Pentagon intel head who oversaw torture resigns
 

Add another one to the list...

The Progress Report
December 4, 2006
MILITARY -- PENTAGON INTEL HEAD WHO OVERSAW TORTURE RESIGNS

Pentagon intelligence chief Stephen Cambone, a close ally of outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, "will step down at the end of the year, becoming the first key department member to leave in the wake of Rumsfeld's resignation." Cambone was a strong advocate for war against Iraq. He shared "Rumsfeld’s disdain for the analysis and assessments proffered by the C.I.A., viewing them as too cautious, and chafed, as did Rumsfeld, at the C.I.A.’s inability, before the Iraq war, to state conclusively that Saddam Hussein harbored weapons of mass destruction." Cambone has been regarded as the chief planner of questionable interrogation tactics at military and CIA detention sites around the world. “This is Cambone’s deal, but Rumsfeld and [former Joint Chiefs Chairman Richard] Myers approved the program.” When it came to the interrogation operations at Abu Ghraib, he said, Rumsfeld left the details to Cambone. Last December, when Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was pushing for a uniform standard of interrogation for the Army, Cambone led an effort to rewrite the Army detainee standards that "would help teach them how to walk right up to the line between legal and illegal interrogations." Also, Cambone was in charge of intelligence "when it was disclosed a year ago that a Pentagon database of suspicious activities contained the names of anti-war groups that had been found not be security risks." Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Todd Vician said Gates did not request Cambone's resignation. "This was an independent decision," said a Pentagon spokesman.

http://www.post-trib.com/news/158104...igence.article

This has been a very good day for resignations. :D

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you'd never heard of the guy before today.

Actually, I did. But even if I didn't, by reading the article you can clearly see why his resignation is a good thing.

I love how the actual text of the article talking about the guy's support for "questionable interrogation tactics" and his attempts to rewrite interrogation standards so that they were tough but still legal leads to the headline saying the guy "oversaw torture" like he was some dungeonmaster.

I see the wording as overseer of operations, as in, how they were initially implemented and who he communicated with once things got rolling. I don't think most people see him as someone in the back room watching the harassment and torture live on CCTV while he eats a box of twinkies, dude. Of course, nothing would surprise me coming out of this administration. But clearly he was irresponsible in his handling of the situation. And one does have to question how he encouraged when interrogation tactics should and should not be necessary.