A Battle Over Blame - Rumsfeld may be rebuked by his own commission

[Barrett808]

A Battle Over Blame - Rumsfeld may be rebuked by his own commission investigating prison abuse
Laurent Van Der Stockt / Gamma for Newsweek
By Michael Hirsh and John Barry

NewsweekAug. 9 issue - James Schlesinger has always been a hawk. But in four decades of public life, the square-jawed former professor has also been known as mulishly independent, whether as Defense and Energy secretary or CIA director. (President Gerald Ford, annoyed by Schlesinger's arrogance, fired him.) All of which could add up to an unpleasant surprise for another old Washington lion who is not renowned for his humility: Donald Rumsfeld. In mid-August, the commission that Schlesinger chairs—handpicked by Rumsfeld from members of his own Defense Policy Board—is expected to issue its final report on abuses by U.S. interrogators stemming from the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal. NEWSWEEK has learned the Schlesinger panel is leaning toward the view that failures of command and control at the Pentagon helped create the climate in which the abuses occurred.

The four-member commission's report is still being drafted and its final conclusions are not yet definite. But there is strong sentiment to assign some responsibility up the line to senior civilian officials at the Pentagon, including Rumsfeld, several sources close to the discussions say. The Defense secretary is expected to be criticized, either explicitly or implicitly, for failing to provide adequate numbers of properly trained troops for detaining and interrogating captives in Afghanistan and Iraq. His office may also be rebuked for not setting clear interrogation rules and for neglecting to see that guidelines were followed. The commissioners "are taking an unvarnished look at the issue as a whole," said a source close to the commission. "A more extensive look than some people had initially thought they might take."

"Some people" includes Rumsfeld himself. The Defense secretary's original charter for the commission asked only for the Schlesinger team's "professional advice" and obliquely urged them to steer clear of "issues of personal accountability," which Rumsfeld said "will be resolved through established military justice and administrative procedures." (After Schlesinger argued about the charter language, Rumsfeld allowed that "any information you may develop will be welcome.") Rumsfeld also indicated that he expected members to spend most of their 45-day inquiry reviewing the findings of the other "procedures." These include five ongoing inquiries into abuses, none of which is designed to probe responsibility beyond the uniformed ranks.

But the commission quickly struck out on its own, recruiting 20 investigators and sending them as far afield as Afghanistan and Iraq. They also reinterviewed most of the principal players in the abuse scandal—including the commanders at Abu Ghraib, senior Pentagon civilians and Rumsfeld—and obtained classified material that even the Senate Armed Services Committee hasn't yet seen. Pentagon spokesman Joseph Yoswa said he had no comment on the forthcoming report.

(more)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5569687/site/newsweek/

[geek tragedy]

1. Sit and spin, Rummy!

Tried to turn it into a whitewash and failed.

New term for guys like him: Weaselcrats.

[clydefrand]

3. Can't we call them Weaselcans, instead?

Sounds too much like real people (Democrats) to end it in crats.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. crap, we may even see a war crimes tribunal

Hey we tried Kelly back in 1971 and this would actually start us in the way of national respectability

[Rose Siding]

4. I'll believe it when I see it.

Despite Schlesinger's willingness to criticize, to go "where the facts and information take them," as one source said, he tends to take the hawkish, this-is-a-new-war side. Arrayed with him is said to be commission director James Blackwell, a civilian contractor.

Whew, I was afraid that this Blackwell was James "Blackwill", frequently misreported as "Blackwell". BlackwIll is one of the US embassy officials there now. Former ambassador to India, and pal of Condi when the USSR was busting up, some foreign press reported that he ranked higher in Iraq than Bremer. This guy is more Baker-like than Baker himself.

But it isn't him. This one is different:

http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/torture/investigations.htm

The panel’s unpaid executive director, James Blackwell, has done Pentagon consulting as an employee of Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego, the seventh-largest recipient of defense contract awards in fiscal 2002, with $2.1 billion. This raises the question of whether Blackwell could challenge the Pentagon.

[MichiganVote]

5. He should be fired, anything else is nonsense

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Responsibility for the Abuses goes to Rumsfailed

This article and report is important.

Ultimately, if Bush is not a puppet, then the buck stops on his desk. He hired Rumsfailed and Cheney and Wolfowitz. He took their advice.

He's not a puppet, right?

[gratuitous]

7. Yeah, right

If there's anything critical of Reichsmarshal Rumsfeld, it'll never make the final report. The corrupt Bush administration buys whitewash wholesale, and nobody's never done nothin' wrong never.

Whether it's killing a bunch of Japanese fishermen, losing a spy plane to China, fumbling away a functional economy, or the felling of the twin towers, nobody in this administration is ever responsible, there's never a mistake made, and tomorrow, they'll mount their "comeback" from all the problems they've never had.

[struggle4progress]

8. kick

:kick:

[leesa]

9. "Rebuked"?? How about a speedy trial for war crimes and treason and

then a rope about his neck?