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To: Wharf Rat who wrote (46285)	5/15/2004 12:00:33 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 89467

Prison rules 'not humane' Iraq interrogation guidelines possibly illegal, officials concede By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff \| May 14, 2004 WASHINGTON -- Interrogation rules issued last year in Iraq are ''not humane," a ranking defense official conceded yesterday, and a top general told senators that they may violate the Geneva Conventions on proper handling of military detainees. The rules designed to encourage cooperation with interrogators were contained in a one-page memorandum issued by Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the senior American commander in Iraq, and released by the Senate Armed Services Committee. On a case-by-case basis, according to the memorandum, prisoners could be forced to wear hoods for up to three days or squat in physically demanding positions for 45 minutes and be subjected to other conditions. The memorandum and the testimony from Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz and Marine Corps General Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, indicated that Sanchez approved more stringent interrogation techniques than considered permissible by government legal specialists. Management of the Abu Ghraib prison, where Iraqi detainees were mistreated, fell under Sanchez's command. In testimony on Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld defended military guidelines for interrogation that he said he personally approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Those guidelines, he said, did not authorize the sort of treatment depicted in the photographs of military personnel at Abu Ghraib that have come to dominate debate over the US mission in Iraq. Pace, the second-ranking military official, said yesterday that he had never seen the Iraq guidelines issued by Sanchez and did not know who had authorized them. Asked in a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee whether he would consider it a violation of international law to force a prisoner to squat, naked and hooded, in a cell for 45 minutes, Pace replied, ''I would describe it as a violation, sir." Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, pressed Wolfowitz to say whether he considered sensory deprivation techniques, such as placing a hood over a detainee's head for 72 hours, to be humane treatment. ''It strikes me as not humane, senator," Wolfowitz said. The committee's ranking Democrat, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, read from a separate military report dated Dec. 13, 2003, that said interrogators should ''submit memoranda for the record requesting harsh approaches for commanding general's approval prior to employment, sleep management, sensory deprivation, isolation longer than 30 days, and dogs." ''Is that something that either of you are familiar with, Secretary Wolfowitz? General Pace?" Levin asked. Pace replied : ''No, sir. I haven't seen that." Wolfowitz said he did not recall any harsher treatments being officially approved. Wolfowitz and Pace appeared before the committee to discuss the Pentagon budget, but senators wanted to focus on the prisoner abuse controversy and Sanchez's one-page directive. It listed a variety of methods soldiers could use in interrogations, including ''dietary manipulation," or depriving inmates of food for certain periods so long as they were monitored by a medical officer; changing their environment, such as from hot to cold; keeping inmates awake for as long as three days at a time; isolating them for up to 30 days; using military dogs to intimidate prisoners; or forcing them to assume ''stressful positions" for as long as 45 minutes. Continued... 1 2 Next Click here for tickets boston.com