"grab whom you must. Do what you want,"
dave
May 15, 2004
By Jeremy Pelofsky
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved a plan
that brought unconventional interrogation methods to Iraq to gain
intelligence about the growing insurgency, ultimately leading to the abuse
of Iraqi prisoners, the New Yorker magazine reported on Saturday.
Rumsfeld, who has been under fire for the prisoner abuse scandal, gave the
green light to methods previously used in Afghanistan for gathering
intelligence on members of al Qaeda, which the United States blames for the
Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the magazine reported on its Web site.
Pentagon spokesman Jim Turner said he had not seen the story and could not
comment. The article hits newsstands on Monday.
U.S. interrogation techniques have come under scrutiny amid revelations that
prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad were kept naked, stacked
on top of one another, forced to engage in sex acts and photographed in
humiliating poses.
Rumsfeld, who has rejected calls by some Democrats and a number of major
newspapers to resign, returned on Friday from a surprise trip to Iraq and
Abu Ghraib prison, calling the scandal a "body blow." Seven soldiers have
been charged.
The abuse prompted worldwide outrage and has shaken U.S. global prestige as
President Bush seeks re-election in November. Bush has backed Rumsfeld and
said the abuse was abhorrent but the wrongful actions of only a few
soldiers.
The U.S. military has now prohibited several interrogation methods from
being used in Iraq, including sleep and sensory deprivation and body "stress
positions," defense officials said on Friday.
SPECIAL ACCESS PROGRAM
The New Yorker said the interrogation plan was a highly classified "special
access program," or SAP, that gave advance approval to kill, capture or
interrogate so-called high-value targets in the battle against terror.
Such secret methods were used extensively in Afghanistan but more sparingly
in Iraq -- only in the search for former President Saddam Hussein and
weapons of mass destruction. As the Iraqi insurgency grew and more U.S.
soldiers died, Rumsfeld and Defense Undersecretary for Intelligence Stephen
Cambone expanded the scope to bring the interrogation tactics to Abu Ghraib,
the article said.
The magazine, which based its article on interviews with several past and
present American intelligence officials, reported the plan was approved and
carried out last year after deadly bombings in August at the U.N.
headquarters and Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad.
A former intelligence official quoted in the article said Rumsfeld and Gen.
Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, approved the program
but may not have known about the abuse.
'DO WHAT YOU WANT'
The rules governing the secret operation were "grab whom you must. Do what
you want," the unidentified former intelligence official told the New
Yorker.
Rumsfeld left the details of the interrogations to Cambone, the article
quoted a Pentagon consultant as saying.
"This is Cambone's deal, but Rumsfeld and Myers approved the program," said
the Pentagon consultant in the article.
U.S. officials have admitted the abuse may have violated the Geneva
Convention, which governs treatment of prisoners of war.
The New Yorker said the CIA, which approved using high-pressure
interrogation tactics against senior al Qaeda leaders after the 2001
attacks, balked at extending them to Iraq and refused to participate
After initiating the secret techniques, the U.S. military began learning
useful intelligence about the insurgency, the former intelligence official
was quoted as saying.
James Chamblee
detainee abuse to both arrest a vast majority of people who are
innocent, and then to torture them in violation of almost every
applicable U.S. and International Law, speaks volumes about the neocons.
Firstly, like many Right Wingers, they assume that the people around
them share their beliefs. Thankfully, this has proven to be grossly
incorrect.
Second, they arrogantly believed that they could escape detection, even
with their Keystone Kops approach of poor/no training, incriminating
photos and extremely loose security. And after their detection, they
lied as usual to try to avoid responsibility.
Third, they ignored the possible harm to the U.S. standing in the world;
because for them, everyone else doesn't matter, because they have
embarked on a hostile takeover of the world.
Fourth, they have provided a glimpse of what fascism is all about;
wherein industrialists and the ruling class form a tag team to trample
individual liberties, enslave nations, and reap the ill-gotten gains.