Harsh questioning methods were OK'd for Cuba prison

[Robbien]

By and Joe Stephens, Washington Post | May 9, 2004

WASHINGTON -- In April 2003, the Defense Department approved a list of interrogation techniques for use at the Guantanamo Bay prison that permits making a detainee disrobe entirely for questioning, reversing normal sleep patterns, and exposing them to heat, cold, and ''sensory assault," including loud music and bright lights, according to defense officials.

The classified list of about 20 techniques was approved at the highest levels of the Pentagon and Justice Department and represents the first known documentation of an official US policy permitting interrogators to use physically and psychologically stressful methods during questioning.

Use of these techniques requires approval from senior Pentagon officials, and in some cases, the defense secretary. Interrogators must justify that the harshest treatment is ''militarily necessary," according to the document, parts of which were cited by an official who possessed the document. Once approved, harsher treatment must be accompanied by ''appropriate medical monitoring." ''We wanted to find a legal way to jack up the pressure," said one lawyer who helped write the guidelines. ''We wanted a little more freedom than in a US prison, but not torture."

Defense and intelligence officials said similiar guidelines have been approved for use on ''high-value detainees" in Iraq, those suspected of terrorism or of having knowledge of insurgency operations, and for prisoners detained in CIA-run detention centers.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/05/09/harsh_questioning_methods_were_okd_for_cuba_prison/

[Moderator]

1. duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=541452