WP: Spirited Debate Preceded Policies (Pentagon Lawyers Urged Restraint )

[kskiska]

The Pentagon documents released yesterday reveal a gripping internal debate over interrogation tactics for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, with Pentagon lawyers warning that the military's reputation could suffer as a result of tools approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

In December 2002, as Pentagon officials were trying to get detainees to offer more useful information about al Qaeda, Rumsfeld approved a variety of techniques, such as stripping prisoners to humiliate them, using dogs to scare them and employing stress positions to wear them down, the documents show. The tactics also included using light and sound assaults, shaving facial and head hair and taking away religious items.

Pentagon officials say most of the techniques were never used, and a Pentagon working group recommended that Rumsfeld roll back these methods. In a memo to the defense secretary in March 2003, the group wrote: "When assessing exceptional interrogation techniques, consideration should be given to the possible adverse affects on U.S. Armed Forces culture and self-image, which at times in the past may have suffered due to perceived law of war violations."

As has been previously reported, Rumsfeld did subsequently rescind approval for the most aggressive tactics, including the use of dogs and stripping prisoners. But the documents released yesterday reveal many new details of the behind-the-scenes deliberations over what would be permitted at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, the holding facility for about 600 detainees picked up in the U.S. campaign against terrorists over the past three years.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61942-2004Jun22.html

[Sugarbleus]

1. Geez, what a bunch of sick twists!! Thanx 4 the post. n/t

[FlemingsGhost]

2. My God, their biggest worry was bad PR.

If we don't send these people to jail, we are a nation of immoral cowards.