U.S. to Release Secret Memos on Prisoner Treatment ( Rumsfeld secret orders ....)

Reuters ^ | Tue Jun 22, 2004 12:19 PM ET | Charles Aldinger

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

U.S. to Release Secret Memos on Prisoner Treatment Tue Jun 22, 2004 12:19 PM ET By Charles Aldinger WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Under criticism for the treatment of U.S. prisoners, the Pentagon will release secret orders from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on interrogating terrorism suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, officials said on Tuesday. The officials said some details of guidelines issued by Rumsfeld earlier this year would be made public quickly in order to show that some 600 Taliban and al Qaeda suspects held at the U.S. Navy Base at Guantanamo were not being tortured. Treatment of the Guantanamo detainees, including interrogation methods, has come under scrutiny following a major scandal over abuse and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. forces at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. The Red Cross and international human rights groups have sharply criticized the treatment of detainees in Cuba, most of them from the war in Afghanistan, Many have been held for more than two years without charges brought against them. At the White House, officials also planned to release a set of documents to show the deliberation process that was used by President Bush in setting a broad policy toward ensuring prisoners were treated humanely. The idea, one senior official said, was to show the "great lengths" the administration went to in order to ensure prisoners were treated properly. Pentagon officials have said U.S. forces are permitted in some cases to use interrogation techniques in Guantanamo that differ from long-standing U.S. Army standards but are not inhumane under the Geneva conventions. OPPOSED BY SOME OFFICIALS The planned release of interrogation techniques was opposed by some defense officials because it would give information to potential captives in the U.S.-declared war on terrorism sparked by the 2001 attacks on America, according to Pentagon sources. "You have to strike a balance here," one defense official told Reuters, "As the secretary has said, we do not in any way condone torture or inhumane treatment of prisoners." Earlier this month classified memos surfaced in which administration lawyers argued that Bush was not restricted by international and U.S. laws against torture, contending that some "cruel, inhuman or degrading" acts may not rise to the level of torture. The United States is not "engaging in torture as a matter of policy," Rumsfeld insisted at a Pentagon briefing last week, saying he was unaware of any senior official who had deviated from the principle that prisoners be treated humanely. He faulted news media coverage of the prisoner treatment issue. The definition of torture has been closely analyzed by administration lawyers. "Physical pain amounting to torture must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death," according to an August 2002 memo by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel to Alberto Gonzales, counsel to the president. A March 2003 memo written by administration lawyers to Rumsfeld concluded that Bush, as commander in chief, was not restricted by prohibitions on torture enshrined in U.S. law and international treaties due to the president's "complete authority over the conduct of war," including interrogations. The human rights group Amnesty International called this month for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate "the torture and ill-treatment of prisoners" in U.S. custody, saying existing probes had been "critically compromised." (Additional reporting by Steve Holland)

[dusty99999]

The media will have a field day..I wonder if they will Cover Saddams Torture ordersNEW VIDEO HERE

[Jaded]

The US needs to tell these people, including the media, where to jump off. They are completely clueless. If the Red Cross and Amnesty international are interested in human rights and such they need to go somewhere were the are actually wide spread human rights abuses.... Sudan?

[Just mythoughts]

I do suppose that we can now compare what techniques the Pentagon allows these days, to those of what the Clintons allowed in their days as using the White House as a prison for sex abuse.

[bushfamfan]

I thought it was rather funny to watch CNN having to take back reports it had in claiming Rummy approved of a 'water boarding' technique. CNN was ecstatic in reporting that and having something new to attack Rummy on, but they had to take it back as it was not approved at all. Just another example of the press reporting lies. They are never held responsible. Kind of like them distorting the Iraq-Al Qaeda link from the 9/11 report.