US military bars some Iraq interrogation methods

1.00pm

WASHINGTON - The US military, embroiled in a scandal over the abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib jail, has prohibited several interrogation methods from being used in Iraq, including sleep and sensory deprivation and body "stress positions," defence officials said on Friday.

The officials said these techniques previously required high-level approval from the US military leadership in Iraq, but now will be banned completely.

They said the decision was made on Thursday by the top US commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, on the same day Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met with him on a surprise trip to the country and visited Abu Ghraib on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said Rumsfeld did not direct Sanchez to make the move, but added "the heightened scrutiny of the last couple of weeks" likely played a role.

A senior Central Command official said the US military leadership in Iraq never actually approved a request from prison personnel to use any of the techniques that now are forbidden, although these methods had been listed as among those for which approval could be requested.

Officials refused to say the methods were barred because they were onerous or violated the Geneva Convention governing the treatment of prisoners of war.

The interrogation methods that Sanchez has prohibited were among a list of techniques US military jailers holding thousands of prisoners were permitted to use if they gained the approval of the top American military leadership in Iraq, the officials said.

From that list, Sanchez decided to continue to allow jailers to seek the option of isolating a prisoner for more than 30 days, officials said.

All the other items on the list -- none of which Sanchez ever approved for use -- have been prohibited, the officials said, including sleep and sensory deprivation, "dietary manipulation," forcing a prisoner to assume body "stress positions" for longer than 45 minutes, and threatening him with guard dogs.

SCANDAL AND SCRUTINY

Senate Democrats this week angrily confronted top Pentagon officials with this list, which circulated among members of Congress and leaked into the press, and argued that the interrogation methods ran afoul of the Geneva Convention.

US military interrogation techniques have come under scrutiny following revelations of abuse at Abu Ghraib, which had been a torture centre under ousted President Saddam Hussein. Prisoners were kept naked, stacked on top of each other, compelled to wear hoods over their heads, forced to engage in sex acts, struck by jailers, and photographed in humiliating poses. Seven US soldiers face criminal charges.

Military officials suggested Sanchez barred the methods he did simply because they were not being used.

The techniques now deemed off limits were adopted last Sept. 14 in the interrogation policy for Iraq following a visit by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who then commanded the prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and now heads US prisons in Iraq, the Central Command official said.

Miller provided commanders in Iraq with the Guantanamo interrogation policy, but "we scrubbed it" so it followed the Geneva Convention, the official said. The United States denies Geneva Convention protections to Guantanamo prisoners.

The official said US jailers in Iraq were permitted to use some of the now-banned interrogation techniques without securing higher approval until a modified policy was adopted on Oct. 12.

Sanchez has granted 25 requests to isolate a prisoner for more than 30 days; three requests to use stress positions were rejected lower in the chain of command, the official said. Other techniques were never requested, the official said.

"There really wasn't anything insidious or untoward about this," the official said.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq