Probe: Pentagon lawyers sought harsh interrogation
WASHINGTON (AP) - June 17, 2008 The findings, detailed in a hearing Tuesday, brought rebukes of
the Pentagon effort from Democrats and Republicans alike.
"The guidance (administration lawyers) provided will go down in
history as some of the most irresponsible and shortsighted legal
analysis ever provided to our nation's military and intelligence
communities," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., an Air Force
Reserve colonel who teaches military law for the service.
The hearing is the committee's first look at the origins of
harsh interrogation methods and how policy decisions on
interrogations were vetted across the Defense Department. Its
review fits into a broader picture of the government's handling of
detainees, which includes FBI and CIA interrogations in secret
prisons.
The panel is expected to hold further hearings on the matter and
release a final report by the end of the year.
Among its initial findings is that senior Pentagon lawyers,
including general counsel William "Jim" Haynes, sought
information as early as July 2002 regarding a military program that
trained U.S. troops how to survive enemy interrogations and deny
foes valuable intelligence.
Much of the training program, known as "Survival, Evasion,
Resistance and Escape," or SERE, is based on experiences of
American prisoners of war in previous conflicts, including those in
Korea and Vietnam.
Pentagon officials wanted to know if the program could be used
to develop more effective interrogation methods at Guantanamo Bay.
Haynes testified that he remembers receiving the information,
but he did not recall requesting it specifically.
In response, SERE officials provided Haynes' office a list of
tactics that included sensory deprivation, sleep disruption and
stress positions.
Several of those techniques, including stress positions, were
later approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in a
December 2002 memo for use at Guantanamo Bay. Rumsfeld and Haynes
agreed to the methods, despite objections by military service
lawyers that they might be illegal.
"Whatever interrogation techniques we adopt will eventually
become public knowledge," wrote Col. John Ley of the Army's Judge
Advocate General office in November 2002. "If we mistreat
detainees, we will quickly lose the (moral) high ground and public
support will erode."
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Armed Services
Committee, said Rumsfeld's endorsement paved the way for abuses to
occur in Iraq and Afghanistan and makes U.S. troops more likely to
someday be tortured if captured by the enemy.
"If we use those same techniques offensively against detainees,
it says to the world that they have America's stamp of approval,"
said Levin.
Likewise, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said it was troubling
that the U.S. would consider techniques regarded as so "inhumane
or outside the pale" that the military must train its forces on
how to withstand them.
The committee also released previously secret and privately held
documents on Tuesday. According to minutes from an October 2002
meeting, a top military lawyer at Guantanamo said prisoners were
exposed to previously forbidden techniques, such as sleep
deprivation, but that such treatment was hidden from the
International Committee of the Red Cross.
"Officially it is not happening," Beaver said in the meeting.
"It is not being reported officially. The ICRC is a serious
concern. They will be in and out, scrutinizing our operations,
unless they are displeased and decide to protest and leave. This
would draw a lot of negative attention."
A senior CIA lawyer at the meeting, John Fredman, explained that
whether harsh interrogation amounted to torture "is a matter of
perception." The only sure test for torture is if the detainee
died.
"If the detainees dies, you're doing it wrong," Fredman said.
Beaver wrote a now-infamous Oct. 11, 2002, memo that determined
abusive methods could be used against detainees at Guantanamo Bay
prison because they were not considered prisoners of war. Her
proposed methods included extended isolation, 20-hour
interrogations, death threats and waterboarding.
Beaver acknowledged that the Pentagon's legal system, the
Uniform Code of Military Justice, posed a significant legal hurdle
to implementing counter-resistance techniques.
"It would be advisable to have permission or immunity in
advance ... for military members utilizing these methods," she
wrote.
On Tuesday, Beaver told the committee that she was "shocked"
that her memo became the primary justification for Rumsfeld's
approval to use harsher methods.
She had asked her superiors for input because those working at
Guantanamo and engaged in the interrogation program "don't always
have the best perspective."
Notably absent from the hearing Tuesday was the Senate's biggest
champion of detainee rights and the top Republican on the
committee, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. A former prisoner of war,
McCain has become less visible on the issue of detainee treatment
since becoming a presidential candidate.
McCain was in San Antonio, Texas, on Tuesday giving a speech on
energy and attending campaign fundraisers.
---
Associated Press writer Pamela Hess contributed to this report.