Senior Pentagon officials sought and received information
from military trainers on abusive techniques that could be used to interrogate
detainees in the war on terrorism, a top Democratic senator charged Tuesday.
The Pentagon sought the harsh methods from the military agency tasked with
training US soldiers to resist interrogations after being captured by enemies
likely to violate the Geneva Conventions, Senator Carl Levin, the chairman of
the Senate Armed Services Committee, said.
"The truth is that senior officials in the US government sought
information on aggressive techniques, twisted the law to create the appearance
of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees," Levin
said.
The techniques to train US soldiers included stress positions, keeping
detainees naked, use of dogs, sleep deprivation, and the use of hoods during
interrogations. Some of those were approved in 2002 and later rescinded by
then-defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld for use at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Leaked photographs in 2004 also showed the practices were used at the Abu
Ghraib prison in Iraq. The images provoked worldwide outrage and gave a black
eye to the US military. Human rights advocates have argued that some of the
methods employed by the Bush administration amounted to torture.
Retired lieutenant colonel Daniel Baumgartner Jr told the committee that he
complied with a request from the upper levels of the Defence Department to
provide the methods. He acknowledged he was aware of the possibility the
techniques could be used for questioning of terrorist suspects.
"I had an idea that they were probably going to look at it as a matter of
policy what was appropriate for the US to use," Baumgartner said.
Baumgartner headed the Pentagon's Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, or JPRA,
which in part is charged with training special operations forces how to survive
or escape while captured and how to resist interrogations.
Baumgartner said that any decisions regarding the use of information he
provided were made "above his pay grade."
The Bush administration denies that it subjects detainees to torture but has
conceded it does use tough interrogations to glean information from suspected
terrorists about other possible plots.
The administration does not have a policy on whether waterboarding constitutes
torture. The CIA admitted earlier this year three detainees
were waterboarded, a technique that simulates drowning, dpa
reported.
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