Monday, May 16, 2005
Eli has been covering this story pretty well, here and here, and Juan Cole has an informative post on the subject ...
I don't have much to add other than just to bone-headedly point out that a lot can be gleaned from BushCo's handling of the scandal. If the story was 100% untrue Rumsfeld would be on TV denying it to high heaven rather than promising a thorough investigation. Therefore, we can conclude the story is either known to be true or, perhaps, consistent enough with policy that the higher-ups assume some flavor of it is true. Rumsfeld probably knows the interrogators were instructed to take advantage of the prisoners strong religious beliefs, doesn't know exactly what was done, but finds the desecration of the Koran to be a plausible allegation.
You know, I was just watching Daniel Ellsberg on CSPAN3 and was thinking about the Pentagon Papers. It's hard for me to believe that there aren't some incredibly damning documents in existence regarding the creation of Camp Gitmo and the Gitmo-ization of Abu Ghraib, and, for that matter, about the creation of the Office of Special Plans and the construction of the pretext for the Iraq War -- where are all the damn leakers when you need them?
I don't have much to add other than just to bone-headedly point out that a lot can be gleaned from BushCo's handling of the scandal. If the story was 100% untrue Rumsfeld would be on TV denying it to high heaven rather than promising a thorough investigation. Therefore, we can conclude the story is either known to be true or, perhaps, consistent enough with policy that the higher-ups assume some flavor of it is true. Rumsfeld probably knows the interrogators were instructed to take advantage of the prisoners strong religious beliefs, doesn't know exactly what was done, but finds the desecration of the Koran to be a plausible allegation.
You know, I was just watching Daniel Ellsberg on CSPAN3 and was thinking about the Pentagon Papers. It's hard for me to believe that there aren't some incredibly damning documents in existence regarding the creation of Camp Gitmo and the Gitmo-ization of Abu Ghraib, and, for that matter, about the creation of the Office of Special Plans and the construction of the pretext for the Iraq War -- where are all the damn leakers when you need them?
