Rumsfeld: It's not the Abuse, it's the PHOTOS of Abuse

Rumsfeld seems to be saying today, and the trascript will confirm later, that the PHOTOS of the abuse are what is damaging and not the abuse itself.

How f-ed up is that?

Anyone else watching/listening getting that impression too?

and it was ILLEGAL!! too!!

He seemed to be very agitated saying who in the world knew they were running around snapping pictures.

the photos were taken and that they had been released to the general public. What a creep. I really think this is just the tip of the iceberg as many others on this board have already said. Thank heavens for DU!

Yes, Rummie strikes me as pretty smarmy.

to ban photographs. Truth is one thing, photos make an impression!

to ban photographs. Truth is one thing, photos make an impression!

They are dangerous things indeed.

Rummy has had too many picture taken.

the worst part is that the classified pictures were released to the media!(my impression from Rumsfeld)

had he had those pictures. What ought a president to know?

More like, what might a president ASK???????Does it require Bush being spoon-fed????

I've also had the impression that the guards were told to get info about WMDs and Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq any way they had to.

Rumsfeld is a first class moron if he doesn't realize that all combat soldiers take souvenirs, whether as benign as insgnia cut off a discarded enemy uniform or as foul as some of the stuff they took during Vietnam (don't ask, you don't want to know). It has always been this way in every war. That these guys took pictures and then shopped them around should come as no surprise.

Also no surprise is the fact that the pictures are causing much more Rumrage than the extreme humiliation of human beings does. After all, US citizens who are not wealthy are hardly human to the Bush gang; we can imagine they think far less of Iraqis.

All these bastards need to resign in disgrace. Their egos will prevent it, though.

I heard that, too. Rummie basically reduced the problem to people with digital cameras and the media having access to the photos.

Maybe we need to amend the Patriot Act to make photography a crime unless it serves the Bush administration.

He's not upset about the problem, he's upset they were caught.

Plutocrats and autocrats ..
(1) Deny knowledge ("plausible deniability")
(2) Stifle exposure and rationalize it as "justice"
(3) Point downwards when speaking of "responsibility"
(4) Collect credits (and profits)

He admits he didn't appreciate the impact of known cases of prisoner abuse in late January or early February when he communicated this to the President.

He was "blindsided" like everyone else by the firestorm created by the publication of the pictures. He claims his first knowledge of the pictures was when they appeared in the press. What did he think torture looked like?

This shows their real standards. It isn't the actual war crimes and Conventions violations, it's the pictures, it's the PR. He views it as a public relations problem, so does Myers, not a war crimes problem reflecting on policy, leadership, organization, morale, and the ultimate outcome of the war effort.

There's an old saying in the prosecution and defense business:

GET THE BAD NEWS OUT FIRST. Anything else impairs credibility. At this point Myers and Rumsfeld and the chimp have no credibility with the rest of the world.

Final point: Hiding behind concerns for DUE PROCESS for our soldier/scapegoats, when his actions and rules for GITMO and policies for detainees and captives in IRAQ, show no such concerns with repeated and continuing DUE PROCESS violations with respect to the processing and disposition of DETAINEES under the Geneva Conventions. Foreign countries, including England and Australia, and the Red Cross and other NGOs have been pointing out these continuing due process violations under the Conventions with little response from Rumsfeld or the Central Command. This larger policy issue is politely ignored by the Congress. Think it isn't connected. Rumsfeldt admitted the linkage between "lessons learned" at Gitmo and the tying of prisoner maintenance to interrogation in Iraq.

IT'S HIS POLICY-HE SHOULD BE FIRED.

the torture. Rummy continues to claim that it's abuse, not torture. Then he gets off on the release of the info in the form of photos -- but don't buy into his abuse of the word 'abuse.'

...in an effort to cover up a crime...in this case war crimes. This is a misuse of the official secrets act...never meant to hide these types of things from scrutiny.

The classifications and many other things have been abused by this administration.

Look at the Gitmo Bay treatment, now they are behind tall covered walls where nobody can get a picture of the inside.

Look at the Saudi Report on 9-11, not a bit about the country is declassified.

Look at the Energy Committee meetings, we have been forced to take it to the Supreme Court and now everyone is being quiet about it because of the newest distraction.

The list can go on and on and on, it's a common piece of news to hear that the Bush Administration has been the most secretive and the most abusive to our constitutional rights.