Demanding Answers About Secret Detention

Against all odds, I find myself disgusted yet again by new revelations from the Bush administration. On June 18, it was a prisoner willfully hidden for months at the behest of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and more contrived allegations by Vice President Dick Cheney and President Bush of an Iraq-Al Qaeda connection, despite contradictions from the 9/11 commission. Most chilling is the indictment of a CIA private contractor for beating a prisoner to death with a flashlight.

I too believe it is the work of a few “bad apples”: Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush. This may be just another day at the Bush White House, but I am left wondering how many more secrets are being kept. When will it all end? For the sake of our country, I hope it ends in November.

Alison Steward

Downey

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Re “Rumsfeld, Tenet Linked to Secret Detention of a Prisoner,” June 17: The lame excuses from the administration over the lack of registration of a terrorist prisoner in Iraq do not make sense. From whom is Bush trying to keep the identity of his unregistered prisoner a secret? My guess is the U.S. public. Why has he done this? My guess is to time the press release of the prisoner’s capture for maximum impact on the presidential election.

Charles Finch

Huntington Beach

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After reading “No Signs of Iraq-Al Qaeda Ties Found” (June 17), I find “no credible evidence” that Iraq and Al Qaeda did not cooperate in targeting America or disproving any other collaboration between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden’s terrorism network. It appears that the main source of this finding was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the highest-ranking Al Qaeda member captured to date. If the 9/11 commission takes Mohammed’s word at face value, the report is unbelievable. Do you think that Mohammed would confirm a connection with Hussein? Unbelievable!

Roy A. Fassel

Los Angeles

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So far, more than 800 American soldiers have died; thousands of Iraqis also have been killed. And we are still learning about the scope of the vicious abuse in Abu Ghraib and other prisons. All of this in the cause of weapons of mass destruction that weren’t there, and a Hussein-Al Qaeda connection that never existed. At last I understand what Bush really means by “faith-based” programs.

Lynn McDonie

Saugus