General Sanchez Calls for Accountability Commission

By Scott Horton

At a packed function last night at the Times Center in New York, former commanding general of multinational forces in Iraq Ricardo Sanchez issued a call for the creation of a special commission of inquiry to probe wrongdoing in the treatment of detainees in the war on terror. Jack Hidary reports in the Huffington Post:

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. “For the American people to really know what happened, ” he replied, “…this was an institutional failure, a personal failure on the part of many….” “If we do not find out what happened,” continued the General, “then we are doomed to repeat it.”

Sanchez now joins Major General Antonio Taguba and former Brigadier General Janis Karpinski as the third general involved in Iraqi operations to call for the creation of a commission of inquiry.