Must Read: "The Religious Warrior of Abu Ghraib" by Sidney Blumental

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4928237-103550,00.html

The religious warrior of Abu Ghraib

An evangelical US general played a pivotal role in Iraqi prison reform

Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday May 20, 2004

The Guardian

Saving General Boykin seemed like a strange sideshow last October. After it was revealed that the deputy undersecretary of defence for intelligence had been regularly appearing at evangelical revivals preaching that the US was in a holy war as a "Christian nation" battling "Satan", the furore was quickly calmed.

Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, explained that Boykin was exercising his rights as a citizen: "We're a free people." President Bush declared that Boykin "doesn't reflect my point of view or the point of view of this administration". Bush's commission on public diplomacy had reported that in nine Muslim countries, just 12% believed that "Americans respect Arab/Islamic values". The Pentagon announced that its inspector general would investigate Boykin, though he has yet to report.

Boykin was not removed or transferred. At that moment, he was at the heart of a secret operation to "Gitmoize" (Guantánamo is known in the US as Gitmo) the Abu Ghraib prison. He had flown to Guantánamo, where he met Major General Geoffrey Miller, in charge of Camp X-Ray. Boykin ordered Miller to fly to Iraq and extend X-Ray methods to the prison system there, on Rumsfeld's orders.

<>Boykin was the action hero side of his boss, Stephen Cambone, a conservative defence intellectual appointed to the new post of undersecretary of intelligence. Cambone is universally despised by the officer corps for his arrogant, abrasive and dictatorial style and regarded as the personal symbol of Rumsfeldism. A former senior Pentagon official told me of a conversation with a three-star general, who remarked: "If we were being overrun by the enemy and I had only one bullet left, I'd use it on Cambone."

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[berry]

1. Excellent reminder to keep our eyes on Boykin!

There are so many players--and even when something is reported that links them to the worst of *'s disastrous policies, it's easy to forget about them. BUT this article tells me things about Boykin I didn't know. He seems to have been (Gump-like) present at too many national disasters. And the list may not be complete even now.

Besides being "at the heart of a secret operation to "Gitmoize" (Guantánamo is known in the US as Gitmo) the Abu Ghraib prison",

<<"Boykin was...in the elite Delta forces: he was a commander in the failed effort to rescue US hostages in Iran, had tracked drug lord Pablo Escobar in Colombia, had advised the gas attack on barricaded cultists at Waco, Texas, and had lost 18 men in Somalia trying to capture a warlord in the notorious Black Hawk Down fiasco of 1993.">>

What's odd is that being in on DISASTERS recommends him for a place at the power-table now. Or maybe not odd, considering...

The other BOMBSHELL in this article (new to me at least) was this quotation from Bush. It's even worse, more damning, than the trifecta comment, I think:

<<"Before his 2000 campaign, Bush confided to a leader of the religious right: "I feel like God wants me to run for president ... I sense my country is going to need me. Something is going to happen."">>

AAAUGH!!!

[Fovea]

2. Potentially, this is the wedge issue from 'hell'

Not all conservative Christians I talk to are cheerleading the torture of the Paynim in Babalon. Many are horrified by the pictures, and cannot swallow the 'bad apples' koolaide.

We need to show the Bush/Ashcroft/Boykin act as the false prophets they are.
They will not vote for us in many cases, but they may not vote for BushCheney either.

[HuckleB]

3. "God wants me to run for president"

it's official: Bush is diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder...