US has interrogation 'specials'

2004-06-08 21:04

Washington - United States defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld last year approved 24 interrogation techniques for use on suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including seven that were not in the army's field manual for interrogation, said a Pentagon spokesperson on Tuesday.

Commanders were required to give Rumsfeld seven days' notice before using four of the additional techniques, but three other additional ones required no special notification, said Bryan Whitman.

"I can't tell you specific techniques because those remain classified," he said.

Justice department lawyers are reported to have argued in legal analyses that torture could be justified as a necessity to prevent attacks, raising new questions about the actual interrogation techniques that have been authorised.

According to the Washington Post, an analysis justifying torture was first drawn up in August 2002 in response to a request for legal guidance by the central intelligence agency.

'Competing interests' about disclosures

It surfaced again in a draft report in March 2003 to Rumsfeld on a review of rules for interrogation at a detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Whitman said the defence department was weighing whether to make public the interrogation techniques authorised by Rumsfeld.

This would be "to further demonstrate that the policy of the United States has always been the humane treatment of those people in our custody".

But there were "competing interests" against disclosure, he said.

He added that "a certain amount of ambiguity" was desirable because public knowledge of the techniques would make it easier for terrorists to train to counter them.

Whitman said the Pentagon working group that reviewed the interrogation policy at Guantanamo considered 35 interrogation techniques in all, but discarded nearly a dozen of them.

On April 16 2003, Rumsfeld approved a list of 24 interrogation techniques, he said.

Conforming with Geneva Convention

"The vast majority of those techniques are guided by the FM (field manual) for interrogation - 17 of the 24 are governed by the field manual," he said.

The army field manual on interrogation was developed to conform with Geneva Convention requirements on the treatment of prisoners.

Rumsfeld ordered the review in January after concern was raised about techniques used - with the secretary's approval - in the interrogation of a suspected al-Qaeda prisoner, Mohamed al-Khatani, a Saudi believed to be the 20th hijacker in the September 11 2001 attacks.

- AFP