SERE INSTRUCTORS SENT TO IRAQ

The recently declassified Inspector General Review of DoD-Directed Investigations of Detainee Abuse makes several important conclusions, but eclipsing them all is the revelation that SERE instructors were sent to Iraq in 2003 to train members of Task Force 20 in "counter-resistance" methods used at SERE. According to the report, in Iraq:

U.S. Joint Forces Command J-3 and the Commanding Officer, TF-20 gave a verbal approval for the SERE team to actively participate in “one or two demonstration” interrogations.

SERE team members and TF-20 staff disagreed about whether SERE techniques were in compliance with the Geneva Conventions. When it became apparent that friction was developing, the decision was made to pull the team out before more damage was done to the relationship between the two organizations. The SERE team members prepared After Action Reports that detailed the confusion and allegations of abuse that took place during the deployment. These reports were not forwarded to the U.S. Joint Forces Command because it was not a common practice at that time.

Psychologist Stephen Soldz has just written an excellent piece for CounterPunch further detailing the revelations of the Inspector General Report. It's important to remember that Task Force 20 later became Task Force 121, which in turn, became the infamous Task Force 626-- a squad that has been implicated in using torture in Iraq, tortures that have all the hallmarks of SERE techniques. [For a round-up of 626's exploits, see here and here.]

This is huge news, so much so that Senator Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the New York Times that he intends to hold Congressional hearings about how SERE training methods became the basis for US interrogation practice after 9/11. “They were put to a purpose that was never intended,” Levin said.