Documents Helped Sow Abuse, Army Report Finds

[quaoar]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45319-2004Aug29.html

Documents Helped Sow Abuse, Army Report Finds
Top Officials Did Not Make Interrogation Policies Clear

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 30, 2004; Page A01

Early last September, attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq were spiking and an Army general dispatched from a military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, concluded in a classified study that the detention of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad "does not yet set conditions for successful interrogations."

Under pressure to extract more information from the prisoners -- to "go beyond" what Army interrogation rules allowed, as an Army general later put it -- the senior U.S. military commander in Iraq sent a secret cable to his boss at U.S. Central Command on Sept. 14, outlining more aggressive interrogation methods he planned to authorize immediately.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, left, confers with Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, head of U.S. Central Command in Iraq, on a helicopter over Baghdad. (Pool Photo David Hume Kennerly)

The cable signed by Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez listed several dozen strategies for extracting information, drawn partly from what officials now say was an outdated and improperly permissive Army field manual. But it added one not previously approved for use in Iraq, under the heading of Presence of Military Working Dogs: "Exploit Arab fear of dogs while maintaining security during interrogations."

Sanchez's order calling on police dog handlers to help intimidate detainees into talking -- a practice later seen in searing photographs -- was one of a handful of documents written by senior officials that Army officials now say helped sow the seeds of prison abuse in Iraq. They did so, according to an Army report released Wednesday, by lending credence to the idea that aggressive interrogation methods were sanctioned by officers going up the chain of command.

[librechik]

1. But they said these people were NOT being interrogated!

there is too much confusion and obfuscation in this mess. Nobody is telling a straight story. Why cant someone in authority step forward and resolve this? There's no leadership.

[Eloriel]

2. Key sentence:

They did so, according to an Army report released Wednesday, by lending credence to the idea that aggressive interrogation methods were sanctioned by officers going up the chain of command.

I am so afraid it'll just be Janet Karpinski who gets hung out to dry for this. On Politically Incorrect last Fri night, she told Maher that she didn't even have authority and responsibility over that part of that prison. He (stupidly) asked her why she didn't just tell them, this is MY prison. (Because, you dunderhead, this was the MILITARY. When your chain of command tells you that you do or do not control this or that facility or operation or whatever, that's the way it is. You do NOT tell them back: Oh, I think I will anyway. Sheesh.)

[quaoar]

3. It seems

from this story that Sanchez is in this up to his eyeballs.

[EST]

4. Of course he is, but you can depend on it

that when the documents become available, you'll find them so weasel worded that upper echelon wanks will have plausible deniability.

[krkaufman]

5. But didn't the Chimp say....

... that it was just a few bad apples? Sounds like the soldiers were telling the truth, that the orders came from above.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Important story, page-one --

[truthisfreedom]

7. this isn't the whitewash we expected. why is this being allowed into the

media? is rove/cheney/bush losing control?

[quaoar]

9. No.

They'll just make sure nothing ever comes of it.

[gottaB]

8. The dog torture was used against Gitmo detainees

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=116x7193



the full report (in pdf format) is linked here:

http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/reports/report.asp?ObjID=4bUT8M23lk&Content=424


The worst dog torture occurred when detainees were taken to Kandahar, but dogs were also used at Gitmo.

[G_j]

10. never doubted it for one moment

they dissed the Geneva Convention from the start.
Gonzales called it "quaint".
If justice ever prevails again, the whole gang will be on trial for war crimes. That is a big IF though.

[Snazzy]

11. kick! (More significant news drowned out w/ RNC crap)

:kick: