Torture at the Top

Aggressive interrogation techniques in Iraq and Guantánamo Bay, many tantamount to torture, were significantly more widespread than the White House or the Pentagon has admitted. That's the startling hook based on a trove of confidential documents from the FBI and Department of Defense (DoD) released by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and reported yesterday by major newspapers.

These new allegations include "strangulation, beatings, placement of lit cigarettes into the detainees ear openings, and unauthorized interrogations" in Iraq (and similar methods for Guantánamo), according to an "Urgent Report" from the FBI's Sacramento Office to FBI Director Robert Mueller.

But many of the papers, including The New York Times, regrettably omitted the story's biggest bombshell: President Bush may have issued an Executive Order condoning these techniques.

A redacted email sent to FBI officials and signed by an "On Scene Commander--Baghdad" on May 22, 2004, states that "an Executive Order signed by President Bush authorized the following interrogation techniques, among others: sleep 'management,' use of MWDs (military working dogs), 'stress positions' such as half squats, 'environmental manipulation' such as the use of loud music, sensory deprivation through the use of hoods, etc." The letter alleges that after the abuses at Abu Ghraib--which incorporated many aspects of the Executive Order--Bush revised the command so that "certain techniques can only be used if very high-level authority is granted."

All of these treatments violate the Geneva Conventions, and, if done in the extreme, cross the line into torture, says Dinah PoKempner, general counsel for Human Rights Watch. They also contradict the US Army's own prior policy on intelligence and interrogations.

The FBI refused to follow Bush's orders. "We have instructed our personnel not to participate in interrogations by military personnel which might include techniques by the Executive Order but beyond the bounds of standard FBI practice," the email said.

The one-and-a-half page email mentions the Executive Order ten times but does not specify when it was written or who drafted it. Yet other internal FBI memos released by the ACLU point to further evidence of high-level officials, specifically Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, ordering inhumane interrogation methods. "Once again, this technique, and all those used in these scenarios, was approved by the DepSecDef," a redacted FBI email said on January 21, 2004, referring to Wolfowitz.

The Bush Administration and the Pentagon have denied the existence of the Executive Order and the Wolfowitz directive. On Tuesday night the ACLU sent a letter to the White House requesting a new Executive Order instructing DoD to follow international law-approved interrogation practices. The ACLU has yet to hear back.

If the Executive Order did exist, there's a strong possibility it was drafted by then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, Bush's new nominee for Attorney General. How many torture memos will it take to doom the nomination of the country's next highest-ranking law-enforcement official? And, perhaps more importantly, will Bush finally be held accountable for this brewing scandal?

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