The Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody
March 19th, 2009 by Steven AftergoodLast year the Senate Armed Services Committee held two hearings on the detention and interrogation of suspected enemy combatants held by U.S. forces, probing into the origins of military interrogation policy and documenting some of the key decisions that were made.
“Today’s hearing,” said Committee Chair Sen. Carl Levin, “will explore how it came about that the techniques called survival, evasion, resistance, and escape (SERE) training, which are used to teach American soldiers to resist abusive interrogations by enemies that refuse to follow the Geneva Conventions, were turned on their head and sanctioned by Department of Defense (DOD) officials for use offensively against detainees. Those techniques included use of stress positions, … use of dogs, and hooding during interrogation.”
The record of those hearings has recently been published, supplemented by detailed questions and answers for the record and documents obtained by the Committee (in the PDF version).
See “The Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody,” hearings before the Senated Armed Services Committee, June 17 and September 25, 2008.
March 20th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
While these hearings were held in 2008, it’s interesting to add that as late as 2006 the administration was publicly employing an al Qaeda text, Guidelines for Beating and Killing Hostages, as proof of the profoundly evil nature of the adversary, at the same time it knew we were beating and killing prisoners. That same document contains material briefing Afghan jihadis on what to expect in the way of torture if made prisoner by Middle Eastern governments such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria. The United States is conspicuously absent from this list.
It is a singular and now awful comparison and it is here.