Snappy newsletters. Simple Facebook sharing. Spirited comments. Sweet features are waiting… GET THEM NOW!

NEWS ABOUT: Donald Rumsfeld

Senate Report Pins Torture on Rumsfeld

Bipartisan panel, including McCain, concludes detainee abuse not just because of 'a few bad apples'

(Newser) - Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top White House officials were responsible for detainee abuse at US military prisons, a bipartisan Senate report finds. After 2 years of hearing testimony and reviewing documents, the study—released by Sens. John McCain and Carl Levin—traces controversial interrogation practices like sleep... More »

Reports: Gates Will Remain at Pentagon

'Done deal' that Bush appointee will stay at least 1 year under Obama

(Newser) - Robert Gates will remain in his post as defense secretary at least through the first year of Barack Obama’s administration, reports ABC News. “It’s a done deal,” an anonymous source told the network today. Obama will reportedly unveil his choice of Gates shortly after Thanksgiving, along... More »

Obama Talks to Gates About Staying at Pentagon

Defense Secretary fulfill talk of bipartisan cabinet

(Newser) - Barack Obama and Robert Gates are negotiating policy issues with a view toward Gates remaining Defense secretary, the Financial Times reports, a move that would make the Bush appointee a key member of a bipartisan cabinet that resembles Abraham Lincoln's “team of rivals.” Gates, a former CIA chief,... More »

Secret Directive Lets US Attack Up to 20 Nations

Rumsfeld order in '04 allowed peacetime strikes on al-Qaeda

(Newser) - The American military has conducted almost a dozen secret attacks against al-Qaeda and other militant groups in Syria, Pakistan, and other nations since 2004, the New York Times reveals. The strikes were carried out under a classified order signed by Donald Rumsfeld that gave sweeping powers to let the military... More »

US 'Spied on Iraqi Leaders'

Woodward book reveals finds 'detached' Bush 'often failed to lead' on Iraq

(Newser) - The Bush administration conducted an extensive spying operation on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders even while seeking to win their trust, according to a new book from the Washington Post's Bob Woodward. The book portrays an administration hamstrung by indecision as its Iraq strategy fell apart in... More »

Ex-Pentagon Lawyers Face Grilling in Torture Probe

Defense Department lawyers played bigger role in Gitmo than first thought

(Newser) - Pentagon lawyers had more input than was initially thought into the harsh interrogation techniques used on Guantanamo Bay prisoners, sources close to a Senate investigation have told the New York Times. Documents from 2002 reveal that officials in the Department of Defense, then run by Donald Rumsfeld, researched techniques like... More »

Why Obama Might Have a Jones Jones

Ex-general stood up to Rumsfeld—but he's also a McCain pal

(Newser) - Analysts were surprised to see the name of retired general James Jones on Barack Obama's vice-presidential shortlist yesterday, but Noam Scheiber, in the New Republic thinks he knows what the former NATO commander was doing there. Per Bob Woodward’s most recent book, Scheiber notes Jones was so put off... More »

Pentagon Emails Detail TV Propaganda Plans

Defense officials sought military experts willing to "carry our water"

(Newser) - Need more proof that the Pentagon coached ostensibly impartial military analysts about what to say on TV? In Salon, Glenn Greenwald reveals emails from one top defense staffer who suggested developing a core group of insiders who are “most reliably friendly” and that “we can count on to... More »

Rumsfeld Dodged Early Iraq Failures: Sanchez

Former general speaks out in new book, describes lies and 'total BS'

(Newser) - Early mistakes in Iraq—and the extent of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's involvement in them—are the subject of a Time excerpt from a book by the former commander of US forces in Iraq, Gen. Ricardo Sanchez. Sanchez details an effort by Rumsfeld to get him to agree, on paper,... More »

Pentagon Purse Strings Ensnare TV Military Analysts

Commentators linked to defense contractors

(Newser) - Several so-called "independent" military analysts who often support Defense Department positions on TV news programs have been linked closely to defense contractors and the Pentagon in an extensive New York Times investigation. "We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you,’... More »

White House 'Duped' General Into Torture: Book

Myers 'hoodwinked' into permitting harsh techniques

(Newser) - The Bush administration "hoodwinked" one of the country's top military men in order to establish harsh interrogation techniques on Guantanamo Bay prisoners, according to revelations in a new book reported in the Guardian. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers was misled by White House... More »

Rumsfeld to Pen Memoirs

Proceeds will go to foundation

(Newser) - Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, one of the architects of the war in Iraq who resigned from the Bush administration when the US became mired in the insurgency, is writing his memoirs, Reuters reports. The 75-year-old former congressman won't take an advance and will donate the book's proceeds to a... More »

Top Bushies Personally OK'd Tough Interrogation Tactics

Meetings show high-level approval of CIA's 'enhanced' detainee treatment

(Newser) - Senior White House officials explicitly approved interrogation technique details in several meetings beginning in 2002, sources tell ABC. It was previously known that the CIA drafted a “Golden Shield” memo approving highly specific tactics for use on al-Qaeda detainees, but that top officials—including Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney, Colin... More »

Abu Ghraib Torturerer: 'Rumsfeld Knew'

Lynndie England implicates ex-defense sec in interview

(Newser) - Lynndie England spent nearly a year and a half in jail for her role in the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. In her first interview since her release, she tells the German news magazine Stern that she was sorry about the pictures of Iraqi detainees but insisted that... More »

Saddam Had No Links to Al-Qaeda: Pentagon Study

Iraq invasion justification again called into question

(Newser) - A Pentagon-sponsored study of captured Iraqi intelligence archives has been unable to find a single operational link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden or his al-Qaeda network, reports the McClatchy newspapers. The study will be released this week and is expected to refuel debate over the US justification for... More »

Iraq's Toll Spirals Into Trillions

Iraq may cost up to $12.5B each month

(Newser) - In 2002 Donald Rumsfeld envisioned an Iraq war price tag of "something under $50 billion," but a Harvard professor and a Nobel-prize winning economist now pin the total cost at $3 trillion, with a "running cost" of $12.5 billion a month. As the Iraq war enters... More »

Pentagon, Army Captain Differ on Obama Tale

Army doubts, captain confirms weapons, troop shortages

(Newser) - Pentagon officials moved quickly yesterday to rebut Barack Obama's tale of an Army captain whose platoon, deployed in Afghanistan, was stripped of men and so lacking in equipment that they resorted to using captured Taliban weapons. "I find that account pretty hard to imagine," an Army spokesman said... More »

Judges Say Guantanamo Four Can't Sue

80 protesters arrested on 6th anniversary of first detainees

(Newser) - Four British citizens who spent over two years at Guantanamo Bay before being released without charge have been told they can't sue Pentagon officials, Reuters reports. The men brought the lawsuit over alleged torture, abuse, and violations of their religious rights. The US appeals court ruling yesterday said the defendants,... More »

‘Anti-Rumsfeld’ Cools Iran War Rhetoric

Servant to 7 presidents prefers 'soft power' to VP's battle plans

(Newser) - Dubbed the “Anti-Rumsfeld,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates is soothing fears that the US will bomb Iran—while trying to guard against mishaps that might trigger a war. Certain that a Tehran strike would spark a wider conflict and terror in Europe, Gates coolly tries to “lower the... More »

US Should Tune In to Al Jazeera

English-language network affords a close-up view of our own loss of influence

(Newser) - Year-old Al Jazeera English is only in a handful of US markets—a fact that “amounts to self-destructive blindness,” says the Times’ Roger Cohen. By not watching the channel Donald Rumsfeld called “vicious, inaccurate, and inexcusable,” we damage our chances in the war of ideas—because... More »

Stories 41 - 60 | << Prev   Next >>
NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS
Other Sites We Like:   24/7 Wall St.   |   Betty Confidential   |   BuzzFeed   |   Cracked   |   Fark   |   Timelines   |   The Frisky   |   Geek Sugar   |   NewsOne