Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker/New York Times
Thursday, June 17, 2004


WASHINGTON Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, acting at the request of George Tenet, the director of central intelligence, ordered military officials in Iraq last November to hold a man suspected of being a senior Iraqi terrorist at a high-level detention center there but not list him on the prison's rolls, according to senior Pentagon and intelligence officials.


This prisoner and other "ghost detainees" were hidden largely to prevent the International Committee of the Red Cross from monitoring their treatment and conditions, and to avoid disclosing their location to an enemy, officials said.


Major General Antonio Taguba, the army officer who in February investigated abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison, criticized the practice of allowing ghost detainees there and at other detention centers in Iraq as "deceptive, contrary to army doctrine, and in violation of international law."

And...

Rumsfeld Ordered Secret Arrest in Iraq


Thu Jun 17, 8:27 AM ET


By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON - At the request of CIA (news - web sites) Director George Tenet, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ordered the military to secretly hold a suspected terrorist in Iraq (news - web sites), a Pentagon (news - web sites) spokesman said.


The suspected terrorist has been held since October without being given an identification number and without the International Committee of the Red Cross being notified, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. Both conditions violate the Geneva Accords on treatment of prisoners of war.

Two interesting things. The first is - surprise! - Rumsfeld repeatedly violated international law. But this is OK because as long as Rummy didn't violate U.S. law because that's what Bush sez. We are the law in case you haven't figured it out.

The other item of interest are the other "ghost detainess" implying this wasn't a one-time deal but a pattern of abuse which typifies this Administration. Abu Ghraib was no fluke; it was policy coming on down from as high as Rumsfeld if not higher. Again, did Bush know or will he pull a Reagan and claim he was out-of-the-loop? If Bush knew then he's as guilty as the rest. If he didn't know then he has no business being President with an Administration running amok. He should be damned either way but we're the ones suffering while "Teflon" Georgie slides out of the light.