Torture Policy (cont'd) (washingtonpost.com): "SECRETARY OF DEFENSE Donald H. Rumsfeld expressed dismay on Thursday about editorials in which 'the implication is that the United States government has, in one way or another, ordered, authorized, permitted, tolerated torture.' Such reports, he said, raised questions among U.S. troops in Iraq, reduced the willingness of people in Iraq and Afghanistan to cooperate with the United States, and could be used by others as an excuse to torture U.S. soldiers or civilians. This was wrong, he said, because 'I have not seen anything that suggests that a senior civilian or military official of the United States of America . . . could be characterized as ordering or authorizing or permitting torture or acts that are inconsistent with our international treaty obligations or our laws or our values as a country.'
... What might lead us to describe Mr. Rumsfeld or some other 'senior civilian or military official' as 'ordering or authorizing or permitting' torture or violation of international treaties and U.S. law? We could start with Mr. Rumsfeld's own admission during the same news conference that he had personally approved the detention of several prisoners in Iraq without registering them with the International Committee of the Red Cross. This creation of 'ghost prisoners' was described by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, who investigated abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, as 'deceptive, contrary to Army doctrine and in violation of international law.' Failure to promptly register detainees with the Red Cross is an unambiguous breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention; Mr. Rumsfeld said that he approved such action on several occasions, at the request of another senior official, CIA Director George J. Tenet.
Did senior officials order torture? We know of two relevant cases so far. One was Mr. Rumsfeld's December 2002 authorization of the use of techniques including hooding, nudity, stress positions, 'fear of dogs' and physical contact with prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay base. A second was the distribution in September 2003 by the office of the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez..."
- posted by geoff @ #