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Bush officials defend physical abuse described in memos released by Obama

This article is more than 14 years old
Techniques used at Guantánamo Bay elsewhere
Hayden and Mukasey criticise president for releasing memos

Senior members of the Bush administration today defended the physical abuse of prisoners by CIA operatives at Guantánamo and elsewhere round the world set out in graphic detail in secret memos released by president Barack Obama.

General Michael Hayden, head of the CIA under president George Bush, and Michael Mukasey, who was attorney-general, criticised Obama for releasing the memos. The two accused him of pandering to the media in creating "faux outrage", undermining the morale of the intelligence services and inviting the scorn of America's enemies.

But the interrogation techniques outlined in the memos prompted a flood of calls from human rights groups and others for the prosecution of politicians, lawyers, doctors and CIA operatives involved.

Following years of pressure from civil rights groups for release of the memos, the Obama administration yesterday finally published four internal Bush administration documents from the justice department telling the CIA what interrogation techniques it regarded as legally permissible.

Human rights groups, who say that waterboarding amounts to torture, welcomed the release of the memos but expressed disappointment with an accompanying statement from Obama saying that CIA operatives would not be prosecuted over what had taken place at Guantanamo and hidden prisons round the world.

"The release of CIA memos on interrogation methods by the US department of justice appears to have offered a get-out-of-jail-free card to people involved in torture," Amnesty International said. "Torture is never acceptable and those who conduct it should not escape justice."

The Bush administration lawyers argued in the memos that the techniques did not amount to torture because no serious psychological or physical harm was done. About 10 techniques, with variations, were approved, ranging from waterboarding, which simulates drowning, to sleep deprivation and playing on a detainee's perceived fear of insects.

The Obama administration is conducting a review of what happened to prisoners held in Guantánamo and at CIA secret sites round the world. As part of the review, there is an investigation into whether some CIA operatives may have gone beyond the approved techniques.

The CIA, in the memos, justified the interrogation techniques, saying they had produced 6,000 intelligence reports and helped prevent another attack on the US in the wake of September 11 2001.

Hayden and Mukasey, in a jointly written piece in the Wall Street Journal today, declared there was no need to release the memos. "Disclosure of the techniques is likely to be met by faux outrage and is perfectly packaged for media consumption. It will also incur the utter contempt of our enemies.

"Somehow, it seems unlikely that the people who beheaded Nicholas Berg [the US businessman who was killed in Iraq] and Daniel Pearl [the US journalist killed in Pakistan], and have tortured and slain other American captives, are likely to be shamed into giving up violence by the news that the US will no longer interrupt that sleep cycle of captured terrorists even to help elicit intelligence that could save the lives of its citizens."

One of the memos, dated 2005, said that the CIA had 94 detainees in its custody at the time and had used the approved techniques against 28 of them, and that these amounted to the hard core of prisoners

Three of the memos were written by Steven Bradbury, of the US justice department, in response to questions from John Rizzo, a lawyer with the CIA, who wanted to know if the techniques complied with international laws.

The memos, along with a leaked International Red Cross report earlier this year, provide the most detailed accounts yet into what happened to prisoners held at Guantanamo and hidden CIA sites round the world and corroborate much of the testimony of former Guantanamo detainees.

Patrick Leahy, chairman of the senate judiciary committee, said the content of the memos was "as alarming as I feared it would be".

The Centre for Constitutional Rights called for prosecutions: "Whether or not CIA operatives who conducted water boarding are guaranteed immunity, it is the high level officials who conceived, justified and ordered the torture programme who bear the most responsibility for breaking domestic and international law, and it is they who must be prosecuted."

Stacy Sullivan, of Human Rights Watch, echoed this: "President Obama said there was nothing to gain 'by laying blame for the past'. But prosecuting those responsible for torture is really about ensuring that such crimes don't happen in the future."

Mozzam Begg, the Briton who was held in Guantánamo and who is a spokesman for Cageprisoners, expressed disappointment at the decision not to prosecute: "The lessons from Nuremberg clearly have not been applied and, whilst the belated admission that the previous US administration sanctioned and practiced torture is welcome, prosecuting those responsible is an international obligation that remains unfulfilled."

Clara Gutteridge, an investigator with Reprieve, the London-based organisation that represents many Guantánamo detainees, said: "The Bush administration has professionalised torture and it will take more than the release of a few memos to put this right."

The Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists issued a statement calling on Obama to investigate and prosecute officials who authorised and engaged in torture."Without holding to account the authors of a policy of torture and those executing it, there cannot be a return to the rule of law," said Wilder Tayler, acting secretary-general of the ICJ.

The techniques

The memos from the justice department in 2002 and 2005 to the CIA lists techniques that are permissible, from the most severe - waterboarding - to the almost laughable - though not for the detainee - the use of insects in a confined space.

The lawyers insisted that the techniques did not amount to torture. It would only be torture "if the medical and psychological evaluations or ongoing monitoring suggest that the detainee is likely to suffer serious harm".

Waterboarding: The detainee is placed on a board with his head lying downwards.

The memos say: "A cloth is placed over his face on which cold water is then poured for periods of at most 40 seconds. This creates a barrier through which it is either difficult or impossible to breathe. The technique thereby induces a sensation of drowning." A doctor was to be on hand in case the detainee got into trouble, in which case the doctor would perform tracheotomy.

Walling: The detainee is slammed into a wall. "Walling is performed by placing the detainee against what seems to be a normal wall but is in fact a flexible false wall. The interrogator pulls the detainee towards him and then quickly slams the detainee against the false wall." The false wall exaggerates the sound, making the contact apparently sound worse than it is.

Sleep deprivation: The CIA was authorised to deny detainees sleep for up to 180 hours. "Generally, a detainee undergoing this technique is shackled in a standing position with his hands in front of his body, which prevents him from falling asleep but also allows him to move around within a two- to three-foot diameter."

Nudity: "Nudity is used to induce psychological discomfort and because it allows interrogators to reward detainees instantly with clothing for cooperation ... Because the ambient air temperatures are kept above 68F, the technique is at most mildly physically uncomfortable and poses no threat to the detainee's health."

Insect: In the 2002 memo, the justice department gave the go-ahead for the CIA to play on the fears of Abu Zubaydah, an alleged high-ranking member of al-Qaida, a charge he denies. "You would like to place Zubaydah in a cramped confinement box with an insect. In particular, you would like to tell Zubaydah that you intend to place a stinging insect in the box with him. You would, however, place a harmless insect in the box. You have orally informed us that you would in fact place a harmless insect such as a caterpillar in the box with him." CIA officials say that the technique was never used.

Slaps: "With the facial slap or insult slap, the interrogator slaps the individual's face with fingers slightly spread The hand makes contact with the area directly between the tip of the individual's chin and the bottom of the corresponding earlobe."

Abdominal slap: Delivered in the same way, but to the stomach.

Water dousing: The aim is to weaken resistance by making the detainee cold but stopping short of inducing hypothermia. "In the water dousing technique, potable cold water is poured on the detainee either from a container or a hose without a nozzle. Ambient air temperatures are kept above 64F."

Food deprivation: "Dietary manipulation involves substituting a bland, commercial liquid meal for a detainee's normal diet ... As a guideline, the CIA causes a formula for calorific intake that depends on a detainee's body weight and expected level of activity and that ensures that calorific intake will always be set at or above 1,000 kcal/day."

Cramped confinement: Detainees put in uncomfortably small containers. But this was judged to be unsuccessful, as it offered detainees a temporary save haven.

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