Romney=Feith

From 2001 to 2005, Feith was under secretary of defense for policy and the No. 3 man at the Pentagon, intimately involved both pre-war strategy and post-war planning. His boss, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, called Feith one of the most brilliant individuals in government but he has also been a lightning rod for criticism and a magnet for blame. 

Military lawyers and top brass fought to retain Geneva protections, which formed the basic framework for the Army field manual and underlay all combat planning. The State Department also was loathe to abandon such a major treaty. Feith outmaneuvered his opponents, sometimes by keeping them out of the loop, sometimes by deceptively claiming to share their respect for Geneva.

He argues that advising the President not to protect prisoners with the Geneva Conventions could not be linked to subsequent torture of those prisoners. He has also participated in efforts to advise the Israeli government that Palestinian prisoners should not be covered by the Geneva Conventions, but he insists that he was only "consulted" in such projects and did not officially "coauthor" relevant documents.

In March 2009, a Spanish court named him and other Bush-era officials in criminal complaints concerning torture at Guantanamo of prisoners who were citizens of Spain or had other connections to Spain. Feith claimed to be shocked that anything he had ever done might be considered remotely relevant to torture.

Under George Bush, Feith's primary responsibility was to formulate Pentagon policy and assist in its relations with other federal agencies and foreign nations. Also, he was responsible for overseeing the work of the Office of Special Plans, the group set up by Donald Rumsfeld  to send intelligence data to Vice President Dick Cheney, bypassing  CIA analysis.

Feith's office was also responsible for the oversight of military prisons, including Abu Ghraib.  Feith himself masterminded the policy of ignoring the Geneva Conventions against torture.  After his 2005 resignation, the Pentagon's Inspector General investigated Feith's office for supplying pre-war intelligence assessments -- at odds with findings of the intelligence community -- outlining strong ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda.

Feith has been largely absent from the headlines lately, but he "understands how to get the job done".  If Romney is elected, he will be back.  In spades.