From The Associated Press, 6/10/04:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/30/iraq/main614905.shtml?cmp=EM8706
Report: Rumsfeld OK'd Prison Rules
June 10, 2004
(CBS/AP)
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved interrogation methods for
Guantanamo Bay detainees including the use of "stress positions" for
up to four hours, "fear of dogs" and "mild non-injurious" physical
contact, a newspaper reports.
The Wall Street Journal reports Rumsfeld approved the tactics in
December 2002.
When military lawyers complained about the tactics being used,
officials re-examined the techniques and implemented new rules in an
April 2003 memo.
It is not known what tactics were approved in the April 2003 memo, but
a March 2003 draft of that memo -- revealed earlier this week --
contained a legal argument that neither President Bush, nor agents
acting on his orders, could be held liable for violating anti-torture
laws in the war on terrorism.
USA Today reports that lawyers for Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen.
Richard Myers were worried that tactics included in the April 2003
memo could make the chairman a target for prosecution under laws
governing prisoner treatment.
The focus on the memos comes amid the continuing investigation of
possible prisoner abuse.
After photographs surfaced showing abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib
prison, details have emerged about deaths in custody in Afghanistan
and the reported use of interrogation tactics like near-drowning at
Guantanamo Bay.
It is not known if the tactics Rumsfeld approved for Guantanamo Bay
were used at Abu Ghraib, where some of the alleged abuse involved
dogs.
The commander of Guantanamo Bay, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller,
recommended in the summer of 2003 that military police guards at Abu
Ghraib "set the conditions" for the interrogation of prisoners, a
recommendation that other Army officers have said was inappropriate.
The prison abuse probe turns on whether the mistreatment was the act
of individual soldiers or the result of policies ordered higher up the
chain of command.
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Rumsfeld's gonna look good behind bars.
Harry
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