Rumsfeld: “I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to 4 hours?”

It was a historic moment.  On Dec. 2, 2002, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld signed a memorandum authorizing interrogation techniques against detainees at Guantanamo that the current President of the United States, Barack Obama, has described as “torture.”

In a handwritten notation at the bottom of the memo, apparently believing that the U.S. government was being too lenient and humane to the detainees,Rumsfeld scrawled, “I stand for 8-10 hours a day.  Why is standing limited to 4  hours?”

If Rumsfeld had any thoughts at that historic moment,  thus far that one is the only one recorded for history.

Related articles by Murray Waas:

Murray Waas, “What Did Bush Tell Gonzales?” the Atlantic, Sept. 26, 2008.

Murray Waas, “The Case of the Gonzales Notes,” the Atlantic, Sept. 26, 2008.

Murray Waas, “Cheney’s Call,” National Journal, Feb. 15, 2007.

Murray Waas, “Inside the Grand Jury,” National Journal, Jan. 12, 2007.

Murray Waas, “Cheney`Authorized’ Libby to Leak Classified Information,” National Journal, Feb. 8, 2006.

Murray Waas, “Key Bush Intelligence Briefing Kept From Hill Panel,” National Journal, Nov. 22, 2005.

Murray Waas, “The Meeting,” American Prospect,  Aug. 6, 2005.

Readers can contact Murray Waas by leaving a comment below or through his Facebook accountWaas was, with Jeff Lomonaco, the co-editor of the United States v. I. Lewis Libby, published in the spring of 2007 by Union Square Press.

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