gen Miller new HEAD OF IRAQI prisons: Did HE start the torture policy?

[LittleApple81]

New General, Old Methods at Iraq Prison

Banned" methods of prisoner interrogation were approved at the highest levels of US command. Methods authorized include so-called pain-inducing "stress positions" in which detainees are bound to stand or squat until they are unable to comply, or until they break.

The use of these techniques was confirmed in a press conference at the Pentagon. Although the spotlight Friday was on Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld’s testimony before Congress, the focus of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal has started to shift onto Major General Geoffrey Miller, the former commander of the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Miller left Guantanamo and was put in charge of Abu Ghraib prison, near Baghdad, after Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski was quietly sacked at the end of March. Gen. Janis Karpinski has not been charged in connection with the investigation.

She has subtly implied that Miller encouraged questionable practices by introducing his "Gitmo" (Guantanamo) prison practices into Iraq. She is reported to have said that Miller "Gitmo-ized" the Iraq system. The circumstances under which prisoners were interrogated in Cuba have been roundly criticized, especially in the foreign press.

More at link... (Interesting assessment of Miller and policy)
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/rothschild.php?articleid=2529

[MGKrebs]

1. The picture is becoming clearer.

1. Rummy says last fall that the Geneva Convention doesn't apply.
2. Army offer to provide on-site lawyer at prison facility is rejected.
3. MI put in charge of prison (against regs?)
4. All investigations are ignored.


What happened (is happening?) was implicitly (if not explicitly) encouraged from the very top. I suspect that the brass really didn't mind at first if these images got out in Iraq. Another HUGE miscalculation on the effect of their actions.

[LittleApple81]

2. What worries me is that by the time the picture becomes clear,

it will be too late.
Watching the senate, and especially, the house hearing, nobody really either wants of has the influence to make the situation better.

[robbedvoter]

6. And bringing Negroponte of the Honduras atrocities cover-up fame

speaks volumes about the deliberate planning of all this.

[AG78]

9. You knew it was trouble...

when we didn't agree to the ICC. Or did we rip up our part in the agreement? Either way.

These people in power don't give a damn about international law. And half the people in this country don't either. It clearly isn't perfect, but you don't just stop trying to make it better. We just said that Americans are exempt from it.

How could anyone have seen this coming? After all, we are Americans. Even though that's nothing more than a name for a land mass, it seems to mean that we're better. Sure, we're human beings, and when you break us all down, no matter what land mass you might live on, we're all the same. But this piece of land, thanks to God, is blessed. Just the way the Holy Land in the Middle East is God's country, and it's not as if that part of the world is one of the most violent places on the planet. We're special, and it's un-American to think any different. What happened in Iraq isn't American. No, absolutely not. It's not as if our country was founded on that type of action. It's not like we had to fight to the death 80-some years after the official founding to finally end slavery. It's not as if it took another 100 years or so after that war that a certain segment of our population actually had rights and were finally considered human. It didn't take about 140 years for half of the white population to finally have the right to vote. It's not like powerful people in this country aren't throwing families out on the street right now, just to make an extra buck working some unknown human being from another country to death. Corporations don't want war just to make a few million dollars extra for a rainy day. We're the exception to the human species. America rises above it.

We're all going to die horribly. But hey, if a few powerful people in government, and a few more faceless suits in a corporation(although at this point, aren't corporations the government?) can live the good life before we kill each other, it's worth it.

[laura888]

3. Agreed - Miller seems absolutely guilty of setting conditions...

...that created the abuse.

And am I correct in saying he's still in charge of Iraqi prisoners?

WTF?

[LittleApple81]

4. Yes. They brought him from Guantanamo. As you know,

Guantanamo is totally isolated, no information coming in or out. That is what they want for the Iraqi prisons now.

[kentuck]

8. I think he was advising from Guantanamo??

ANd they decided to send him closer to the job, so they put him in charge. I htink htere is a lot we don't know about Gen Miller.

[laura888]

10. According to the Taguda Report, they knew Miller's system was not working.

...in late 2003.

An officer named Ryder in fall of 2003, investigated Abu Gharib and determined that "the OEF template whereby military police actively set the favorable conditions for subsequent interviews runs counter to the smooth operation of a detention facility."

So the top brass knew this "softening up" of prisoners by MPs (rather than interrogators) was not working in 2003.

And now Miller's in charge? I am outraged!

And WTF is going on in Guantanamo Bay?

[LittleApple81]

13. This is an administration that literally get away with murder.n/t

[maddezmom]

5. Yes...and he's on CNN live now 9;30 ET

General Told MPs to `soften Up' Prisoners (MG Miller)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x539045

[RBHam]

7. Putting the fox in xharge of the chicken coop

This stinks - and they're going to get away with it.

[Eric J in MN]

11. Yes, and nothing has truly changed.

His big change is that they're going to blindfold prisoners with "pressure bandages" instead of hoods, unless someone authorizes hoods. Then they will use hoods.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

12. Not totally hiding faces with hoods may help rehumanize some...n/t

[Snellius]

14. There is some confusion about the facts here.

I understand that Miller was sent (Aug.-Sept. 2003) to conduct an inquiry on interrogation and detention procedures in Iraq and to write a report of recommendations. His recommendations on how to "set conditions for the interrogation of prisoners" were obviously the orders used to institute the "softening up" technique used by MPs. These techniques, developed in Guantanamo prison, did not follow Geneva Conventions, as commanded by DOD and the President of the United States.

But as far as I can tell, Miller was never in charge of Abu Ghraib. He was sent by the Pentagon.