By Staff
I recently chaired a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on the origins of aggressive interrogation techniques used against detainees in U.S. custody in places such as Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. The hearing was part of an extensive investigation that my committee has undertaken. Getting people who know valuable information to share it with us is critical to our security. Knowing where an insurgent has buried an explosive device on a road can keep a vehicle carrying Marines in Iraq from being blown up. Knowing that an al Qaeda associate visited an Internet cafe in Kabul could be the key piece of information that unravels a terrorist plot targeting our embassy. Intelligence saves lives.
Treating detainees harshly decreases the chance that we will be able to obtain the critical intelligence we need to save lives. In fact, just a couple of weeks ago I visited our troops in Afghanistan and I spoke to a senior intelligence officer who told me that mistreating detainees is actually an impediment – a "roadblock" to use that officer's word – to getting intelligence from them.
However, our investigation found that senior officials in the U.S. government actually sought out information on how to use aggressive techniques, twisted the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees.
Many of the techniques in question were derived from techniques used in the military's Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape (SERE) training. U.S. military personnel who attend SERE school are subject, if captured, to abusive tactics used by enemies of the United States who refuse to follow the Geneva Conventions. SERE resistance techniques are legitimate and important training tools when used in the highly controlled environment of SERE school. They prepare our soldiers, who might fall into the hands of an abusive enemy, to survive by getting them ready for what might confront them.
But techniques used in SERE school – including use of stress positions, removal of clothing, hooding, and exploiting detainee fears – were turned on their head and sanctioned by Department of Defense officials for use offensively against detainees. The abuses that stemmed from those decisions not only harmed our ability to gather intelligence. Their use handed al Qaeda a propaganda weapon they could use to peddle their violent ideology.
Many have questioned why we should care about the rights of detainees. More than a year ago, General David Petraeus answered that question in a letter to his troops. He wrote, "We are, indeed, warriors. We train to kill our enemies. We are engaged in combat, we must pursue the enemy relentlessly, and we must be violent at times. What sets us apart from our enemies in this fight, however, is how we behave. In everything we do, we must observe the standards and values that dictate that we treat noncombatants and detainees with dignity and respect. While we are warriors, we are also all human beings."
It is clear that our nation has paid a huge price, both in security and in moral authority, for the abuses of detainees. Our investigation into how the SERE techniques were authorized and used in interrogations in Guantanamo as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan will continue.