to fear the U.S., were afraid to cross us, so they didn’t. Through decades of weak kneed political correctness, we’ve shown they can do what they wish, we’ll respond with weak resolve and ineffectiveness. Think of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tragic, utterly tragic. But necessary. Berlin, Dresden. And ya know what? It worked. The only way to defeat an enemy with such resolve is ultimate power, not kindness, understanding andrestraint. History proves it. WWII, the U.S. kicked butt and ended it. Merely 5 years later, Korea. We let the politicians run it. Failure. Vietnam, same thing. Gulf War, did great, then listened to the U.N. and backed off. Had we pressed on then, we wouldn’t be in this position. Thanks U.N.
Geneva Conentions have not been suspended for Al Qaeda. They simply do not qualify for the Geneva Convention according to its own guidelines. Anyone seen a Al Qaeda uniform lately?
Steve: Thanks for responding to the easy one. Now how about responding to T.C.’s post, which was everything I was about to say?
To comment about fear: do you really thing anyone fears us now? That we’re failing in Iraq and have our military tied down and overextended? That will sure make these other countries quake about the consequences of crossing us and, say, developing nuclear weapons. Because we can just up and use force against them at a moment’s notice.
But respond to T.C.’s A through D first. That’s more important, this was just a tangent.
AB CD: I’m sure explaining that will make plenty of Iraqis understand and not hate us. Same with Muslims around the world. We weren’t legally required to follow the Geneva Conventions (regardless of whether that’s the case or not) so it’s okay to torture prisoners, some to the point of death. They’ll understand.
We’re waging a political war as much, if not more so, than a military war. We want all the Iraqis and Muslims in the middle, the moderate, everyday people, to be on our side and not on the terrorists. When you have shit like Abu Ghraib, which was big here but was HUGE over there, it undermines and damages, perhaps irreparably, the war on terrorism and the goal of remaking the Middle East. Does that mean there should be no military action and we should just say “please like us guys, c’mon”? No. But is it really too much to ask to not torture and humiliate people in captivity?
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