They can't say they weren't warned...

GENEVA - The international Red Cross said Friday it had warned U.S. officials of abuse of prisoners in Iraq more than a year ago.

WASHINGTON - A year before the Iraq invasion, the then-Army secretary (Thomas White) warned his Pentagon bosses that there was inadequate control of private military contractors, which are now at the heart of controversies over misspending and prisoner abuse.

But no doubt the Secretary missed those warnings, preoccupied as he must have been developing new lines of command and supervising all the new contracts that were being developed for his remodeled, contracted out military, right?

Well, no...

"In a sign of continued problems with the tracking of contracts, Pentagon officials on
Thursday acknowledged they have yet to identify which Army entity manages the multimillion-dollar contract for interrogators like the one accused in the Iraq prisoner abuse probe.

"Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld also acknowledged his department hasn't completed rules to govern the 20,000 or so private security guards watching over U.S. officials, installations and private workers in Iraq."

Bush says Don Rumsfeld is a "very good Secretary of Defense." It's pretty clear that Bush must have cut an MBA class or two when they were discussing personnel evaluations.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20040507/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_contractors