Rumsfeld 'told officers to take gloves off with Lindh' (and Berg?)

[Q]

Rumsfeld 'told officers to take gloves off with Lindh'

By Andrew Buncombe in Washington and Anne Penketh

10 June 2004

John Walker Lindh, the so-called American Taliban, was stripped naked and tied to a stretcher during interrogation after the office of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered intelligence officers to "take the gloves off" when questioning him.

Mr Rumsfeld's legal counsel instructed the officers to push the limits when questioning Lindh, captured in Afghanistan with Taliban and al-Qa'ida forces in late 2001. The treatment of Lindh appears to foreshadow the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

The details of Lindh's interrogation confirm claims made by his lawyer, Tony West, that when he was captured by Northern Alliance forces and handed to CIA operatives near the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, he asked for a lawyer. Not only was he refused a lawyer and not advised of his rights, but his interrogators were told to get tough to obtain "actionable" intelligence in the pursuit of Osama bin Laden.

Documents seen by the Los Angeles Times, show that when an US Army intelligence officer started to question Lindh he was given instructions that the "Secretary of Defence's counsel has authorised him to 'take the gloves off' and asked whatever he wanted". The documents show that in the early stages, Lindh's responses were cabled to Washington every hour.

Though Lindh initially pleaded not guilty, he later admitted reduced charges and was sentenced to 20 years. He and his lawyers also agreed to drop claims that he had been tortured by US personnel. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=529921

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- I wonder if Lindh was the only American to receive this type of treatment? We know that some of the 'interrogations' turned brutal and caused the death of the 'detainee'. Given this fact...some have speculated that Berg was 'tortured to death' and then later beheaded to cover up the crime and used as propaganda for Bush's* war on (some) terror.

[donsu]

1. this is a dupe

nt

[freetobegay]

2. In triplicate!