NYT: Rumsfeld Denies Abuses Occurred at Interrogations (senility?)

[DeepModem Mom]

PRISONERS
Rumsfeld Denies Abuses Occurred at Interrogations
By ERIC SCHMITT

Published: August 28, 2004


WASHINGTON, Aug. 27 - In his first comments on the two major investigative reports issued this week at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Thursday mischaracterized one of their central findings about the American military's treatment of Iraqi prisoners by saying there was no evidence that prisoners had been abused during interrogations.

The reports, one by a panel Mr. Rumsfeld had appointed and one by three Army generals, made clear that some abuses occurred during interrogations, that others were intended to soften up prisoners who were to be questioned, and that many intelligence personnel involved in the interrogations were implicated in the abuses. The reports were issued Tuesday and Wednesday.

But on Thursday, in an interview with a radio station in Phoenix, Mr. Rumsfeld, who was traveling outside Washington this week, said, "I have not seen anything thus far that says that the people abused were abused in the process of interrogating them or for interrogation purposes." A transcript of the interview was posted on the Pentagon's Web site on Friday. Mr. Rumsfeld repeated the assertion a few hours later at a news conference in Phoenix, adding that "all of the press, all of the television thus far that tried to link the abuse that took place to interrogation techniques in Iraq has not yet been demonstrated." After an aide slipped him a note during the news conference, however, Mr. Rumsfeld corrected himself, noting that an inquiry by three Army generals had, in fact, found "two or three" cases of abuse during interrogations or the interrogations process. In fact, however, the Army inquiry found that 13 of 44 instances of abuse involved interrogations or the interrogation process, an Army spokeswoman said. The report itself explicitly describes the extent to which each abuse involved interrogations.

On Friday, the chief Pentagon spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, sought to play down Mr. Rumsfeld's comments, saying: "He misspoke, pure and simple. But he corrected himself."...

(Down into the article, this: "'That The New York Times would find the secretary's misstatement and the subsequent effort to set the record straight is of interest is a shameless example of news that is sought during the dog days of August in Washington,' another Pentagon spokesman, Eric Ruff, said.")


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/28/politics/28rumsfeld.html


Good work by Eric Schmitt, NYT Washington Correspondent
[e-mail]

[Nambe]

1. I think rummy and rove are burried in their egos.

Too many years of self dillusion and power. It would be sad if so many weren't dead as a result of their actions and lies.

[jeff30997]

2. They never stop lying do they ?

The bastard knows very well what is happening in an interrogation: Psychological and physical torture.And that SOB gave the green light to those "interrogations".:grr:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

3. I guess having a German Shepherd tear chunks out of you doesn't

qualify? :shrug:

[Steven_S]

4. This supports the contention....

that he only hears what he wants to hear. At any briefing he would not acknowledge negative news of any kind.

I have heard this repeatedly about him, and now he proves it with his own words.

[CanIgonow]

5. Rumsfeld says that there is any evidence that abuse occurred

during the investigations.Knowing this snake one should ask the natural follow up"Did it occur before or after the interrogation?".
And also the following question: Why do you call it "abuse" when it should be correctly called torture?

This is the same Rumsfeld when asked to explain how after Scott Ritter,Hans Blix and other investigators working for years had not turned up any evidence of WMD's dropped this gem for us to ponder:
"The absence of evidence does not mean the evidence of absence".

This man is not just senile he is demented and drunk with power.

[Rose Siding]

6. You see, there are things we know we know...

things we don't know we don't know, things we know we don't know.....tee hee, Mr Secretary.

[daleo]

7. Rumsfeld is demented, but not senile

He knows when he is lying.