[Media-watch] US Interrogation manuals counseled "Coercive techniques" - NSA Archive/George Washington University - 18 May 2004

[Julie-ann Davies]

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JA

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http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB122/index.htm

PRISONER ABUSE: PATTERNS FROM THE PAST

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 122

Cold War U.S. Interrogation Manuals Counseled "Coercive Techniques"
Cheney Informed of "Objectionable" Interrogation Guides in 1992
"Inconsistent with U.S. Government Policy"
National Security Archive Posts CIA Training Manuals from 60s, 80s, and
investigative memos on earlier controversy on human rights abuses

For Further Information:
Thomas Blanton 202 994-7000
Peter Kornbluh 202 994-7116

Washington D.C. May 12, 2004: CIA interrogation manuals written in the 1960s
and 1980s described "coercive techniques" such as those used to mistreat
detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, according to the declassified
documents posted today by the National Security Archive. The Archive also
posted a secret 1992 report written for then Secretary of Defense Richard
Cheney warning that U.S. Army intelligence manuals that incorporated the
earlier work of the CIA for training Latin American military officers in
interrogation and counterintelligence techniques contained "offensive and
objectionable material" that "undermines U.S. credibility, and could result
in significant embarrassment."

The two CIA manuals, "Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual-1983" and
"KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation-July 1963," were originally
obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Baltimore Sun in 1997.
The KUBARK manual includes a detailed section on "The Coercive
Counterintelligence Interrogation of Resistant Sources," with concrete
assessments on employing "Threats and Fear," "Pain," and "Debility." The
language of the 1983 "Exploitation" manual drew heavily on the language of
the earlier manual, as well as on Army Intelligence field manuals from the
mid 1960s generated by "Project X"-a military effort to create training
guides drawn from counterinsurgency experience in Vietnam. Recommendations
on prisoner interrogation included the threat of violence and deprivation
and noted that no threat should be made unless the questioner "has approval
to carry out the threat." The interrogator "is able to manipulate the
subject's environment," the 1983 manual states, "to create unpleasant or
intolerable situations, to disrupt patterns of time, space, and sensory
perception."

After Congress began investigating reports of Central American atrocities in
the mid 1980s, particularly in Honduras, the CIA's "Human Resource
Exploitation" manual was hand edited to alter passages that appeared to
advocate coercion and stress techniques to be used on prisoners. CIA
officials attached a new prologue page on the manual stating: "The use of
force, mental torture, threats, insults or exposure to inhumane treatment of
any kind as an aid to interrogation is prohibited by law, both international
and domestic; it is neither authorized nor condoned"-making it clear that
authorities were well aware these abusive practices were illegal and
immoral, even as they continued then and now.

Indeed, similar material had already been incorporated into seven
Spanish-language training guides. More than a thousand copies of these
manuals were distributed for use in countries such as El Salvador,
Guatemala, Ecuador and Peru, and at the School of the Americas between 1987
and 1991. An inquiry was triggered in mid 1991 when the Southern Command
evaluated the manuals for use in expanding military support programs in
Colombia.

In March 1992 Cheney received an investigative report on "Improper Material
in Spanish-Language Intelligence Training Manuals." Classified SECRET, the
report noted that five of the seven manuals "contained language and
statements in violation of legal, regulatory or policy prohibitions" and
recommended they be recalled. The memo is stamped: "SECDEF HAS SEEN."

The Archive also posted a declassified memorandum of conversation with a
Southern Command officer, Major Victor Tise, who was responsible for
assembling the Latin American manuals at School of the Americas for
counterintelligence training in 1982. Tise stated that the manuals had been
forwarded to DOD headquarters for clearance "and came back approved but
UNCHANGED." (Emphasis in original)