meta-roj

another story i’m afraid won’t get much traction, but there’s always hope…

part of the story was reported in us news and world report, this version comes from the new york times, via the houston chronicle:

Tenet, Rumsfeld ordered `ghost detainee’ hidden [houston chronicle, june 16, 2004]

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, acting at the request of George Tenet, the director of central intelligence, ordered military officials in Iraq last November to hold a man suspected of being an Iraqi terrorist at a high-level detention center there but not list him on the prison’s rolls, intelligence officials said Wednesday.

This prisoner and other “ghost detainees” were hidden to prevent the International Committee of the Red Cross from monitoring their treatment.

….

He was segregated from the other detainees and was not listed on the rolls. Under the order that had filtered down to Sanchez, military police were not to disclose the detainee’s whereabouts to the Red Cross pending further directives.

this would, on its face, appear to be a high-level order that violates the geneva convention provisions that all prisoners be properly identified and that the international committee of the red cross have access to all facilities and prisoners.

but i’m not a lawyer. there’s probably a memo somewhere in the bush administration that explains how exceptions to these principles can be justified.