General (Sanchez) Granted Latitude (to Interrogators) At Prison

[UpInArms]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35612-2004Jun11.html

Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior U.S. military officer in Iraq, borrowed heavily from a list of high-pressure interrogation tactics used at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and approved letting senior officials at a Baghdad jail use military dogs, temperature extremes, reversed sleep patterns, sensory deprivation, and diets of bread and water on detainees whenever they wished, according to newly obtained documents.

The U.S. policy, details of which have not been previously disclosed, was approved in early September, shortly after an Army general sent from Washington completed his inspection of the Abu Ghraib jail and then returned to brief Pentagon officials on his ideas for using military police there to help implement the new high-pressure methods.

The documents obtained by The Washington Post spell out in greater detail than previously known the interrogation tactics Sanchez authorized, and make clear for the first time that, before last October, they could be imposed without first seeking the approval of anyone outside the prison. That gave officers at Abu Ghraib wide latitude in handling detainees.

Unnamed officials at the Florida headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, which has overall military responsibility for Iraq, objected to some of the 32 interrogation tactics approved by Sanchez in September, including the more severe methods that he had said could be used at any time in Abu Ghraib with the consent of the interrogation officer in charge.

...more...

Didn't Rummy visit Sanchez and Abu Ghraib in early September?

[NMDemDist2]

1. does this drag Rummy in with Asscroft in contempt of Congress? n/t

[LittleApple81]

2. He probably visited with Sanchez but here it says he toured

prison with Karpinski:
Thursday's visit to Abu Ghraib was Rumsfeld's second to the sprawling prison. He toured the facility last September, guided by Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the reservist commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, who has received a letter of admonishment growing out of the inquiry into abuse under her command.
Her replacement, Miller, who has been in charge of the detention system for 31 days, said he had quickly reorganized Abu Ghraib prison.
He said he had reinstituted clear and separate responsibilities for the military intelligence unit, which would oversee interrogations, and the military police, responsible for the security of the prison and detainee transport.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,595063119,00.html

[NMDemDist2]

3. Rummy was in Iraq Sept 6th 2003 and met with Sanchez

didn't see a mention of a prison visit on that trip tho..

[UpInArms]

6. here is a link to that information

http://lists.state.gov/SCRIPTS/WA-USIAINFO.EXE?A2=ind0309b&L=us-iraqpolicy&D=1&H=1&O=D&F=&S=&P=713

Transcript: Rumsfeld Holds Press Conference in Iraq September 6 (Ambassador Bremer, General Sanchez also participate) (5020)

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez both said in a September 6 press briefing in Iraq that more Iraqis need to come forward to the coalition with information about those attacking coalition personnel and Iraqi civilians.

"t's important for the Iraqi people to step up and take responsibility for the security by providing information to General Sanchez and his people to a greater extent than they're doing," Rumsfeld said. Sanchez, commander of coalition ground forces in Iraq, agreed, saying, "e need the Iraqi people to help us, give us the intelligence that is necessary for us to go out and defeat these disparate elements that are out there." The transcript of the press briefing follows:

<snip>

This morning we visited a mass grave, one of the many mass graves in this country where the regime of Saddam Hussein had murdered and tortured people and piled them up in fields. We toured a prison. One thing that's clear to me is that for all the difficulties we see in Iraq, -- and there are difficulties. The security situation still needs to be improved; more people need to find employment. As I flew over the country it was clear to me that one of the great resources of this country, the water, needs to be better managed and to the advantage of the Iraqi people. But for all the difficulties, and there are certainly challenges, the Iraqi people are so much better off today than they were four or five months ago.

The once-privileged elite of the brutal regime are now, in many cases, common prisoners. Some 42 of the 55 Most Wanted have been captured. As confidence grows, more and more Iraqis are coming forward and working with General Sanchez and his people to find weapon caches, to provide information about people that are being sought for crimes, and to assist the coalition.

...more...

[struggle4progress]

4. Prison interrogators ordered use of dogs

<snip>
A military intelligence interrogator also told investigators that two dog handlers at the prison were "having a contest" to see how many detainees they could make involuntarily urinate out of fear of the dogs, the Post said, citing statements obtained by newspaper.
<snip>
http://www.iht.com/articles/524571.html

[Rose Siding]

5. No shortage of leaks

There are lots of details here. Some are bound to contradict testimony.

Seems like the following would be significant, in that it doesn't fit with the "official" story that all the Bad Apples only acted after hours-

snip>
But the atmosphere at Abu Ghraib was hardly one of strict adherence to the rules, other officials said. A photograph of the pyramid of naked Iraqi detainees -- one of the most notorious portraits of abuse -- was used as a screen saver on a computer in the isolation area where intelligence officers worked, according to Spencer's statement.