Al Guardian Tries To Hit Rumsfeld While He's Down

[Annie]

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110008252

Complaining Without Context
London's Guardian reports on a "scandal" involving prisoner "abuse":

Donald Rumsfeld was directly linked to prisoner abuse for the first time [Friday], when it emerged he had been "personally involved" in a Guantánamo Bay interrogation found by military investigators to have been "degrading and abusive."

Human Rights Watch last night called for a special prosecutor to be appointed to investigate whether the defence secretary could be criminally liable for the treatment of Mohamed al-Qahtani, a Saudi al-Qaida suspect forced to wear women's underwear, stand naked in front of a woman interrogator, and to perform "dog tricks" on a leash, in late 2002 and early 2003.
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Who is Mohamed al-Qahtani? The Guardian doesn't say, but a January 2004 Washington Post article does:

Jose E. Melendez-Perez, now an inspector with the Department of Homeland Security, recounted an interview he conducted with a Saudi national, Mohamed al Qahtani, who investigators now believe was planning to meet [honcho hijacker Mohamed] Atta at the Orlando airport on Aug. 4, 2001. Al Qahtani had no return ticket and no hotel reservations, and he refused to identify a friend who, he said, would provide him with money and other assistance on his trip.

"The bottom line was, he gave me the creeps," Melendez-Perez said in his prepared statement, adding that his first impression was that al Qahtani was a "hit man" because of his hostile and arrogant attitude and his refusal to disclose his plans. "A 'hit man' doesn't know where he is going because if he is caught, that way he doesn't have any information to bargain with," he said. "My wife said I was watching too much movies."

Before departing, al Qahtani turned to Melendez-Perez and said, in English: "I'll be back."

Melendez-Perez said he was taking a bit of a risk by refusing al Qahtani entry to the United States because Saudis were generally treated more permissively than other foreign nationals by U.S. border agents. Al Qahtani--who would later be apprehended by U.S. forces in Afghanistan--was eventually escorted onto a flight bound for Dubai via London, a decision that was applauded by the audience and the commission at yesterday's hearing.

"It is extremely possible, and perhaps probable, that Mohamed al Qahtani was to be the 20th hijacker," said Richard Ben-Veniste, a former Watergate prosecutor and Democratic member of the commission. "It is entirely plausible to suggest that your actions . . . may well have contributed to saving the Capitol or the White House and all the people who were in those buildings."​

Here is how the Guardian describes Rumsfeld's involvement:

According to a December report by the army inspector general, obtained by Salon.com online magazine, the investigators did not accuse the defence secretary of specifically prescribing "creative" techniques, but they said he regularly monitored the progress of the al-Kahtani interrogation by telephone, and they argued he had helped create the conditions that allowed abuse to take place.
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In other words, Rumsfeld had nothing to do with the so-called abusive interrogation techniques. Rather, he took an interest in the interrogation of an enemy combatant who, had Melendez-Perez been less alert, might have made the attacks of Sept. 11 even worse. To the Guardian, Salon and Human Rights Watch, this somehow incriminates Rumsfeld. To normal Americans, it shows he's doing his job.