"Rumsfailed" implicated in Abu Ghraib

As always when I set out to write about the Bush Madministration, I am overwhelmed, not from writer's block or lack of material, but because there is simply an OCEAN of information about wrong-doing on all fronts. As always, it's "where do I begin?".
This time around, I'll start with "Rumsfailed" (name taken from a freeway sign featured on The Freeway Blogger ). According to an Independent article by Rupert Cornwell, Rumsfeld was "implicated in Abu Ghraib abuse by (a) damning report":

"A high-level report has placed indirect blame for the Abu Ghraib prison scandal on the Pentagon's top civilian and military officials, saying their neglect allowed a culture and environment to develop in which such abuse could take place.

The report, released yesterday ­ one of 11 separate inquiries into abuses at the jail near Baghdad ­ is the first to criticise Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, and his closest advisers over the debacle.

James Schlesinger, a former defence secretary who led the investigation, said: "There was chaos at Abu Ghraib, but there was no policy of abuse." Rather, the photos of naked Iraqis were the"extracurricular activities" of the night shift, which he described as an "animal house".

The panel does blame the Pentagon for confused instructions about interrogation techniques and for not paying sufficient attention to how interrogations were carried out. "Institutional and personal responsibility" stretched "right up the chain of command in Washington," Mr Schlesinger said."

Meanwhile, New Yorkers are not exactly in the best of moods to welcome the RNC. A Village Voice article entitled "The 10 Ways Bush screwed New York" pretty much says it all. Here are the brief highlights; read the full article on the link.

1. "Will any convention speaker dare mention the name of Osama bin Laden? What ever happened to Bush's cowboy threat to "smoke 'em" out?
   
   
2. Why was Bush so afraid of a 9-11 investigation?
   
   
3. Was the Bush team awake in the nine months before the attack?
   
   
4. Iraq plus tax cuts adds up to a deficit that will force a second-term squeeze on social programs vital to NYC.
   
   
5. Bush did OK on the $20 billion, but he's still shortchanging us on the edges of the minimal pledge he made to a city whose economy took an $80 billion hit.
   
   
6. Senator Schumer says NY doesn't expect a share of Idaho's farm subsidies, so why does Idaho take a chunk of NY's security subsidies?
   
   
7. What could be worse than lying to GZ workers and residents about the air they were breathing?
   
   
8. Bush has left most New York children behind.
   
   
9. Ten thousand NY families are in jeopardy of losing their housing subsidies and homes.
   
   
10. With NYC the No. 1 target of bio and nuclear terrorists, the go-it-alone Bush administration has torpedoed international treaties that would make us more secure."
    

Comments

[Steven G. Erickson]

Interesting post.

I post as Vikingas on FreeSpeech.com and I have covered this story from a number of different angles.

It is just plain embarrassing to all Americans ...

Preach to the world about human rights and then abuse them ourselves.
-Steven G. Erickson

My opinion on the subject is best described in this post: http://www.freespeech.com/archives/002425.html (complete with picture of Bush and animation of a sheep being shot to death)