"Pentagon 'approved stripping of inmates'"
-Washington Post May 10, 2004

"The US Defence Department reportedly
approved interrogation methods at the
Guantanamo Bay prison that include
forcing inmates to strip naked and
subjecting them to loud music, bright
lights and sleep deprivation."

A US Military magazine got it right when
they ran a headline "Failure of leadership
at the very top". The widespread incidence of
abuse showes it's not just individual soldiers
who are responsible (although the Bush
Administration is happy to hang them out as scapegoats)
but clearly a result of a sanctioned culture of abuse;
Rumsfeld gave the signal when he declared the Geneva
Convention did not apply in USSA gulags, and it's now
abundantly clear why the USSA refused to sign international
anti-torture conventions;

"The techniques were said to have been sanctioned
in April 2003 and to require approval from senior
Pentagon officials and, in some cases, Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The classified list of about 20 techniques was
also reportedly approved by the Justice Department
and represents the first known documentation of
an official policy permitting interrogators to
use physically and psychologically stressful techniques.

..

The US holds about 600 foreign nationals,
including two Australians, at the Guantanamo
Bay prison in Cuba, captured in what President
George Bush calls the global war on terrorism.

Similar interrogation methods have been
approved for use on detainees in Iraq,
although it was not clear whether they
were approved for use at the Abu Ghraib
prison near Baghdad.

Pictures of grinning American soldiers
abusing naked Iraqis at Abu Ghraib have
caused an international outcry.
...

The Post report said prisoners could be
made to stand for hours and questioning
a naked prisoner was permitted if he
was alone in his cell.
- Reuters, Washington Post