Hogwash

Rumsfeld Tells Congress Changes Needed to Increase Flexibility
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Rumsfeld said the department is looking to establish a National Security Personnel System to give more flexibility in how DoD manages its 700,000-plus civilian personnel. "Today, because that task is difficult, we find frequently we use ... people in uniform for nonmilitary jobs because we can manage them much more readily," he said. "We use contractors rather than civilian employees, again because you can manage a contractor more efficiently."

Seems to me, everyone knew, and anyone could figure out, that the contractors in Iraq were running a bit more of the prison than good practice allows. This wasn't about management; this was about deniability.