Rumsfeld's Black Hats led the Interrogations

Today, Seymor Hersh described on Face the Nation how Rumsfeld approved and sent military operatives into Iraq, at least through last summer, as a secret program. He had the necessary authorization to do so from President Bush The operatives were there without official processing as independent, intelligence contractors. The operatives were there specifically to snatch suspected opposition off the street, and to work in the Iraq prisons to "soften up" prisoners for interrogation.

Hersh points out he doesn't know that the kind of thing we've seen the pictures of was ordered done by Rumsfeld -- but his implication is that the people who were leading the interrogations were (1) outside the normal military chain of command; and (2) there directly on order from Rumsfeld.

This is a stunning statement. It implies that the military chain of command was subverted by the Secretary of Defense, and the result was the violation of the Geneva Conventions of which we've seen the pictures. The glib statement: Rumsfeld had his own personal group of black hats who led the Iraq interrogations.