U.S. Struggled Over How Far to Push Tactics (In-depth re Rumsfeld!)

[Spazito]

Newly released documents and interviews portray the civilian leadership at the Pentagon (news - web sites) as urgently concerned that al Qaeda and Taliban detainees might have information that could prevent terrorist attacks and as searching intently for effective and "exceptional" interrogation techniques that would pass legal muster.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his senior aides emerge as central players in the government's struggle over nearly three years to decide how far it could go to extract information from those captured in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and Iraq (news - web sites) and others imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

snip

Rumsfeld played a direct role in setting policies for detainee treatment in Afghanistan and Guantanamo, according to a list of Defense Department memos related to Guantanamo Bay obtained by The Post. He signed seven orders from January 2002 to January 2003 establishing the interrogation center, placing the Army in charge, allowing access by the Red Cross and foreign intelligence officials, and even deciding how detainee mail would be handled.

snip

Part of the Pentagon leadership's drive for more leeway in interrogations can be traced to a historic change during Rumsfeld's tenure: the military's dramatically enhanced role in collecting and analyzing intelligence that can be used to thwart terrorist networks worldwide. To accomplish this, Rumsfeld has begun an unprecedented drive to build a Pentagon-based human intelligence apparatus that could one day rival the CIA's clandestine case officer program.

more

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/washpost/20040624/ts_washpost/a756_2004jun23

Mods: This article takes a very different and in-depth view of the inner workings especially related to Rumsfeld and his Office of Special Planning so I hope you will let it stand on it's own, if not, I understand)

[Caution]

1. dammit why hasnt this scumbag resigned yet?

[ewagner]

2. The larger issue is finally addressed

That is, Rummy and his "boys" ursurped intelligence functions from the CIA and diplomatic functions from the State Department and were the primary drivers of Dubya's foreign policy.

Dept of Defense ran a coup and nobody noticed.