Did Rumsfeld Break The Law?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Law, The War On Terrorism
That’s what the Jack Balkin thinks, and it has one helluva good point…
Today the Army filed criminal charges against Lt. Col Steven L. Jordan, a military intelligence officer who was second-in-command of interrogation operations at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Charge III of the Army’s Charge Sheet accuses Jordan of “cruelty and maltreatment,” based on the allegation that he subjected Iraqi detainees subject to his orders “to forced nudity and intimidation by military working dogs.”[...]
On November 27, 2002, Pentagon General Counsel William Haynes, following discussions with Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz, General Myers, and Doug Feith, informed the Secretary of Defense that forced nudity and the use of the fear of dogs to induce stress were lawful techniques, and he recommended that they be approved for use at Guantanamo. (The lists of techniques to which Haynes was referring can be found in this memorandum.) On December 2, 2002, Secretary Rumsfeld approved those techniques for use at Guantanamo — and subsequently those techniques were used on detainee Mohammed al-Qahtani.
In other words, the Secretary of Defense authorized criminal conduct.
Yet another reason why Rumsfeld should step down?
Uh…yes.
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