Wow, two in a row. The Gray Zone.
The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. RumsfeldÕs decision embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of Žlite combat units, and hurt AmericaÕs prospects in the war on terror.
According to interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials, the PentagonÕs operation, known inside the intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. A senior C.I.A. official, in confirming the details of this account last week, said that the operation stemmed from RumsfeldÕs long-standing desire to wrest control of AmericaÕs clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A.
Rumsfeld, during appearances last week before Congress to testify about Abu Ghraib, was precluded by law from explicitly mentioning highly secret matters in an unclassified session. But he conveyed the message that he was telling the public all that he knew about the story. He said, ÒAny suggestion that there is not a full, deep awareness of what has happened, and the damage it has done, I think, would be a misunderstanding.Ó The senior C.I.A. official, asked about RumsfeldÕs testimony and that of Stephen Cambone, his Under-Secretary for Intelligence, said, ÒSome people think you can bullshit anyone.Ó
And yet again, the NYT looks dumb. The Post has a slightly different piece of the same puzzle, but they didn’t get what Hersh got.
The NYT did get Pfc. England’s sworn testimony, though:
The detainees were stripped, handcuffed together, and told to lie on the floor, she said, then forced to run and crawl up and down the hallway. “Was there anything done to these detainees that you felt was `going too far?’ ” she was asked. “No,” she replied.
Anyone else remember this scene from Apocalypse Now:
WILLARD
“I was sent on a classified mission, sir.”
KURTZ
“Ain’t no longer classified, is it?
What did they tell you ?”
WILLARD
” They told me that you had gone totally insane and that your
methods were unsound.”
KURTZ
” Are my methods unsound?”
WILLARD
” I don’t see any method at all, sir.”
