Donald Rumsfeld Is Incorrigible

Published in Neues Deutschland
(Germany) on 10 February 2011
by Olaf Standke (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Ron Argentati. Edited by Gheanna Emelia.
We’ve always known that the Guantanamo prison camp was notable for many reasons, but no one ever imagined it would be described as “one of the finest prison systems in the world." That’s how jokester Donald Rumsfeld described it. And the former secretary of defense can’t imagine why Washington has been unable to convince the public “that they were not torturing people, that they were not hurting people.” Well, the reason for that is quite simple: Guantanamo prisoners were being hurt and tortured as numerous investigations have shown. Plus, the “harsh interrogation methods” favored by the Bush administration didn’t help much. Since Barack Obama has thus far unfortunately failed to keep his campaign promise to close the camp because of political and legal hurdles, Rumsfeld praises the notorious camp as well as the no-less-infamous military tribunals for “unlawful combatants” that Rumsfeld claims were the best solution to the terrorism question.

Rumsfeld’s recently released memoirs reveal the 78-year-old to be an incorrigible warmonger and secretary of self-defense, who still gets a royal chuckle from the outrage his verbal attacks about the “Old Europe” once produced. His ex-boss, by the way, prefers to avoid such provocations because the human rights organization Amnesty International has called for a criminal investigation into ex-President Bush for torture and mistreatment of prisoners.


Unbelehrbar
Von Olaf Standke
10.02.2011

Man wusste schon immer, dass dem Gefangenenlager auf dem US-amerikanischen Militärstützpunkt Guantanamo eine Sonderstellung zukommt; nur dass es »eines der besten Gefängnisse der Welt« sein soll, kam einem bisher nicht in den Sinn. Aber Donald Rumsfeld gilt ja als Mann mit besonderem Humor. So kann der einstige Pentagon-Chef auch nicht verstehen, warum es der Washingtoner Regierung nicht gelang, den Menschen zu vermitteln, dass dort »nicht gefoltert und niemand verletzt wurde«. Dabei ist die Erklärung ganz einfach: Guantanamo-Insassen wurden misshandelt und gefoltert, wie diverse Untersuchungen belegen, da hilft auch die Erfindung der »harschen Verhörmethoden« durch die Bush-Administration nicht. Während Nachfolger Barack Obama bisher kläglich an politischen und juristischen Hürden gescheitert ist und sich die von ihm versprochene Guantanamo-Schließung immer weiter verzögert, feiert Rumsfeld das berüchtigte Gefangenenlager und die international nicht weniger scharf kritisierten militärischen Sondertribunale für »illegale Kombattanten« im Anti-Terrorkampf der USA als »beste Lösung«.

Seine soeben erschienenen Memoiren zeigen den 78-Jährigen als unbelehrbaren Krieger und Selbstverteidigungsminister, der sich noch heute königlich über die Aufregung amüsieren kann, die seine Verbalangriffe gegen das »alte Europa« einst hervorriefen. Das übrigens meidet sein früherer Oberkommandierender inzwischen lieber, weil die Menschenrechtsorganisation Amnesty International strafrechtliche Ermittlungen gegen Ex-Präsident Bush gefordert hat – wegen Folter und Misshandlung von Gefangenen.

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