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THE Pentagon is considering new rules on military interrogations that treat "war on terror" detainees differently from prisoners protected by the Geneva Conventions, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today. Mr Rumsfeld said debate over unresolved "definitional issues" have held up final approval of a new army field manual on intelligence interrogations for weeks. "There is a debate over the difference between a prisoner of war under the Geneva Convention and an unlawful combatant in a situation that is different from the situation envisioned by the Geneva Convention," he said. "And those issues are being wrestled with at the present...

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States has again refused the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to terrorism suspects held in secret detention centres, the humanitarian agency said on Friday. The overnight statement was issued after talks in Washington between ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger and senior officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. "Mr. Kellenberger deplored the fact that the U.S. authorities had not moved closer to granting the ICRC access to persons held in undisclosed locations," the Geneva-based agency said.

Valerie Plame should be the next Director of Central Intelligence, not Gen. Mike Hayden. Now that the CIA's Praetorian Guard has -- with the connivance of National Intelligence Director John Negroponte -- rid itself of Porter Goss, the CIA is confidently preparing to march back into the intelligence dark ages that preceded 9/11. Gen. Hayden -- former head of the National Intelligence Agency and most famous for his strong defense of the NSA terrorist surveillance program -- is slated to be nominated for the DCI post today. Hayden, now Negroponte's deputy and choice for DCI, will face tough questioning in...

The tabloids have Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie -- or "Brangelina," as the couple is called -- to fret about. But Washington has the relationship between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld -- "Donoleezza" -- to worry about. The two seemed to be on the outs of late, particularly when it came to Iraq policy.

Friday, May 05, 2006 Rummy "lied" Andrew Sullivan says the man who heckled Rummy was Not some crazed lefty. The man who demanded that Rumsfeld answer the questions we all want to have answered turns out to be the man who gave former president George H. W. Bush his daily intelligence briefing. And he was right in the exchange; and Rummy was factually wrong. Yep: Rumsfeld lied. Quelle surprise. No not some crazed lefty. The man was Ray McGovern, who Sweetness and Light noticed was part of Daniel Ellsberg's Truth Telling Project. Here's the relevant blog entry from the Belmont...

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) crashed his car near the Capitol early Thursday, and a police official said he appeared intoxicated. Kennedy said he had taken sleep medication and a prescription anti-nausea drug that can cause drowsiness. Kennedy, D-R.I., addressed the issue after a spate of news reports. His initial statement said: "I consumed no alcohol prior to the incident."'Later, however, he issued a longer statement saying the attending physician for Congress had prescribed Phenergan on Tuesday to treat Kennedy's gastroenteritis.Kennedy said he returned to his Capitol Hill home on Wednesday evening after a final series of votes...

ATLANTA - Anti-war protesters repeatedly interrupted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld during a speech Thursday, and one of them, a former CIA analyst, accused him in a question-and-answer session of lying about Iraq prewar intelligence.

WASHINGTON — In all the recent talk about whether Donald H. Rumsfeld should quit running the Pentagon, little has been said about successors who might be better able to complete the U.S. military mission in Iraq. When lawmakers and others are pressed, the names that come up most often include several current and former members of the Senate. Some say a member of Congress taking the defense secretary’s job would improve an oft-cited Rumsfeld shortcoming — impatience with the legislative branch and a reluctance to consult fully with its members. A current or former lawmaker also might do a better...

Remarks With Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso, and Japanese Defense Minister of State for Defense Fukushiro Nukaga - Japan Security Consultative Committee Secretary Condoleezza Rice Loy Henderson Conference Room Washington, DC May 1, 2006 SECRETARY RICE: Good morning. It's a great pleasure to welcome Foreign Minister Aso, Minister of State Nukaga and of course my colleague Secretary Rumsfeld to this meeting of the U.S.-Japan Security Consultative Committee. This work, which we call the 2+2, has been going on now for some time.

#1 L-R) US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice , Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Japanese Minister of State for Defense Agency Fukushiro Nukaga shake hands together after making post-meeting statement at the US Department of State in Washington, DC.(AFP/Getty Images/Alex Wong) #2 #3

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell advised President Bush before the Iraq war to send more troops to the country, but the administration did not follow his recommendation, Powell said in an interview broadcast Sunday. Critics accuse Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld of failing to send enough soldiers to secure the peace in Iraq after the invasion three years ago. Powell said he gave the advice to now retired Gen. Tommy Franks, who developed and executed the Iraq invasion plan, and Rumsfeld while the president was present. "I made the case to Gen. Franks and Secretary Rumsfeld before...

So The New York Times has found six generals who want Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to resign. The peace party often makes a show of embracing the martial virtues, though they should be careful what they ask for. People often suspect a ruse, and the uniformed front men that come forward are not necessarily top quality. In 1864, at the climax of the Civil War, the Democrats tried to unseat Abraham Lincoln with “the young Napoleon,” Gen. George B. McClellan. McClellan had commanded the Union’s armies, but chafed at the civilians under whom he served: He called Lincoln a...

Six retired generals have now called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the grounds that… well, just what has the Secretary done, or not done, that justifies his removal from the Pentagon in the middle of a war? Read through all the generals’ statements, or listen to them on television, and it’s impossible to get straight precisely what it is these generals are squawking about. One minute they’re talking about our strategy in Iraq, and then they’re blathering on about the Secretary’s plans for re-structuring our military forces or about Donald Rumsfeld’s hard-driving, aggressive management style. For...

When Democrats in my home state of Wisconsin voted at their state party convention last spring to call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, they added the name of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to the list. That still sounds like an appropriate roster for removal.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has dismissed calls for his resignation by a group of retired generals, telling conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh that "this too will pass". Mr Rumsfeld made no direct reference during the live interview with Limbaugh to the six retired generals who called for his resignation, but he suggested that his defence has only begun. "You know, this, too, will pass," he said when Limbaugh asked him how it felt to go from sex symbol to having "practically the entire media jump on the case of these six generals demanding your ouster?" "I think about...

'Big George': The Coming Attack on Iran Kenneth R. Timmerman, NewsMax.com Friday, April 14, 2006 WASHINGTON -- Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney calls it the "Big George" scenario. According to the man who helped plan the first air war against Saddam in 1991, U.S. aircraft, armed with conventional bunker-buster bombs, would be more than enough to wipe out Iran's nuclear and missile facilities, and cripple its ability to command and control its military forces. McInerney believes that U.S. air power is so massive, precise, and stealthy, it can effectively disarm Iran with just limited assistance from covert operators...

from Jay Nordlinger's April 3 Impromptus: I have received much mail concerning Secretary Rumsfeld — almost all of it glowing, incidentally, and almost all of it from the military — and I would like to share a letter here: My brother, a captain in the National Guard, recently returned from Iraq. His unit, which provided security for convoys originating in Kuwait and traveling to any and all parts of Iraq, had one casualty — a soldier who lost an arm to an IED. While at Walter Reed, the injured soldier was having a conversation with a general and mentioned —...

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday rejected suggestions Iraq is engulfed in a civil war and claimed media reports have exaggerated the violence since an attack on a revered Shiite mosque. "I do not believe they are in a civil war today," Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon. But he said "there has always been a potential for civil war." Rumsfeld spoke nearly two weeks after the Feb. 22 bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine in Samarra, which has touched off violent reprisals between sects that have killed hundreds of Iraqis. Hoping to keep Iraqi efforts to...

WASHINGTON -- America's impatience and political division over the war on terror mirrors disagreements during the Cold War, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was expected to say Thursday. In remarks prepared for delivery at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Museum and Library in Independence, Mo., Rumsfeld said that during the Cold War the nation was exhausted after World War II and not in the mood "for more global involvement." During the Cold War, "the future then too was unclear, the tasks seemed insurmountable, and it was difficult to view things with the perspective that only history can offer." Rumsfeld was expected...