Col. Thomas Pappas, in sworn testimony, said the idea of using dogs came from the Commandant of American Gulag Guantanamo, and approved by Commandant “I See Nothing” Sanchez, confirming the testimony from the number one Rumsfeld henchman Cambone at the Taguba hearing. As Mark Rothschild writes on AntiWar.com:
The seventy year-old Democrat pressed Cambone further, reading verbatim from a still-secret “annex” of the Taguba report, which presumably is an extract from an order by Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, the commanding general in Iraq.
Senator Levin read aloud from the secret annex:
“The interrogation officer in charge will submit memoranda for the record requesting harsh approaches for the commanding general’s approval prior to employment: sleep management, sensory deprivation, isolation longer than 30 days and dogs.”
He then turned to Cambone, demanding to know:
“Secretary Cambone, were you personally aware of that permissible interrogation techniques in the Iraqi theater included sleep management, sensory deprivation, isolation longer than 30 days and dogs?”
Cambone answered calmly, relating that ultimate control over the list of “approved techniques” had been in the hands of Lieutenant General Sanchez , “No, sir. That list, both in terms of its detail and its exceptions, were approved at the command level in the theater.”The gun-toting Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, a native of the rough and tumble US/Mexico border region known to locals as “the valley,” is the Commanding General in Iraq. Sanchez’ order approving the use of dogs and the other methods was dated, October 19, 2003. But Sanchez, whose career must surely now be on the brink, was not the only official to be scathed by the revelation that specific written lists of “approved techniques” exist.
Under questioning by Senator Ted Kennedy, of Massachusetts, Undersecretary Cambone admitted that his boss, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld also has his own list of “approved techniques,” saying that when interrogators at Guantanamo Bay want to surpass the severity of the techniques on Rumsfeld’s list, the permission of the Secretary of Defense himself is required.
But remember, Sanchez’s departure from Iraq has nuuuuthing to do with any of this. Miller’s departure will undoubtedly be unrelated also.