Donald Rumsfeld personally approved of specific forms of torture of
one Guantanamo detainee, and was in weekly contact with Maj. Gen.
Geoffrey Miller, the man in charge of the Guantánamo Bay detention
center. A Freedom Of Information Act request revealed that
Rumsfeld directly approved 16 different interrogation strategies for
Kahtani (who has been referred to the “20th hijacker”), including
forced nudity, stress position, and taking away religious items.
Rumsfeld’s close contact with Miller, as well as the fact that Miller
was sent to help set up the notorious Abu Ghraib torture chamber,
indicates that torture is in fact systematic government policy ordered
from the highest levels, and not, as those giving the orders repeatedly
claim, the actions of a few bad apples.
5 former generals have
also recently called for Rumsfeld’s resignation, though on the grounds
that he “botched” the planning of the war and occupation (rather than
for the fact that Rumsfeld and the rest of the regime have committed
war crimes and crimes against humanity in an unjust and illegitimate
war, whether it was “well planned” or not). In response to all
this, Bush has only continued to stand by and offer praise for Rumsfeld.
Will you allow this regime that is guilty of torture to remain in power and commit more crimes? Or will you resist?
The World Can’t Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime!
(Source: Rumsfeld ‘personally involved’ in ‘harsh’ interrogation, RawStory.com, 4/14/06)
*For a fuller discussion of this regime’s systematic torture, listen to the testimony from the Bush Crimes Commission, including from Janis Karpinsky, the retired general formerly in charge of Abu Ghraib.