WaPo: Eyes Wide Shut

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/24/AR2009042403552.html

Eyes Wide Shut
The Bush administration repeatedly ignored warnings about its detainee interrogation policies.

Saturday, April 25, 2009


OVER THE past two weeks, the world has been inundated with specifics about the abuse of terrorism suspects during the Bush administration: repeated episodes of waterboarding, snarling dogs, forced nudity, severe sleep deprivation, extended confinement in small, dark boxes.

Yet it is clear from a recently released and well-documented report by the Senate Armed Services Committee that such abuses were not committed by rogue service members or CIA agents who took matters into their own hands. The extreme interrogation methods were, according to the report, sought out and authorized by administration officials at the highest levels, including then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. The report also documents episode after episode in which military and civilian personnel raised red flags about the legality and efficacy of applying techniques to terrorism suspects that were meant only to help train U.S. service members to withstand such horrors if captured by thugs. The use of such techniques against detainees, they argued, would more than likely produce false confessions and toughen up detainees to resist cooperating in the future.

Such warnings were routinely ignored, yet it is gratifying to know that men and women from the various branches of the armed services stuck their necks out in defense of the rule of law and common decency. The FBI should also be commended for refusing to participate in these dishonorable acts.

Some of those singled out by the Armed Services Committee report include:

-- Maj. Carrie Ricci and Maj. Nathan Hoepner of the Army. Maj. Ricci, a lawyer, told superiors that the harsh interrogation techniques were barred by the Geneva Conventions; Maj. Hoepner wrote in an e-mail objecting to an officer's support of enhanced interrogations: "We need to take a deep breath and remember who we are . . . . We are American soldiers, heirs of a long tradition of staying on the high ground. We need to stay there."

-- Navy Capt. Daniel Donovan, a military lawyer, who, in an e-mail to superior officers, objected to the use of harsh techniques for prisoners in Iraq: " will swear that the 'water board' does not actually physically harm subjects if it is administered by properly trained . . . instructors, under close supervision, etc. . . . I fail to see how anyone can reasonably say that employing such techniques against those in our custody is worthy of the United States, no matter how much we may need the information."

-- Air Force Col. Steven Kleinman, who intervened to stop an interrogation in which a detainee was subjected to prolonged kneeling and was slapped after answering every question.

-- Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Couch, a military prosecutor who refused to participate in cases after learning about detainee abuse.

Time and time again, civilians and political leaders pressed service members to use tougher, harsher and in some instances almost certainly illegal methods. Time and time again, the men and women in uniform -- those who put their lives on the line for this country -- were the ones who pushed back. It's a shame that so many of the civilians in the Bush administration failed to heed their advice.

[madrchsod]

1. they could have used the movie ......but i digress

the everyone involved knew actually what was going on. no one can claim they did`t know what was going on and what the fall out would be if it was exposed. "it`s a shame that so many civilians......" the military and cia told them but they were loyal to the president. they served the president not the people of the united states. may they all face judgement on their crime.