New Torture Memo Implicates Top US General

[Henk Elegeert]

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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8406.htm

"
New Torture Memo Implicates Top US General

A newly released memo shows that US General Ricardo Sanchez
authorized illegal interrogation techniques in Iraq just
months before the Abu Ghraib abuses. Colin Powell,
meanwhile, regrets misinforming the UN about Iraq WMDs.

By Spiegel

03/30/05 "Der Spiegel" - - A newly released memo shows that
US General Ricardo Sanchez authorized illegal interrogation
techniques in Iraq just months before the Abu Ghraib abuses.
Colin Powell, meanwhile, regrets misinforming the UN about
Iraq WMDs.

General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of US forces in Iraq
during the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, authorized
interrogation techniques that included putting prisoners in
stressful physical positions and changing sleep patterns,
according to a internal US memo made public by the American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Tuesday. The memo, dating
from September 2003, provided a detailed list of 29
techniques used to interrogate Iraqi detainees. And each,
disturbingly, came with a creepy title. "We Know All," for
example, referred to the practice of convincing prisoners
that the interviewer already knows all the answers.
"Presence of Military Working Dogs" indicated the use of
muzzled military dogs to "exploit Arab fear of dogs while
maintaining security during interrogations." The ACLU claims
that at least 12 of the techniques, including the use of
dogs, "far exceeded limits established by the Army's own
Field Manual" and also violated international standards for
handling prisoners.

The memo didn't remain in force for long and was rescinded
after a month because of objections raised by military
lawyers over its legality. Nevertheless, ACLU lawyer Amrit
Singh said in a statement, "General Sanchez authorized
interrogation techniques that were in clear violation of the
Geneva Conventions and the army's own standards." Sanchez
has defended himself by saying that the memo required
advance permission for the use of any of the outlined
techniques and that he never granted that permission.

The memo, which the ACLU was able to make public only after
filing legal papers against the Department of Defense, is
the latest piece of information to come forward in the
long-running torture scandal that has severely bruised the
image of the US abroad. The ACLU is currently involved in a
lawsuit against Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accusing
him of partial responsibility for Abu Ghraib and other
prison torture incidents.

At the same time, former US Secretary of State Colin Powell
has made some surprisingly revealing remarks in an interview
with Germany's Stern magazine published on Wednesday. "We
were sometimes too loud, too direct, perhaps we made too
much noise," Powell told the magazine. "That certainly
shocked the Europeans sometimes." In the interview, he also
expressed regret over the speech he gave at the UN in
February 2003 that made the US case for war based on
information on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction
-- information that later turned out to be almost entirely
false. Powell said he was "furious and angry" that the
information turned out to be wrong. "Hundreds of millions
followed it on television. I will always stand there as the
one who presented it. I have to live with that." (2:30 p.m. CET)

Copyright: Der Spiegel
"

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