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Smoking Gun: Rumsfeld ordered torture [VIDEO]

Former head of Abu Ghraib, Karpinski, willing to testify
November 26, 2006  |  
 
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There was no "smoking gun" found in Iraq in the form of WMD because there was no smoking gun of that flavor to be found.

A smoking gun of a different flavor has surfaced, however, placing Rumsfeld at the helm of torture at Abu Ghraib and beyond.

Sure, it's something that's been "understood" to have been sanctioned "from above" for the past 4 years, but now Janis Karpinski, former head of Abu Ghraib prison, has told a Spanish newspaper that she is willing to testify that Rumsfeld "personally authorized" torture at Abu Ghraib (Video right). Why she went to a Spanish newspaper to make this claim is anyone's best guess.

Reuters:

"The handwritten signature was above his printed name and in the same handwriting in the margin was written: "Make sure this is accomplished"," she told Saturday's El Pais.
"The methods consisted of making prisoners stand for long periods, sleep deprivation ... playing music at full volume, having to sit in uncomfortably ... Rumsfeld authorized these specific techniques."
The Geneva Convention says prisoners of war should suffer "no physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion" to secure information.
When the Abu Ghraib scandal came to light in the form of a Seymour Hersh article and a shocking 60 Minutes II broadcast in April of 2004, Rumsfeld and the new stenographers, glommed onto the "bad apples" theory. It was just the work of some bad people acting independently, they claimed.

Of course, even were the bad apple theory valid...

Evan Derkacz is an AlterNet editor. He writes and edits PEEK, the blog of blogs.
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