If Seymour Hersh’s latest story is verified, Donald Rumsfeld is personally responsible for for extending a “gloves off” policy against “high value targets” in Afghanistan to cab drivers, militia men and people off the street in Iraq.
Hersh’s sources are usually golden. Rumsfeld can’t survive this. He’s just been testifying that it’s all a bizarre aberration of a few badly trained troops. I’m not sure if he was under oath – if so it’s conceivable he could be charged with perjury.
And I wonder if Hersh worked it this way deliberately? It depends, I suppose, on when he knew the various parts of the story – the abuse, the pictures, the investigation, the black Afghan program. Did Hersh know months ago the Rumsfeld approve this secret program, and release the story in a manner that would lead Rumsfeld into a series of provable lies? Or did the abuse story loosen up more tongues among Hersh’s sources as they tried to explain how it all happened?
What’s the point? You think we will get someone better? All it will do is focus attention off of Bush. He will be able to lay the blame for everything at Rumsfeld’s feet.
Let him ride to November and dump them all at once.
Reeder, I share you interest in wanting to rid ourselves of the whole bunch in November. And I can see that Rumsfeld is now a liability for Bush. But Rumsfeld, Cambone, Miller and some of the others in this article need to removed from positions where they can cause further harm and cover up what they have already done.
Boyo, the article was amazing. If it is true, I wonder who has blown their cover. There is mention that this is Hersh’s first article on the abuse. I hope that you will flag us down when he writes more. What are his credentials?
This is a nightmare.
One line in Hersh’s article caught my eye for reasons that probably have nothing to do with the abuse:
Maybe that’t the problem. I didn’t think the war was supposed to be against Iraq.
I’ll tell you if and when Rumsfeld will step down: when 51% of likely voters think he should step down. No sooner. Suddenly Bush’s talk about Rumsfeld doing a “superb” job will be forgotten about. Bush only stubbornly sticks with his positions when he can get away with it.
Remember his initial resistance to the 9/11 commission and afterwards his resistance to having Condi Rice testify in front of it? He changed course when the polls were against him.
This is by no means Hersh’s first report on the abuse story. He and the* New Yorker *published a story and photos the same week as the 60 Minutes. He also published the first excepts of the Army investigative reports by General Teguba.
That story is really, really scary. If someone would have posted some of the allegations made in that story (e.g., that US Commandos go running willy-nilly around the world, torturing people as necessary to extract information and only certain high-ranking members of the executive branch and the pentagon know about it, that torture was given a green-light by Rummy), I would have written them off has belonging to the tin-foil hat brigade.
Rumsfeld is a liability – but Bush has consistently refused to acknowledge or even investigate any possible misdoings within his staffers (c.f. Karl Rove, Scooter Libby). So it’s quite possible that he’ll stick by Rummy, which could be a big mistake if the Congress wakes up and starts rumbling about casting Rummy out.
Hersh has been a reporter seemingly forever. He broke the story of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam; he’s written several books, including a bestseller a few years ago about the corruption in the Kennedy white house, “Dark Side of Camelot” and another about Gulf War Syndrome. I know he’s got a Pulitzer and probably a Polk too.
Apropos of nothing much, I thought this bit from ElvisL1ves’s cite
was interesting. Pearle called Hersh “the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist” … and then threatened to sue him, too? Hersh could have done the same back.
Hersh’s sources seem to be, by and large, long-time professionals who resent what they see to be ideologue civilian political appointees bypassing the checks and balances of government to advance their personal or partisan goals. That was basically the story behind his first best seller The price of Power, a critical history of Henry Kissinger in the Nixon White House.
I should note that I briefly met Hersh when he lectured once at the Institute for Policy Studies in 1985. I got him to sign a copy of his Kissinger book, which I still have. ;j
I certainly agree with the sentiment, I’ve just not been so blase about it actually happening. It boggles my mind that it is only in the last two weeks that polls show the prez with a below 50% satisfaction rating. It it weren’t for stories and scandals like this, GWB would be comfortably planning his reelection party schedule.
While the information in the article is upsetting, the end result will make it better.
They’re going DOWN!
That was GW Bush, talking about his administration. Someone should produce a set of playing cards with pictures of Bush, Rumsfeld, Cambone, Cheney, etc. and pass them out to the electorate.
I agree whole-heartedly with this sentiment, except that I’d replace “playing cards,” “pictures,” and “the electorate” with “indictments,” “names,” and “a federal grand jury,” respectively.