The Torture No-one Ordered

More details are surfacing from the documents obtained by the ACLU as part of a Freedom of Information lawsuit to obtain papers relating to abuse of prisoners in Iraq and elsewhere by US forces.

The top U.S. commander in Iraq authorized prisoner interrogation tactics more harsh than accepted Army practice, including using guard dogs to exploit "Arab fear of dogs," a memo made public on Tuesday showed.

The memo clearly establishes that Gen. Sanchez authorized unlawful interrogation techniques for use in Iraq, and in particular these techniques violate the Geneva Conventions and the Army's own field manual governing interrogations. The techniques authorised included use of attack dogs to terrify prisoners; "stress positions," in which a prisoner is placed in potentially painful bodily positions to try to get them to talk; "environmental manipulation" such as making a room hot or cold or using an "unpleasant smell"; isolating a prisoner and disrupting normal sleep patterns. It also allowed the "false flag" technique of "convincing the detainee that individuals from a country other than the United States are interrogating him."


In related news, the Army has admitted that it is holding about 10,500 prisoners in Iraq, more than double the number held in October. Around 100 of these prisoners are under 18 although the Army says it is now holding children seperately from adult prisoners. Recently, reports of sexual abuse, torture and holding minors without charges have surfaced.

Funnily enough, although Rumsfield has always refused to estimate the size of the Iraqi insurgency, the numbers detained, unless most are held on false or non-existant charges, tend to support the high end of Iraqi Defence Ministry estimates. The Iraqi goverment has estimated the insurgency as having up to 200,000 members, a figure Rummie has scorned as "totally inconsistent" with lower US estimates. In November of 2003 the Coalition military and the U.S. CIA put the total number of core fighters at 5,000, along with a network of 20,000 to 50,000 active supporters - which would mean at least 20% of the insurgency was now in prison. Given the strength and frequency of attacks, this seems unlikely unless the US occupations actions are themselves creating fresh insurgents as they go. Either way, it isn't good news.

As time goes by, more and more details about the torture "no-one ordered" surface and I intend to keep blogging the subject. There are more than a few on the right, for whom this is a thing they suspect they should be ashamed of supporting by their votes, who shouldn't forget their own moral compass doesn't agree with that of this administration. Even if they cannot agree with the ACLU on much, they should be thanking the ACLU for it's persistence on this issue to the point of pursuing a lawsuit to obtain papers previously witheld on the dubious grounds of "national security". The true reason for witholding them seems to have more to do with administration embarassment and coverups of culpablity. Nor should we ignore the fact that America is being indelibly branded by this scandal in the eyes of the world. It's difficult to claim the moral high ground when you are crawling in the cesspit.

Previous Related Newshog Posts: Americans, Demand Your Honor Back!, Conservative Shames Right on Torture, Respect the Republican, Abu Graib "Ringleader" Says He Was Following Orders, Enemies of Freedom, DIA reported prison abuse to Defence Dept. in June (or just try using the search engine on the right, keyword: torture).

UPDATE Mark Kraft has more on this on his LiveJournal. I will let him tell it:

"There's more to it than that. The memo also indicates that Sanchez perjured himself during his Senate testimony of May 19, 2004:

U.S. SENATOR JACK REED (D-RI): General Sanchez, today's USA Today, sir, reported that you ordered or approved the use of sleep deprivation, intimidation by guard dogs, excessive noise and inducing fear as an interrogation method for a prisoner in Abu Ghraib prison. Is that correct?

SANCHEZ: Sir, that may be correct that it's in a news article, but I never approved any of those measures to be used within CJTF-7 at any time in the last year.

That is absolutely refuted by the newly released memo, which says:

Presence of Military Working Dog: Exploits Arab fear of dogs ...
Sleep Management: Detainee provided minimum of 4 hours sleep per 24 hour period, not to exceed 72 continuous hours.
Yelling, Loud Music, and Light Control: Used to create fear... (Sanchez's wording, not mine.)"

Excellent work. Check out the full post.