Rumsfeld on the run to avoid arrest in France

From AlterNet:

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld fled France today fearing arrest over charges of "ordering and authorizing" torture of detainees at both the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the U.S. military's detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, unconfirmed reports coming from Paris suggest.

U.S. embassy officials whisked Rumsfeld away yesterday from a breakfast meeting in Paris organized by the Foreign Policy magazine after human rights groups filed a criminal complaint against the man who spearheaded President George W. Bush's "war on terror" for six years.

Under international law, authorities in France are obliged to open an investigation when a complaint is made while the alleged torturer is on French soil.

Read more here.

Abu Ghraib whistleblower fears for his life

I'm fortunate that the local public radio station carries the BBC News Hour in the afternoons during my commute home. Fortunate, because they often cover stories that the American media ignores. Such is one they have covered this week. Please read the following story from the BBC News:

Abu Ghraib whistleblower's ordeal

The US soldier who exposed the abuse of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison found himself a marked man after his anonymity was blown in the most astonishing way by Donald Rumsfeld.

When Joe Darby saw the horrific photos of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison he was stunned.

So stunned that he walked out into the hot Baghdad night and smoked half a dozen cigarettes and agonised over what he should do.

Joe Darby was a reserve soldier with US forces at Abu Ghraib prison when he stumbled across those images which would eventually shock the world in 2004.

They were photographs of his colleagues, some of them men and women he had known since high school — torturing and abusing Iraqi prisoners.

His decision to hand them over rather than keep quiet changed his life forever.

The military policeman has only been allowed to talk about that struggle very recently, and in his first UK interview, for BBC Radio 4's The Choice, he told Michael Buerk how he made that decision and how he fears for the safety of his family.

Read the rest here, including:

And then he was sitting in a crowded Iraqi canteen with hundreds of soldiers and Donald Rumsfeld came on the television to thank Joe Darby by name for handing in the photographs.

...

“I really find it hard to believe that the secretary of defence of the United States has no idea about the star witness for a criminal case being anonymous.”

Rather than turn on him for betraying colleagues, most of the soldiers in his unit shook his hand. It was at home where the real trouble started.

Jon Stewart: When Dick Cheney smiles, an angel gets water-boarded

If you missed it on the Daily Show, The Raw Story has a summary and a video clip:

“Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were both on television last night, answering questions,” said Jon Stewart on Wednesday's Daily Show, comparing the rarity of the event to “a giant squid having sex with Bigfoot as the ghost of Jim Morrison claps giddily.”

Read the rest here.

Kucinich grills Rumsfeld on 'cover up' at Tillman hearing

My man, Dennis Kucinich took on Donald Rumsfeld at the congressional hearing on potential cover ups in the Pat Tillman case. If you have any doubt about Kucinich's abilities or intelligence, please watch the exchange between the two.

Rumsfeld tries his usual dodges of the questions and vague responses, but Kucinich doesn't let him off. He calmly persists with his question, rephrasing, repeating, and persisting so that Rumsfeld can't slime his way out of it. My favorite exchange between them:

“Was there a Department of Defense press strategy with respect to the war?” the Ohio Democrat asked.

“If there was, it obviously wasn't very good,” Rumsfeld quipped back.

The Rumsfeld remark drew Kucinich's ire.

“Well you know maybe it was very good because you actually covered up the Tillman case for awhile, you covered up the Jessica Lynch case, you covered up Abu Ghraib, so something was working for you,” he said. “So something was working for you.”

Rumsfeld angrily denied any cover up “on this matter.”

Go Dennis!