May 15, 2004 - The photographs of which we have become all too familiar depict the activities of a few rouge evildoers unknowingly imbedded in the midst of our army of good honest and honorable American soldiers. They were acting alone, on their own initiative and certainly not with the knowledge of or on orders from their commanders. Well, at least not with the knowledge of or on orders from the higher levels of the chain of command.

These “disgusting” activities represent an aberration and certainly not American policy toward the interrogation of prisoners of war and detainees in a theater of war covered by the Geneva Conventions. It has always been American policy that the Geneva Conventions apply to POWs and civilians detained in Iraq because, after all, America when America signed on to the Conventions they became the law of the land under the Constitution and the President is charged with the duty of taking care that the law of the land be faithfully executed. Persons under the authority of the President could not have been executing a policy in violation of the law of the land. Therefore it follows that the soldiers charged with violations of the law must have acted alone and without their commander’s knowledge or authorization.

That is why the Secretary of Defense slipped away from Washington to visit Iraq and that is why upon the Secretary’s arrival in Iraq and after he met with his theatre commander, General Ricardo Sanchez, new orders were published removing previously authorized techniques from the list of things that might be done in the course of interrogating prisoners held by the United States in Iraq. That list may have come to Iraq from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, brought by General Geoffrey D. Miller in his mission late last summer to “Gitmo-ize” Iraq.

Of course, as General Miller has made clear in recent days after taking command of the detention and, that list was just an example of the necessity of having a policy, not a policy suggestion. That is another reason why General Sanchez needed to issue new public orders banning interrogation techniques that the old secret orders had previously specifically authorized. We must remember that under the previously issued secret orders those previously authorized and now banned techniques could only be employed on specific authorization by General Sanchez. Since General Sanchez never authorized their use in any case – at least not that he now recalls – the things shown in those photographs never officially happened. It all makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

Now the Congress and the Senate are busy turning over rocks at Abu Ghraib and are reaching for other rocks at Bagram and Guantanamo. When you turn over rocks critters scurry around trying to get out of the sunlight to find a new rock to hide under. You have to be mighty careful because one of those critters might bite you before they crawl under a new rock. That explains Secretary Rumsfeld’s mission to Iraq. He brought them a fresh supply of rocks.