Saturday, May 15, 2004



Watch them scatter like cockroaches

According to Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon's lawyers, "torture-lite" is perfectly legal and not banned by the Geneva Convention. Unless, of course, the victim is an American:

Sen. Jack Reed asked Pace if a foreign nation held a U.S. Marine in a cell, naked with a bag over his head, squatting with his arms uplifted for 45 minutes, would that be a good interrogation technique or a Geneva Convention violation.

"I would describe is as a violation, sir," replied Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"As I read Gen. Sanchez's guidance, precisely that behavior could have been employed in Iraq," said Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat.

Reed later asked Wolfowitz a similar question. Wolfowitz initially tried to sidestep it, but eventually replied, "What you've described to me sounds, to me, like a violation of the Geneva Convention."

And suddenly everybody at the top level in Washington is running to avoid the war crimes charges. That list of interrogation techniques was never discussed, never reviewed, never seen "beyond the theatre" - it's all General Sanchez's fault, prosecute him, not me!

This will be fun to watch...

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