skunk
May 4, 2004, 07:13 PM
http://nytimes.com/2004/05/04/international/middleeast/04CND-WARD.html
From the New York Times:
Warden Plans to Reduce Size of Iraqi Prison
By DEXTER FILKINS
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 4 — The American commander in charge of military jails in Iraq said today that he had decided to dramatically reduce the size of the Abu Ghraib prison, the site of the suspected abuse of Iraqi prisoners, and to end some of the more coercive practices used against Iraqi detainees.
Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, chief of detentions and interrogations in Iraq, said he planned to reduce the number of prisoners held at Abu Ghraib by about half its current level, from 3,800 to less than 2,000. The overcrowding at Abu Ghraib, where the population has sometimes swelled well past 6,000, was cited by American investigators as having contributed to the chaotic and sometimes abusive atmosphere that prevailed there.
In a wide-ranging interview in Baghdad, General Miller said he had banned the practice of hooding Iraqi prisoners while they are moved from one jail to another, largely because it was humiliating to Iraqi prisoners.
But practices like hooding, depriving prisoners of sleep and forcing them into "stressful positions" were legitimate means of interrogation, the general said, and among the 50-odd coercive techniques sometimes used by American soldiers against enemy detainees.
"There are interrogation techniques that increase anxiety," General Miller said. "For example sleep deprivation, and stress positions and all that, could be used but they must be authorized."
General Miller said he decided to ban the practice of hooding just four days ago, following reports of abuse and the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners.
"It sends a message we do not want to send to the civilian population," General Miller said. "If we were going to continue to use hooding, we would use a less intrusive method that will accomplish the same thing."
But General Miller, the chief of detentions and interrogations at the American prison in Guantánamo Bay, said he hoped to make the base a model for military prisons in Iraq. In both places, he said he saw his main purpose as extracting as much intelligence as possible to help the American war effort.
"We were enormously proud of what we had done in Guantánamo, to be able to set that kind of environment where we were focused on gaining the maximum amount of intelligence," said General Miller, who added that he recently emphasized the message in meetings with American soldiers at Abu Ghraib.
"What I told them was, we are here to be able to enable our forces to win this fight that is ongoing," he said. "Everything we do, we'll do. At the end of the day, you better make sure that what we've done will make America proud."
General Miller, who took over in Iraq about one month ago, said he first came to Iraq last August with a team of about 30 experts to recommend ways of making the detentions and interrogations "more effective and more efficient." One of those recommendations, he said, was to give the military police assigned to guard the Iraqi detainees a more active role in gathering intelligence.
It is a team of military police at Abu Ghraib that are accused of abusing and humiliating the Iraqi prisoners. General Miller said he did not believe that his recommendations contributed to the atmosphere that enabled the group of military police officers to abuse the Iraqi prisoners.
This guy should be out on his ear. Not only is he responsible for the Guantanamo regime, he actually recommends the very abuses that all the scandal is about. This is NOT HUMANE TREATMENT. A large proportion of the people held at Abu Ghraib have not been processed in accord with the GC, have not been charged and are probably nothing to do with anything.
Clearly the lesson has not been learnt. More of the same self-serving, dishonest rationalisation of outrageous misconduct. :mad: :mad:
From the New York Times:
Warden Plans to Reduce Size of Iraqi Prison
By DEXTER FILKINS
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 4 — The American commander in charge of military jails in Iraq said today that he had decided to dramatically reduce the size of the Abu Ghraib prison, the site of the suspected abuse of Iraqi prisoners, and to end some of the more coercive practices used against Iraqi detainees.
Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, chief of detentions and interrogations in Iraq, said he planned to reduce the number of prisoners held at Abu Ghraib by about half its current level, from 3,800 to less than 2,000. The overcrowding at Abu Ghraib, where the population has sometimes swelled well past 6,000, was cited by American investigators as having contributed to the chaotic and sometimes abusive atmosphere that prevailed there.
In a wide-ranging interview in Baghdad, General Miller said he had banned the practice of hooding Iraqi prisoners while they are moved from one jail to another, largely because it was humiliating to Iraqi prisoners.
But practices like hooding, depriving prisoners of sleep and forcing them into "stressful positions" were legitimate means of interrogation, the general said, and among the 50-odd coercive techniques sometimes used by American soldiers against enemy detainees.
"There are interrogation techniques that increase anxiety," General Miller said. "For example sleep deprivation, and stress positions and all that, could be used but they must be authorized."
General Miller said he decided to ban the practice of hooding just four days ago, following reports of abuse and the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners.
"It sends a message we do not want to send to the civilian population," General Miller said. "If we were going to continue to use hooding, we would use a less intrusive method that will accomplish the same thing."
But General Miller, the chief of detentions and interrogations at the American prison in Guantánamo Bay, said he hoped to make the base a model for military prisons in Iraq. In both places, he said he saw his main purpose as extracting as much intelligence as possible to help the American war effort.
"We were enormously proud of what we had done in Guantánamo, to be able to set that kind of environment where we were focused on gaining the maximum amount of intelligence," said General Miller, who added that he recently emphasized the message in meetings with American soldiers at Abu Ghraib.
"What I told them was, we are here to be able to enable our forces to win this fight that is ongoing," he said. "Everything we do, we'll do. At the end of the day, you better make sure that what we've done will make America proud."
General Miller, who took over in Iraq about one month ago, said he first came to Iraq last August with a team of about 30 experts to recommend ways of making the detentions and interrogations "more effective and more efficient." One of those recommendations, he said, was to give the military police assigned to guard the Iraqi detainees a more active role in gathering intelligence.
It is a team of military police at Abu Ghraib that are accused of abusing and humiliating the Iraqi prisoners. General Miller said he did not believe that his recommendations contributed to the atmosphere that enabled the group of military police officers to abuse the Iraqi prisoners.
This guy should be out on his ear. Not only is he responsible for the Guantanamo regime, he actually recommends the very abuses that all the scandal is about. This is NOT HUMANE TREATMENT. A large proportion of the people held at Abu Ghraib have not been processed in accord with the GC, have not been charged and are probably nothing to do with anything.
Clearly the lesson has not been learnt. More of the same self-serving, dishonest rationalisation of outrageous misconduct. :mad: :mad:
