Legalese Perjurer

Apparently it's one of those days for me. It is indeed the year 2005, and not 2004, no matter what some of my misfiring neurons are telling me.

Insomnia is not quite correct in asserting that Sanchez committed perjury, but he did cleverly tell the technical truth while misleading the senior senator from Vo Dilun, Jack Reed.

Insomnia points out that Sanchez is guilty of a wee bit of perjury, lying to the senior Senator from Vo Dilun, Jack Reed:

At a recent May, 2004 Senate hearing, this exchange took place:

U.S. SENATOR JACK REED (D-RI): General Sanchez, today's USA Today, sir, reported that you ordered or approved the use of sleep deprivation, intimidation by guard dogs, excessive noise and inducing fear as an interrogation method for a prisoner in Abu Ghraib prison. Is that correct?

SANCHEZ: Sir, that may be correct that it's in a news article, but I never approved any of those measures to be used within CJTF-7 at any time in the last year.

This may be true, but the key phrase is "at any time in the last year." In other words, what Sanchez really said was "I approved those measures, but, hey it was a long time ago man!"

And, in fact, he did approve those measures in a September 2003 memo , more than a year before his Senate testimony.

As the ACLU writes:

NEW YORK -- A memo signed by Lieutenant General Ricardo A. Sanchez authorizing 29 interrogation techniques, including 12 which far exceeded limits established by the Army’s own Field Manual, was made public for the first time by the American Civil Liberties Union today.

"General Sanchez authorized interrogation techniques that were in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions and the Army’s own standards," said ACLU attorney Amrit Singh. "He and other high-ranking officials who bear responsibility for the widespread abuse of detainees must be held accountable."

...

The Sanchez memo dated September 14, 2003, specifically allows for interrogation techniques involving the use of military dogs specifically to "Exploit(s) Arab fear of dogs…," isolation, and stress positions.