Pentagon Drops Post in Pakistan for Top (Guantanamo) General

[Divernan]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — When the Pentagon announced in March that Maj. Gen. Jay W. Hood would become the senior American officer based in Pakistan, it reflected the military’s aim to put a crisis-tested veteran in a critical job at a pivotal time in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
Maj. Gen. Jay W. Hood appeared before Congress in 2005 to discuss the treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. But nearly two months later, the military has quietly canceled the assignment of General Hood, a 33-year Army veteran who was excoriated in the Pakistani news media for one of his previous jobs: commander of the United States prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

During General Hood’s command from 2004 to 2006, military authorities force-fed with tubes detainees who were engaging in hunger strikes at the Guantánamo prison, a step they justified as necessary to prevent the prisoners from committing suicide to protest their indefinite confinement. Also during General Hood’s tenure, reports that an American guard may have desecrated a Koran stirred wide protests in the Islamic world.

The decision to withdraw General Hood’s assignment has not been announced, but it appears to reflect the widening shadow that the military prison at Guantánamo is casting over American foreign policy. While the United States considers Pakistan a close ally in its counterterrorism efforts, the accounts by Pakistanis who have returned to Pakistan after being held at Guantánamo Bay have added to anti-American sentiment in the country.



Read more: www.nytimnes.com/2008/05/09/world/asia/09general.html?th&emc=th

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And Pakistan has been touted as a US ally. Islam is a major world religion - peaceful in its teachings except for a relatively miniscule group of extremists. Guantanamo is a terrible stain on the US's image which has spread across the globe.

[Bragi]

1. Hooray! Another Bush Pariah!

I really enjoy instances where those associated with the illegal Bush war machine are declared unwanted, and unfit for any foreign postings.

I particularly like the fact that the Rumsfelds and Powells and Feiths of the world can no longer travel abroad because of concerns about being served legal papers relating to torture and other war crimes.

(To enjoy a report about Rummy having to flee France last fall, see http://presscue.com/index.php?q=node/8596)

It feels so damned good knowing that these criminals can no longer travel outside the US, and are greeted and treated abroad like the loathesome scum they are.

As for Bush himself, it's wonderful to realize that, in just 255 days, he will become the only former US President in history who cannot travel outside the US. Sweet.

- B