Quotes by Larry DiRita

“I dont doubt every colonel wishes he had more in his area, but the decisions about how troops are (deployed) are made by the commanders above them.”

“Its what he does. He injects urgency, he asks questions and he gets people thinking about things and thats what this memo, hopefully, will do. It appears to have had that effect.”

“The secretary is not saying anything like what the memos been characterized,”

“What hes doing is elevating the perspective of the leadership of this department and asking: I dont know the answers to these questions, but theyre on my mind and I want them on your mind too.”

“to look up and look beyond the treetops.”

“Assertions apparently being made in the latest New Yorker article on Abu Ghraib and the abuse of Iraqi detainees are outlandish, conspiratorial, and filled with error and anonymous conjecture.”

“People are dead because of what this son of a bitch said. How could he be credible now?”

“Its what he does. He injects urgency, he asks questions and he gets people thinking about things and thats what this memo, hopefully, will do. It appears to have had that effect,”

“In many cases, we are holding people accountable, prior to people even knowing that there was a case. And thats not anybodys fault. Thats just the way the military justice system operates.”