Colonel Tells Senate Panel How U.S. Training Program Was Adapted for Use Against Iraqi Detainees

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 26, 2008; A17

The techniques themselves -- forced nudity, sleep deprivation, painful shackling -- had been used for years to prepare U.S. fighter pilots for possible capture by an enemy. But Col. Steven Kleinman, an Air Force instructor, said he was shocked in 2003 to see the same harsh methods used haphazardly on Iraqis in a U.S. prison camp.

"It had morphed into a form of punishment for those who wouldn't cooperate," said Kleinman, a career intelligence officer and survival-school instructor.

In dramatic testimony before a Senate panel yesterday, he gave a rare account of how the Pentagon adapted an Air Force training program to squeeze information from captured Iraqis.

What Kleinman witnessed in Baghdad in September 2003 prompted him to order a stop to three interrogations, and to warn his superiors that the military's interrogation practices were abusive and, in his opinion, illegal.

"I told the task force commander that the methods were unlawful and were in violation of the Geneva Conventions," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Kleinman was one of two witnesses at a hearing that probed the Pentagon's use of specific interrogation tactics in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Defense officials previously have acknowledged a decision in 2003 by then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to authorize techniques adapted from a training program known as Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, or SERE.

That program subjects pilot trainees to physical and psychological abuse they may face if captured by an enemy that does not honor the Geneva Conventions' guidelines for treatment of prisoners of war.

Also yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 10 to 9, along party lines, to subpoena memos and other materials related to harsh interrogation techniques from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. Senate and House Democrats have long sought the documents, which offered legal authority for some of the Bush administration's most controversial detainee treatment policies.

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Of course, these abuses are not uncommon in the internal American Gulag.
The prison industrial complex has a lot to answer for. Our impending economic collapse might make our government eventually more agreeable to joining things like the international criminal court. Then these abuses can be more properly addressed. We can hope.

Levin, McCain Release Executive Summary and Conclusions of Report on Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody

WASHINGTON, December 11 – Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) today released the executive summary and conclusions [PDF] of the Committee’s report of its inquiry into the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody.

A major focus of the Committee’s investigation was the influence of Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape (SERE) training techniques on the interrogation of detainees in U.S. custody. SERE training is designed to teach our soldiers how to resist interrogation by enemies that refuse to follow the Geneva Conventions and international law. During SERE training, U.S. troops --- in a controlled environment with great protections and caution --- are exposed to harsh techniques such as stress positions, forced nudity, use of fear, sleep deprivation, and until recently, the waterboard. The SERE techniques were never intended to be used against detainees in U.S. custody. The Committee’s investigation found, however, that senior officials in the U.S. government decided to use some of these harsh techniques against detainees based on deeply flawed interpretations of U.S. and international law.

The Committee concluded that the authorization of aggressive interrogation techniques by senior officials was both a direct cause of detainee abuse and conveyed the message that it was okay to mistreat and degrade detainees in U.S. custody.

Chairman Levin said, “SERE training techniques were designed to give our troops a taste of what they might be subjected to if captured by a ruthless, lawless enemy so that they would be better prepared to resist. The techniques were never intended to be used against detainees in U.S. custody.”

Senator McCain said, “The Committee’s report details the inexcusable link between abusive interrogation techniques used by our enemies who ignored the Geneva Conventions and interrogation policy for detainees in U.S. custody. These policies are wrong and must never be repeated.”

Chairman Levin also said: “The abuses at Abu Ghraib, GTMO and elsewhere cannot be chalked up to the actions of a few bad apples. Attempts by senior officials to pass the buck to low ranking soldiers while avoiding any responsibility for abuses are unconscionable. The message from top officials was clear; it was acceptable to use degrading and abusive techniques against detainees. Our investigation is an effort to set the record straight on this chapter in our history that has so damaged both America’s standing and our security. America needs to own up to its mistakes so that we can rebuild some of the good will that we have lost.”