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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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August 27th,
2009 - Memos: CIA Pushed Limits On Sleep Deprivation News article from the
Associated Press News article from Agence
France Presse |
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Memos: CIA
Pushed Limits On Sleep Deprivation Detainee Kept Awake 6 Days, Report Says By Devlin Barrett Associated Press August 27, 2009 Washington - A year after
the Bush administration abandoned its harshest interrogation methods, CIA
operatives used severe sleep deprivation tactics against a terror detainee in
late 2007, keeping him awake for six straight days with permission from government
lawyers. Interrogators kept the
unidentified detainee awake by chaining him to the walls and floor of a cell,
according to government officials and memos issued with an internal CIA
report. The Obama administration released the internal report this week. Though the detainee's name
and critical details are blacked out in the memos, there is only one detainee
known to have been in CIA custody at that time: Mohammed Rahim al-Afghani, an
alleged al-Qaida operator and translator for Osama bin Laden. The documents show that even
as the Bush administration was scaling back its use of severe interrogation
techniques, the CIA was still pushing the boundaries of what the
administration's own legal counsel considered acceptable treatment. The documents describe two
instances in 2007 in which the CIA was allowed to exceed the guidelines set
by Bush administration lawyers allowing prisoners to be kept awake for up to
four days. The first episode occurred
in August 2007, when interrogators were given permission from the Office of
Legal Counsel to keep an unidentified detainee awake for five days, a U.S.
government official confirmed. The official spoke on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to discuss the report's details. According to the documents,
the sleep-deprived prisoner was kept awake by being forced to stand with his
arms chained above heart level. He wore diapers, allowing interrogators to
keep him chained continuously without bathroom breaks. The second incident occurred
in November 2007. After again asking permission from Justice lawyers to keep
a detainee awake an extra day, interrogators pressed to extend the treatment
for another 24 hours, depriving the prisoner of sleep for six straight days. It is unclear from the
documents whether the two incidents involved the same detainee. CIA spokesman
George Little would not provide the identity of the prisoner referred to in
the document. Afghani, the alleged bin
Laden translator, was captured in Pakistan in the summer of 2007 - around the
time the Justice Department issued new guidance for the harsh techniques that
could still be used on CIA prisoners. He stayed in CIA custody until early
2008, when he was transferred to the military detention facility at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Officials noted in the documents
that the sleepless prisoner remained "alert and oriented" and
seemed to be "adhering to a well-developed, robust and capable
resistance strategy." According to the documents,
the prisoner was monitored by closed-circuit television. If he started to
fall asleep, the chains jerking on his arms would wake him up. If a
prisoner's leg swelled - a condition known as edema, which can cause blood
clots and stroke - interrogators could chain him to a low, unbalanced stool
or on the floor with arms outstretched. Sleep deprivation beyond 48
hours is known to produce hallucinations. It can reduce resistance to pain,
and it makes people suggestible. The State Department
regularly lists sleep deprivation as a form of torture in its annual report
on human rights abuses. Recent reports have noted Iran, Syria and Indonesia
as engaging in the practice. Andrea Northwood, director
of client services at the Center for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis, said
her organization considers 96 hours of sleep deprivation to be torture. "It's a primary method
that is used around the world because it is effective in breaking people. It
is effective because it induces severe harm," she said. "It causes
people to feel absolutely crazy." She said that in many cases
there are lingering effects. "My experience in working with survivors,
they are still struggling with questions whether they are normal, whether
they should have acted as they did when they talked under this kind of pressure,"
she said. Amrit Singh, a staff
attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said the use of such a
severe tactic in 2007 shows that the U.S. was not abiding by its own law. "The documents are
particularly disturbing because they were issued even after the Supreme Court
held that these prisoners were entitled to the protections of the Geneva
Conventions and after Congress passed the Detainee Treatment Act to
specifically prohibit cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment," Singh
said. Before scaling back its
"enhanced interrogation program," the CIA used 10 harsh methods,
including waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning. It later used six
techniques, including sleep deprivation, dietary manipulation and slapping. The Obama administration has
since rescinded authority for any of the severe methods. Under the rules of
the U.S. Army Field Manual, which now governs all interrogations, prisoners
must be allowed to sleep at least four hours during every 24-hour period. Associated Press writer Matt
Apuzzo contributed to this report. Copyright 2009 by The
Associated Press. External link: http://www.kmbc.com/politics/20576802/detail.html CIA prisoners
faced chilling interrogation methods By
Lucile Malandain Agence
France Presse August
27, 2009 Washington - The first
detailed picture of how so-called high value detainees spent their days
inside secret Central Intelligence Agency-run prisons overseas has emerged in
dozens of previously classified documents released this week. And the picture
is chilling. A detainee could be forced
to stand, almost naked, handcuffed, going days without sleep, and if that
failed to break his will, there were other methods for interrogators at
secret prisons to try. The "black sites"
were run with the singular goal of extracting potentially valuable
information from some of the most high-profile terror suspects in US custody,
and there was a clear theory about how that should be done. "The effectiveness of
the program depends on persuading the detainee, early in the application of
these techniques, that he's dependent on the interrogators and that he lacks
control over his situation," wrote Steven Bradbury, then a senior attorney
at the Office of Legal Counsel, an office that gives the president legal
advice. The 2007 memorandum is part
of a record that describes the creation of a program put in place by former
president George W. Bush's administration in the wake of the September 11, 2001
attacks. It included the formulation
of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, which could be applied with
increasing severity the longer detainees refused to provide information. Interrogators, some from
private security firms, others agents from the CIA itself, had authorization
to slap detainees across the face, force them into uncomfortable stress
positions, and keep them awake for 11 consecutive days. If that did not work, they
could strap a collar and leash around a detainee's neck, using the leash to
repeatedly slam the suspect into a wall. They could force a suspect
into a dark box and leave him there for 18 hours, and if the pressure needed
to be increased, insects could be placed inside. If all else had failed,
there was waterboarding: interrogators could strap a detainee to a bench with
his feet higher than his head, place a cloth firmly over his mouth and nose,
and pour water onto his face. "Airflow is restricted
for 20 to 40 seconds and the technique produces the sense of drowning and
suffocation," a 2004 CIA inspector general report said of the process. Once the suspect had been
allowed to take "three or four full breaths," the waterboarding
could resume, for up to 20 minutes, according to the report, which was
released on Monday. But even with permission to
use these techniques, interrogators deviated from their regulations, the
report found. There were violations of the
rules on the application of waterboarding, which was used on at least three
Al-Qaeda suspects, including the self-described mastermind of the September
11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Instead of using small
amounts of water, interrogators poured copious amounts onto detainees such as
Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times. Between September 2001 and
October 2003, the report said interrogators threatened detainees with mock
executions, an electric drill and an unloaded handgun. They threatened to kill
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's children, implied they would rape another detainee's
mother, scrubbed one detainee with a stiff brush until his skin was raw, and
strangled another until he began to pass out. Interrogators worried about
some of the techniques, with one CIA officer telling the inspector general's
investigation he feared being placed on a "wanted list," charged
with war crimes before an international tribunal. The 2004 report concluded
that "there is no doubt that the program has been effective,"
though it noted that an assessment of the enhanced interrogation techniques
would be "a more subjective process and not without some concern." The prisons are now closed,
ordered shut by President Barack Obama when he took office, and an
investigation has been launched into the use of some of the techniques
detailed in the report. The inquiry will examine
whether the use of unauthorized techniques by individual interrogators was
illegal, but will not consider whether authorized techniques violated US or
international law. Copyright © 2009 AFP. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iP3wq-32Yh13nt_u0zQWd2DGyEbA CIA
contractors will be a focus of interrogation investigation Long-dormant cases involving contractors’ role in CIA interrogations
will gain new scrutiny by the federal prosecutor named this week to review
agency tactics. By Josh Meyer Los Angeles Times August 27, 2009 Reporting from Washington -
The Justice Department prosecutor appointed this week to examine the CIA's
interrogation program will revisit long-dormant abuse cases involving the
agency's civilian contractors, bringing new attention to a little-known but
controversial element of the Bush administration's war on terrorism. Civilian contractors used by
the CIA at secret overseas facilities were accused of detainee abuses and
deaths in a series of cases in the years following the U.S.-led invasions of
Afghanistan and Iraq, but only one was ever prosecuted. The contractors also played
a key but secret role in the CIA's interrogations of top Al Qaeda suspects at
"black site" prisons overseas. The new scrutiny will be a
central part of the preliminary review by federal prosecutor John H. Durham,
according to Justice Department officials and others familiar with the review. Durham was appointed this
week by Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. in a move that provoked sharp criticism
from both ends of the political spectrum. Conservatives fear that
Durham's assignment will become a "witch hunt" targeting
well-meaning intelligence officers. Liberals want the veteran prosecutor to
go after the political and legal architects of the Bush administration's
"enhanced interrogation" program. But indications are that the
scope of Durham's assignment may be limited to a dozen or so cases, most of
which already have been the subject of several reviews. He may be able to
expand his purview later, especially if he recommends a full-scale criminal
investigation after concluding the preliminary review. The investigation could then
delve into whether CIA supervisors and officials at agency headquarters knew
about or authorized interrogators' use of tactics that went beyond those
approved in Justice Department legal memos. In recent years, the U.S.
military's use of civilian contractors has been the subject of reviews,
criminal trials, congressional hearings and public debate, especially in the
aftermath of the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The use of civilian
interrogators by the CIA had received less public scrutiny before the Obama
administration released previously secret Justice Department legal memos. New
details were contained in a 2004 report by the CIA inspector general that was
declassified and released this week. Much of the CIA
interrogation program was farmed out to civilian contractors, in part because
the spy agency had stopped questioning insurgents and suspected terrorists
amid charges that it supported torture in Latin America and elsewhere in
earlier decades. By the time of the Sept. 11
attacks, the agency had few experts on interrogation tactics and brought in
civilians in a crash effort to glean intelligence from suspected terrorists,
according to the inspector general's report and other U.S. officials and documents. "They certainly used a
lot of contractors, particularly in the immediate post-9/11 activity when
there was just a tremendous gear-up that was needed and a lot of people were
brought [in] on contract," said a former federal prosecutor who now works
with CIA clients, and spoke on condition of anonymity. Compounding the problem was
the fact that the CIA hastily launched the interrogation program and provided
little authoritative guidance to those in the field about what they could and
could not do, the inspector general's report said. That lack of guidance could
undermine potential prosecutions because the Justice Department would have to
prove that the interrogators intended to cause grave harm to the detainees. Two contractors were closely
associated with the enhanced interrogation program: Bruce Jessen and Jim
Mitchell, both former Pentagon officials who are regarded as architects of
the CIA's use of waterboarding, which simulates drowning, and other methods. They are among a broader
roster of contractors and operatives assigned from other agencies. One, David
A. Passaro, convicted two years ago in the 2003 beating death of an Afghan
detainee, was a civilian contractor working for the CIA. In 2004, the CIA referred at
least 19 other cases of suspected abuse to the Justice Department for
possible prosecution. But the department concluded that it could not bring
prosecutions in at least 17 of them and has not filed charges in any of the
others. A month ago, Amnesty
International USA wrote Holder to demand more details about those cases. "We've been calling for
this to happen literally for years, so for us it doesn't come a minute too
soon," Amnesty's Erica Razook said of Durham's investigation. Holder confirmed this week
that his Office of Professional Responsibility had recommended that some of
those cases be reopened. But Durham is expected to
face a succession of obstacles, including incidents that occurred in faraway
places where little if any evidence was gathered or witnesses identified, said
current and former Justice Department officials and outside lawyers familiar
with some of the cases. "The likelihood that
you're going to come up with prosecutable cases this many years later is
pretty slim," said the former federal prosecutor who now works with CIA
clients. Greg Miller in the
Washington bureau contributed to this report. Copyright © 2009 The Los
Angeles Times External link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cia27-2009aug27,0,2337525.story |