Detainee Abuse Was Well Planned

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Time Magazine

Many of the controversial interrogation tactics used against terror suspects in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo were modeled on techniques the U.S. feared that the Communists themselves might use against captured American troops during the Cold War, according to a little-noticed, highly classified Pentagon report released several days ago. Originally developed as training for elite special forces at Fort Bragg under the "Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape" program, otherwise known as SERE, tactics such as sleep deprivation, isolation, sexual humiliation, nudity, exposure to extremes of cold and stress positions were part of a carefully monitored survival training program for personnel at risk of capture by Soviet or Chinese forces, all carried out under the supervision of military psychologists.

This troubling disclosure was made in the blandly titled report, "Review of DoD-Directed Investigations of Detainee Abuse", which for the first time sets forth the origins as well as new details of many of the abusive interrogation techniques that led to scandals at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and elsewhere — techniques that some critics contend the Pentagon still has not gone far enough in explicitly banning. Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the findings "deeply troubling," and signaled his intention to hold hearings later this year on the interrogation methods it describes.

The report, completed last August but only declassified and made public on May 18, suggests that the abusive techniques stemmed from a much more formal process than the Defense Department has previously acknowledged. By 2002 the Pentagon was looking for an interrogation paradigm to use on what it had designated as "unlawful combatants" captured in the "war on terror." These individuals, many taken prisoner in Afghanistan, were initially brought to the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo, although others were subsequently hidden away in CIA secret prisons or turned over to U.S.-allied governments known to practice torture. That same year, the commander of the detention facility at Guantanamo began using the abusive "counter resistance" techniques adopted from SERE on prisoners at the base, and according to the Pentagon report SERE military psychologists were on hand to help.

In response to fallout over the well-documented cases of prisoner abuse — which included prolonged isolation, sensory deprivation (visual and auditory), forced removal of clothing, exploiting prisoners phobias (notably fear of dogs), and threats against family members — the Pentagon began scaling back the use of SERE tactics in 2002 and eventually banned them altogether. The Army Field Manual, which serves as a primary guide for U.S. military interrogation, now specifically rules out the use of a variety of SERE-founded techniques including water-boarding, a form of simulated drowning, as well as the use of dogs.



Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1627229,00.html

[stellanoir]

1. "all sadism. . .all the time. . ."

The only three things I can see they are systematically profficient at is sadism, election fraud, and "oligarchical hypnogoguery."

[High Plains]

2. This is not my country. Sick bastards.

[myrna minx]

3. .

[Kolesar]

4. How does "Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape" turn into torturing Arabs?

It sounds like a program to train people how to avoid or manage being taken as a prisoner of war. Not a compendium of torture and interrogation.

[Vincardog]

5. How did 1984 turn into the instruction manuel for these sick shits?

[Peace Patriot]

6. Of all their crimes, this is the worst. There is nothing worse or more cowardly

than torturing a person who is in captivity and cannot fight back and has no recourse. And the evil of it goes far beyond the horrors inflicted on prisoners of war--whether they are guilty of fighting U.S. invading forces or not (many are not), and whether they are guilty of any kind of crime or not (many are not). The evil of it is corrupting and corrosive. Abu Ghraib clearly illustrated that. It creates a bigoted and dehumanizing mindset that oozes through the ranks of the military--and throughout our society--like a poison. It can also create undying, unhealable hatred in the hearts of the tortured, their families and friends, communities and countries. It can live forever like a seering hot cattle brand, passing from person to person and generation to generation. And it marks OUR country, our society and our once great democracy as no better--and, indeed, because of our power, far worse--than the nastiest and most vicious tyrannies existing in the world now, or known to history.

Furthermore, considering the wanton slaughter of civilians in Iraq (over half a million, according to the British doctors' report), massive thievery and other crimes of this cabal in the White House--and their massive secrecy--how can anyone believe that they are torturing people to "keep us safe"? Even that part of it is suspect. They have done nothing but harm to our "national security"--from involving us in a heinously unjust war, to outing a CIA agent and an entire WMD counter-proliferation network, to draining the resources of our emergency services, to leaving the poor to die in New Orleans, to driving up a $10 trillion national debt with multiple tax cuts for the rich. The tortures and murders that Bush/Cheney have committed would likely follow the same pattern--and be used for business purposes, or to hunt down and silence witnesses to their other crimes, or to terrorize and intimidate any who would oppose their theft of Iraqi oil, their arms dealings, their dirtiest schemes.

It's fine for Carl Levin to be investigating it. But it is dismaying--and appalling--how silent or mild our political leaders have been in opposing it. It is blatantly illegal. We have the spectacle of Bush/Cheney spitting on the Geneva Conventions and on our own Constitution, and freely violating them. We have the awfulness of the impact of torture on honorable military people. We have the screams of the tortured in our nightmares. We have the culture of torture promulgated in TV dramas, for our children and less thoughtful citizens to absorb into their psyches. We have the example of "might makes right" and the "end justifies the means" at the top of our government, inspiring contempt for lawful and honorable behavior, and eliciting the ridicule of the world. It is worse even than war and the slaughter of innocents. It is deeply dishonorable and disgusting. What is worse than death? The long slow death of your soul--whether from being tortured, or being the torturer.

[KansDem]

9. Not to mention that according to Pres. Jimmy Carter, Army Intel, and the Intl Red Cross...

...70-90 percent of the detainees were innocent civilians caught up in the raids that brought them to Abu Ghraib.

This is especially disturbing, since U.S. intelligence officers estimated to the Red Cross that 70 to 90 percent of the detainees at this prison were held by mistake.

DU

[EFerrari]

7. Amy Goodman did an excellent segment on this and guess

what kids, the military set up the APA to produce a bogus position paper that looks the other way when psychologists work with interrogators. 6 of the 9 panelists were connected to the military and / or SERE. The APA is involved in licensing psychologists

* * * * *
Friday, June 1st, 2007
"The Task Force Report Should Be Annulled" - Member of 2005 APA Task Force on Psychologist Participation in Military Interrogations Speaks Out


In 2005, the American Psychological Association convened a Presidential Task Force on Psychological Ethics and National Security that concluded psychologists' participation in military interrogations was "consistent with the APA Code of Ethics." It was later revealed that six of nine voting members were from the military and intelligence agencies with direct connections to interrogations at Guantanamo and elsewhere. In a Democracy Now! broadcast exclusive, we speak with two members of the task force, Dr. Jean Maria Arrigo and Dr. Nina Thomas. Arrigo says the task force report "should be annulled," because the process was "flawed." As an example, Arrigo says she was "told very sharply" by one of the military psychologists not to take notes during the proceedings. She later archived the entire listserve of the task force and sent it to Senate Armed Services Committee. Dr. Arrigo also calls for a "moratorium" on psychologists involvement in military interrogations at Guantanamo Bay. We also speak with Dr. Eric Anders, a former Air Force officer who underwent harsh training in "SERE" (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) techniques, as well as Dr. Leonard Rubenstein, Executive Director of Physicians for Human Rights.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/01/1457247

[hootinholler]

8. I'm so disgusted with torture.

I learned from Al Gore the other day that the non-torture tradition of the US goes back to Washington. :cry:

-Hoot

[alfredo]

10. We did somthing like that up at Ft Devens during the Vietnam war.

We had a "Vietnamese" village. The Army would bring young officers for escape and evasion. If caught, they would be abused severely. One treatment was to put them in a hole covered by a metal plate. I didn't take part in the E&E. I helped build the village.

[truthisfreedom]

11. Sickening!

[libodem]

12. I think if Dick and George approve of this type of thing

they need to don the orange suits, hood up, and be shoved into a cell, with officers being told that these are uncooperative enemy combatants. Then be subjected to the treatment. The same as the National Guard soldier who 'volunteered' to participate in a 'training exercise'...they kicked him and smashed his head into the floor so long and so hard that he has uncontrollable seizures and will never hold another job. Of course he'll never see a dime from the wrong doing, the Armed Forces deny any responsibility. It was a 60 minutes story a couple of years ago. I dredge this up because to me it makes it painfully obvious that torture IS being used no matter how much it is denied. I wonder how long Dick could withstand any stress positions before the DVT's set in. Do unto others. You religious freaks.

[specimenfred1984]

13. Torture puts the U.S. on the same level as the worst regimes in history

and yet so many Americans just choose to ignore it. Millions of our fellow citizens are living in lala land.

[saigon68]

14. And the Chimpanzee Leader as one of the worst

Simian War Criminals of all time

[IndianaGreen]

15. Teaching torture is one of the goals of the School of the Americas at Fort Benning

A school which Bill Clinton refused to shut down, despite having a historical opportunity of doing so. Instead, good olde Bill decided to rename the school, but continue the same mission, this time with a well coordinated counter-insurgency, human rights abusing and genocidal Plan Colombia.

School of Americas, Plan Colombia, Don't Ask Dont't Tell, and DOMA still stand as Bill Clinton's most enduring legacies. If you think his wife will change course on those, forget it!