http://www.metafilter.com/tags/ChainofCommand Posts tagged with 'ChainofCommand' at MetaFilter. Sat, 30 Oct 2004 15:12:40 -0800 Sat, 30 Oct 2004 15:12:40 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://www.metafilter.com/36638/Rumsfelds%2DWar <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/pentagon/">Frontline: Rumsfeld's War</a>, a PBS/Washington Post joint documentary that aired earlier this week is now <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/pentagon/view/">online</a>. It is the inside story of Rumsfeld's battle to assert civil control over the military. tag:metafilter.com,2004:site.36638 Sat, 30 Oct 2004 15:12:40 -0800 chainofcommand DonaldRumsfeld Frontline Iraq Iraqwar middleeast mideast PBS Rumsfeld USA USMilitary WashingtonPost stbalbach http://www.metafilter.com/32998/Chain%2DOf%2DCommand <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A11017-2004May8?language=printer" title="In April 2003, the Defense Department approved interrogation techniques for use at the Guantanamo Bay prison that permit reversing the normal sleep patterns of detainees and exposing them to heat, cold and ''sensory assault,'' including loud music and bright lights, according to defense officials. The classified list of about 20 techniques was approved at the highest levels of the Pentagon and the Justice Department, and represents the first publicly known documentation of an official policy permitting interrogators to use physically and psychologically stressful methods during questioning. THE USE OF ANY OF THESE TECHNIQUES REQUIRES THE APPROVAL OF SENIOR PENTAGON OFFICIALS -- AND, IN SOME CASES, THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE. Interrogators must justify that the harshest treatment is ''militarily necessary,'' according to the document, as cited by one official. Once approved, the harsher treatment must be accompanied by ''appropriate medical monitoring.''...''We wanted to find a legal way to jack up the pressure,'' said one lawyer who helped write the guidelines. ''We wanted a little more freedom than in a U.S. prison, but not torture.'' Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said: ''These procedures are tightly controlled, limited in duration and scope, used infrequently and approved on a case-by-case basis.''">Chain </a> <a href="http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4933882" title="Within weeks after September 11, senior officials at the Pentagon and the White House began the drive to maximize American freedom of action. They attacked specifically the Geneva Conventions, which govern behavior during wartime. Donald Rumsfeld explained that the conventions did not apply to today's ''set of facts.'' He and his top aides have tried persistently to keep prisoners out of the reach of either American courts or international law, presumably so that they can be handled without those pettifogging rules as barriers. Rumsfeld initially fought both the uniformed military and Colin Powell, who urged that prisoners in Guantanamo be accorded rights under the conventions. Eventually he gave in on the matter but continued to suggest that the protocols were antiquated. Last week he said again that the Geneva Conventions did not ''precisely apply'' and were simply basic rules.">Of </a><a href="http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2004/05/07/rights/print.html" title="The bar association's 110-page report, released last week, leaves no doubt that the practices revealed at Abu Ghraib violated both U.S. and international law. During the preparation of that report, Horton and his colleagues were more concerned with practices in Afghanistan and Guant&#0225;namo than in Iraq. What they have learned recently, however, suggests that questionable practices and attitudes toward prisoners stem from broad policy decisions made at the very highest levels of the Defense Department. Indeed, Horton says that the JAG officers specifically warned him that Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith,one of the most powerful political appointees in the Pentagon, had significantly weakened the military's rules and regulations governing prisoners of war. The officers told Horton that Feith and the Defense Department's general counsel, William J. Haynes II, were creating ''an atmosphere of legal ambiguity'' that would allow mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. Joe Conason - Salon">Command</a> <br><small>(More Inside)</small> tag:metafilter.com,2004:site.32998 Sun, 09 May 2004 12:04:23 -0800 abuse Afghanistan ChainofCommand interrogations Iraq torture war y2karl