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Michael Otterman is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney, as well as an award-winning journalist and filmmaker.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
From GTMO to Abu Ghraib
In September 2003, General Geoffrey Miller-- then commander of Guantanamo-- was sent to Abu Ghraib to "Gitmo-ize" detention operations at the prison. One key aspect of this process was placing Military Police (MP) under the control of Military Intelligence (MI). "It is essential", Miller advised, "that the guard force be actively engaged in setting the conditions for successful exploitation of the internees".
MI largely directed the torture while MPs carried it out. According to Charles Grainer, now serving ten years for his role in the torture at the prison: "I nearly beat a military intelligence detainee to death with military intelligence there. We treated each military detainee specifically on how the handler wanted."
Now, thanks to an anonymous leak to Wikileaks, more concrete aspects of the "Gitmo-ization" of Abu Ghraib prison have been revealed. In particular, we now know that three coercive interrogation techniques were formally authorized for use at GMTO. According to a March 2003 document signed by General Miller listing the Standard Operating Procedures at Guantanamo, the use of dogs to instill fear, sensory deprivation, and the denial of Red Cross access to detainees were standard procedures then used at GTMO. In turn, Miller took these methods to Iraq.
On page 26.1 of the uneartheard 2003 Guantanamo Standard Operating Procedures, the importance of using military working dogs as "psychological deterrence" is discussed. Their role at the Cuban prison, according to the manual, is to "demonstrate physical presence to detainees".
Sensory deprivation and the denial of Red Cross access at GTMO is discussed on page 4.3. According to the manual, during the first two weeks of detention prisoners are to receive "No ICRC or Chaplain contact". The "the process of isolating" the detainee-- with the exception of contact with interrogators-- is to continue for a period of four weeks. After that time, the "Interrogator decides when to move the detainee to general population."
The aim of these coercive methods is to "enhance and exploit the disorientation and disorganization felt by a newly arrived detainee in the interrogation process". Furthermore, they serve by "fostering dependence on the interrogator".
Miller brought all three techniques-- the use of dogs, application of sensory deprivation and denial of Red Cross access-- to Abu Ghraib in September '03. An Abu Ghraib interrogation directive dated 10 September 2003, calls for "isolation ... for interrogation purposes" for up to 30 days. The same document also permits "presence of military working dogs" because this "exploits Arab fear of dogs". Further, as I describe in American Torture:
MI largely directed the torture while MPs carried it out. According to Charles Grainer, now serving ten years for his role in the torture at the prison: "I nearly beat a military intelligence detainee to death with military intelligence there. We treated each military detainee specifically on how the handler wanted."
Now, thanks to an anonymous leak to Wikileaks, more concrete aspects of the "Gitmo-ization" of Abu Ghraib prison have been revealed. In particular, we now know that three coercive interrogation techniques were formally authorized for use at GMTO. According to a March 2003 document signed by General Miller listing the Standard Operating Procedures at Guantanamo, the use of dogs to instill fear, sensory deprivation, and the denial of Red Cross access to detainees were standard procedures then used at GTMO. In turn, Miller took these methods to Iraq.
On page 26.1 of the uneartheard 2003 Guantanamo Standard Operating Procedures, the importance of using military working dogs as "psychological deterrence" is discussed. Their role at the Cuban prison, according to the manual, is to "demonstrate physical presence to detainees".
Sensory deprivation and the denial of Red Cross access at GTMO is discussed on page 4.3. According to the manual, during the first two weeks of detention prisoners are to receive "No ICRC or Chaplain contact". The "the process of isolating" the detainee-- with the exception of contact with interrogators-- is to continue for a period of four weeks. After that time, the "Interrogator decides when to move the detainee to general population."
The aim of these coercive methods is to "enhance and exploit the disorientation and disorganization felt by a newly arrived detainee in the interrogation process". Furthermore, they serve by "fostering dependence on the interrogator".
Miller brought all three techniques-- the use of dogs, application of sensory deprivation and denial of Red Cross access-- to Abu Ghraib in September '03. An Abu Ghraib interrogation directive dated 10 September 2003, calls for "isolation ... for interrogation purposes" for up to 30 days. The same document also permits "presence of military working dogs" because this "exploits Arab fear of dogs". Further, as I describe in American Torture:
When the Red Cross came back to inspect the [Abu Ghraib] prison in January and March 2004, Colonel Thomas M. Pappas, then head of military intelligence, and Colonel Mark Warren, a Pentagon legal adviser, barred inspectors’ access to eight ‘high value’ detainees, including one detained in a cell measuring less than one by two metres and devoid of any windows, bedding or toilet. Inspectors noted that a picture of the character Gollum from the Lord of the Rings films was taped to the door, a reference to the nickname given to the inmate by prison staff.The catastrophic effects of these three policies are depicted in the Abu Ghraib photographs. But in a wider sense, the transfer of these methods from GTMO to Iraq reveals something else. Once authorized, torture cannot be contained. Like a cancer, torture spreads.