New Yorker Mag: Rumsfeld personally approved interrogation methods at Abu Ghraib

Worst. President. Ever.

 

If the president is really in charge, he should be very upset on whoever who said that. Someone ought to be fired.

 

caught this beauty on the daily show from a few days before the new yorker expose

"those who make allegations of a culture of deception, of intimidation or cover up, need to be extremely careful" - rummy, at his unintentionally funniest

 

Its close. Nixon. Prez who died first month in office.

FWIW, Jonh Adams and John Quincy Adams were both one-term presidents.

 

Wow. Donald Rumsfeld has become Don Rumsfeld. I'm not shocked (and I was never awed), but I really hope he's been misquoted here.

 

You know, Reagan at least had a doctor's note excusing him for being completely out of the loop. Bush actively chooses to be out of the loop - I realize when he was elected, part of his appeal was his CEO-style approach, hiring smart people and staying the hell out of the way, but this is going a bit too far, no?

 

He did hire some smart people. Too bad he didn't hire any wise people.

 

No. Not even close. Nixon was an out-and-out bastard, but not only did he give us the EPA, he also made the moves toward detente with the Soviet Union and China -- moves which, I'm convinced, eventually destroyed the former and transformed the latter. If Nixon had screwed up as badly with those two countries as Bush has with Iraq, cockroaches would be the dominant form of life on earth.

And William Henry Harrison didn't live long enough to screw anything up, which puts him ahead of at least not only Bush and Nixon, but also Harding, Hoover, Pierce and Buchanan.

And both of them no doubt spinning in their graves at the next father-son duo to succeed them. I'm going to take this opportunity to heartily recommend David McCullough's John Adams. Not as good as [URL="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671456547/qid=1084729532/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-4110483-6819141?v=glance&s=books]Truman[/URL], IMHO, but still worth the read.

 

i took it right off the news coverage clip of him saying it... so ummmm he said it

you can see for yourself if you want to download the torrent - may 12 episode, you can find it at www.suprnova.org

 

beat me to it

 

Jesus.

Shall we start calling him Rumsfeldeone? Rumsfeldini? Rumsfeldotti? I'd make a joke about someone leaving a donkey's severed head under English's sheets, but I know that one won't go over too well just now, what with Berg's execution and all.

You know, I was just thinking that Rumsfeld, Rice, Cheney and co. could all make more $$$ in the private sector than they do with the jobs they have now. I can't imagine how threatening folks' lives makes theirs any simpler. Maybe it's the power, I dunno.

 

i didnt take it as a threat like that, just that he was pretending to be all righteous and throwing around his "dont mess with me" vibe

... ahhhh sweet irony

 

Weren't William Henry and Benjamin Harrison father and son?

Is anyone actually that surprised that this can be traced to civilian leadership? I suppose so - people tried to believe that it was just the Original Six Redneck Mapplethorpes. I mean, from what little I understand about the military, you get cracked on for peeling potatoes the wrong direction, but they allowed full on improvisation with Iraqi detainees? Unfreakinglikely.

 

Grandfather and grandson.

 

Speaking of that, where's USASoccer to explain to us how all soldiers are heroes and have honor? And that we're barely good enough to lick their boots?

 

Iran-Contra flashbacks, anyone?

As much as W has tried to distance himself from his father's legacy, the shiny lure of the George the First's patented "I was out of that loop" Iran-Contra defense is just too strong.

Must ... replicate ... history.

For me, that steaming pile of denial poo from GB1st has always been one of the greatest insults to American intelligence in 20th century. He was the former head of the frickin CIA for god's sake and the no one bothers to press him on an "I was out of the loop" plea of ignorance. Pathetic.

Unfortunately, now it's all too easy to believe -- and sell -- that Sparky is actually miles and miles and miles outside of loops of significance.

 

Five Techniques:

Wall-Standing: Forcing the detainees to remain for periods of some hours in a "stress position," described by those who underwent it as being "spread-eagled against the wall, with their fingers put high above the head against the wall, the legs spread apart and the feet back, causing them to stand on their toes with the weight of the body mainly on the fingers.

Hooding: Putting a black or navy colored bag over the detainees' heads and, at least initially, keeping it there all the time except during interrogation.

Subjection to Noise: Pending their interrogations, holding the detainees in a room where there was a continuous loud and hissing noise.

Deprivation of Sleep: Pending their interrogations, depriving the detainees of sleep.

Deprivation of Food and Drink: Subjecting the detainees to a reduced diet during their stay at the center and pending interrogation.

 

He was buys crafting his manifesto on why the world is going to end now that gay people can marry in one state.

 

Those were from the old Europe.

Have your football coaches tried these followings on you?

Shabah: tying the detainee's hands in front or behind his body with plastic or metal cuffs. He is blindfolded or his head is covered to the neck by sacking [hood] with only a slit left open to breathe. He stands in this position in an open yard, or sometimes with his hands tied to a pole, for several days during which he is interrogated for several hours each day. He is subjected to inadequate food; sleep deprivation (sometimes for up to a week) and restriction of toilet facilities;

Beating: with clubs, fists or boots, sometimes on the genitals or head, sometimes banging the head on the wall;

Cupboard : being placed in a closed dark space, some one meter by one meter for hours or days;

Partial suffocation: by pressure on the windpipe or by placing sacks on the head and pressing them against the nose and mouth;

Falaqa: beating the soles of the feet with a stick or plastic hose, usually while the detainee is handcuffed and hooded.

 

Also have you experienced these in the football team, Gringo?

- Locked you up in a small white box for thirty-five days, deprived of light, smell and sound;

- anesthetize you, opened your skulls and plant electrodes in your brain;

- force you to wear 50,000-volt shock belt, and activate it.

- sodomized you using a stick;

- throw you into boiling water;

- forced anal sex from an AIDS inmate;

And these torture techniques are as American as apple pie. These are no pvssies, Gringo.

 

What's more thrilling for you, VBD? Posting in detail about torture methods or watching real humans being beheaded and raped? Because you seem to be revelling in the torture the way you were revelling in the beheading.

You give me the willies.

And not the good kind.

 

So you want to restart that dickpumping contest again?