WASHINGTON, 13 May 2004 — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld defended military interrogation techniques in Iraq yesterday, rejecting complaints that they violate international rules and may endanger Americans taken prisoner.
Rumsfeld told a Senate committee that Pentagon lawyers had approved methods such as sleep deprivation and dietary changes as well as rules permitting prisoners to be made to assume stress positions.
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also noted that the rules require prisoners to be treated humanely at all times.
But Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. said some of the approved techniques “go far beyond the Geneva Convention,” a reference to international rules governing the treatment of prisoners of war.
Rumsfeld spoke after two weeks of controversy provoked by photographs of American military personnel abusing prisoners in Iraq. An American was beheaded in a videotaped execution posted to a militant Islamic website on Tuesday — a killing that captors said was revenge for the abuse of Iraqis in the Abu Ghraib prison.
The Defense Department is conducting multiple investigations into the abuse, and congressional hearings are under way, as well. At the insistence of lawmakers, the Pentagon arranged for members of Congress to view photos and videos during the day. They depict the abuse, including examples of prisoners forced into sexually humiliating poses.
Durbin noted that one American GI was missing in Iraq, his whereabouts unknown. Given the circumstances, he asked Rumsfeld, “wouldn’t it help if there was clarity from you and from this administration that we would abide by the Geneva Convention when it comes to civilian and military detainees unequivocally?”
Expanding his question to include detainees in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, he asked whether such a declaration would “also serve to help American prisoners” held captive.
Rumsfeld replied that the Geneva Convention applies to all prisoners held in Iraq, but not to those held in Guantanamo Bay, where detainees captured in the global war on terror are held.
He said the distinction is that the international rules govern wars between countries but not those involving groups such as Al-Qaeda. “Terrorists don’t comply with the laws of war. They go around killing innocent civilians,” Rumsfeld added.
