Call of Cthulhu

Sanchez: Fall Guy or Flood Gate?

Remember when I wrote this? Wilson was trying to pin Sanchez because FRAGO 1108 put the MP's at Abu Ghraib under the command of MI interrogators. I stated then that she was putting Sanchez in Rumskull's sights, trying to make Sanchez the scapegoat, even though Taguba had all but exonerated him.

Now the US Army has provided Congress with summaries of documents called "Interrogation Rules of Engagement" and "Interrogation and Counter-Resistance Policy". The documents purportedly show that General Ricardo Sanchez approved and ordered the techniques contained in these documents:

Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior U.S. military officer in Iraq, borrowed heavily from a list of high-pressure interrogation tactics used at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and approved letting senior officials at a Baghdad jail use military dogs, temperature extremes, reversed sleep patterns, sensory deprivation, and diets of bread and water on detainees whenever they wished, according to newly obtained documents.

So, what, is WaPo saying that Abu Ghraib is all Sanchez's fault? Not neccessarily, but you do have to do some deep reading:

The U.S. policy, details of which have not been previously disclosed, was approved in early September, shortly after an Army general sent from Washington completed his inspection of the Abu Ghraib jail and then returned to brief Pentagon officials on his ideas for using military police there to help implement the new high-pressure methods.

That "Army general" was General Miller, the same goon who ran Guantanamo, and who is now in charge of Abu Ghraib. Here is a comprehensive timeline of events that specifically names Miller.

Still, Sanchez is clearly accused of committing the crime: The argument seems to be that none of this would have happened had Sanchez ignored Miller's "suggestions". In effect, the DoD is saying that Miller is saying: "Hey, I just suggested he do some stuff. I didn't order him to do it. Sanchez is the one who actually gave the order."

This revelation comes on the heels of news that the DoD is widening its investigation under pressure from Congress:

Defense Department officials said the investigation would be restructured with high-ranking investigators to allow the questioning of top officers in Iraq.

Congressional investigators are trying to determine who authorized aggressive interrogation, and their hearings are looking at how high in the ranks of the Pentagon and administration the scandal might reach.

Under Army regulations, junior officers can not question senior officers as part of an investigation. The DoD's move to replace Fay with a higher ranking officer opens up questioning farther up the chain of command.

Short version: If someone wants to go after Sanchez, he is now vulnerable.

This attempt hinges on one thing: Did Sanchez give the order to torture Iraqi's on his own or not? The DoD is apparently saying that Sanchez gave the order.

The problem with the DoD's argument? According to the Pentagon, the sequence of events goes something like this: Sanchez orders that torture be used at Abu Ghraib. He then hears about torture being used at Abu Ghraib, and personally assigns General Taguba to go investigate, a move that would prove that Sanchez had violated Army regulations as well as US and international laws. Upon reading Taguba's report, he then orders the tortures to stop because he knows that torture is illegal, and begins court martial proceedings against the soldiers who were following Sanchez's orders to begin with. In short, according to the DoD, General Ricardo Sanchez is the very stoopidest general that the Army has ever vetted.

This whole thing is criminally ridiculous: If Sanchez had known of the torture orders at all, he wouldn't have sent Taguba to go and prove that soldiers were following the torture orders that Sanchez was supposed to have issued himself. I think Sanchez's defense will try to show that he was out of the loop on this; he has some rather convincing evidence in Taguba alone.

That will refocus the spotlight on Miller. Miller will then either cop to it (unlikely) and resign in order to save his superiors, or will take the "following orders" defense to save his own skin.

And who could give such an order to Miller? In order: General Boykin, Steven Cambone, and Donald Rumsfeld.

(As for the "following orders" defense: I have a feeling that all of the actors in this tragedy will point out that the Pentagon's Office of General Counsel assured them that the orders were legal. Something that I would dearly love to see argued in court.)

We're getting closer to Justice, folks; this lame attempt at scapegoating Sanchez is just part of the two-steps-forward-one-step-back approach that plagues such politically-tainted investigations. The really dumb part about all of this is that I, a blogger of small account, can connect dots between timelines, Taguba's report, Congressional testimony, Army regs, US and international law, the chain of command, and shoddy reporting, and so see right through the smoke and mirrors that Rumskull is hiding behind.

And if I can do it, so can McCain, Leahy, Biden, Dayton, Clinton, and the American people.

Update: 061404
There has been some spirited debate about Sanchez's role in Ghraib-gate. Let me just clarify one thing: I don't think Sanchez is completely innocent of any wrong-doing. At the very least, he was irresponsibly unaware of what was happening in his own command. At worst, he knew of Miller's mission and--deliberately or complacently--allowed it to proceed. But the point remains that, no matter how involved Sanchez was, he was not the original architect of torture in Iraq: That trail leads to Rumskull.