RUMSFELD'S SECRET SYSTEM: New reports in The New Yorker and Newsweek
(http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4989422/) allege the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at
the infamous Abu Ghraib prison wasn't triggered by a handful of errant
reservists; it was the direct result of decisions made all the way at the
top, by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Newsweek reports, President
"Bush, along with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Attorney General John
Ashcroft, signed off on a secret system of detention and interrogation that
opened the door" to the abuse. "It was an approach that they adopted to
sidestep the historical safeguards of the Geneva Conventions, which protect
the rights of detainees and prisoners of war." Specifically, Seymour Hersh
writes, Rumsfeld, as part of his "long-standing desire to wrest control of
America's clandestine and paramilitary operations from the CIA," approved a
plan in Iraq which encouraged the " physical coercion and sexual humiliation
of Iraqi prisoners (http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040524fa_fact)
in an effort to generate more intelligence."


A STATE OF DENIAL: The Pentagon has been quick to disavow the charges made
by The New Yorker and Newsweek as part of a larger attempt to limit blame to
low-level soldiers. But the denials are actually a lot of sound and fury
signifying nothing. Hill Columnist Joshua Marshall
(http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/) points out, if you read the official
denial statement (http://www.dod.mil/releases/2004/nr20040515-0793.html)
by Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita, "This is not a denial of anything. It's
a classic non-denial denial -- a bunch of aggressive phrases strung together
to sound like a denial without actually denying anything."