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Former Top Iraq Commander Calls For Truth Commission
General Ricardo Sanchez, the former top coalition commander in Iraq, has called for a truth commission to investigate abusive interrogation practices.
At an event last night at the Times Center in New York City, reports the Huffington Post, Sanchez blamed the Abu Ghraib abuses on a failure of civilian and military command at all levels, declaring "and that is why I support the formation of a truth commission."
In doing so, Sanchez became the first senior military officer from the Iraqi theater to call for a truth commission. His position is particularly noteworthy because Abu Ghraib occurred on his watch, and he's been widely blamed for the abuses. He has said that his career was a casualty of Abu Ghraib. "That's the key reason, the sole reason, I was forced to retire," he has said.
Sanchez also fought back against Dick Cheney's claim that torture helped stop terrorist attacks: "During my time in Iraq there was not one instance of actionable intelligence that came out of these interrogation techniques."
Speaking to Huffpo after the event, Sanchez elaborated: "For the American people to really know what happened...this was an institutional failure, a personal failure on the part of many." He continued: "If we do not find out what happened then we are doomed to repeat it."
The event was organized by the Culture Project, and was moderated by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.
Josh
Zachary
Abuses:
That says it all. Failure on the part of leaders (all levels, civilian and military). And for nothing!
Disgusting!
June 1, 2009 11:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good luck finding any Republican or Democrat crony in Washington who will... even after discovering the truth... relate it to the appropriate sources.
It may have been possible, at some point in this nation's history, to find enough individuals appointed by a political party, who could and would be able to find and relate the truth during an investigation, but "We the Voters" have long ago decided we no longer wanted that type of person representing our political parties.
We would therefore have, at this time in history, very little chance of finding enough honest folks who would be chosen to find and present the truth for ANY reason.
Too bad, but it seems falling down that slippery slope is MUCH easier than going back up...
I believe the most we can expect in the future is to have memories of the once noble nation we used to have... IMHO
June 1, 2009 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Army Lt. Col. Steven Jordan, the officer who oversaw interrogations at Abu Ghraib in 2003, testified when news of the outrages broke five years ago that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, was pressing for intelligence that would help combat the rash of attacks imperiling on U.S. forces at the time.
"I know Gen. Sanchez was in our knickers," Jordan said, "to get more information from detainees."
In mid-fall 2003, Sanchez appointed Col. Thomas Pappas, commander of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade as de facto warden of the prison, and from then on, inmates were at the mercy of the "enhanced interrogation methods" so favored by Bush/Cheney. If Pappas' name sounds familiar, he's the intelligence office, who - when an Iraqi detainee died during questioning - allegedly stated, "I'm not going to go down alone for this."
Sanchez has blamed the subsequent Abu Ghraib scandal for scuttling his military career, and is in a unique position to view the issue. If he's calling for a truth commission, maybe we should follow his advice. ...Cautiously.
June 1, 2009 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
oh yes, agree.
General Taguba says Sanchez is in it up to his eyeballs -
“Sanchez knew exactly what was going on.”
and yet calling for a public airing - sounds like he thinks he has some kind of get-out-of-jail-free card - with which to shiv somebody - I would like to see the good general play his hand
June 1, 2009 11:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've been pushing for a Truth Commission for a couple of years now. I'd love to see this happen. These bastards will rat each other out so fast that we'll need supercomputers to keep up with the backstabbing.
The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get on with recovery.
Substitute "torture" for "alcohol" and you could run this country through a massive twelve step program to cleanse our souls of the sins of our past. And as Americans, even "good" Americans, we are all complicit until the truth is fully revealed.
June 2, 2009 1:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
I've been pushing for a Truth Commission for a couple of years now. I'd love to see this happen. These bastards will rat each other out so fast that we'll need supercomputers to keep up with the backstabbing.
The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get on with recovery.
Substitute "torture" for "alcohol" and you could run this country through a massive twelve step program to cleanse our souls of the sins of our past. And as Americans, even "good" Americans, we are all complicit until the truth is fully revealed.
June 2, 2009 2:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
This "Truth Commission" is even more urgently needed:
http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/make-it-happen/
June 2, 2009 12:55 PM | Reply | Permalink