[mburbank]

Bush didn't know at all. Rumsfled and the joint chiefs hadn't read the report which was 'still working it's way up the chain of command'. One has to wonder how severe an offnese or problem woud have to be to 'work it's way up' any faster.

Here are the questions to ask and things to watch for as this proceeds.

1.) To what extent has interrogation been privatized?
2.) Who's deision was that?
3.) Who supervises civillian interagators?
4.) Since civillian contractors in Iraq are not subject to military command or justice, what rules are they following? What laws if any are they subject to? How is their conduct monitored?
5.) Look for denials followed by the exposure of a cover up. There's always ass covering (pardon the pun) in corruption. It already looks as if Military PMs are being required to take a fall, and some lawyers are already suggesting that the CIA encouraged this kind of abuse to 'soften' detainees for interrogation.
6.) What other traditional military roles have been privatized?
7.) Has intelligecne gathering been privatized precisely BECAUSE civillian contractors are not constrained by military codes of conduct?


I think in the end this will hang around Rumsfelds neck. If I had to make a guess who's bright idea privatising interrogation was, I'd say Rumsfeld.