Memo Gave Intelligence Bigger Role (washingtonpost.com): "Shortly before the physical abuses of Iraqis were photographed in Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad last year, the top U.S. military official in Iraq signed a classified memorandum explicitly calling for interrogators to assume control over the 'lighting, heating . . . food, clothing, and shelter' of those being questioned there.
The Oct. 12, 2003, memorandum signed by Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez called for intelligence officials at the prison to work more closely with the military police guarding the detainees to "manipulate an internee's emotions and weaknesses."
... The backdrop for the policy was an event that occurred on May 1, 2003. President Bush landed that day on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier off San Diego and declared that major combat operations were over. His declaration had direct but unpublicized consequences for those detained in Iraq, military officials say: It meant they were no longer to be treated as prisoners of war, but instead as civilians held by an occupying power. "
- posted by geoff @ #