“CIA experts drew up a list of interrogation techniques that differed from those Zubaydah had successfully resisted. George [Tenet] assured me all interrogations would be performed by experienced intelligence professionals who had undergone extensive training. Medical personnel would be on-site to guarantee that the detainee was not physically or mentally…
U.S. Definition of Torture: 18 U.S. Code sec. 2340 (effective 1994) (1) “torture” means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his…
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ignored the serious legal and ethical red flags raised by military lawyers, and granted blanket authority for use of Category I and II of coercive SERE tactics in detainee interrogations. Category III, which includes waterboarding was not included at this time. The secret JTF GTMO…
A Justice Department Inspector General Report (2008; revised when parts were declassified 2009) provides details of alleged abuse of detainees in the military zones, including military misconduct observed by FBI agents at Guantanamo, Afghanistan, and Iraq between 2001 and 2004. One thousand FBI agents were interviewed. The Report states that DoJ…
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld rescinded his authorization of many coercive interrogation methods as a result of the continued objection by military lawyers who questioned these abusive tactics noting that they likely would be judged as violating the Torture Convention’s prohibition against “acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” A…
The March 14, 2003, Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel memorandum was written by attorney John Yoo for the Pentagon General Counsel William “Jim” Haynes. The memo lays out a defense against criminal prosecution arguing that as Commander in Chief, the President has the sole authority to determine whether…
On April 16, 2003: Donald Rumsfeld authorized the use of 24 specific torture techniques for use in Guantanamo, stating authority for additional techniques for a particular detainee may be requested. Two months later, President Bush issued a statement in observance of the United Nations International Day In Support Of Victims…
On February 28, 2002, an invitation only Conference, Countering Terrorism: Integration of Practice and Theory,” was held at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. It was sponsored by the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI, the Science Directorate of the American Psychological Association (APA); the Solomon Asch Center for the…
In July 2003, an invitation only conference co-sponsored by the APA, the CIA and RAND Corp. was co-organized by Susan Brandon, Program Officer for Affect and Biobehavioral Regulation at the National Institute of Mental Health, while also serving as “Senior Scientist” at the APA; Scott Gerwehr, a RAND Corp. policy analyst;…
Two months before the Abu Ghraib photographs exploded on the internet, the U.S. Military Police Brigade conducted an Article 15-6 Investigation of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. An internal 53-page Army report by Major General Antonio Taguba documented numerous instances of “sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses” at Abu Ghraib….
After a month long inspection of Guantanamo Bay prison, the International Committee of the Red Cross issued a report charging that American military intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion “tantamount to torture” on prisoners. The confidential report was distributed in July to lawyers at the White House, Pentagon and…
According to the United Nations Istanbul Protocol (2004), the Guide for doctors and lawyers who document and investigate allegations of prisoner mistreatment, reducing detainees to a state of helplessness and despair “is itself one of the central harms of torture”: “One of the central aims of torture is to reduce an…
