Call of Cthulhu

courtesy of Get Your War On



Sy Hersh Connects The Dots

If you keep stepping in bull-shit, sooner or later you'll find the bull's ass. That's what reading Taguba's report and listening to all the Senate and House hearings does for you. Remember when I posted this? Today's article in the New Yorker shows that I was on the right stink trail, and also adds more fuel to the fire:

The solution, endorsed by Rumsfeld and carried out by Stephen Cambone, was to get tough with those Iraqis in the Army prison system who were suspected of being insurgents. A key player was Major General Geoffrey Miller, the commander of the detention and interrogation center at Guantánamo, who had been summoned to Baghdad in late August to review prison interrogation procedures. The internal Army report on the abuse charges, written by Major General Antonio Taguba in February, revealed that Miller urged that the commanders in Baghdad change policy and place military intelligence in charge of the prison. The report quoted Miller as recommending that "detention operations must act as an enabler for interrogation."

"They weren’t getting anything substantive from the detainees in Iraq," the former intelligence official told me. "No names. Nothing that they could hang their hat on. Cambone says, 'I’ve got to crack this thing and I’m tired of working through the normal chain of command. I’ve got this apparatus set up—the black special-access program—and I’m going in hot.'"

The disaster at Abu Ghraib wasn't the act of a few "bad apples" as the Shrub administration would like you to believe. This came straight from the top. These attrocities were brought to you by Rumsfeld, Cambone, Myers, Boykin, and Miller. Sy Hersh's piece points out that while the end result may not have been what they were looking for, they were very definitely responsible for setting up the conditions that made it possible:

Cambone then made another crucial decision, the former intelligence official told me: not only would he bring the sap's rules into the prisons; he would bring some of the Army military-intelligence officers working inside the Iraqi prisons under the sap's auspices. "So here are fundamentally good soldiers—military-intelligence guys—being told that no rules apply...as far as they’re concerned, this is a covert operation, and it’s to be kept within Defense Department channels."

The military-police prison guards...included "recycled hillbillies from Cumberland, Maryland." He was referring to members of the 372nd Military Police Company..."How are these guys from Cumberland going to know anything? The Army Reserve doesn’t know what it’s doing."

"The White House subcontracted this to the Pentagon, and the Pentagon subcontracted it to Cambone," he said. "This is Cambone’s deal, but Rumsfeld and Myers approved the program." When it came to the interrogation operation at Abu Ghraib, he said, Rumsfeld left the details to Cambone. Rumsfeld may not be personally culpable, the consultant added, "but he’s responsible for the checks and balances. The issue is that, since 9/11, we’ve changed the rules on how we deal with terrorism, and created conditions where the ends justify the means."

Cambone and his superiors..."created the conditions that allowed transgressions to take place. And now we're going to end up with another Church Commission"

And while Sy doesn't get too much into God's Soldier, General Boykin, rest assured that he is very definitely involved:

Cambone’s military assistant, Army Lieutenant General William G. (Jerry) Boykin, was also controversial. Last fall, he generated unwanted headlines after it was reported that, in a speech at an Oregon church, he equated the Muslim world with Satan.

A US Senate committee investigating the abuse of Iraqi prisoners has been told that Lt-Gen Boykin may have been the top general to send the signal to the lower ranks about the acceptability of prisoner abuse to 'soften up' Muslim detainees. If these charges pan out, the consequences will be devastating.

Senator McCain may have a hard time sticking with his party loyalties while still supporting his beloved military. The seams are certainly starting to crack:

Senator John McCain, of Arizona, said, "If this is true, it certainly increases the dimension of this issue and deserves significant scrutiny. I will do all possible to get to the bottom of this, and all other allegations."

With the evidence mounting, McCain won't be able to hedge on this one. Will he come out swinging at Rumskull and friends? Or will he lose all credibility as he skimpers behind Rove's dress?

Answer: McCain has never backed down from a fight.

McCain, Dayton, and Clinton are all starting to connect the cow-pies. And Sy just keeps exposing more and more every week. Strap-in, folks: This is gonna be a fun and wild ride.