Torture Team by Philippe Sands

Author:Philippe Sands
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-28T16:00:00+00:00

These paragraphs summarize a two day period described over several pages of the interrogation log. They were Days 11 and 12 of Detainee 063's aggressive interrogation. That log went on to describe a further forty days. The pattern was always the same. Twenty-hour interrogation sessions, followed by four hours of sleep. Over the next six weeks new techniques were applied, taken from the list approved by Rumsfeld. Sleep deprivation appears as a central theme, along with stress positions and constant humiliation, including sexual humiliation. These techniques were supplemented by the use of water. Regular bouts of dehydration. The use of IVs. Loud noise and white noise. Nudity. Female contact. Humiliation with girly magazines. An interrogator even tied a leash to him, led him around the room and forced him to perform a series of dog tricks. He was forced to wear a woman's bra and a thong was placed on his head. And so on.

The log showed that members of the medical profession were involved directly and throughout the interrogation of Detainee 063. So were lawyers. At 9 P.M. on Day 47, for example, and at 6.40 P.M. on Day 50, the interrogation logs were reviewed by the Staff Judge Advocate of the Guantánamo Joint Task Force, whose job was to ensure that the Haynes memo and the rules approved by Rumsfeld were followed. That meant a military lawyer had reviewed and, presumably, signed off on the use of the interrogation techniques on this particular detainee.

FM 34–52 , the U.S. Army Field Manual, aimed to ensure that all interrogations complied with the law. The log of Detainee 063's interrogation described a process authorized by Rumsfeld that went well beyond what FM 34–52 allowed. The manual of military interrogation takes a broad definition of what is prohibited, describing torture as "the infliction of intense pain to body or mind to extract a confession or information, or for sadistic pleasure." This adopts the definition of the 1984 Torture Convention, to which the United States is a party. FM 34–52 provides various examples of torture. These are not limited to extreme acts, such as electric shock or the use of chemicals. Physical torture includes "any form of beating" food deprivation, and forcing an individual to stand, sit or kneel in abnormal positions for prolonged periods of time. FM 34–52 describes abnormal sleep deprivation as a form of mental torture.

By putting his signature to a piece of paper on the morning of December 2, 2002, Donald Rumsfeld gravely changed the life of one man held at Guantánamo. It may or may not have made America a safer place. Worse, it may have opened the door to the migration of abuse to other places. The details of the Haynes memo remained secret for more than two years. They only emerged with revelations of other shocking acts many thousands of miles away, in Iraq.

INTERROGATION LOG OF DETAINEE 063

Day 14, December 6, 2002

1400: Detainee taken to bathroom and walked 10 minutes. Corps-man replaced ankle bandages to prevent chafing from cuffs.

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