Wednesday, May 12, 2004 :::
 
You know, the geneeral ineptitude of reporters never ceases to amaze. Yes, it's true, A Mind That Suits grew up with the very best there was living in his house, but still, by the laxest of standards--if laxest is a word--most reporters just come up short.

And herewith you will find the only unqualifiedly positive reference to our problematic Secretary of Defense at A Mind That Suits. Because a certain pudgy English teacher, tired of the lack of reporting among conservative commentators, has taken to pulling things off the web and reading them himself, and he knows what the Secretary says is true. Indeed, he commented on it to the bartender at Ye Old Neighborhood Pool Club before he saw a transcript of the Secretary's comments.

And actually, it is easy to understand why "Rummy's" fans hang on his every word. He does have a way with those words. What he says speaks for itself. There is more to say beyond that--such as why so little ink has been spilled on the President's silence in this regard--but just consider the high dudgeon the press was in last week, and why it seems they were a little slow on the uptake.

With apologies to one and all for having to quote a certain Senator from New England.

From the Washington Post transcript:

KENNEDY: Question is whether this was brought to you and when did you know. When did you know it?
You gave us a laundry list in your presentation about the timeline on it. I'm trying to find out, because it has been published, that you were notified about this a series of times and advised to do something about it and nothing was done.

RUMSFELD: It's not correct to say "Nothing was done." You're making a set of conclusions that are just simply not accurate.
We've had numerous discussions, interagency, on detainees. All in all, there have been some 43,000 people who were captured or detained in Iraq, of whom 31,850 have already been released. That is a big task for the Army to undertake. The...
KENNEDY: Can I...
RUMSFELD: ... the actions of the ICRC -- you said they came in and indicated concerns about the Abu Ghraib prison. That's correct. And the prison officials began the process of making corrections and the general's report -- Taguba -- found that a number of those things were already under way, in terms of corrections. And when he made his study, a number of additional things and corrections were made.
So it seems to me that the ICRC report was helpful, and that the military command, as I understand it, undertook a series of corrections.
Now, with respect to when were we knowledgeable of this, the situation was this: Specialist Darby told the CID that he had information about abuses in the prison. I believe it was on the 13th or 14th of January.
By the 15th or 16th, an investigation had been initiated. And the Central Command public affairs people went out and told the world -- they told everyone in the world that there were allegations of abuse and they were being investigated. Again, by mid-March, when some criminal -- I don't know the legal term but -- some criminal actions were initiated, the Central Command's public affairs people went out again and announced that not only were there allegations of abuses but they listed the types of abuses. And then this is to the world. Everyone knew it. CNN was there asking questions. And that is the time frame when General Myers and I were meeting with the president and discussed the reports that we had obviously heard because they weren't hiding anything. They disclosed it to the world.

To which A Mind That Suits would only add: what kind of reporter sits there, hears the Central Command announce that they are investigating abuse of detainees, just scribbles some notes, and then moves on to the next question?

One, really, that needs reassignment.


::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 4:31 PM


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