Born: July 9, 1932, Evanston, Illinois. Died: June 30, 2021, Taos, New Mexico.
Profession: Businessman, politician
GW Bush Administration Position:
21st United States Secretary of Defense (2001-2006)
War crime charge(s):
Crime against peace – planning and carrying out a war of aggression.
Complicity in the commission of a war crime – wanton destruction of cities and villages, devastation not justified by military necessity, ill-treatment of civilian population of or in occupied territory.
Complicity in the commission of a war crime – torture, ill-treatment of detainees. Planned and executed invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Wrote memo instructing use of harsh interrogation techniques at Abu Ghraib.
Primary Association:
He then chaired "the Rumsfeld Foundation, which supports leadership and public service at home and the growth of free political and free economic systems abroad. The Rumsfeld Foundation funds microfinance development projects, fellowships for graduate students interested in public service, the development of young leaders from Central Asia and the Caucasus, and charitable causes that benefit the men and women of the U.S. armed forces and their families." In 2007, Rumsfeld and his wife, Joyce, established the Rumsfeld Foundation, building on the work of the Joyce and Donald Rumsfeld Foundation, established in 1985. Since 2007, the Foundation has granted over 50 fellowships for U.S. graduate students and young leaders from Central Asia, provided over $2.1 million in microfinance grants, and donated more than $200,000 to charities for U.S. veterans.
Secondary Association:
Project for the New American Century: part founder
"Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things1." "Keep elevating the threat"... "Talk about Somalia, the Philippines etc. Make the American people realise they are surrounded in the world by violent extremsts2."
"We know where they [WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."(ABC Interview, 3/30/2003)
Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense Jan. 20, 2001 - Dec. 18, 2006
As head of the Defense Department, Rumsfeld was directly or indirectly responsible for the gross abuses committed at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, Bagram, and other military detention centers. Along with Vice President Cheney and others, he opposed recognizing the rights of detainees under the Geneva Conventions, and he instructed the Joint Chiefs of Staff that those rights did not apply. He was also a member of the National Security Council Principals Committee, which approved the CIA’s use of harsh interrogation techniques.
On Dec. 2, 2002, Rumsfeld signed an action memo authorizing the military to use harsh interrogation techniques based on those used at a DOD program established to help U.S. forces withstand torture. He withdrew the authorization in January 2003 but then convened a working group on interrogation, and approved a new set of harsh techniques three months later. In August and September 2003, he sent Major General Miller, the commander at Guantanamo Bay, to Iraq to “Gitmo-ize” Abu Ghraib. Rumsfeld stood by the military’s interrogation policies despite continuously mounting evidence of abuse at the hands of military interrogators.
Rumsfeld also specifically approved the brutal interrogation plan for Mohammed al-Qahtani at Guantanamo Bay, who was harshly interrogated for 50-plus days, and a “special interrogation plan” for Mohamedou Slahi, another Guantanamo prisoner, who was subsequently subjected to a mock execution at sea, solitary confinement, beatings, sexual humiliation, and environmental manipulation.*
The Culpable 
Name: Donald Henry Rumsfeld