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Many of the controversial interrogation tactics used against “war on terror” detainees in Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan are similar to strategies the United States feared its worst enemies would use against captured soldiers during the Cold War.
Time magazine catches this connection in a recently declassified report, "Review of DoD-Directed Investigations of Detainee Abuse,” that has received little media coverage.
The same potential enemy tactics the U.S. military trained forces to face during the Cold War became interrogation strategies used on enemy combatants.
Originally developed as training for elite special forces at Fort Bragg under the "Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape" program, otherwise known as SERE, tactics such as sleep deprivation, isolation, sexual humiliation, nudity, exposure to extremes of cold and stress positions were part of a carefully monitored survival training program for personnel at risk of capture by Soviet or Chinese forces, all carried out under the supervision of military psychologists:
The Pentagon began scaling back the well-documented use of these SERE tactics in 2002, which include “prolonged isolation, sensory deprivation (visual and auditory), forced removal of clothing, exploiting prisoners phobias (notably fear of dogs), and threats against family members.” The Army Field Manual now prohibits the use of water-boarding and dogs.
Some critics are concerned that the scale-back has not gone far enough, Time reports:
In the letter to Secretary Gates, dated May 31, 2007, the non-profit Physicians for Human Rights cites an appendix of the current Army Field Manual that "explicitly permits what amounts to isolation, along with sleep and sensory deprivation." The letter, signed by retired Army General Stephen Xenakis, a psychiatrist and former senior medical commander, and Leonard Rubenstein, the organization's executive director, also points out that the current Field Manual remains "silent on a number of other SERE-based methods (including sensory overload and deprivation) creating ambiguity and doubt over their place in interrogation doctrine."
Comments (31)
Stygius wrote on June 1, 2007 10:27 AM:In Nov. 2005 M. Gregg Bloche and Jonathan Marks had a superb op-ed in NYT illuminating just this connection. Right away, they got what a strategically-flawed idea this was:
"The Pentagon effectively signed off on a strategy that mimics Red Army methods. But those tactics were not only inhumane, they were ineffective. For Communist interrogators, truth was beside the point: their aim was to force compliance to the point of false confession."
jon wrote on June 1, 2007 10:34 AM:http://stygius.typepad.com/stygius/2005/11/pentagon_looks_.html
I was wondering when this would get picked up. The Geneva Conventions and the laws of war are at least as beneficial to the US as to our opponents. In fact, knowing that they will be treated better has led soldiers to surrender sooner - lessening the danger to our own soldiers. Grateful prisoners with their first hot meal in weeks have been known to willingly hand over the keys to the kingdom.
Treating people our army captured with humanity was one of the things this country used to be able to be proud of; something that let us think that we actually are better than our opponents.
Don Rumsfeld was pretty quick to insist that captured US troops be accorded their full Geneva Convention rights by the Iraqi Army during the invasion.
Now when our troops are captured (or 'kidnapped' as the media likes to say) they can have no expectation of proper treatment. And the fault for this has to be shared by Rumsfeld, Gonzales, Yoo, Bush and Cheney, in addition to the insurgents.
Abducting the family members of peopple we want to capture or interrogate, reusing Saddam's prisons and using them as a grand guignol equal to the Inquisition, letting prison camps become insurgent training grounds. This is not how ytou get good information, much less build trust and vreate partners for democracy.
But most of all it erodes the core of America, and makes us no better than the beheading barbarians.
DCB wrote on June 1, 2007 10:45 AM:Isn't it remarkable that some low level troops managed to come up with these techniques that had been studied during the Cold War -- all on their own, without any direction from higher ups?
DaveE. wrote on June 1, 2007 10:51 AM:The clearest print cannot be read through a gold coin.
Put another way - there ceases to be a difference between us and the "barbarians" when others can no longer tell the difference in how we act.
All the "spin" in the world will not erase the difference between our words and our actions.
rush from repubilican rehab wrote on June 1, 2007 10:52 AM:HAT TIP TO DCB ... plus a nice frosty can of PBR
tomg wrote on June 1, 2007 10:55 AM:we have lower our position as the moral leader in the world as a result of the current policies, funny how the 'moral leader' we have is the reason for it
Anonymous wrote on June 1, 2007 11:07 AM:"The Pentagon effectively signed off on a strategy that mimics Red Army methods. But those tactics were not only inhumane, they were ineffective. For Communist interrogators, truth was beside the point: their aim was to force compliance to the point of false confession."
http://stygius.typepad.com/stygius/2005/11/pentagon_looks_.html
RW wrote on June 1, 2007 11:09 AM:Hmmm. Kinda makes one wonder about what the real aim of the Pentagon (et al) was -- gathering important intelligence or "forc[ing] compliance to the point of false confessions".
I think many of you need to go back and read Christopher Simpson's "BLOWBACK" that chronicled the infusion of former occupied Eastern European NAZI agents expatriotrated to the West in the late 40's and 50's and how suddenly the same tactics used by them became integrated into the US arsenal of spook warfare.
This goes deep into the culture of the end justifies the means in the case of counter insurgency tactics.
As for the other issue, I believe America has a lot of soul searching over the next decade or so wrestling with nationalism, global economic imperialism and the consequences of International Law.
Yesterday the ACLU filed suit against Jeppessen a subsidary of Boeing being a partner to CIA rendition flights. I suspect that Amnesty Intl or Human Rights Watch will follow suit with litigation both in the US and in Geneva about human rights violations.
Ultimately domestic and international politics will arise whether the US can and should give up the Bush Administration as War Criminals and Human Rights violators. It will be a crash of ideals and worldviews.
The US Imperialists (neo cons) will scream bloody murder but I believe that over time the forces of internationalism will prevail and force America to come to terms with its former imperialism.
It will take more that soap [ironic code word] to clense the American Culture of this systemic debacle.
Gerry wrote on June 1, 2007 11:15 AM:The Cold War was a constant battle between those who believed the evil was so great that the U.S. should use the tactics of its enemies and those who felt that to do so undermined our moral authority and position. With major exceptions, the latter view won out, especially in our public politics. This began to erode during the Reagan years, and Bush II brought those "tough guys" into complete control of policy, to our eternal shame. The fact that such tactics have proved to be largely ineffective (as predicted) makes the policy stupid as well as immoral, a sad legacy for our children.
Horatio Parker wrote on June 1, 2007 11:27 AM:Sometimes I think that Bush & Co. are envious of the terrorists. Imagine being able to slaughter masses of innocent people at will and then issue your demands. It's an authoritarian's wet dream.
How it must chafe them to sit on the world's greatest arsenal only to have to dole it out in such small quantities as to only kill a few hundred thousand people over several years.
gcs wrote on June 1, 2007 11:28 AM:Our current government's outsized arrogance and a philosophy that can best be summed up by "Our ends are so pure any means are justified" mark the apogee of the American experiment in democracy and the moment our Republic spiraled into Empire. We can now add "America" to the long list of failed empires. Only a man so profoundly ignorant of history's mistakes could have taken us down this dark dead end.
Julie Keller wrote on June 1, 2007 11:32 AM:This policy has Cheney's fingerprints all over it. I really recommend reading Vice, by Lou Dubose and Jake Bernstein. They have gathered together the pieces of Cheney's career, his associations, his personal and public history and put them together to form a picture of the seriously ill and reclusive, paranoid hardliner who, with his hand-picked cronies, has been running US foreign and military policy for the last six years. Since reading it, everything I've read about our current policy or Cheney latest activities just clicks.
citizen Able wrote on June 1, 2007 11:57 AM:I think this was commented on by former Special Forces trainees over at Steve Gilliard's site some time ago.
The newly-acceptable (to the Bush administration) interrogation techniques were ones to which the SERE training tried to inure them.
Also, the anonymous post timestamped 11:07 raises a point that should be stated explicitly: Waterboarding is used to elicit false confessions.
Eliciting false confessions and inflicting terror are its only functions.
davis13 wrote on June 1, 2007 12:14 PM:Ronald Reagan used to contrast the USSR and the United States. Do ANY rightwingers other than John McCain remember that? The evil empire vs us? Does th name Andre Sakharov ring a bell? So now the apparent secret admiration of the totalitarian rule of the Soviets and their brutal, henious practice of torture has been embraced and encouraged by so-called men of faith and values like Bush. How can you possibly claim to be a follower of Christ and support practices that only 5 years ago were considered war crimes? The last straw was James Dobson threatening John McCain with retaliation at the polls if he didn't support Bush's torture bill. When he did that I lost the last lingering traces of my respect for the Republican party and the evangelical movement. They sold their souls for big bucks and the promise of absolute power. Now they don't even know the difference between right and wrong.
It's a sad state of affairs and a huge blow to our integrity and honor.
This administraion has destroyed what was left of our reputation and dragged us into the sewer. And their ignorant, gullible followers are more than happy to turn our military and CIA into war criminals and Torquemada wannabes no matter what the cost.
Then they demand to be treated like they are patriotic US citizens whose morality is above reproach. Fat chance.
bohdi wrote on June 1, 2007 12:54 PM:I am sorry but why is no one on this site discussing the critical revelation that old man Conyers has finally gotten up off his ass, met with Greg Palast and has in his posession the 500 emails that incriminate Rove and his caging lists dead to rights?
Why is this story not breaking on this site? I said 2 weeks ago that this was the smoking gun and people dismissed it and prefered to argue arcane legal strategies ad infinitum. Please somebody get on the stick and put some goddamned pressure on Conyers and these other farts to get with the program. They now have access to that which ultimately resolves the entire caper known as the attorney firing scandal. Wake up out there!!!!! Democracy Now, Brads Blog and BBC are onto the story.
Sam Sara wrote on June 1, 2007 1:45 PM:On my way bohdi, but first...
Peggy Noonan Gives Up:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110010148
So Peggy, you don’t like having your arguments twisted and your patriotism questioned? These are the very tactics that right wing pundits have been using for years. Moderate Republicans have tolerated these tactics when they have been used against Democrats. Now, Moderate Republicans are crying foul? Too Bad!
foggylady wrote on June 1, 2007 2:41 PM:Sideways topic...
714Day wrote on June 1, 2007 2:55 PM:robertgreenwald.org has a short film on Gonzales's lies and crimes, ( #1 on YouTube) and an impeachment petition.
Greenwald made the highly acclaimed documentarys Iraq for Sale, Outfoxed, and the one on Wal-mart.
Julie Keller hit the nail on the head by saying this has Cheney's fingerprints all over it.
Gabriel wrote on June 1, 2007 3:11 PM:How recently we heard about the terrible terrorist techniques being tossed by evildoers claiming sanctuary in the Geneva Conventions when they themselves were captured. Cheney made it clear in his commencement address that only the subset of AMERICANS that he deems fit might REALLY hope to find refuge in the law.
I heard about this on Democracy Now quite a quile back. Nice to see that a source like TIME has picked it up.
davis13 wrote on June 1, 2007 4:52 PM:"So Peggy, you don’t like having your arguments twisted and your patriotism questioned? These are the very tactics that right wing pundits have been using for years. Moderate Republicans have tolerated these tactics when they have been used against Democrats. Now, Moderate Republicans are crying foul? Too Bad!"
You are so right I posted a similar response on noonan's website but you KNOW they won't publish it. lol. Hey Peggy, how does it feel to have your intelligence, patriotism, even your morality questioned or slandered? I have no pity for Noonan or any other whiney, rightwing jerk.
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for me,
parrot wrote on June 1, 2007 5:30 PM:there was no one left to speak out.
Which South American dictatorship has Rumsfeld fled to? Seriously, where is the guy these days? On the run from Interpol?
Anonymous wrote on June 1, 2007 7:18 PM:On the Guantanamo-Abu Ghraib abuses, the link between DOD and SERE is not news; what is news is the DoD specific reference to the USSR/China in developing these AMERICAN interrogation tactics.
Supposedly the US won the cold war and defeated the USSR, only to become it's worst version: Undemocratic, expansionary, and abusive in secret, then openly so without remorse. Even the former USSR is upset, "you stole our evil ideas."
Anonymous wrote on June 1, 2007 7:21 PM:America's Gulag: The RNC.
I'm reading about these interrogation tacts against prisoners; but in the back of my mind wondering about the NSA domestic surveillance: If the DoD is using prisoner abuse to get information, it would stand to reason they'd use the same abuses the East Germans did: Doemstic surveillance, gathering information -- true or not -- then acting as if that info were true to justify more abuse.
ANGRY!
LB wrote on June 2, 2007 6:11 PM:I read recently (and didn't save the cite) a comparison of our current torture tecniques and what the Brits were doing in Ireland. It sounded as though we didn't really have to go so far afield, that globalization has come to interrogation and the really creative inventions of a Sax Rohmer have given way to the proven efficiencies of sensory deprivation, humiliation and terror. As to what it yields: sure, if you're a poor villager sold to the Americans by a cynical neighbor and you know nothing useful, torture isn't going to make you smarter or more helpful. And if you are an al Qaeda mastermind, it may be difficult to sort out your particpation in the plot to kill Kennedy from more useful contemporary schemes. But I think we are kidding outrselves if we base our rejection of torture on its inefficacy. It would be more interesting to get our hands on more of the research.
And while we're studying the research, it would be nice to see the latest on sophisticated marketing and persuasion that is being used on us daily and that helps shapes the prejudices and unconscious reactions that puppet masters like Rove exploit so effectively.
I think waterboarding can be persuasive, but it is the "look ma--no hands" of contemporary marketing that may be more deadly in the end.
Richard L. Adlof wrote on June 2, 2007 7:42 PM:INQUIRY: Is this a case of Dr. Rice putting her thesis on Cold War Russia to work?
Richard L. Adlof wrote on June 2, 2007 7:42 PM:INQUIRY: Is this a case of Dr. Rice putting her thesis on Cold War Russia to work?
Richard L. Adlof wrote on June 2, 2007 7:42 PM:INQUIRY: Is this a case of Dr. Rice putting her thesis on Cold War Russia to work?
Greg Cass wrote on June 3, 2007 7:53 PM:The Al Quida terrorists are not covered by the Geneva Convention. Since when is putting panties on a terrorist's head torture? Chopping infidel's heads off, now that's beyond torture. Read the Koran and see the Islamist's view on the rest of society and what Mohammed recommends be done to U.S.citizens.
Mrs. Cass wrote on June 3, 2007 9:07 PM:He's doing it again. Forgive him he's only 10 (IQ).
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