Pentagon Finally Bans Interrogations by Private Contractors…Sort Of

[The Straight Story]

Pentagon Finally Bans Interrogations by Private Contractors…Sort Of

Following the controversies surrounding detainee interrogations during the Bush administration, the Department of Defense has issued new regulations formally banning the use of private contractors to grill suspected terrorists held by the U.S. military.

The new rules do include some important exceptions, however.

The Secretary of Defense would be allowed to waive the prohibition temporarily for the sake of national security. Also, the Pentagon will still be able to hire private firms to assist in interrogations as linguists, interpreters, report writers and IT specialists, and they may continue to be involved as trainers and “advisors.”

The new rules were instituted after employees of CACI International and L-3 Communications (formerly Titan Corp.) were accused of torturing detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and, in fact, were successfully sued in U.S. court by Iraqi detainees.

http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/Pentagon_Finally_Bans_Interrogations_by_Private_Contractors__Sort_Of_101108

[ThomCat]

1. Loopholes big enough to make these guidelines useless.

Any situation in which they feel they need to torture someone could be, by definition, a matter of national security.

Almost anyone they feel the need to torture is likely to be a non-english speaker. So an interpreter or linguist could be present.

Trainer and advisor are so broadly and vaguely applicable that they can use these any time and every time they want to torture someone.

So these guidelines basically say that they won't use private contractors, except whenever they want to.

[ixion]

2. bureaucractic mumbo jumbo that changes nothing.

Once you introduce the vague "national security" clause, you negate anything else. As well, the 'assist' clause leaves the window wide open for abuse.

[Solly Mack]

3. k/r

[valerief]

4. Where does the "ban" part come in?

The Secretary of Defense would be allowed to waive the prohibition temporarily for the sake of national security.

[Vincardog]

5. Wasn't it trainers and “advisors.” doing the deed at GitMO? How about Bahrain?

Bureaucratic BS and Orwellian rules to allow them to do exactly what they want.

[Exilednight]

6. Goes along with New Order, Same Abuses as outlined

by AI. http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE14/006/2010/en/c7df062b-5d4c-4820-9f14-a4977f863666/mde140062010en.pdf