This just in. Rumsfeld approved Iraq interrogation plan.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved a plan that brought unconventional interrogation methods to Iraq to gain intelligence about the growing insurgency, ultimately leading to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, the New Yorker magazine reported on Saturday.
Rumsfeld, who has been under fire for the prisoner abuse scandal, gave the green light to methods previously used in Afghanistan for gathering intelligence on members of al Qaeda, which the United States blames for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the magazine reported on its Web site.
Pentagon spokesman Jim Turner said he had not seen the story and could not comment. The article hits newsstands on Monday.
What was that about it “going all the way to the top”? Someone in the White House has got to be worried about this.
The rules governing the secret operation were “grab whom you must. Do what you want,” the unidentified former intelligence official told the New Yorker.
Rumsfeld left the details of the interrogations to Cambone, the article quoted a Pentagon consultant as saying.
“This is Cambone’s deal, but Rumsfeld and Myers approved the program,” said the Pentagon consultant in the article.
Sounds pretty clear that accountability goes all the way up to Rumsfeld. And I don’t think the he can make himself look any better by claiming he did not know or expect this kind of abuse to be part of interrogation plans. If he approved it without knowing or asking about the details, or shrugged them off to someone else, from where I sit he’s still accountable.
I’m torn between wanting him to step down in disgrace, and wanting him to stay on and become a (bigger) liability to Bush.