Gen. Sanchez Wants A Truth Commission

By Steve Hynd

Here's a turn up for the books. The Huffington Post�s Jack Hidary writes:

The General described the failures at all levels of civilian and military command that led to the abuses in Iraq, �and that is why I support the formation of a truth commission.�

The General went on to say that, �during my time in Iraq there was not one instance of actionable intelligence that came out of these interrogation techniques.�

I interviewed General Sanchez after the event and asked him to elaborate on why he felt the US needed such a commission. � �If we do not find out what happened,� continued the General, �then we are doomed to repeat it.�

Remarkable, because Sanchez himself would probably be one of the key witnesses at any such commission.

While in Iraq, the general authored a memo allowing the harsh interrogation of prisoners in Iraq, though the approved techniques didn�t go as far as those later backed by Bush administration lawyers. The techniques he approved included environmental (temperature) manipulation, prisoner isolation, sleep deprivation and �convincing the detainee that individuals from a country other than the United States are interrogating him.�

He was also personally present at some of the interrogations, according to The Washington Post. But an Army Inspector General�s report cleared Sanchez and other top Army officers of culpability of abuse at Abu Ghraib, for which some servicemembers were jailed.

Even so, Sanchez blames Abu Graib as the sole reason he was forced into retirement. Perhaps he believes that he'd be able to reinstate his name with a little spreading the blame via the "only following orders" defense that the Obama administration has already claimed is just fine no matter what the Nuremberg Trials had to say.

Sanchez' statements come close on the heels of those from Gen David Petraeus to Fox News on Friday, when he clearly repudiated the Cheney faction's arguments about torture, saying that mistakes were made after 9/11, that the Army Field Manual is all that we need to use to interrogate prisoners, and that the US had probably violated the Geneva Conventions. From a purely political point of view, both Generals' statements are immensely useful as pushback against the pro-torture Right and as pressure on the Obama administration to ensure accountability for war crimes by Bush-era officials.

But, like Sanchez, Petraeus actual ethical record during the Bush years is far from squeaky clean. He has pretended ignorance of a culture of abuse in the past. In May 2007, Petraeus spoke to the Associated Press' annual meeting by live link to express his misgivings about a newly released ethics report. But the report was actually finished in November 2006, and Petraeus had kept quiet for over six months, until it's public release, before deciding to draft an "urgent" memo to his command about ethical lapses.

So now it suits these generals' own CYA purposes to speak out - back then it suited them to remain silent and do what they were told. Sure, it helps the White House on these issues and that's great but still, color me unimpressed with the PR Generals.