Maureen Dowd Asks "Who Let the Dogs Out?"

Who indeed:

What better time than the dog days of summer to watch a dog-torture advocate get hounded?

As three female protesters in Abu Ghraib-style orange jumpsuits and black headscarves stood vigil in the back of the Senate Judiciary hearing room, like the supernatural chorus in ³Macbeth,² William Haynes was grilled about his worthiness to ascend to the federal bench when his main claim to the promotion is complicity in letting Dick Cheney dance a jig on the Geneva Conventions.

³The State Department characterizes the use of dogs as an interrogation aid as torture, cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment,¹¹ Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat, said to the Pentagon general counsel. ³We publicly condemned the countries of Libya and Burma for using dogs in interrogation. In November of 2002, you recommended that Secretary Rumsfeld approve the use of dogs to intimidate detainees at Guantánamo.

³The Department of Defense¹s own investigation concluded that this technique migrated from Guantánamo to Iraq and Abu Ghraib. At least two members of the armed forces have now been convicted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for using dogs to frighten detainees. It is striking that as these soldiers were prosecuted, you were being promoted. What message are we sending our troops? And what message are we sending the world, in light of your role in promulgating abusive interrogation techniques, like the use of dogs, stress positions and forced nudity. What message are we sending if we promote you to the second highest court in the land?²

The senator added that the message would be terribly unfair: ³Well, we¹re going to dispatch a few privates, a few corporals, a sergeant, maybe it will get to a lieutenant, but it¹ll never get upstairs. ... Apparently, upstairs there¹s a promotion party. Downstairs people are being sent to prison.¹¹

Mr. Haynes, 48, lamely resorted to the argument that Abu Ghraib was simply a few bad apples, ³the work of the night shift, without any authority whatsoever.²

Even as the Bush administration was forced to concede, after being slapped back by the Supreme Court, that terrorism suspects must be accorded the rights enshrined in the Geneva Conventions, W. was trying to reward those who helped shred them. He nominated Mr. Haynes to sit on the Fourth Circuit court, the conservative Virginia go-to court for contentious cases on civil liberties and detention of foreign prisoners.

A group of 20 retired military officers sent a letter to Senator Arlen Specter, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, expressing ³profound concern² about Mr. Haynes and arguing that he promoted policies that ³compromised military values, ignored federal and international law, and damaged America¹s reputation and world leadership.¹¹

They asserted that the policies ³fostered animosity toward the United States, undermined rather than enhanced our intelligence-gathering efforts, and added significantly to the risks facing our troops serving around the world.¹¹

Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator who is a military lawyer, a member of the Armed Services Committee and is close to the JAG Corps lawyers, is reported to oppose Mr. Haynes behind the scenes. Speaking to reporters in the hallway, he echoed Senator Durbin¹s fear that soldiers should not take the fall for superiors¹ decisions: ³We just need to make sure that what we do in terms of promotion, of a civilian, who was part of policies that have led to military members being prosecuted and having their careers ruined, needs to be thoughtfully considered.²