I was aghast at this piece from the Post until I checked and saw that it was from the C section, Style.
A Volley of Hard Questions, Many Unasked
By Joel Achenbach
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 8, 2004; Page C01
It was a humane flogging, as these things go. The secretary of defense was occasionally hectored, badgered and interrupted, but his rights were never violated. His main punishment was being forced to sit in a witness chair for 165 uninterrupted minutes yesterday while one United States senator after another hurled a speech at him.
Donald Rumsfeld spent a fair amount of time not saying anything at all. He patiently waited for the senators to finish sharing their feelings. He came to the Hill to provide answers, but what with all the prepared remarks and oratory, there was barely time for questions.
Rumsfeld dropped a bombshell in his opening statement -- there are lots more terrible photographs of prison abuse, he said, and there are even videos -- but the senators took their time getting around to asking him about that. They had other things they wanted to expound upon. Many seemed compelled to remind the world that they feel bad about this whole thing. They're shocked and horrified: Put that in the Congressional Record.
The Armed Services Committee has 25 members, fully a quarter of the Senate. Every senator had the privilege of questioning witnesses for precisely five minutes yesterday, but much of that precious time was gobbled up by oration.
In a typical committee hearing, most of the senatorial chairs are empty. But this was the full-blown Senate production, the room jammed, almost every committee member in attendance, the very senatorial Sen. John Warner using his quiet, stern voice to keep things moving along on schedule, Majority Leader Bill Frist making a surprise drive-by appearance, media scrums forming in the hallways every time a senator left the room, and the obligatory eruption of shouting in the audience ("Fire Rumsfeld! War Criminal!")
When Rumsfeld and four other witnesses raised their right hands to take the oath, the camera shutters sounded like birds exploding from a holly tree.
Rumsfeld has never been terribly popular on the Hill, for he doesn't go out of his way to seek advice and consent from the Senate before making an important decision. He met with a great many senators a few hours before "60 Minutes II" was to broadcast images of prisoners being abused, but he neglected to bring it up. The Senate takes seriously the idea that Congress is a "co-equal" branch of government. That was one subtext of yesterday's hearing. It was the Senate saying: We matter. (And the House matters, too, but the Senate got to hear from Rumsfeld first.)
"I see arrogance and disdain for Congress," Sen. Robert Byrd, Democrat from West Virginia, said during a prolonged excoriation of Rumsfeld.
The secretary's political future seemed to be on the line yesterday, and though he showed flashes of combativeness, he also issued a direct apology, without any of the usual Washington weasel phrases like "it is to be regretted" or "mistakes were made." He and the other witnesses took turns declaring that there were many things they couldn't say, because they're all in the (now-famous) chain of command, and must protect the rights of the accused. Never have so many military people spent so much time talking about the integrity of the judicial system. They sounded like defense attorneys. (The Pentagon: Where Due Process Comes First.)
It was nearly an hour into the hearing before things got testy. Republican John McCain, who knows a few things about the treatment of prisoners of war, didn't want to speechify. He wanted information. What private contractors were involved in the interrogations? Who had authority over the guards? What were the instructions to the guards?
Rumsfeld tried to lateral the question to an Army general.
"No, Secretary Rumsfeld, in all due respect, you've got to answer this question," McCain said.
The spirited cross talk that followed seemed sure to be a highlight of the news coverage, but McCain never managed to break the witness, a master of the deflected inquiry. In the hallway later, the senator from Arizona said he was pleased that Rumsfeld "manfully apologized" for what had happened at the prison, but said, "I still need to know who was in charge of the guards who committed these obscene acts."
McCain said he'd heard earlier about more pictures and video.
"Unfortunately, a hearing like this, when we only have five minutes, we're unable to pursue that."
Actually the senators had nearly three hours. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, sounding as always like he'd just emerged from a deep slumber, made a speech about how the terrorists never apologized for 9/11, and how America is different and better than other countries, and so on. When he brought up the Declaration of Independence, it momentarily appeared that he didn't intend to ask any questions at all.
Some senators managed to overcome the throat-clearing impulse and get right down to the Q-and-A. Democrat Jack Reed of Rhode Island seemed to be getting somewhere, probing for information about the military's interrogation policies, but he ran out of time.
Some of the questions no one seemed eager to ask: What do the new photographs and videos show? Who took them? Will they be made public, and if so, when and under what circumstances? Will they lead to more charges? Do they implicate senior officers? Why did Secretary Rumsfeld only see them Thursday at 7:30 p.m., as he testified? Has the president seen them?
Finally, about 115 minutes into the session, Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina asked Rumsfeld if he'd seen the video showing abuse. Rumsfeld said he hadn't -- he'd seen a disc with pictures, but there is a second disc with videos on it.
During Sen. Elizabeth Dole's speech, more than two hours into the hearing, McCain and Graham quietly glided out the back door, and dozens of journalists popped up from their seats and tromped outside to the hallway, chasing the loquacious senators.
Graham reiterated the ominous remark he'd made in the hearing room:
"It's gonna get worse. . . . It's gonna get worse before it gets better." The new images don't just involve sexual humiliation, he said. "We're talking about rape and murder here."
But was this a fact or just a rumor? Graham said he hadn't seen the video, and his staff later said this was inferred from an Army report.
(Where is there someone who actually knows something?)
Nearly 21/2 hours into the session, Hillary Rodham Clinton got her chance to orate, and then a couple more Democrats lobbed questions, including Mark Dayton, who lectured Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Richard Myers on the meaning of democracy. Finally, Warner closed the hearing.
"We had a very thorough exchange of views," he said, and everyone got up to rise, only to sit down again to hear some last brief oratory from Frist. Then it was really over, and Rumsfeld & Co. hustled to the House.
© 2004 The Washington Post Company |
