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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.
More from Scott Horton:
No Comment — April 12, 2013, 11:11 am
A new report from Seton Hall University exposes government surveillance of attorney-client conversations
No Comment, Six Questions — March 18, 2013, 9:00 am
Rashid Khalidi on how the United States sustains the failure of the Israel-Palestine peace process
No Comment, Six Questions — February 4, 2013, 9:00 am
Alex Gibney on his documentary investigating the Roman Catholic Church’s handling of child sex-abuse cases


Percentage by which the risk of type 2 diabetes increases for every two hours a day that a person watches television:

Two bottled ghosts—of an old man and a young girl—were sold at auction in New Zealand.

The practice of sexualized eyeball licking was causing conjunctivitis in Japanese sixth graders.