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Last spring, Joe Klein’s book came out alleging that John Kerry did not speak out against the actions at Abu Gharib in response to focus groups. Those of us who have followed Kerry instantly knew this was not true, and Kerry refuted this on an appearance on Meet the Press.

Andrew Sullivan has brought up this untrue charge again today, writing “We also know that John Kerry focus-grouped the issue and decided not to challenge the president on it once during the campaign.”

At Democratic Underground, Beachmom reports sending multiple examples of statements from Kerry to Sullivan refuting his claim. Pamela’s refutation of Joe Klein’s orginal charge at The Democratic Daily still applies as she cited multiple examples of Kerry speaking out against the abuse:

Statement from John Kerry on Prisoner Abuse Reports, August 25, 2004 –

“Yesterday, the Schlesiner panel released their report which found that much of the responsibility for setting the conditions for the abuse at Abu Ghraib can be attributed to failures at highest levels of our government. Today the Fay report will be released and will recommend punitive action for those in our military who were directly involved.

“But what is missing from all these reports is accountability from the senior civilian leaders in the Pentagon and in the White House. From the bottom of the chain of command all the way to the top, there needs to be accountability. The Schlesinger report makes clear that Secretary Rumsfeld was responsible for setting a climate where these types of abuses could occur.

“By failing to plan to win the peace, by failing to make sure our troops received the proper training, equipment, reinforcement and command guidance, and by failing to take corrective actions once all of this became apparent, Secretary Rumsfeld did not demonstrate the leadership required from a Secretary of Defense.

“That is why today I am calling on Secretary Rumsfeld to resign effective immediately. In addition, I call on the President to appoint an independent investigation to review the entire decision making process that led to these abuses and provide a comprehensive set of reforms so that we can ensure that this never happens again.

“As Harry Truman, the buck stops here. The time has come for our Commander in Chief to take charge.”

CNN, Wednesday, August 25, 2004 Posted: 1657 GMT (0057 HKT) –

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) — Citing the conclusion of an independent panel that higher command was also responsible for abuse of prisoners at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, Sen. John Kerry Wednesday reiterated his call for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to resign.

“It’s not just the little person at the bottom who ought to pay the price of responsibility,” the Democratic presidential candidate said in a town hall meeting of Steamfitters Local 420 at a Philadelphia union hall.

Kerry said the Schlesinger report, which was released Tuesday, “said specifically that Secretary Rumsfeld set the climate in which these kinds of abuses were able to take place,” he said. — CNN: Kerry reiterates call for Rumsfeld to resign; Says command must pay the price for Abu Ghraib abuse.

CNN Transcript; Live from Philadelphia August 25, 2004 – 10:30 –

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Today, the Schlesinger Report is coming out — or yesterday, I guess — about the Abu Ghraib Prison and the scandal of what has taken place in terms of America’s — some Americans. And I want to emphasize this, because 99 percent of every person in the Armed Forces is angry about and revulsed by this.

But there’s a chain of command and there’s a responsibility. And the Schlesinger Report is showing how there was a failure of that accountability and a failure of that chain of command. And in fact, the Fay Report — which is coming out, I think, today — also — there’s a bunch of reports coming out — shows that those people in the military who were responsible ought to be punished. And it’s going to actually recommend the punishment. Now, everybody understands that’s normal.

But what is also normal — because we are a country that runs on civilian leadership, what is also normal is that you have accountability that runs through the civilian command, and it is absolutely left out of those reports. It’s absent. And for any person who has ever served in the military, we all know what chain of command means. We know what accountability and responsibility means.

And it’s not just the little person at the bottom who ought to pay the price of responsibility. Harry Truman had that sign on the desk, and it said, “The buck stops here.” The buck doesn’t stop at the Pentagon. The buck doesn’t stop at the Pentagon, but in this case, it doesn’t just stop with any military personnel.

The Schlesinger Report said specifically that Secretary Rumsfeld set the climate within which these kinds of abuses were able to take place. And I believe very deeply — I said this months ago, I think I said it over a year or more ago — that the failures of judgment, the miscalculations, the failures of command, the miscalculation about the numbers of troops needed to win the peace, the miscalculation about not having a plan to win the peace, the miscalculation of sending troops over there without adequate armor, with Humvees that aren’t armored, with parents who have to run an auction here in America to get state-of-the-art armor vests to send to their kids, the overextension of the National Guard and the overextention of our Reserves, the redeployments of people, the lack of responsibility for what has been one of the most severe miscalculations in any deployment of American forces in American history, I believe lands in the civilian responsibility.

And I called months ago for Secretary Rumsfeld to take that responsibility, for the president to take that responsibility, and again today, as I have previously, I call for the resignation of the secretary of defense for failure to do what he should have done.

And I also believe the president ought to establish a commission that evaluates thoroughly all of the chain of abuses that took place and why they took place, including the civilian side, the legal interpretations, the memoranda that were put out with respect to who was interpreting which law which way, who made what decisions about Geneva conventions — all of those things which are important to America’s value system and to our respect in the world.

I think he ought to appoint a commission, and that commission ought to report back so that these abuses can never take place again. That’s leadership, and that’s what ought to happen.

Boston Globe: Kerry faults Bush, Rumsfeld leadership in Iraq prison scandal By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff | August 26, 2004 –

PHILADELPHIA — John F. Kerry yesterday harked back to his service in the Vietnam War to decry the abuses that occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, fault President Bush for failing to punish the wrongdoers, and renew his call for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to resign because of the problems under his command.

“For any person who has ever served in the military, we all know what ‘chain of command’ means, we know what accountability and responsibility means, and it’s not just the little person at the bottom who ought to pay the price of responsibility,” the Democratic presidential nominee said as he opened a town hall meeting intended to focus on job creation and economic issues. “Harry Truman had the sign on the desk [in the Oval Office] and it said, ‘The buck stops here.’ The buck doesn’t stop at the Pentagon.”

Kerry’s criticism was fueled by two new reports, the first of which faulted members of the administration for creating the environment in which prisoners were allegedly tortured and sexually humiliated. Written by a four-member panel headed by former defense secretary James R. Schlesinger, the report labeled the abuses “acts of brutality and purposeless sadism” and also said, “The abuses were not just the failure of some individuals to follow standards. . . . There is both institution and personal responsibility at higher levels.”

The review panel said Rumsfeld and his top military advisers were partly to blame for the abuse, both for failing to set clear standards for prisoner interrogation and for failing to plan for a postwar environment in which the prison guards became overwhelmed by their responsibilities. Nonetheless, all four members of the panel — who were appointed by Rumsfeld — expressly stated he should not resign, with Schlesinger telling reporters at a news conference that Rumsfeld’s resignation “would be a boon for all of America’s enemies.”

Another report, written by Army Major General George R. Fay, was released yesterday and recommended punishment beyond the criminal charges lodged against seven military police troops.

Kerry called on Bush to appoint another commission “that evaluates thoroughly all of the chain of abuses that took place, and why they took place, including the civilian side, the legal interpretations, the memoranda that were put out with respect to who was interpreting which law which way, who made what decisions about Geneva Conventions.

“That’s leadership, and that’s what ought to happen.”

The Bush campaign dismissed the criticism as well as Kerry’s call for another investigative panel.

“John Kerry demonstrated his willingness to exploit the war on terror for political purposes when he voted against funds for our troops during the Democratic primaries,” campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said. “He demonstrated it when he spoke in favor of troop redeployment and then attacked the president for announcing troop deployment two years later. He demonstrated it by taking both sides on the war.”

CBS news, Bush sorry for prisoner Abuse May 6, 2004 –

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, who called for Rumsfeld’s resignation months ago over his handling of the Iraq war, said the abuse reports compound the reasons for him to quit.

“It’s the way it was handled. The lack of information to the Congress, the lack of information to the country, not managing it, not dealing with it, recognizing it as an issue. But look this is, this is the frosting,” said Kerry.

Rumsfeld was to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday.

NYT Citing Prison Abuse and Iraq Failures, Kerry Demands that Rumsfeld step down 8.26.04 –

GREEN BAY, Wis., Aug. 25 – Teeing off two reports detailing abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Senator John Kerry on Wednesday renewed his call for Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld to resign, citing the need for ‘’accountability that runs through the civilian command.’’
…

Speaking on the same day that the Army announced that 35 military intelligence soldiers had been implicated in prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, Mr. Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, also called on President Bush to appoint another commission to investigate the scandal, focused on the chain of command and the Geneva Conventions.

But he did not address the substance of a separate report by a four-member panel headed by James R. Schlesinger, a former defense secretary, except to note that it said Mr. Rumsfeld had set the climate enabling the prison abuse. Instead, Mr. Kerry made a broader case for the secretary’s ouster ‘’for failure to do what he should have done’’ prosecuting the Iraq war.

‘’The failures of judgment, the miscalculations, the failures of command, the miscalculation about the numbers of troops needed to win the peace, the miscalculation about not having a plan to win the peace, the miscalculation of sending troops over there without adequate armor, with Humvees that aren’t armored,’’ Mr. Kerry clicked off his litany of complaints. ‘’The overextension of the National Guard and the overextension of our reserves, the redeployments of people, the lack of responsibility for what has been one of the most severe miscalculations in any deployment of American forces in American history, I believe lands in the civilian responsibility.’’

Mr. Rumsfeld, along with Vice President Dick Cheney and Attorney General John Ashcroft, is a frequent foil for Democratic audiences. Mr. Kerry has been greeted on the campaign trail several times by hand-lettered signs advocating a ‘’No CARB diet: No Cheney, No Ashcroft, No Rumsfeld, No Bush.’’

Arguing that Mr. Kerry’s resignation recommendation had been recycled from last year, Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the Bush campaign, called his seizing on the Abu Ghraib reports ‘’just the latest example of John Kerry’s willingness to say whatever he believes will benefit him politically.’’

John Kerry Speech to DLC National Conversation, Phoenix, AZ | May 7, 2004 –

“Strength means working with our allies to win the war on terror, not going it alone. Strength means taking responsibility. Today, Secretary Rumsfeld apologized on Capitol Hill. But the chain of command goes all the way to the Oval Office. Harry Truman did not say “The buck stops at the Pentagon.” And after 241 Marines were killed by terrorists in Beirut, Ronald Reagan had the strength to say, “If there is to be blame, it properly rests here in this Office and with this President. And I accept responsibility for the bad as well as the good.

“America does not merely need a new Secretary of Defense. We need a new President. One who is strong enough to give our brave troops the allies and the armor they need; and one who is strong enough to take responsibility and, when necessary, correct course. We need a President who knows the difference between strength — and stubbornness.

… “This is how America can lead and should lead. And we should be the leaders in condemning those appalling images of abuse that are flashing across television screens all over the world.

“We cannot succeed in Iraq by abandoning the values that define America. Today, I have a message for our men and women in uniform: As Commander-in-Chief, I will honor your commitment and I will take responsibility for the bad as well as the good.”

Washington Post, Kerry blames Bush for prisoner abuse; Candidate hones tone to woo centrist voters – Dan Balz, Lois Romano, Washington Post Saturday, May 8, 2004 –

Phoenix — Offering a comprehensive critique of President Bush’s leadership, Sen. John Kerry said Friday that responsibility for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners does not stop at the Pentagon and pledged to fellow Democrats not to cede issues of national security in the fall campaign no matter how much Republicans attack him.

Speaking shortly after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld offered an apology on Capitol Hill for the prisoner abuse scandal that has put the administration on the defensive this week, Kerry said Bush should emulate the example of other presidents and acknowledge that “the chain of command goes all the way to the Oval Office.”

The Massachusetts Democrat, who has called for Rumsfeld’s resignation, said, “America does not merely need a new secretary of defense. We need a new president. … We need a president who knows the difference between strength and stubbornness.”

Kerry’s speech to the centrist Democratic Leadership Council represented one of his most overt efforts to move his candidacy from the angry rhetoric of the Democratic primaries to a message aimed at a broader, general election audience — a shift that many Democrats have been calling for over the past month as the Kerry campaign has struggled to take advantage of Bush’s problems.

Kerry seized on the theme of strength — an idea he mentioned at least 29 times in the speech — to frame his differences with Bush on domestic and foreign policy issues. He sought to prevent the president from holding the high ground on terrorism and national security, issues where Republicans traditionally hold the advantage, while trying to capture more of the middle ground domestically with his declaration to protect the middle class and fight for fiscal responsibility.

(Full story) – CNN: Kerry takes aim at Bush over prisoner abuse scandal; Democrat says he would ‘take responsibility’ –

(CNN) — Sen. John Kerry took a swipe at President Bush over the growing controversy of some Iraqi prisoners being abused by their U.S. captors, declaring Thursday that, if elected commander-in-chief, he would “not be the last to know” about the actions of U.S. forces.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee did not mention Bush by name in his comments, but the reference was clear.

“When I was in the Navy, the captain of the boat was in charge, and the captain always took responsibility,” Kerry said, prior to delivering a speech on education in Colton, California.

“I have a message for the men and women of our armed forces,” Kerry said. “As commander-in-chief, I’ll honor your commitment and I’ll take responsibility for the bad as well as the good. As president, I’ll not be the last to know what is going on in my command.

Bush has said that he only saw pictures of the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad after they were broadcast on television last week.

White House officials said the president was informed about the abuses by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sometime after U.S. Central Command put out an advisory on January 16, but they do not have an exact date, or details of exactly what Bush was told.

For a second day in a row, Kerry criticized the abuse of the prisoners.

“These despicable actions have endangered the lives of our soldiers, and they have frankly made their mission harder to accomplish,” the decorated Vietnam War Navy veteran said. “We are seeing things that contradict everything that the brave men and women of the armed forces of the United States of America are fighting to defend.”

Again, without mentioning Bush by name, Kerry implied the president had failed to respond to the situation adequately.

“I’ll demand accountability from those who serve and I’ll take responsibility for their actions and I’ll do everything that I can in my power to repair the damage that this has caused to America, to our standing in the world, and to the ideals for which we stand.”

Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, took issue with Kerry’s comments.

“If Senator Kerry wants to take responsibility for his choices, he can start by simply taking one position and sticking to it,” Schmidt said in a written statement. “John Kerry has consistently played politics with Iraq — voting for the use of force, then voting against support for our troops in the field, then declaring himself an antiwar candidate.”

Kerry’s comments came as several Democrats in Congress called for Rumsfeld to resign

Kerry called for Rumsfeld’s resignation in September 2003, accusing him of underestimating the demands of the Iraq war and weakening the military as a result, and he restated that call Thursday.

“The entire way in which they rushed the nation to war on these assumptions he was making, which were incorrect, is a huge, historic miscalculation,” Kerry told reporters. “I thought he should resign then — period.”

On Wednesday, Kerry called the administration’s response “slow and inappropriate.”

NYT: Kerry Calls Bush Off-Base on Economy and Cost of Iraqi Prisoner Abuse By ROBIN TONER Published: June 16, 2004 –

COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 15 – Senator John Kerry sharply criticized President Bush on two fronts Tuesday. He asserted that Mr. Bush had overestimated the health of the economy and underestimated the damage to the United States from the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal.

Campaigning in New Jersey and Ohio, the Democratic challenger accused the Republicans of being all too willing to settle for an economy that leaves the middle class falling farther and farther behind. “We all know that the middle class built this country,’’ he told a cheering convention of the New Jersey A.F.L.-C.I.O., meeting in Atlantic City Tuesday. “Franklin Roosevelt understood that, and so did Bill Clinton.’’

“But for nearly four years now,’’ he said, “Washington has ignored the middle class, putting wealth ahead of work, something for nothing ahead of responsibility, and what’s right for the few ahead of what’s right for America.’’

At an airport news conference near Cincinnati, Mr. Kerry also asserted that Mr. Bush had “underestimated the full impact” of the Iraqi prisoner scandal on America’s reputation in the world. He said Mr. Bush should appoint an independent investigator to investigate the abuses – someone like Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona – “to prove to the world that this is really not going to be swept under the rug.’’ Mr. Kerry has reportedly tried repeatedly, and in vain, to get Mr. McCain to consider being his running mate.

Mr. Kerry also said: “Torture is not acceptable, period. The United States of America has always been a leader in making it clear to the world that torture is not acceptable.”

Interview with Don Imus Tuesday September 15, 2004 –

On Abu Ghraib
IMUS: What should happen, Senator Kerry, to the guards and their superiors if they’re found guilty of abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq?

KERRY: Well, obviously, if somebody has engaged in activity like that, they’re going to have to pay a price for that. But what irks me is that every study and every analysis shows that this goes all the way up the chain of command. And you still don’t see the civilian leadership or people at the top of the chain of command taking responsibility. And I object to some sergeant or, you know, some enlisted person being held accountable and held up to this scrutiny when this came from both the White House and a Defense Department that changed the behavior in how prisoners were going to be treated. They did it in Guantanamo, they did it in Afghanistan, it spilled over into Iraq, and no one yet is being held accountable, and that’s wrong.

IMUS: But if these guards and superiors are in violation of the Geneva Conventions…

KERRY: They have to be health accountable, and they will be.

IMUS: What does that mean? What does that mean?

KERRY: Well, It means that they’re going also have to pay a price for that, but it’s got to be appropriate. It can’t be scapegoating. They can’t be the only ones and they can’t pay the higher price while other people walk free. It has to be appropriate to the level of sort of their understanding of what the rules were, and wrong as it may be, it has to be put into a context, and I don’t think it has been yet.

IMUS: Back in May of 2001 on “Meet the Press,” you said you yourself have committed the same kinds of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers in violation of the Geneva Conventions. And my question, Senator Kerry, is, is there a difference between what happened in your case in Vietnam and what happened at Abu Ghraib, in that both were acts in violation of the Geneva Conventions?

KERRY: There is a difference.

IMUS: What is it?

KERRY: There is a difference. What I was referring to in that testimony was the general categorization of free-fire zones in Vietnam and the general categorizations of some of the weapons that were being used, which were in violation of the accords. We didn’t learn that until we came home. I didn’t know any of that while I was there. I didn’t know any of that over there, nor did most soldiers. And I never meant to impugn, I’ve never meant to categorize, you know, all soldiers somehow in that category, but it was a general — if you talk to Neil Sheehan, who wrote “Bright Shining Lie,” or you look even at the military manuals today that have drawn lessons from that period of time, there were policies put in place overall. We had a program called “The Phoenix Program,” which was an assassination program, and people were taken out of villages, and you know, the CIA ran it. There were a whole bunch of things that regrettably, and you know, it’s an awful period of America’s history, but I told the truth about it, and that truth has been confirmed in countless documents since then, and I regret that some people are still upset about that period of time. You know, I was angry about it when I came home.