[News] Rumsfeld Okayed Harsh Interrogation Techniques

[News at freedomarchives.org]

http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2004-06/23/article03.shtml
Rumsfeld Okayed Harsh Interrogation Techniques

WASHINGTON, June 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – US Defense 
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved the use of aggressive interrogation 
techniques, such as the use of stress positions, forced nudity and dogs in 
the infamous detention prison in Guantanamo Bay, de-classified White House 
documents unveiled.

The techniques were detailed in a series of memos released by the White 
House on Tuesday, June 22, that tracked exchanges between commanders, 
Rumsfeld and the Pentagon's general counsel over interrogation techniques 
to be used on detainees held at Guantanamo, Agence France-Presse (AFP) 
reported.

Among the techniques requested and subsequently approved by Rumsfeld in 
December 2002 were the use of stress positions (like standing) for a 
maximum of four hours, the use of isolation facility for up to 30 days and 
"deprivation of light and sensory stimuli."

In signing off on the request, the defense secretary scribbled a note in 
his own hand initialed DR: "However, I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is 
standing limited to four hours.

The use of 20-hour interrogations, removal of clothing, "using detainees' 
individual phobias (such as the fear of dogs) to induce stress" were also 
okayed by Rumsfeld, said the declassified memos.

He also gave the nod to the "use of mild, non injurious physical contact 
such as grabbing, poling in the chest with the finger and light pushing."

The question of how far interrogators could go came up in October 2002 when 
commanders at Guantanamo asked for permission to use more aggressive 
techniques on a detainee who was alleged to be the 20th hijacker in the 
9/11 attacks.

A review ordered by Rumsfeld concluded in April 2003 that the Pentagon had 
even broader leeway to conduct interrogations than contained in army field 
manuals and recommended a list of 35 techniques, including those initially 
approved by the defense secretary.

But in issuing a new authorization to commanders in Guantanamo on April 16 
after the review, Rumsfeld approved a softer set of 24 techniques, dropping 
the harsher techniques that had been initially approved.

The interrogation techniques, which Rumsfeld rescinded the following month 
after complaints from military officers, were eerily reminiscent of some of 
the 
<http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-04/30/article04.shtml>abuse, 
including sexual humiliation, of Iraqi detainees that surfaced earlier this 
year at Abu Ghraib.

American press reports have indicated the torture 
<http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-06/12/article02.shtml>was 
okayed by senior Pentagon officials, including Rumsfeld.

The Washington Post also veiled earlier in June that the Justice Department 
had advised the Pentagon that torturing detainees outside the US 
"<http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-06/08/article02.shtml>may be 
justified."

A US soldier making her presence in most of the Iraqi abuse photos had said 
she was 
"<http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-05/13/article04.shtml>instructed" 
by her commanders to pose for photographs with naked Iraqi detainees.

Suicide Attempts

The de-classified documents came as military records have shown at least 14 
suicide attempts by Guantanamo detainees in the five months after a 
get-tough general took command.

Those cases amounted to almost half the 31 suicide attempts at the prison 
since it was opened in January 2002.

Human rights groups say the suicide attempts at Guantanamo might be 
evidence that conditions 
<http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2002-12/27/article01.shtml>there 
amounted to torture.

"Our concern is that the totality of the conditions at Guantanamo may have 
contributed to an atmosphere that pushed people to attempt suicide," said 
Alistair Hodgett of the human rights watchdog Amnesty International.

Amnesty representatives said they had found a "worrisome deterioration" in 
prisoners' mental health.

Also, contrary to the repeated assertions of senior administration 
officials, none of the detainees at the US naval base ranked as leaders or 
senior operatives of Al-Qaeda, the New York Times reported Tuesday, citing 
interviews with high-level military, intelligence and law-enforcement 
officials in the United States, Europe and the Middle East.

The newspaper said only a relative handful of the 600 detainees at 
Guantanamo were sworn Al-Qaeda members or other militants able to elucidate 
the organization's inner workings.

The Los Angeles Times quoted military sources in December 2002 as saying 
the US is holding dozens of prisoners at Guantanamo although they 
<http://www.islamonline.net/english/news/2002-12/22/article10.shtml>have no 
meaningful connection to Al-Qaeda or Taliban.

Routinely

In a related development, the Guardian said Wednesday, June 23, that 
detainees in Afghanistan "have been routinely tortured and humiliated as 
part of the interrogation process" by American forces.

A Guardian investigation has found that five detainees have died in 
custody, three of them in suspicious circumstances, citing first-hand 
testimonies of "beatings, strippings, hoodings and sleep deprivation."

The British daily said the nature of the abuse indicates that what happened 
at Abu Ghraib was part of a pattern of interrogation that has been common 
practice since the US invasion of Afghanistan.

Senator Patrick Leahy, the Democratic member of the Senate subcommittee on 
foreign operations, told the Guardian that prisoners in Afghanistan "were 
subjected to cruel and degrading treatment, and some died from it".

He described the abuses as "part of a wider pattern stemming from a White 
House attitude that 'anything goes' in the war against terrorism, even if 
it crosses the line of illegality."


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