[Peace-discuss] Obama's preferred AfPak commander

[C. G. Estabrook]

[This is from the WSJ a year ago.  Obama wants a death-squad man in the job.  He 
will accurately be viewed by the Afghans as a torturer. (He was also involved in 
the Tillman cover-up.) --CGE]

	Lawmakers Hold Up a Top General's Nomination
	By YOCHI J. DREAZEN
	May 1, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers have delayed a top general's nomination for a key 
position assisting the Joint Chiefs of Staff because of questions about detainee 
abuse by forces under his command, according to the Pentagon and people familiar 
with the matter.

The impasse involves Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a fast-rising officer who 
oversaw the secretive Special Operations units, including the Army's storied 
Delta Force, responsible for hunting high-ranking Islamic militants in both Iraq 
and Afghanistan.

•  The News: The nomination of a top Army general has been delayed because of 
questions about the abuse of detainees by forces under his command.
•  What It Means: The holdup leaves a key Pentagon post unfilled, and suggests 
lawmakers remain uneasy about the small number of senior officers punished for 
detainee abuses.

Gen. McChrystal had been talked about as a possible successor to Gen. David 
Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Baghdad. In February, he was nominated to be 
the director of the Joint Staff, a powerful Pentagon job.

The appointment has been stalled by lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services 
Committee who want more information about the treatment of detainees by Army 
Rangers, Navy Seals and other Special Operations troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, 
according to people familiar with the matter.

Staffers for Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.), who is chairman of the Armed Services 
Committee, said there were no formal "holds" -- a technical procedure that 
allows anonymous senators to block nominations or legislation -- on Gen. 
McChrystal's nomination and declined to comment about why no confirmation 
hearing had been scheduled. "We're still looking at the nomination," said Tara 
Andringa, a spokeswoman for Sen. Levin.

One Republican aide said the odds were "55-45%" that the officer would 
eventually be confirmed.

The nomination of Navy Rear Adm. William McRaven to succeed Gen. McChrystal as 
commander of the military's Joint Special Operations Command has also been held 
up, according to people familiar with the matter.

Through a spokesman, Defense Secretary Robert Gates confirmed the delay and 
urged lawmakers to quickly move ahead on Gen. McChrystal's nomination. The 
spokesman, Geoff Morrell, said Gen. McChrystal "served the Army and the nation 
with honor and distinction" and at "great personal risk."

Ken McGraw, a spokesman for the Special Operations Command, said officers there 
hadn't been notified of any delay to the two nominations or received any 
congressional requests for more information related to them.

Elite forces "take all allegations of abuse seriously, thoroughly investigate 
allegations immediately, and take appropriate action based on the results of the 
investigations," he added.

The military has investigated dozens of allegations of detainee abuse by elite 
troops, including deaths involving members of the Navy Seals and the Army's 
Fifth Special Forces Group. In one of the Army-related cases, military 
investigators later concluded that an Iraqi military officer in American custody 
died of "blunt force injuries and asphyxia."

Mr. McGraw said that 64 service personnel assigned or attached to Special 
Operations units had been disciplined for detainee abuse between early 2004 and 
the end of 2007.

Investigators from the ACLU and human-rights organizations have long charged 
that elite forces received written directives from higher-ranking officers 
allowing them to use physical interrogation techniques that were off-limits to 
conventional forces.

Capt. Carolyn Wood, an operations officer with the 519th Military Intelligence 
Battalion, mentioned such a directive in a 2004 sworn statement to military 
investigators probing abuse allegations. Capt. Wood told the investigators that 
she put together guidance for her unit about how to question detainees that drew 
from the "TF-121 IROE," the interrogation rules of engagement that had been 
given to the members of Task Force 121, a Special Operations unit.

The ACLU and other groups have pressed the military to declassify and release 
the elite forces' "interrogation directives," but the military has yet to do so.

On Wednesday, the ACLU released documents from an internal Pentagon 
investigation which revealed for the first time that military psychologists 
helped Special Operations troops question detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Write to Yochi J. Dreazen at yochi.dreazen at wsj.com1
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