Coming Apart at the Seams

[from democracynow.org]
Military Papers Call for Rumsfeld to Resign

The editors of the nation’s four main military newspapers have called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign. The editorial appears today in the Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Corps Times. The editorial states "It is one thing for the majority of Americans to think Rumsfeld has failed. But when the nation’s current military leaders start to break publicly with their defense secretary, then it is clear that he is losing control of the institution he ostensibly leads." The editorial goes on to say "Rumsfeld has lost credibility with the uniformed leadership, with the troops, with Congress and with the public at large. His strategy has failed." The Army Times and the others papers are civilian owned but distributed to troops across the globe.

Neoconservatives Publicly Criticize Iraq War

Vanity Fair is reporting a number of prominent neoconservatives who advocated for the invasion of Iraq are now criticizing President Bush’s handling of the war. The list includes former Pentagon advisers Richard Perle and Kenneth Adelman; former Presidential speechwriter David Frum; and Michael Rubin, a former senior official in the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans. Richard Perle admitted that huge mistakes were made in Iraq. Perle criticized Vanity Fair because he claimed he had been promised that his remarks would not be published until after the mid-term election.

Bush Attempts to Silence Prisoners Once Held in CIA Jails

The Washington Post is reporting that the Bush administration has told a federal judge that prisoners once held in secret CIA jail should never be allowed to reveal to their civilian attorney details of how they were interrogated. The government says in new court filings that those interrogation methods are among the nation’s most sensitive national security secrets and that their release could cause extremely grave damage. Gitanjali Gutierrez, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights said the government is trying to conceal illegal or embarrassing executive conduct. Northwestern University law professor Joseph Margulies said that this means prisoners would be barred from even saying what the government did to them to elicit the statements that are the basis for them being held. Margulies said "Kafka-esque doesn’t do it justice. This is ‘Alice in Wonderland.