The Liberal Media wrote:
Pentagon issues new guidelines on detainees, interrogations
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new Army manual bans some prisoner interrogation techniques made infamous during the five-year-old war on terror, officials said Wednesday.
Delayed more than a year amid criticism of the Defense Department's treatment of prisoners, the new Army Field Manual was set to be released later Wednesday.
It spells out appropriate conduct and procedures on a wide range of military issues and applies to all the armed services, not just the Army. It doesn't cover the CIA, which also has come under investigation for mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan and for allegedly keeping suspects in secret prisons elsewhere around the world since the September 11, 2001, attacks.
There has been an outcry about prisoner rights since shortly after those attacks.
Human rights groups and some nations have urged the Bush administration to close the prison at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since shortly after it opened in 2002 with prisoners from the campaign against al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
Scrutiny of U.S. treatment of prisoners shot to a new level in 2004 with the release of photos showing U.S. troops beating, intimidating and sexually abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq -- and then again with news of secret facilities.
Though defense officials said earlier this year that they were debating writing a classified section of the manual to keep some interrogation procedures a secret from potential enemies, officials said Wednesday that there is no secret section to the new manual.
The Pentagon also on Wednesday released a new policy directive on detention operations that says the handling of prisoners must -- at a minimum -- abide by the standards of the Geneva Conventions and lays out the responsibilities of senior civilian and military officials who oversee detention operations.
The new Army manual specifically forbids intimidating prisoners with military dogs, putting hoods over their heads and simulating the sensation of drowning with a procedure called "water boarding," one defense official said on condition of anonymity because the manual had not yet been released.
Sixteen of the manual's 19 interrogation techniques were covered in the old manual and three new ones were added on the basis of lessons learned in the counter-terror war, the official said, adding only that the techniques are "not more aggressive" than those in the pre-9/11 manual.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said from the start of the war that prisoners are treated humanely and in a manner "consistent with Geneva Conventions."
But President Bush decided shortly after the 9/11 attacks that because this is not a conventional war, "enemy combatants" captured in the fight against al Qaeda would not be considered POWs and thus would not be afforded the protections of the convention.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Wednesday that the new Army manual "reflects the department's continued commitment to humane, professional and effective detention operations and builds on lessons learned and a review of detention operations."
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new Army manual bans some prisoner interrogation techniques made infamous during the five-year-old war on terror, officials said Wednesday.
Delayed more than a year amid criticism of the Defense Department's treatment of prisoners, the new Army Field Manual was set to be released later Wednesday.
It spells out appropriate conduct and procedures on a wide range of military issues and applies to all the armed services, not just the Army. It doesn't cover the CIA, which also has come under investigation for mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan and for allegedly keeping suspects in secret prisons elsewhere around the world since the September 11, 2001, attacks.
There has been an outcry about prisoner rights since shortly after those attacks.
Human rights groups and some nations have urged the Bush administration to close the prison at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since shortly after it opened in 2002 with prisoners from the campaign against al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
Scrutiny of U.S. treatment of prisoners shot to a new level in 2004 with the release of photos showing U.S. troops beating, intimidating and sexually abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq -- and then again with news of secret facilities.
Though defense officials said earlier this year that they were debating writing a classified section of the manual to keep some interrogation procedures a secret from potential enemies, officials said Wednesday that there is no secret section to the new manual.
The Pentagon also on Wednesday released a new policy directive on detention operations that says the handling of prisoners must -- at a minimum -- abide by the standards of the Geneva Conventions and lays out the responsibilities of senior civilian and military officials who oversee detention operations.
The new Army manual specifically forbids intimidating prisoners with military dogs, putting hoods over their heads and simulating the sensation of drowning with a procedure called "water boarding," one defense official said on condition of anonymity because the manual had not yet been released.
Sixteen of the manual's 19 interrogation techniques were covered in the old manual and three new ones were added on the basis of lessons learned in the counter-terror war, the official said, adding only that the techniques are "not more aggressive" than those in the pre-9/11 manual.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said from the start of the war that prisoners are treated humanely and in a manner "consistent with Geneva Conventions."
But President Bush decided shortly after the 9/11 attacks that because this is not a conventional war, "enemy combatants" captured in the fight against al Qaeda would not be considered POWs and thus would not be afforded the protections of the convention.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Wednesday that the new Army manual "reflects the department's continued commitment to humane, professional and effective detention operations and builds on lessons learned and a review of detention operations."
Riddle me this! Is this their way of complying the with SJC ruling over the summer, or their way of trying to get those poll numbers up before the election season?