A brilliant visual essay about the costs, benefits and history of the…
Torturing Democracy
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In a riveting and dramatic narrative, TORTURING DEMOCRACY tells the inside story of how the U.S. government adopted torture as official policy in the aftermath of 9/11. With exclusive interviews, explosive documents and rare archival footage, the documentary has been called the definitive broadcast account of a deeply troubling chapter in recent American history.
Produced by Emmy and Dupont award-winning broadcast journalist Sherry Jones, the film relies on the record to connect the dots in an investigation of interrogations of prisoners in U.S. custody that became 'at a minimum, cruel and inhuman treatment and, at worst, torture,' in the words of the former general counsel of the United States Navy, Alberto Mora. Producer Jones carefully presents the evidence that leads straight to the top of the chain of command - and so lays to rest the 'rotten apple' defense for abusive interrogations at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere.
In the film, former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage describes - for the first time on-camera - being waterboarded during military training before he was sent to Vietnam. When asked if he considered waterboarding to be torture, he answered, 'Absolutely. No question.' He added: 'There is no question in my mind - there's no question in any reasonable human being, that this is torture. I'm ashamed we're even having this discussion.'
The documentary traces how the secret U.S. military training program - 'Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape' or SERE - became the basis for many of the harshest interrogation methods employed first by the CIA and subsequently by interrogators at Guantanamo and in Iraq. The tactics designed to 'inoculate' elite American troops mirror tactics used by 'a totalitarian, evil nation with complete disregard for human rights and the Geneva Conventions,' according to Malcolm Nance, former SERE master trainer for the U.S. Navy.
Besides Armitage and Mora, government and military interviewees include Major General Thomas Romig, Judge Advocate General for the U.S. Army; veteran Air Force interrogator Colonel Steven Kleinman; military prosecutor Colonel Stuart Couch; former Pentagon lawyer Richard Shiffrin; and Martin Lederman, senior advisor in the Justice Department.
Former detainees interviewed include Moazzam Begg (Detainee #558), Shafiq Rasul (Detainee #086), and Bisher Al-Rawi (Detainee #906).
'Torturing Democracy should be required viewing for every American over the age of 14. It is tough, unremitting, educational...and scary. History may ponder 'why' but Torturing Democracy answers 'who' and 'how.' If this is a chapter in American history you don't want repeated, see this film.' John D. Hutson, President and Dean, Franklin Pierce Law Center
'Americans who've been waiting for someone to graphically connect the dots between the legal memos justifying torture, abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo and beyond, and the consequences for the moral standing of this nation, need look no further. It's all here. Torturing Democracy should engender the same mass outrage as the 2004 photos from Abu Ghraib.' Dahlia Lithwick, Slate
'Over the last several years, we have heard much about the systematic program of detainee abuse developed with authorization from the highest levels of our government. So many details have emerged in hundreds of articles, official reports, and books by journalists and participants that it has been difficult for most people to follow. Torturing Democracy is an indispensable guide to this dark side of recent American history. The film grips the viewer while presenting an amazing amount of material in 90 minutes. I wish that every citizen would view it and act so that we never have a recurrence of these abuses in the future.' Dr. Stephen Soldz, Director, Center for Research, Evaluation, and Program Development, Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, Co-Founder, Coalition for an Ethical Psychology
'Torturing Democracy shines much-needed light on one of the darkest questions Americans must face: how did our government, a leader in the campaign to advance human rights around the world, find itself authorizing torture at the level of the President's Cabinet after the attacks of September 11, 2001? The film tells the story of America's descent into practices we have long condemned, and reveals the duplicity and secrecy that surrounded the initiative. As a new administration takes power and must confront the difficult question of what to do about the torturers, Torturing Democracy helps viewers understand what happened and why, so that, one hopes, it will never happen again.' David Cole, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law School, Author, Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror
'You'll see and hear some things hard to bear but you'll also meet some government insiders who refused to go along, who stood up and said 'this is wrong.'' Bill Moyers, Bill Moyers Journal
'This powerful, damning documentary...recounts in merciless detail the steps the Bush Administration took on a road to torture, beginning less than a month after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The compelling narrative outlines how Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and their attorneys...shredded the US Constitution and international, military and US law, all in the name of supposedly protecting the country. It's like a train wreck: You cannot look away even though you are horrified and appalled.' Candace Talmadge, North Star Writers Group
'There's fresh footage not seen in past stories from Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, and fascinating footage of US Army training against the type of torture favored by the Chinese against troops in the Korean war, prompting one quote: 'We have recreated our enemy's methodology in Guantanamo.'' Jim Weiner, Public Media Digest
'A somber, gut-wrenching documentary. You will go away convinced that what we are doing to our prisoners is morally wrong and illegal. I walked away convinced that the leaders of this torture regime should be prosecuted for war crimes and put away for life.' daxie, DailyKos
'I really found this documentary, Torturing Democracy, very, very disturbing. And I guess the reason that heretofore I have not been such an easy mark on the matter of this kind of charge is that I don't think I ever saw an organized, systematized review of what we did, and how we did it, as well presented as it was in this documentary. And it grieves me to say, as an American citizen, that I believe the leadership of our country is responsible for crimes against humanity. But, you know, we can't be trumpeting about the behavior of others, like Milosevic, and others, if we do not expect ourselves to be held to a similar high standard.' Gene Burns, KGO Radio, San Francisco
'Please watch Torturing Democracy. It isn't easy to watch; but what so many innocent (and guilty) individuals were subjected to in your name was unimaginably harder. As readers know, I've been fixated on this since Abu Ghraib. But that documentary made me ill by forcing me again to absorb the enormity of what Bush and Cheney have done - and the urgent, urgent task of repairing the damage. If America is to recover, those responsible must be put on trial. Including the president.' Andrew Sullivan, Atlantic Monthly.com
'I can't recommend [Torturing Democracy] highly enough...it is an extraordinarily well-documented account of America's torture program over the last seven years and, most informatively, the role that top Bush officials played in those programs. Notably, most of the sources on which it relies are former U.S. military and Bush administration officials who waged courageous though ultimately unsuccessful battles to halt these programs. I'm particularly amazed that someone could be aware of this set of facts -- could know that our highest government officials deliberately and knowingly authorized torture techniques that are war crimes under both U.S. law and international treaties to which we are a party -- and still argue, as so many do, that it would be wrong to hold these political officials accountable for the laws they systematically violated. It's easy to say how horrendous one finds torture to be. But those who simultaneously advocate that American political leaders should be immunized from the consequences of their criminality -- that, in essence, we should refrain from enforcing these laws -- are proving that those are empty words indeed.' Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com
'This one will go into the record books for historians and teachers and others who look back to ask, `What did we do?'' Bill Moyers
'Profoundly disturbing...A well-documented, frightening account of sanctioned torture, this opens the road to intense discussion.' Booklist
'Adds important new evidence to a still-fierce debate, while also advancing a cogent argument that high officials should be held accountable for embracing and advancing the use of torture in blatant disregard of fundamental democratic principles. Recommended.' Video Librarian
Citation
Main credits
Jones, Sherry (Screenwriter)
Jones, Sherry (Producer)
Coyote, Peter (Narrator)
Other credits
Camera, Brett Wiley, Foster Wiley, Gary Grieg; edited by Penny Trams, Foster Wiley; original music, Lenny Williams.
Distributor subjects
American Democracy; American Studies; Anthropology; Citizenship; Conflict Resolution; Ethics; Foreign Policy, US; Government; History; Human Rights; Humanities; International Studies; Iraq; Law; Military; National Security; Political Science; Psychology; Social Justice; Sociology; Torture; War and PeaceKeywords
WEBVTT
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I wanna be absolutely clear
with our people in the world.
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The United States does not torture. We do
not condone torture. It’s against our laws,
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and it’s against our values. I have never
ordered torture. I have not authorized…
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Funding for Torturing Democracy
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has been provided by the Ford Foundation, the
Schumann Center for Media and Democracy,
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the Park Foundation, the Jeht Foundation,
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the HKH foundation, and
the Arca Foundation.
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The attacks were
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unprecedented in their daring
and their destructiveness.
00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:09.999
When the President heard the first
reports in a Florida elementary school,
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the Vice President had already
been rushed to the bunker beneath
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the White House. There, he
watched the second tower fall.
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[sil.]
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Tonight we are a country awakened to danger
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and called to defend freedom.
Our grief has turned to anger
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and anger to resolution.
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Whether we bring our enemies to justice
or bring justice to our enemies,
00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:49.999
justice will be done.
00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:54.999
In the White House,
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the fear of a second attack was
palpable, the tone aggressive.
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We also have to work sort of,
the dark side, if you will.
00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:09.999
We have to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence
world. Umm… A lot of what needs to be done here
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will have to be done quietly, without any
discussion, using sources and methods
00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:19.999
uh… that are available to our intelligence agencies
uh… if we’re going to be successful. That’s the world
00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.999
these folks operate in.
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When 9/11 happens, new,
radical, revolutionary,
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even strange ideas are brought to the fore.
00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:39.999
9/11 created or contributed to
what became a perfect storm.
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At the eye of the storm was
Vice President Dick Cheney.
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When photos went up in
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the executive branch offices,
in the past it had been,
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like in the Department of Defense, it would
be the President, the Secretary of Defense.
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In this administration, it was the
President and the Vice President
00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:09.999
and then the Secretary of Defense. Richard
Shiffrin was a top civilian lawyer in the Pentagon
00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:14.999
at the time. The Vice President is not in the chain
of command, in the military chain of command.
00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:19.999
The Secretary of Defense reports directly
to the President. But the Vice President
00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:24.999
clearly took on a role that was, at least,
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untraditional from recent history. In that role, the
Vice President and his long-time legal adviser,
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David Addington, would
press their shared belief
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in unfettered presidential power.
Addington convened
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a group of like-minded political appointees,
White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales,
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who had been the President’s legal arm
since their days together in Texas.
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Gonzales’ White House deputy, Tim Flanigan,
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William \"Jim\" Haynes, Addington’s protégé
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who was now the Pentagon’s
General Counsel, and John Yoo,
00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:09.999
whom a colleague called a \"godsend.\" Yoo’s
post in the Justice Department meant
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that within the executive branch,
legal opinions he penned
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had the weight of law. The five
lawyers met behind closed doors
00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:24.999
in the White House or the
Pentagon, and called themselves
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the \"War Council.\" Two weeks to the day
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after the terrorist attacks, they
launched their legal revolution.
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A radical opinion
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asserted that Congress could not… Place any limits on the
President’s determinations as to any terrorist threat,
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the amount of military force
to be used in response,
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or the method, timing, and
nature of the response.
00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:59.999
These decisions, under our Constitution,
are for the President alone to make.
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Impatience with the rule of law,
00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:09.999
and the firm conviction that the commander
in chief had the authority to ignore it,
00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:14.999
would become a hallmark
of the war on terror.
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More than two weeks ago, I gave Taliban leaders
a series of clear and specific demands.
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None of these demands were met
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and now the Taliban will pay a price.
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The assault on the Taliban in Afghanistan
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was built around American air power, and U.S.
agents on the ground calling in the shots.
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But as Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda
disappeared into the rugged mountains
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on the Afghan/Pakistan border,
the Pentagon increasingly relied
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on bounty hunters.
00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:59.999
Tens of thousands of leaflets promising
\"Enough money to take care of your family
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and your village for the rest of your life\"
were dropped by psychological ops teams.
00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:09.999
Where is Arab? Where is Arab?
Where is Arab?
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$1,000 for one Arab. 30,000.
00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:19.999
40,000. 60,000. And helicopter
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loud speaker announcing these things.
Any Arab in the region was at risk
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of being turned in as a terrorist.
00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:34.999
As soon as we were handed
over to the U.S. military,
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they tied our hands behind our
back and put sacks over our heads.
00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:44.999
Twenty-four-year old Shafiq
Rasul was among hundreds of men
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who had been rounded up by a
warlord in Northern Afghanistan.
00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:54.999
We couldn’t see what was going on. We couldn’t see anything around. We
didn’t know where they were taking us. We didn’t know what was happening.
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They kept shouting things like we
were the ones responsible for 9/11.
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We… we killed members of their
family, and they were gonna
00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:09.999
take their revenge out on us. And they had rifles in
their hands and they could have shot us at any time.
00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:14.999
We were hauled like animals,
00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:19.999
one drawing the other in its walk.\"
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They started making us
run towards the unknown.
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The prisoners started shouting and
crying because of their severe pain.
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There were many young people with us,
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and the soldiers increased
their insults and beatings.
00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:44.999
Over the noise and the din of the
engines, the screaming of the soldiers.
00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:49.999
Profanity, swearing,
00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:54.999
the flashes that could be
made out even despite wearing
00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:59.999
a black hood over my head.
Trophy pictures being taken.
00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:08.000
[sil.]
00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:14.999
In Washington, the question of what
to do with the captives grew urgent.
00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:19.999
And the Vice President grew impatient.
00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:24.999
While he led a ceremony marking
Veteran’s Day, behind the scenes,
00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:29.999
his legal counsel crafted a plan that
would deny the prisoners’ access
00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:34.999
to America’s civilian and military justice.
00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:39.999
Veteran’s weekend I got a
phone call from Jim Haynes
00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:44.999
and it was, \"We have a small
group working on a… a document.
00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:49.999
Uh… We would like for you to come
up and review the document.\"
00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:54.999
General Tom Romig was one of the top
military JAGs pushed to the side
00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:59.999
from the beginning. Some of the things they were
initially talking about were very draconian.
00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:04.999
There were issues about how
many members of the panel
00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:09.999
did it take to convict, and
then sentence, to death.
00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:14.999
General Romig convened
00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:19.999
an urgent meeting of senior
military lawyers to war game
00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:24.999
how to respond to a far-reaching
military order. We had hoped
00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:29.999
we could make a difference in changing
a number of things. We didn’t.
00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:34.999
They didn’t, in part, because the Vice
President had convened a meeting of his own
00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:39.999
to finalize the plan. David
Addington and other lawyers
00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:44.999
from the War Council were there.
The military lawyers were not.
00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:49.999
Within 48 hours, Cheney
took the four-page order
00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:54.999
to the weekly lunch he and President
George W. Bush privately shared.
00:09:55.000 --> 00:09:59.999
Less than two hours later, it was
signed by the commander in chief.
00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:04.999
The President, it said,
had the unilateral power
00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:09.999
to declare that all prisoners
were war criminals. And, further…
00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:14.999
They shall not be privileged to seek any
remedy, in any court of the United States,
00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:19.999
or any international tribunal.
00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:24.999
They could be held indefinitely
and would be tried, if at all,
00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:29.999
in a new process with new rules.
00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:34.999
Conviction could mean… …Life
imprisonment or death.
00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:39.999
Pentagon General Counsel
Haynes said it would be
00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:44.999
the \"Nuremberg of our
time.\" They viewed this as
00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:49.999
accomplishing what
Nuremberg accomplished for
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the losers in World War II, and that is
00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:59.999
the legal imprimatur on umm…
imposing the death penalty.
00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:04.999
There would be maybe dozens of people,
00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:09.999
Bin Laden on down, who would be captured
00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:14.999
and who would qualify
for the death penalty.
00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:19.999
We couldn’t execute them
without some sort of system.
00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:24.999
\"We think it’s the appropriate way to go.
We think it guarantees
00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:29.999
that we’ll have the kind of
treatment of these individuals
00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:34.999
that we believe they deserve.\" That,
of course, was premised on the idea
00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.999
that everyone we captured and detained
really was a bad person. As it turns out,
00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:44.999
a large percentage of them
were merely shepherds.
00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:49.999
Historically, the military has carried out
00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:55.000
battlefield interrogations and operated
according to strict, bright line rules.
00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:14.999
In the days after 9/11,
President George W. Bush
00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:19.999
had ordered the Central Intelligence Agency
to capture or kill Al Qaeda operatives
00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:24.999
around the world. 24 In
the chaos of Afghanistan,
00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:30.000
agents took their pick of the prisoners.
00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:44.999
We’re in the middle of a global war on
terror and commanders have information needs
00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:49.999
that need to be answered now. In fact, better
yet, they should have been answered yesterday.
00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:54.999
Colonel Steve Kleinman is a
veteran Air Force interrogator
00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:59.999
who served in both Iraq wars. At some
point when we realized interrogation
00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:04.999
was going to be very important after
9/11, uh… the agency apparently
00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:09.999
looked within its capabilities, its personnel,
and found that they didn’t have a real,
00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:14.999
formal, structured
interrogation capability.
00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:19.999
Hobbled by its lack of experience
in dealing with this new enemy,
00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.999
the CIA scrambled. For interrogation
advice, they turned to Arab countries
00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:29.999
the U.S. had long accused of torture.
00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:34.999
Private contractors were hired.
And someone pulled the CIA’s old
00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:39.999
\"Bible of Interrogation\" off the shelf.
00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:44.999
The manual code named \"KUBARK\"
was an artifact of the Cold War.
00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:49.999
[sil.]
00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:54.999
During the Korean War,
00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:59.999
American prisoners were tortured
by their communist captors.
00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:04.999
Confiscated films show the Red press conferences…
Thirty-six of them airmen shot out of the sky
00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:09.999
were kept isolated, and tortured psychologically. Statements
broadcast by the Communist propaganda machine throughout the world.
00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:14.999
They confessed to elaborate conspiracies.
00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:19.999
… Our two outboard wing bombs
were germ bombs we dropped on….
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The thing I forgot to mention
about the germ bombs the …
00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:29.999
Very well educated, committed
people, committed to a cause,
00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.999
suddenly appearing in… in a trial and making
these wild allegations about their role
00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:39.999
in some insurgent group within the Soviet Union, their
role as recruited assets of the CIA when we knew
00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:44.999
that they weren’t. So it scared a lot of people. How, what
method were they using to get people to do these things?
00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:49.999
It was a propaganda coup
for the North Koreans
00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:54.999
until the war ended, and the POWs
were released. All this information
00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.999
given in this so-called confession
was entirely uh… without basis.
00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:04.999
It was wrung out of me by torture,
both mentally and physically.\"
00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:09.999
One pilot, trying to explain
what happened to him,
00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:14.999
described a \"slow, quiet and
diabolical poisoning\" of the mind.
00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:19.999
But poisoning his mind
left no physical scars.
00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.999
Out of the bitter prisoner of war lessons learned
in Korea comes \"the School for Survival\"
00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:29.999
at Stead Air Force Base in Nevada. The
US military created a secret program
00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:34.999
to inoculate troops at highest
risk of capture. They were trained
00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:39.999
in \"Survival, Evasion, Resistance
and Escape\" called \"SERE\"
00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:44.999
using harsh methods copied
from the Communists.
00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:49.999
The prisoner is subjected, sometimes for
hours, to machine gun questioning….
00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:54.999
The CIA also studied the communist techniques
that had produced the false confessions,
00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:59.999
and concluded that prolonged
isolation and deprivation
00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:04.999
\"reduced prisoners to animals.\"
Rigorous training for young Americans
00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:09.999
who must face an implacable foe and not break
on the rack of physical and mental torture.
00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:14.999
Those secret studies led to KUBARK - which
00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.999
the CIA itself later set aside
amidst Congressional investigations
00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:24.999
into the legality of the
interrogation methods.
00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:29.999
But in 2001,
00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:34.999
at an American prison camp in
Afghanistan, KUBARK would be revived.
00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:39.999
[sil.]
00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.999
In Kandahar, it seemed to be
an initiation ceremony almost,
00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:49.999
and a pre-cursor to something a
lot more intensive. Moazzam Begg,
00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:54.999
a British citizen, had been seized
by Pakistani officers who burst
00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:59.999
into the Islamabad apartment where
he and his family were living.
00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.999
It’s almost like a conveyor
where you can hear
00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:09.999
sounds of other prisoners screaming,
being screamed at, dogs barking.
00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:14.999
KUBARK’S menu of coercive
interrogation techniques
00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.999
instructed that prisoners
be \"cut off from the known\"
00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.999
and \"plunged into the strange.\"
00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.999
If you can’t see anything, you’re going to be terrified.
It’s the dark that humans are afraid of, not the light.
00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:34.999
Somebody puts a black bag over your head
and you hear the sound of a gun, \"ch ch,\"
00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:39.999
you think, \"My head is gonna be blown off.\"
And that did happen. I heard that sort
00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.999
of \"ch ch\" sound several times.
If the Americans are doing it,
00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:49.999
and they’re not accountable, then
who’s gonna come to your rescue?
00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:54.999
In Washington,
00:17:55.000 --> 00:18:00.000
top officials were contemplating
interrogations of unprecedented harshness.
00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.999
A violation of Geneva’s Article 3
00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.999
ban on torture is a war
crime under U.S. law.
00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.999
The prohibition in the Geneva
Conventions against cruel treatment
00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.999
turns out to have been probably the most important of the legal
restrictions that the Bush administration had to deal with.
00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.999
Martin Lederman was a senior
adviser in the Justice Department
00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.999
at the beginning of the Bush
Administration. In this administration,
00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.999
President George W. Bush has, by all
accounts, been quite forthright in
00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.999
that he’s asked his lawyers not to give him the best
view of the law, but instead, to push the envelope.
00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.999
The metaphor that they’ve used is to go as close
to the legal line as possible without going over.
00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.999
So the metaphor they’ve come up with
is to \"get chalk on one’s spikes. Umm…
00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.999
\"This was the message that went out from
the White House. On January 9th, 2002,
00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.999
in the first of a series of opinions
that would provide legal cover
00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
for coercive interrogations,
00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
John Yoo began to push the envelope. Customary
international law of armed conflict
00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
in no way binds the President or
the US Armed Forces concerning
00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.999
the detention or trial of members
of al Qaeda and the Taliban.
00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
In other words, the President has the power
00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
to suspend or simply ignore
the fundamental laws of war.
00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
That includes Geneva and its
guarantees of basic human rights
00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
to prisoners and civilians alike.
00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
Our views were well known in this matter.
We were not on board.
00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
Richard Armitage served three combat tours in Vietnam. For the most
part, the Department of State was left out of this discussion,
00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
uh… I think precisely because
we’d have no part of it.
00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
The State Department’s top lawyer called
00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
John Yoo’s legal reasoning \"seriously
flawed\" and warned that if heading
00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
to the dark side meant violating
Geneva: This raises a risk of
00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.999
future criminal prosecution for US civilian
and military leadership and their advisers,
00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.999
by other parties to the Geneva Conventions.
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
That is, if officials, including
President George W. Bush
00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
were accused of torture or inhumane
treatment, they could be prosecuted
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
for war crimes.
00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
While the clash escalated in Washington,
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
in Afghanistan, most every Arab captured by
00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
or sold to the United States
was being readied for a trip
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
halfway around the world.
00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
The soldiers just grab you, pick you up
and basically drag you to the plane.
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
And they put gloves on our hands, taped the
gloves to our hands so you can’t take them off.
00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
And they put handcuffs on.
00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
They went round our waist, down to our
feet, shackled our feet together.
00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
They had destroyed all our
senses: Neither to see,
00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
neither to hear, neither
to speak, neither to feel,
00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
nor to move our fingers.
00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
A guard hissed: From now
on, we dictate your food,
00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
your water, your sleep and your shit.
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
You have no life. That whisper lived
with me for five years. It became louder
00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
and louder in my ears.
00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
The photographs of shackled and blindfolded
prisoners provoked alarm and an urgent letter
00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
from Amnesty International reminding
Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld
00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
that \"The term ‘cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment’… should be interpreted…
00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
to extend the widest possible protection against
abuses…including the holding of a detained
00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
or imprisoned person in conditions
which deprive him…of the use
00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
of any of his natural senses.\"
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
How do you respond to charges hooding, shaving,
chaining, perhaps even… What are the words?
00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
Hooding, shaving, chaining,
perhaps even tranquilizing
00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
some of these people are
violating their civil rights.
00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
Umm… That uh… that’s not correct.
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
That you’ve done it? That it’s
a violation of their rights.
00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
It simply isn’t. Whether
or not they agreed,
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
the Administration had its first public
warning: The war on terror was pushing the edge
00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
of international law.
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
The prison camp at Guantanamo, the
\"legal equivalent of outer space,\"
00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
one official called it, would
push even closer to that edge.
00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
When I had the goggles as
well as the shackles removed,
00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
I thought I was hallucinating. I
could just see a series of cages
00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
with people wearing orange.
00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
In many Arab countries, orange
is the color worn by prisoners
00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
condemned to die.
00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
They were, Secretary Rumsfeld said, the \"most
dangerous, best trained, vicious killers
00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
on the face of the Earth.\"
00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
Interrogators assumed they were in
custody because they should be.
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
They’d say if you don’t admit
00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
to being a member of al-Qaeda, if you
don’t admit to meeting Osama bin Laden,
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
that if you… if you… if you don’t care what happens to
yourself, we can do whatever we want to your family,
00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
we can deport them back to their home countries, Pakistan,
and the Pakistani government can do whatever they want.
00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
They were held in isolation and secrecy
00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
locked into a system of
punishment before any evidence
00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
of guilt was established.
You start losing hope,
00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
you think you’re gonna spend
the rest of your life here.
00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:58.000
[sil.]
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell,
the most experienced military man among
00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
the President’s top advisers stepped up
his defense of Geneva’s half century
00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
of war-fighting rules. We were trying to
wrestle with how to fight both an enemy
00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
and an idea, uh… and… and I think
came up with a wrongheaded solution,
00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
uh… opting out of Geneva. We,
after all, want our soldiers,
00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
should they be unfortunate enough to be captured,
to be treated in a proper uh… way. Uh…
00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
And yet, we weren’t willing to afford that to others.
That seems a little counter-intuitive to me.
00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
It did at the time, and it does now.
Before the Secretary of State
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
could make his case to the President
personally, he was undermined
00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
by the Vice President. In a blunt
memo written by Cheney’s counsel,
00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
David Addington, but delivered by
White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales.
00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
George W. Bush was advised that the war on terror.
Renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations
00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
on questioning of enemy prisoners.
00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
And in an argument that could have been
written by a criminal defense lawyer,
00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
the President was told that opting
out of the Geneva Conventions:
00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
Substantially reduces the threat of domestic
criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act.
00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
If you were twisting yourselves
into knots because you’re fearful
00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
that you may be avoiding some war crimes, then
you’re probably tripping too closely to the edge.
00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
Addington, clearly, was the
brainpower behind this,
00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
and I think they felt
like their flexibility
00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
within what they had designed was such
00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
that there wouldn’t be any fear of… of
repercussions, legal repercussions.
00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
Colonel Larry Wilkerson, a 31-year military veteran,
had long been an aide to General Colin Powell.
00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
They had a vision, they were
ruthless in carrying it out,
00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
and they executed it very well.
00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
We’re discussing all the legal
ramifications of how we… what we…
00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
how we characterize uh… the
actions at Guantanamo Bay.
00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
A couple of things we agree on. One, they
will not be treated as prisoners of war.
00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
They’re illegal combatants. Secondly,
uh… they will be treated humanely.
00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
And then we’ll, I’ll figure
out, I’ll listen to all the…
00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
the legalisms and announce
my decision when I make it.
00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
There were a number of things
that people were ready
00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
to jettison because these
were different times.
00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
That’s a dangerous thing because uh…
then you can always have the excuse
00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
uh… to… to… to jettison
the law, the procedures,
00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
the due process, the Conventions, whatever
you want, uh… when it’s convenient.
00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
On February 7th, 2002,
00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
for the first time in history,
President George W. Bush declared
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
that the United States would not be constrained
by Geneva’s prohibitions against cruel
00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
and inhumane treatment.
None of the prisoners
00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
in U.S. custody would be
protected by the laws of war.
00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
[sil.]
00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
In a far corner of the U.S. military
base at Bagram in Afghanistan,
00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
a former Soviet machine shop had
been converted into a prison.
00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
There, Moazzam Begg would be
interrogated by American agents
00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
using tactics that had been
refined in the prison camps
00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
of Stalin’s Soviet Union.
00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
The hands would be placed right
above the head, and tied
00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
or shackled to the top of the door,
which was the entrance to the cage.
00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
I saw people who literally
were no longer able
00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
to physically sustain that
position and just hung off limp.
00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
The entire weight of their body
being held by their wrists.
00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
[music]
00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
That goes back to
00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
the Middle Ages. It was called
Strappado by the Spanish Inquisition.
00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
Clive Stafford Smith has represented more
than forty prisoners in U.S. custody
00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
during the war on terror,
including Moazzam Begg.
00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
And it basically dislocates your
shoulders slowly and very painfully.
00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
After one interrogation,
00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
Moazzam Begg was dragged
into a cell and hog-tied,
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
his hands cuffed behind his
back and chained to his ankles,
00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
and left that way overnight.
00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
I would be interrogated at
any given time of the day
00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
or night, umm… unannounced.
00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
An interrogator would walk in and tell
me to get up. The guard would make sure
00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
I would be seated or standing, depending
on how long I’d been in either position.
00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
A floodlight was aimed into
his cell 24 hours a day.
00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
[sil.]
00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
You want to fall asleep. You want to do anything in order that you
can just lie down in the corner no matter how hard the floor is,
00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
how cold it is, no matter how
uncomfortable sleep would be
00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
with shackles on your arms and legs.
Depriving a prisoner of sleep
00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
also has a name from the Middle
Ages \"Tormentum Insomniae.\"
00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
It goes beyond being scared now.
You just want to sleep.
00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
[sil.]
00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
They produced pictures
of my wife, my children,
00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
and waved these pictures
in front of me, asking me
00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
if I knew what had happened to
my wife and kids that night.
00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
If I thought they were safe, if I
thought I’d ever see them again.
00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
If I really cared about them so
much, I would tell them everything.
00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
A woman began to scream in a nearby cell.
00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
[sil.]
00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
Threats against a prisoner’s family were called \"Second
Degree Torture\" during the Spanish Inquisition
00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
and were commonly used by the Soviet KGB.
00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
For two days and two
nights, he heard the woman
00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
he thought might be his
wife being tortured.
00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
If there’s any point in my life that I
wanted to kill somebody, it was this point.
00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
And if I could have got those
shackles around their necks,
00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
I would have done so and got out to the
next room just to stop what’s happening.
00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
During the 11 months Moazzam
Begg was imprisoned in Bagram,
00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
at least two men in U.S.
custody there died.
00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
[sil.]
00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
In Guantanamo, he was locked
into a 6-by-8 foot cage
00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
where he would spend the next
two years, in isolation.
00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
His nightmares were filled
with the screams of a woman.
00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:55.000
[sil.]
00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
In March 2002, U.S. intelligence teams, backed
by more than one hundred police officers,
00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
had moved in on a suspected
al Qaeda safe house
00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
in Faisalabad, Pakistan.
00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
\"He said, ‘Allah Akbar, ’
00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
three times. I am ready to be a martyr.
00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
Kill me.’\" Abu Zubaydah
00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
alleged to be a major figure in
al Qaeda, was severely wounded,
00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
but taken alive.
00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
We hauled in a guy named Abu Zubaydah.
He’s one of the top operatives
00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
plotting and planning, death and
destruction on the United States.
00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
He’s not plotting’ and planning’ anymore.
00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
He’s where he belongs. The
man FBI officials called
00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
al Qaeda’s \"travel agent\"
and so a minor figure,
00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
had disappeared into the spider web of
secret CIA prisons spread across the globe.
00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
The White House and the Vice
President’s office were,
00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
in 2002, urging the CIA
to engage in a detention
00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
and… and interrogation program, something they apparently
had not ever done before, and to use techniques
00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
that appeared on their face to violate
several different legal restrictions.
00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
The CIA quite understandably said,
\"We’re not going to do that,
00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
unless we are given some assurance by
lawyers within the Justice Department
00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
that this is lawful.\" The agency
insisted on what one official called
00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
a \"golden shield.\" On August 1st, 2002,
00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
they got it, in an opinion requested
by the White House and delivered by
00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
John Yoo’s office in the
Justice Department.
00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
The Vice President’s lawyer had framed
the core premise: Congress can no more
00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
interfere with the President’s conduct
of the interrogation of enemy combatants
00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
than it can dictate strategic or
tactical decisions on the battlefield.
00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
That is, any attempt by Congress to
interfere with a Presidential order,
00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
even if it crossed the line into torture,
00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
would be unconstitutional. And
any interrogation would be legal
00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
unless it caused pain that was:
Equivalent in intensity to
00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
the pain accompanying serious physical
injury, such as organ failure,
00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
impairment of bodily
function, or even death.
00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
If you define torture
as organ damage, death,
00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
or almost death, then you can stand
up and say that you don’t do torture.
00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
Uh… And I think that’s
what they were doing.
00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
In secret White House meetings chaired by
National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice,
00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
a committee of top officials that included
00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
Vice President Cheney,
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld
00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
and CIA director George Tenet, reviewed and
approved the specifics of harsh interrogations.
00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
[music]
00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
Many of the proposed techniques were based
on the military’s secret \"SERE\" training
00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
\"Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape\"
00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
for Americans at risk of
capture by torture regimes.
00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
The simulated captivity is supposed to expose
students to a, well, it’s a stock phrase
00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
that we all, every instructor
memorizes, \"A totalitarian evil nation
00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
with a complete disregard for human
rights and the Geneva Convention.\"
00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
Malcolm Nance is a 20-year veteran of
the military intelligence community.
00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
And if you can endure a \"totalitarian evil nation with a
complete disregard for human rights and the Geneva Convention,\"
00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
you can pretty much endure everything.
00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
My particular class was ambushed.
00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
We heard a lot of shooting outside the truck, some
strange fellows with accents and strange uniforms
00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
with stars on their caps pulled us out of the back of the
truck, started slapping us around. And the next thing I knew,
00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
we were in a prison camp. Like Richard
Armitage, SERE trainees are slapped,
00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
hooded, their sleep disrupted. Under
the constant watch of physicians
00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
and psychologists, they are stripped,
exposed to temperature extremes,
00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
sexually humiliated.
00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
And some officers at the Navy’s SERE school
were subjected to what has been known since
00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
the Spanish Inquisition
as the \"water torture.\"
00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
During World War II and
Vietnam, it was prosecuted by
00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
the U.S. as a war crime.
I was put on an incline.
00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
My legs were like that and my
back went down. A wet towel
00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
was put over my nose and mouth.
Uh… It was completely soaked.
00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
But I could still breathe. And then a question would be asked and
I would not answer it. Water would slowly be poured in this,
00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
and the next time I took a breath, I’d be drawing
in water. You start to panic. And as you panic,
00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
you start gasping, and as you gasp,
00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
your gag reflex is overridden by water. And then you
start to choke, and then you start to drown more.
00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
Because that water doesn’t stop until the interrogator
wants to ask you a question. And then for that second,
00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
the water will continue, and you’ll get a second
to puke and spit up everything that you have, and
00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
then you’ll have an opportunity to determine whether
you’re willing to continue with the process.
00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
I did realize the people doing
this were actually on my side.
00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
But the sensation to me was one of total helplessness. And I… I’ve had a lot
of sensations in my life, but helplessness was not generally one of them.
00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
Uh… But the sensation was enormously
unpleasant and… and frightening.
00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
In 2002, at a secret jail in Thailand,
00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
contractors whose expertise was in
00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
the Army’s SERE torture resistance
training, not interrogation,
00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
led the CIA’S mental
demolition of Abu Zubaydah.
00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
He was confined in a cage called a
\"dog box\" so small he could not stand.
00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
The Red Hot Chili Peppers
were blasted at full volume
00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
for hours on end. If our
purpose was, as interrogators,
00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
to do what the KGB was doing
much of during the show trials
00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
and that is to force somebody to
comply and to create propaganda,
00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
then they’re great. They’d be perfect.
But that’s not what we’re after.
00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
We’re after intelligence
information which is true.
00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
Abu Zubaydah was stripped naked, held in
frigid cells, doused with cold water.
00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
Video cameras recorded him 24 hours a day.
00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
Did the CIA not understand the difference
between SERE resistance training
00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
and interrogation for intelligence
purposes? And if they didn’t,
00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
I can’t, I… I find that shocking.
00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
The agency was on tenuous
legal ground, as well,
00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
and so insisted on high-level
authorization for each new step,
00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
including one of the harshest
SERE techniques, Waterboarding.
00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
It was the newly-coined term for
00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
the centuries-old water torture.
00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
There’s no simulation here. It’s controlled
drowning. Water is entering your system.
00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
It can overload your ability to gag it out.
00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
[sil.]
00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
There is no question in my mind - there’s no question in any reasonable
human being, there shouldn’t be, that this is torture. I’m ashamed
00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
that we’re even having this discussion.
00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
[sil.]
00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
Though the Administration would later admit that Abu
Zubaydah was one of three prisoners who were waterboarded,
00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
hundreds of hours of videotape of his
interrogation had been destroyed.
00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
And that meant any evidence
of the water torture,
00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
a felony under US law had
been destroyed as well.
00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
[sil.]
00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
On August 4th, 2001,
00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
a 26-year-old Saudi named
Mohamed al-Qahtani
00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
flew from London to Orlando,
Florida with $2,800 in his pocket
00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
but no return ticket. A
suspicious immigration officer
00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
refused him entry. Mohamed al-Qahtani
00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
had been detained at a U.S.
border station in Florida.
00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
Colonel Britt Mallow headed a special Pentagon task
force of the military’s criminal investigators.
00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
When he was first captured,
information was developed
00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
that indicated that he was, in fact, the same
person that had been turned away at the border.
00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
And that meant Mohamed al-Qahtani might
be the \"20th hijacker\" recruited for
00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
the team that would overpower
passengers on United 93.
00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
[sil.]
00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
As the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks
approached, demands from Washington
00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
for \"actionable intelligence\"
from Mohamed al-Qahtani
00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
in custody at Guantanamo escalated.
In September,
00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
the Pentagon announced that Major General
Geoffrey Miller, a career Army artillery officer
00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
would run both the detention
and intelligence operations at
00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
the prison camp. \"When I showed up at
Guantanamo,\" he later acknowledged,
00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
\"I had never before
witnessed\" an interrogation.
00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
If you look at some of the people that
were put in charge of Guantanamo,
00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
they had very little experience with intelligence. They
had very little experience with detention operations.
00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
They had very little experience
with interrogations.
00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
And yet these were the ones that were making the decisions
and were put under the pressure to make those decisions
00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
without a lot of good information.
00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
On September 25th, that pressure intensified
when lawyers from the War Council,
00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
David Addington, and the Pentagon’s
Jim Haynes arrived from Washington,
00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
along with the CIA’s top lawyer,
all of them well aware of
00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
Mohamed al-Qahtani. The
secret August \"torture memo\"
00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
providing legal cover for
harsh interrogations was,
00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
figuratively at least, in their pockets.
00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
In addition to its narrow definition
of illegal physical torture,
00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
the memo also argued that: For purely mental
pain or suffering to amount to torture…
00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
it must result in significant psychological
harm of significant duration…
00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
lasting for months or even years.
00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
A week after the lawyers’ visit,
00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
a senior CIA official instructed
Guantanamo officers on various
00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
SERE-derived tactics. According
to minutes of the briefing,
00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
he told them complying with laws against
torture \"is basically subject to perception.
00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
If the detainee dies,
you’re doing it wrong.\"
00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
[sil.]
00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
Nine days later, the outgoing commander
of Guantanamo’s interrogation corps,
00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
who would later testify that his \"marching orders\"
came from the President of the United States,
00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
officially requested authority
to use harsh methods\"
00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
such as those used in US
interrogation resistance training
00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
or by other US government agencies.\"
00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
He listed some of the same SERE tactics
00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.999
the CIA had turned into a
blueprint for torture,
00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.999
including the \"use of a wet towel and dripping
water to induce the misperception of suffocation\"
00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
and \"scenarios designed to
convince the detainee that death
00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
or severely painful consequences are
imminent for him and/or his family.\"
00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:18.000
[sil.]
00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
On December 2nd, 2002, Secretary of Defense
Rumsfeld signed off on an \"Action Memo\"
00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
prepared by his General
Counsel, Jim Haynes,
00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
approving fifteen of the proposed
interrogation techniques. Many of them defied
00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
the military’s own definitions
of cruel and inhumane treatment.
00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
Muhammad Al-Qahtani could be kept
in isolation, stripped nude,
00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
kept awake and interrogated
for 20 hours at a time.
00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
Phobias such as fear of
dogs could be exploited,
00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
as could painful stress
positions, keeping him standing
00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
for up to four hours. The Secretary,
00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
who works at a standup desk,
added a handwritten note.
00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
\"I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why
is standing limited to 4 hours?\"
00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
[sil.]
00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
It just showed an incredible naivete,
and I think this is more the case,
00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
an incredible hubris. No one sat down,
00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
not John Yoo, not David Addington, not
Dick Cheney, not Donald Rumsfeld,
00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
and said, \"What’s the cumulative effect
of allowing all these things to be done?\"
00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
What if you were to do 12
of these things repeatedly
00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
over 45-day period in the dark
with no exposure to the light,
00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
no sleep, hypothermic temperature
conditions, hanging by your wrist from
00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
the wall sometimes. That’s not torture?
00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:05.000
I don’t think anyone ever sat down and thought
about that. If they did, they condoned it.
00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
Mohamed al-Qahtani, Detainee number 063, had
already been in solitary confinement for months.
00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
According to FBI agents who saw him,
00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
he was evidencing behavior consistent
with extreme psychological trauma,
00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
talking to non-existent people,
reporting hearing voices…\"
00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
Now, his interrogations would intensify.
00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
An hourly log leaked from Guantanamo
narrates the harsh details.
00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
He is forced to wear a woman’s bra.
00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
A thong is draped over his head,
sexually taunting and humiliating
00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
a Muslim man. A leash is
tied around his neck.
00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
[sil.]
00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
1115 hours, \"Began teaching
the detainee lessons such as
00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
stay, come, and bark to
elevate his social status
00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
up to that of a dog. Detainee
became very agitated.\"
00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
1300 hours:
00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
\"Dog tricks continued and detainee
stated he should be treated like a man.\"
00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
Nine hours later,
00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
while women are in the interrogation
booth, he is stripped naked.
00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
2200 hours:\"After approximately
five minutes of nudity
00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
the detainee ceased to resist. He stated that he
did not like the females viewing his naked body.
00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
[sil.]
00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
The majority of, many of
these military interrogators
00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
were very young. They were 18, 19, 20,
00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
kids who were uh… kids, who… who
essentially were serving their country.
00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.999
Mike Gelles feared what he called
\"force drift\" at the off-shore prison
00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:29.999
that abusive tactics approved
for Mohammed al-Qahtani’s
00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
interrogation would spread. Here we had all
these alleged terrorists in Guantanamo Bay,
00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
and we weren’t getting the
intelligence that leadership thought
00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
we should be getting. So it was
time now to begin to think about,
00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:49.999
how were we gonna expedite this
process, ticking time bomb,
00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.999
all this shapes the context.
My top agent strongly,
00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
strongly believed that we could not
be a part in any way to anything
00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.999
that might be seen as illegal or improper.
00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.999
I sent out, by email,
instructions to our agents.
00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
\"If you see something that you think is wrong,
we want you to report it to us immediately.
00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
But we want you to disengage.\"
While Colonel Mallow was ordering
00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.999
his investigators to stand
down, General Geoffrey Miller,
00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:29.999
just five weeks after taking charge, put
forward a Standard Operating Procedure
00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.999
for his interrogators, based on SERE.
00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.999
This order has never before
been shown in its entirety.
00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.999
These tactics and techniques
are used at SERE school to
00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:49.999
\"break\" SERE detainees. The same tactics
and techniques can be used to break real
00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:54.999
detainees during interrogation.
00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:59.999
General Miller wasn’t
00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:04.999
an expert in detention operations,
in intelligence operations,
00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.999
and especially not in interrogation. So he relied
on the experts that he surrounded himself with.
00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.999
They were mostly from the CIA’s
equivalent in the Pentagon,
00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.999
the Defense Intelligence Agency, or DIA.
00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:24.999
They were telling him these aggressive
ways of getting at it were the best.
00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:29.999
We offered an alternative. And
General Miller basically said,
00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:34.999
\"If you’re not gonna help us in this, if you’re not gonna
participate in this, if you don’t want to be on our team,
00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.999
you’re out of here.\" I
wondered how informed
00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
those who were making these decisions truly were.
I always wondered about a lot of the agendas
00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
uh… that were being worked,
how political was this?
00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
In Washington,
00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
a blunt lesson in the politics of
harsh interrogations was unfolding.
00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
On December 17th, 2002, the head of the
Naval Criminal Investigative Service
00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
took the troubling reports
he had received to
00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
the Navy’s top civilian lawyer.
He came to me and
00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
uh… without prior warning
or announcement said
00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
that his people down in
Guantanamo had reported to him
00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:29.999
that detainees were being abused.
00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:34.999
One of Alberto Mora’s great uncles had been imprisoned in a Nazi
concentration camp, another was tortured before he was hanged.
00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:39.999
He felt that the abuse was serious,
00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:44.999
umm… that it most probably violated American
law and certainly violated American values,
00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:49.999
umm… that his men were upset
00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:54.999
at being associated with this,
and did I wanna know more.
00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:59.999
It was everything that
he didn’t believe in.
00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:04.999
And he sat there, still, listening, didn’t
ask a question for minutes. We all finished.
00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:09.999
And that’s then when I remember
him saying, \"This is not right.\"
00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:14.999
Mora was shown the action
memo Rumsfeld had approved,
00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:19.999
and portions of al-Qahtani’s
interrogation log.
00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:24.999
For 48 of 54 consecutive days,
00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.999
the prisoner would be questioned from
00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.999
4 AM until midnight.
00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:39.999
0400 hours, \"Detainee was told to stand
00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:44.999
and loud music was played
to keep detainee awake.
00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:49.999
Was told he can go to sleep
when he tells the truth.\"
00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:54.999
Doctors kept his body functioning well
enough for the interrogation to continue.
00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:59.999
2000 hours,
00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:04.999
Corpsman checks vitals and finds the
detainee’s pulse is unusually slow.
00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:09.999
2050 hours, \"Heartbeat is
regular but very slow,
00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:14.999
35 beats per minute.
00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:19.999
Medically close to death, Mohammed al-Qahtani
was rushed to the hospital where he was revived
00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:24.999
and then, less than two
days later, released.
00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:29.999
1800 hours, Detainee is hooded, shackled
00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:34.999
and restrained in a litter
for transport to Camp X-Ray.
00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:39.999
1830 hours, \"Detainee arrives at Camp X-Ray
00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:44.999
and is returned to interrogation booth.\"
00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:49.999
I was horrified. I was stupefied. I…
00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:54.999
I was astonished that this
could have taken place,
00:55:55.000 --> 00:55:59.999
that Secretary Rumsfeld himself would have
been asked, much less gotten involved,
00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:04.999
in these kinds of matters. He took his
concerns to the author of the \"Action Memo,\"
00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:09.999
Rumsfeld’s top lawyer, Jim Haynes.
00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:14.999
I told him, \"Jim, this could be torture.\" And
he instantaneously responded, \"No it’s not.\"
00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:19.999
And I said, \"Think through a little bit more
carefully as to each of these techniques. Umm… Uh…
00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:24.999
Light and auditory stimulus
deprivation, what does that mean?
00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:29.999
Umm… You put them in a completely dark room for an hour,
a day, a week, a month, until the person goes blind?
00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:34.999
Until madness sets in? Phobia techniques.
What is that?
00:56:35.000 --> 00:56:39.999
The rats, the bats, the snake, a coffin.
00:56:40.000 --> 00:56:44.999
When and how?\" And when
I left, I was convinced
00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:49.999
that he would be picking up the phone,
calling the Secretary, and saying,
00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:54.999
\"Boss, I made a mistake, we
need to reel back something
00:56:55.000 --> 00:56:59.999
that we need to think through a little more
carefully. \" \" Join us in the countdown..
00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:04.999
5, 4, 3, 2, 1\"
00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:09.999
[music]
00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:14.999
Mora left Washington for the holidays,
certain his intervention would succeed.
00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:19.999
He did not yet fully grasp
00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:24.999
that the abuses at Guantanamo were not
the result of a lawyer’s mistake,
00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:29.999
but of policy set at the highest levels.
00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:34.999
[sil.]
00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:39.999
In the Gambia in West
Africa, farfrom Washington
00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:44.999
and the battlefield in Afghanistan, the
great-grandson of a former prime minister
00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:49.999
of Jordan had been arrested when he
arrived from London on a business trip.
00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:54.999
Bisher al-Rawi was held by
Gambian authorities for a month
00:57:55.000 --> 00:57:59.999
until December 8th, 2002.
00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:04.999
Two Gambian agents, they sort of
stand me up, and we start walking.
00:58:05.000 --> 00:58:09.999
And boom, two big guys grab
me and start dragging me.
00:58:10.000 --> 00:58:14.999
The \"two big guys\" were Americans.
00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:19.999
Bisher Al-Rawi had been swept up in a
covert CIA program to nab suspects
00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:24.999
and move them to countries where
they would be interrogated outside
00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:29.999
the law. Like hundreds of men abducted
in so-called \"extraordinary renditions,\"
00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:34.999
Bisher al-Rawi was \"good
to go\" in just 20 minutes.
00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:39.999
[sil.]
00:58:40.000 --> 00:58:44.999
Trussed like an animal and
surrounded by American agents,
00:58:45.000 --> 00:58:49.999
he was loaded onto a Gulfstream jet bound
for one of the CIA’s secret \"black sites.\"\"
00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:54.999
Throughout the entire flight,
00:58:55.000 --> 00:58:59.999
I was on the verge of screaming.
I was terrified.\"
00:59:00.000 --> 00:59:04.999
Near Kabul in Afghanistan,
00:59:05.000 --> 00:59:09.999
in the dead of winter, Bisher Al-Rawi
00:59:10.000 --> 00:59:14.999
was thrown into an
unheated underground cell.
00:59:15.000 --> 00:59:19.999
Unknown numbers of men, some who ended up in
Guantanamo, others who have since disappeared
00:59:20.000 --> 00:59:24.999
were held in what they themselves called
00:59:25.000 --> 00:59:29.999
the \"prison of darkness.\"
00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:34.999
They hung me up. I was allowed a few
hours of sleep on the second day,
00:59:35.000 --> 00:59:39.999
then hung up again…this time for two days.
My wrists and hands
00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:44.999
had gone numb. After a while
I felt pretty much dead.
00:59:45.000 --> 00:59:49.999
I didn’t feel I existed at all.
00:59:50.000 --> 00:59:54.999
The occasional beam from
a guard’s flashlight
00:59:55.000 --> 00:59:59.999
was all that pierced the
dark and frigid cells.
01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:04.999
You do not know what you’re losing, you know, not
being able to see. You have to use your senses,
01:00:05.000 --> 01:00:09.999
all of them. It was a very,
very difficult place to handle.
01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:14.999
It was, one prisoner said, \"as
if you were inside a tomb.\"
01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:19.999
Except for the sound.
01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:24.999
[sil.]
01:00:25.000 --> 01:00:29.999
Speakers in every cell blasted
non-stop, around the clock,
01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:34.999
for days that turned into weeks.
01:00:35.000 --> 01:00:39.999
[sil.]
01:00:40.000 --> 01:00:44.999
We’re talking about never essentially being
allowed to ever fall asleep soundly.
01:00:45.000 --> 01:00:49.999
George Brent Mickum was Bisher
al-Rawi’s pro bono American attorney.
01:00:50.000 --> 01:00:54.999
So that,
01:00:55.000 --> 01:00:59.999
you know, you get to the point where you will say
anything to try and be allowed to get some sleep.
01:01:00.000 --> 01:01:04.999
And what everyone has told me, they
have no idea what they may have said.
01:01:05.000 --> 01:01:09.999
I mean, there you’re just not lucid.
They could ask, you know,
01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:14.999
\"Did you assassinate George Bush?\"
And they would say, \"Yeah.\"
01:01:15.000 --> 01:01:19.999
[sil.]
01:01:20.000 --> 01:01:24.999
When he arrived in the light
and heat of Guantanamo,
01:01:25.000 --> 01:01:29.999
Mohammed al-Rawi assured other
prisoners that the worst was over.
01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:34.999
That hope, that human hope,
natural hope that gosh,
01:01:35.000 --> 01:01:39.999
you know, maybe it’s gonna get better.
Unfortunately, unfortunately,
01:01:40.000 --> 01:01:44.999
every time you think it’s gonna
get better, it was getting worse.
01:01:45.000 --> 01:01:49.999
In early January, 2003,
01:01:50.000 --> 01:01:54.999
in a move guaranteed to
be reported straight to
01:01:55.000 --> 01:01:59.999
the Vice President’s office, and so
at considerable risk to his career,
01:02:00.000 --> 01:02:04.999
Alberto Mora drafted a memo calling the
tactics still being used at Guantanamo,
01:02:05.000 --> 01:02:09.999
\"At a minimum, cruel and
unusual treatment and,
01:02:10.000 --> 01:02:14.999
at worst, torture.\" On January 15th,
01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:19.999
he told Jim Haynes that if the
interrogations were not halted,
01:02:20.000 --> 01:02:24.999
he would sign the memo, exposing
the Administration’s policy.
01:02:25.000 --> 01:02:29.999
Jim pushed the memorandum uh…
back at me in its envelope
01:02:30.000 --> 01:02:34.999
and uh… said, umm…\"
01:02:35.000 --> 01:02:39.999
I don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish
with this,\" which was an astonishing comment.
01:02:40.000 --> 01:02:44.999
And then he said, \"Well, I’m
happy to inform you that
01:02:45.000 --> 01:02:49.999
the Secretary is considering
rescinding his authorities.\"
01:02:50.000 --> 01:02:54.999
So I said, \"Considering?\" And
then he said, \"I know, I know.
01:02:55.000 --> 01:02:59.999
Let me get back to you.\" To defuse the
growing rebellion inside the Pentagon,
01:03:00.000 --> 01:03:04.999
Rumsfeld did suspend approval
of the harshest tactics.
01:03:05.000 --> 01:03:09.999
And he asked the military’s top lawyers
to weigh in on interrogations –
01:03:10.000 --> 01:03:14.999
a year after the first prisoners
had arrived at Guantanamo.
01:03:15.000 --> 01:03:19.999
We only had one conversation with Mr.
Rumsfeld. He came in and gave us a pep talk.
01:03:20.000 --> 01:03:24.999
And basically said this is so important, and what
you’re doing will… will affect the United States
01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:29.999
for years to come. And it was a,
I thought it a little strange
01:03:30.000 --> 01:03:34.999
that we were getting a pep talk on something
like this. Maybe it was an attempt to get us to
01:03:35.000 --> 01:03:39.999
do what they wanted to do politically.
01:03:40.000 --> 01:03:44.999
In fact, Jim Haynes had
already turned to the
01:03:45.000 --> 01:03:49.999
War Council’s reliable scribe, John Yoo.
01:03:50.000 --> 01:03:54.999
And Yoo wrote an 81-page legal
opinion expanding the still
01:03:55.000 --> 01:03:59.999
secret \"torture\" memo. He
now added, for example,
01:04:00.000 --> 01:04:04.999
that the President had the authority to approve
tactics that could include drugging a prisoner,
01:04:05.000 --> 01:04:09.999
as long as the drugs did not,
\"create a profound disruption…
01:04:10.000 --> 01:04:14.999
substantially interfering with his cognitive abilities
or fundamentally altering his personality.\"
01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:19.999
And, that to violate US law
01:04:20.000 --> 01:04:24.999
against maiming: \" cutting,
biting, slitting…\"
01:04:25.000 --> 01:04:29.999
Must be specific \"to the body part
the statute specifies …the nose,
01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:34.999
ear, lip, tongue, eye or limb.\"
01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:39.999
[sil.]
01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:44.999
Alberto Mora asked John Yoo
to meet him in the Pentagon.
01:04:45.000 --> 01:04:49.999
As he was talking, I was becoming
more concerned and more alarmed,
01:04:50.000 --> 01:04:54.999
and ultimately I asked him the question,
\"Well, John, does this mean the President has
01:04:55.000 --> 01:04:59.999
the authority to order
torture?\" And he said, \"Yes.\"
01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:04.999
John Yoo’s memo pushed even further, opining
that anyone prosecuted for following
01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:09.999
the President’s orders would be legally
protected. There isn’t a court internationally
01:05:10.000 --> 01:05:14.999
or in the United States that would
support that theory if you’ve committed
01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:19.999
an act of torture or war crime, but because
you believe you are operating under
01:05:20.000 --> 01:05:24.999
the uh… the… the umbrella
of… of a presidential
01:05:25.000 --> 01:05:29.999
uh… war powers, the commander in
chief war powers, you’re immune.
01:05:30.000 --> 01:05:34.999
The commander-in-chief doesn’t have the
power to make that which is illegal
01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:39.999
under the law of war, uh… legal.
01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:44.999
But Jim Haynes ordered a report
based on John Yoo’s assertions.
01:05:45.000 --> 01:05:49.999
Jim Haynes invited me to
speak to him privately as
01:05:50.000 --> 01:05:54.999
to my thoughts. I said, \"If I were
you, I’d put this in a desk drawer.
01:05:55.000 --> 01:05:59.999
I’d never… never let it see the light
of day again. Just let it go away.\"
01:06:00.000 --> 01:06:04.999
I was told, that, you know, we’re
not gonna go forward on it,
01:06:05.000 --> 01:06:09.999
everything’s on hold, you’ve
been listened to, and… and…
01:06:10.000 --> 01:06:14.999
and many of those techniques that
were at the extreme end are… are…
01:06:15.000 --> 01:06:19.999
are now out the window. We thought we
had won. The word from Guantanamo was
01:06:20.000 --> 01:06:24.999
that the abuse of prisoners had stopped.
01:06:25.000 --> 01:06:29.999
In fact, they had lost. And
they had been deceived.
01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:34.999
The top military lawyers would not
find out for more than a year
01:06:35.000 --> 01:06:39.999
that in April, 2003, Rumsfeld had
secretly given the go-ahead to use
01:06:40.000 --> 01:06:44.999
24 harsh interrogation
techniques at Guantanamo.
01:06:45.000 --> 01:06:49.999
General Miller was briefed.
01:06:50.000 --> 01:06:54.999
Interrogators at the prison camp
had their own \"golden shield\"
01:06:55.000 --> 01:06:59.999
immunity from prosecution, in advance.
01:07:00.000 --> 01:07:04.999
[sil.]
01:07:05.000 --> 01:07:09.999
I looked down the hall.
01:07:10.000 --> 01:07:14.999
And I heard this head-banger music blaring
out. And I could see what appeared to be,
01:07:15.000 --> 01:07:19.999
like strobe light coming
out of the doorway.
01:07:20.000 --> 01:07:24.999
Colonel Stuart Couch, a military prosecutor who
had gone through SERE training as a Marine,
01:07:25.000 --> 01:07:29.999
visited the prison camp to hear
evidence on a case he’d been assigned.
01:07:30.000 --> 01:07:34.999
And so I walked down the
hallway and the door was open.
01:07:35.000 --> 01:07:39.999
And I saw a detainee sitting on the floor.
01:07:40.000 --> 01:07:44.999
He was shackled. And the room was blacked
out with exception of the strobe light.
01:07:45.000 --> 01:07:49.999
And he was just, he was
rocking back and forth.
01:07:50.000 --> 01:07:54.999
It looked, for all the world,
like an experience that
01:07:55.000 --> 01:07:59.999
I had gone through in SERE School.
You know, the strobe lights,
01:08:00.000 --> 01:08:04.999
the heavy metal music. I mean, that was
right out of the SERE school playbook.
01:08:05.000 --> 01:08:09.999
There was an Air Force attorney that was
accompanying me, giving me the tour.
01:08:10.000 --> 01:08:14.999
And I just said, \"Did you see that?\" And he
goes, \"Well, yeah.\" And I said, \"You know,
01:08:15.000 --> 01:08:19.999
I got a problem with that.\"
And he goes,\" Well, yeah,
01:08:20.000 --> 01:08:24.999
it, that’s approved.\"
01:08:25.000 --> 01:08:29.999
Colonel Couch was not the only one troubled by
the tactics Secretary Rumsfeld had approved.
01:08:30.000 --> 01:08:34.999
FBI agents at the prison camp
were keeping what they called
01:08:35.000 --> 01:08:39.999
a \"war crimes\" file, noting
what they witnessed.
01:08:40.000 --> 01:08:44.999
I entered interview rooms to
find a detainee chained hand
01:08:45.000 --> 01:08:49.999
and foot in a fetal position
to the floor, with no chair,
01:08:50.000 --> 01:08:54.999
food, or water. Most times they had
urinated or defecated on themselves,
01:08:55.000 --> 01:08:59.999
and had been left there
for 18, 24 hours or more.
01:09:00.000 --> 01:09:04.999
On another occasion… the temperature in
01:09:05.000 --> 01:09:09.999
the unventilated room was
probably well over 100 degrees.
01:09:10.000 --> 01:09:14.999
The detainee was almost unconscious on the
floor, with a pile of hair next to him.
01:09:15.000 --> 01:09:19.999
He had apparently been literally pulling
his own hair out throughout the night.
01:09:20.000 --> 01:09:24.999
A detainee… said a female interrogator,
01:09:25.000 --> 01:09:29.999
after not getting cooperation from
him, called four guards into the room.
01:09:30.000 --> 01:09:34.999
While the guards held him, she…
embraced the detainee from behind
01:09:35.000 --> 01:09:39.999
and put her hand on his genitals… and she
wiped what he thought was menstrual blood
01:09:40.000 --> 01:09:44.999
from her body on his face and head.
01:09:45.000 --> 01:09:49.999
We were basically shackled to
the floor sitting like this,
01:09:50.000 --> 01:09:54.999
shackled to the floor, and you’d
be sitting there freezing.
01:09:55.000 --> 01:09:59.999
It seemed like it was an
experiment just to see
01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:04.999
to what extent they could take a human.
01:10:05.000 --> 01:10:09.999
[music]
01:10:10.000 --> 01:10:14.999
We have re-created our
enemy’s methodologies
01:10:15.000 --> 01:10:19.999
in Guantanamo. It will hurt
us for decades to come.
01:10:20.000 --> 01:10:24.999
Decades. Our people will all
be subjected to these tactics,
01:10:25.000 --> 01:10:29.999
because we have authorized them for the
world now. How it got to Guantanamo
01:10:30.000 --> 01:10:34.999
is a crime and somebody needs
to figure out who did it,
01:10:35.000 --> 01:10:39.999
how they did it, who authorized
them to do it, and shut it down.
01:10:40.000 --> 01:10:44.999
Because our servicemen
will suffer for years.
01:10:45.000 --> 01:10:49.999
[sil.]
01:10:50.000 --> 01:10:54.999
\"My fellow citizens, at this hour
American and coalition forces are in
01:10:55.000 --> 01:10:59.999
the early stages of military
operations to disarm Iraq,
01:11:00.000 --> 01:11:04.999
to free its people and to defend
the world from grave danger.\"
01:11:05.000 --> 01:11:13.000
[sil.]
01:11:15.000 --> 01:11:19.999
Three months after President George W.
Bush declared
01:11:20.000 --> 01:11:24.999
the end of major combat operations in Iraq,
01:11:25.000 --> 01:11:29.999
a potent guerrilla resistance rose
across broad swaths of the country.
01:11:30.000 --> 01:11:34.999
Demands for real-time, battlefield
01:11:35.000 --> 01:11:39.999
intelligence grew urgent.
01:11:40.000 --> 01:11:44.999
The \"gloves are coming off,\"
interrogators were told in August, 2003.
01:11:45.000 --> 01:11:49.999
Prisoners needed to be broken.
01:11:50.000 --> 01:11:54.999
One interrogator suggested,
01:11:55.000 --> 01:11:59.999
a baseline interrogation technique
01:12:00.000 --> 01:12:04.999
that at a minimum allows for physical contact resembling that
used by SERE instructors. Sleep deprivation… fear of dogs
01:12:05.000 --> 01:12:09.999
and snakes appear to work nicely. I firmly
agree that the gloves need to come off.
01:12:10.000 --> 01:12:14.999
[sil.]
01:12:15.000 --> 01:12:19.999
In late August, on orders from
the Secretary of Defense,
01:12:20.000 --> 01:12:24.999
Major General Geoffrey Miller traveled to
Baghdad, and told the general in charge of U.S.
01:12:25.000 --> 01:12:29.999
prison operations he was
there to \"gitmoize\"
01:12:30.000 --> 01:12:34.999
the interrogations.
01:12:35.000 --> 01:12:39.999
Rumsfeld arrived, too, and toured the
American prison installed in what had been
01:12:40.000 --> 01:12:44.999
the heart of darkness during
Saddam Hussein’s regime,
01:12:45.000 --> 01:12:49.999
Abu Ghraib.
01:12:50.000 --> 01:12:54.999
Eight days later, interrogation techniques that
mirror those Rumsfeld had authorized in Guantanamo
01:12:55.000 --> 01:12:59.999
were authorized for Iraq.
01:13:00.000 --> 01:13:04.999
These are exclusive photographs
01:13:05.000 --> 01:13:09.999
of a prisoner at Abu Ghraib
and hand-written instructions
01:13:10.000 --> 01:13:14.999
taped outside his cell. He
will be deprived of sleep,
01:13:15.000 --> 01:13:19.999
kept in stress positions, interrogated
in the middle of the night.
01:13:20.000 --> 01:13:24.999
It is clear evidence of treatment
01:13:25.000 --> 01:13:29.999
that violates the Geneva Conventions,
even as the Administration claimed
01:13:30.000 --> 01:13:34.999
Geneva was being honored in Iraq.
01:13:35.000 --> 01:13:43.000
[sil.]
01:13:50.000 --> 01:13:54.999
Behind the razor wire at
Guantanamo, detainee number 760,
01:13:55.000 --> 01:13:59.999
Mohamedou Slahi had become another focus
of intense attention in Washington.
01:14:00.000 --> 01:14:04.999
Mohamedou Slahi just jumped off the pages. This guy is
one of the most serious guys we’ve got in Guantanamo.
01:14:05.000 --> 01:14:09.999
Colonel Stuart Couch had been assigned
01:14:10.000 --> 01:14:14.999
to prosecute Mohamedou Slahi. I
did see information from other,
01:14:15.000 --> 01:14:19.999
from a high-value detainee
that indicated he knew
01:14:20.000 --> 01:14:24.999
at least three of the hijackers that
were integral to the 9/11 attack.
01:14:25.000 --> 01:14:29.999
That’s what got my attention. That’s
what got the attention of just anybody
01:14:30.000 --> 01:14:34.999
that was familiar with
Mohamedou Slahi’s case.
01:14:35.000 --> 01:14:39.999
Throughout the summer and fall of 2003,
Mohamedou Slahi was the subject of a
01:14:40.000 --> 01:14:44.999
\"special interrogation plan\"
approved by Secretary Rumsfeld.
01:14:45.000 --> 01:14:49.999
His diary describes what happened.
01:14:50.000 --> 01:14:54.999
I was very hurting for my hands were
locked to the floor and I could not stand.
01:14:55.000 --> 01:14:59.999
Mary was touching me with her sexual
parts all over and talking dirty.
01:15:00.000 --> 01:15:04.999
I am not willing to talk in
details about that ugly happen.
01:15:05.000 --> 01:15:09.999
Intelligence information from
Mohamedou Slahi’s interrogation
01:15:10.000 --> 01:15:14.999
suddenly began to flood Stu Couch’s desk.
01:15:15.000 --> 01:15:19.999
I’ve been so long in segregation. …
01:15:20.000 --> 01:15:24.999
I had been counting the holes of the cage
I was in. They are about 4,100 holes.
01:15:25.000 --> 01:15:29.999
[sil.]
01:15:30.000 --> 01:15:34.999
I’ve got in the back of my mind
what I had seen on that first trip.
01:15:35.000 --> 01:15:39.999
And I’m thinking, \"Okay, why is he
being this prolific? What’s going on?
01:15:40.000 --> 01:15:44.999
You know, is it physical coercion?\"
01:15:45.000 --> 01:15:49.999
Besides the physical coercion,
an interrogator posing as
01:15:50.000 --> 01:15:54.999
a Navy captain sent by the White House told
Mohamedou Slahi that his family was \"in danger\"
01:15:55.000 --> 01:15:59.999
if he didn’t cooperate, that
his mother had been imprisoned
01:16:00.000 --> 01:16:04.999
and implied she might be raped in custody.
01:16:05.000 --> 01:16:09.999
If you tell me that Mohamedou Slahi gave
up information because you told him,
01:16:10.000 --> 01:16:14.999
and showed him in a letter, that you’re
bringing his mother to Guantanamo and
01:16:15.000 --> 01:16:19.999
that she could be abused by… by men,
umm… is anything that he tells you
01:16:20.000 --> 01:16:24.999
from that point, you
know, is that credible?
01:16:25.000 --> 01:16:29.999
If you are ready to buy I am selling, ’
01:16:30.000 --> 01:16:34.999
I said. I tried my best to
make myself look as bad
01:16:35.000 --> 01:16:39.999
as I could and that exact way you
can make your interrogator happy.
01:16:40.000 --> 01:16:44.999
[sil.]
01:16:45.000 --> 01:16:49.999
Mohamedou Slahi’s interrogation, Colonel Couch
concluded, had been \"morally repugnant.\"
01:16:50.000 --> 01:16:54.999
He refused to prosecute.
01:16:55.000 --> 01:16:59.999
God means what he says. And
we were created in his image,
01:17:00.000 --> 01:17:04.999
and we owe each other a certain level of…
of dignity, a certain level of respect.
01:17:05.000 --> 01:17:09.999
And that’s just a line we can’t cross.
01:17:10.000 --> 01:17:14.999
We compromise our own ideals as a nation,
01:17:15.000 --> 01:17:19.999
then these guys have accomplished
much more than driving airplanes into
01:17:20.000 --> 01:17:24.999
the World Trade Center
and into the Pentagon.
01:17:25.000 --> 01:17:33.000
[sil.]
01:17:35.000 --> 01:17:39.999
When the abuse of prisoners
at Abu Ghraib was exposed
01:17:40.000 --> 01:17:44.999
in April, 2004, the administration tried
01:17:45.000 --> 01:17:49.999
to direct attention away from
the question of torture.
01:17:50.000 --> 01:17:54.999
Blame was pointed toward the young MPs.
01:17:55.000 --> 01:17:59.999
I… I… I share a… a deep disgust
01:18:00.000 --> 01:18:04.999
that those prisoners were treated the
way they were treated. Their… their…
01:18:05.000 --> 01:18:09.999
their treatment does not reflect
the nature of the American people.
01:18:10.000 --> 01:18:14.999
That’s not the way we do
things in America. And so I,
01:18:15.000 --> 01:18:19.999
uh… I didn’t like it one bit.
01:18:20.000 --> 01:18:24.999
But, there are the photographs.
01:18:25.000 --> 01:18:29.999
[sil.] Images that portray tactics
01:18:30.000 --> 01:18:34.999
earlier approved by the chain of command
01:18:35.000 --> 01:18:39.999
and covered by legal opinions
initiated in the White House.
01:18:40.000 --> 01:18:44.999
[sil.]
01:18:45.000 --> 01:18:49.999
In the aftermath of Abu Ghraib,
the military reasserted
01:18:50.000 --> 01:18:54.999
its ban on the harsh
methods prohibited by its
01:18:55.000 --> 01:18:59.999
Army Field Manual on Interrogation.
The secret Justice Department memos
01:19:00.000 --> 01:19:04.999
that provided legal cover
by trying to define
01:19:05.000 --> 01:19:09.999
torture out of existence
had been withdrawn.
01:19:10.000 --> 01:19:14.999
[sil.]
01:19:15.000 --> 01:19:19.999
[music]
01:19:20.000 --> 01:19:24.999
Then, In December, 2004, the newly-re-elected
President nominated Alberto Gonzales,
01:19:25.000 --> 01:19:29.999
one of the War Council’s five
lawyers, to be Attorney General of
01:19:30.000 --> 01:19:34.999
the United States.
01:19:35.000 --> 01:19:39.999
Can U.S. personnel legally engage
in torture under any circumstances?
01:19:40.000 --> 01:19:44.999
I suppose without, I don’t believe so, but…
but I… I… I’d want to get back to you on that
01:19:45.000 --> 01:19:49.999
and make sure that I don’t… I don’t provide a misleading
answer. But I think the answer… But mislead he did.
01:19:50.000 --> 01:19:54.999
Soon after Gonzales was sworn
in, the Justice Department
01:19:55.000 --> 01:19:59.999
secretly issued a new legal opinion
renewing the CIA’s \"golden shield\"
01:20:00.000 --> 01:20:04.999
to use the harsh tactics
the President called\"
01:20:05.000 --> 01:20:09.999
alternative interrogation techniques.\"
01:20:10.000 --> 01:20:14.999
[sil.]
01:20:15.000 --> 01:20:19.999
It had been more than three years
01:20:20.000 --> 01:20:24.999
since the first prisoners
arrived in Guantanamo.
01:20:25.000 --> 01:20:29.999
They’ve got a brand new facility down at Guantanamo. We spent a
lot of money to build it. They’re very well treated down there.
01:20:30.000 --> 01:20:34.999
They’re living the tropics. They’re well fed.
They’ve got everything they could possibly want.
01:20:35.000 --> 01:20:39.999
Umm… There isn’t any other nation in the world that would
treat people who were determined to kill Americans
01:20:40.000 --> 01:20:44.999
the way we’re treating these people.
None of them been charged with a crime,
01:20:45.000 --> 01:20:49.999
none of them been convicted of a crime, for
the most part aren’t guilty of a crime,
01:20:50.000 --> 01:20:54.999
and yet they’re being held in these
maximum security prisons, which,
01:20:55.000 --> 01:20:59.999
if I made you do it for a week it would drive you
crazy. And we pretend like this is civilized,
01:21:00.000 --> 01:21:04.999
and it is utterly uncivilized.
01:21:05.000 --> 01:21:09.999
After two years of interrogations
with no end in sight,
01:21:10.000 --> 01:21:14.999
Bisher al-Rawi refused
to be questioned again.
01:21:15.000 --> 01:21:19.999
He was labeled \"non-compliant\"
and moved to Camp Five,
01:21:20.000 --> 01:21:24.999
where prisoners were confined alone
at least twenty-two hours a day.
01:21:25.000 --> 01:21:29.999
They were not in solitary confinement, the
Pentagon insisted, but simply held in
01:21:30.000 --> 01:21:34.999
\"single-occupancy cells.\" They
just leave you there in a cell,
01:21:35.000 --> 01:21:39.999
concrete cell, with nothing. And you’re
shivering, like you can take it for an hour
01:21:40.000 --> 01:21:44.999
or two, maybe a day, you
sleep and you’re shivering.
01:21:45.000 --> 01:21:49.999
And the pictures don’t show you what the
authorities are actually doing there.
01:21:50.000 --> 01:21:54.999
Bisher al-Rawi was held in a cell
that was lit 24 hours a day.
01:21:55.000 --> 01:21:59.999
At times the air conditioning was turned off and
he was left to swelter in the tropical heat,
01:22:00.000 --> 01:22:04.999
at others, it was set
to blow frigid air and,
01:22:05.000 --> 01:22:09.999
as punishment, his jumpsuit was taken away.
01:22:10.000 --> 01:22:14.999
After a year in solitary,
01:22:15.000 --> 01:22:19.999
Bisher al Rawi began incessantly pacing
back and forth in the tiny cell,
01:22:20.000 --> 01:22:24.999
talking to himself, laughing maniacally.
01:22:25.000 --> 01:22:29.999
You push him, you deprive
him of his senses.
01:22:30.000 --> 01:22:34.999
You deprive him of his, of… of life.
01:22:35.000 --> 01:22:39.999
And then the point could
come when he will just flip.
01:22:40.000 --> 01:22:44.999
And then your mind will
just say, that is it.
01:22:45.000 --> 01:22:49.999
I’m finished. I’m done.
01:22:50.000 --> 01:22:54.999
His lawyers feared Bisher al-Rawi was slipping
into a madness that would be permanent.
01:22:55.000 --> 01:22:59.999
If that happened, it would
be the terrible proof that,
01:23:00.000 --> 01:23:04.999
even by the Administration’s narrow
definition, he had been mentally tortured.
01:23:05.000 --> 01:23:09.999
[music]
01:23:10.000 --> 01:23:14.999
This debate is occurring because
of the Supreme Court’s ruling
01:23:15.000 --> 01:23:19.999
that said that we must
conduct ourselves under
01:23:20.000 --> 01:23:24.999
the Common Article 3 of
the Geneva Convention.
01:23:25.000 --> 01:23:29.999
And that Common Article 3 says that, you know,
there will be no outrages upon human dignity.
01:23:30.000 --> 01:23:34.999
It’s… it’s… it’s very vague.
What does that mean
01:23:35.000 --> 01:23:39.999
outrages upon human dignity?
That’s a statement
01:23:40.000 --> 01:23:44.999
that is… is wide open to interpretation.
01:23:45.000 --> 01:23:49.999
In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled
01:23:50.000 --> 01:23:54.999
that Guantanamo’s detainees were
entitled to the protections of
01:23:55.000 --> 01:23:59.999
the Geneva Conventions. One Justice warned
01:24:00.000 --> 01:24:04.999
that \"violations of Common Article
3 are considered ‘war crimes.’\"
01:24:05.000 --> 01:24:09.999
Ladies and gentlemen, the President
of the United States and
01:24:10.000 --> 01:24:14.999
the Vice President of the United States. But
just weeks before the mid-term elections,
01:24:15.000 --> 01:24:19.999
stampeded by the threat of looking
weak on terrorism, Congress once again
01:24:20.000 --> 01:24:24.999
bowed to the Administration’s
\"policy of cruelty.\"
01:24:25.000 --> 01:24:29.999
It is a rare occasion when a
President can sign a bill
01:24:30.000 --> 01:24:34.999
he knows will save American lives. I
have that privilege this morning.
01:24:35.000 --> 01:24:39.999
The new law stripped the courts of
01:24:40.000 --> 01:24:44.999
the power to hear cases based on Geneva.
01:24:45.000 --> 01:24:49.999
And, in a provision that had been
pushed hard by the Vice President,
01:24:50.000 --> 01:24:54.999
it granted retroactive immunity to U.S.
officials who might have carried out
01:24:55.000 --> 01:24:59.999
or ordered torture.
01:25:00.000 --> 01:25:04.999
[music]
01:25:05.000 --> 01:25:09.999
In March, 2004,
01:25:10.000 --> 01:25:14.999
after 832 days in U.S. custody,
01:25:15.000 --> 01:25:19.999
Shafiq Rasul had been flown
home from Guantanamo.
01:25:20.000 --> 01:25:24.999
British authorities released
him without charge.
01:25:25.000 --> 01:25:29.999
In January 2005,
01:25:30.000 --> 01:25:34.999
Moazzam Begg was released. He had been
in U.S. custody, without being charged,
01:25:35.000 --> 01:25:39.999
for more than one thousand days.
01:25:40.000 --> 01:25:44.999
On March 30th, 2007, Bisher al-Rawi
01:25:45.000 --> 01:25:49.999
was once again trussed like an animal
and hustled aboard a plane. This time,
01:25:50.000 --> 01:25:54.999
he was headed home. He had been in U.S.
custody 4 years,
01:25:55.000 --> 01:25:59.999
4 months and 22 days.
01:26:00.000 --> 01:26:04.999
The things that are buried in your mind, they stick
with you for a long. You just can’t forget it.
01:26:05.000 --> 01:26:09.999
You can’t. It just stays with
you and it hurts you every day,
01:26:10.000 --> 01:26:14.999
every time you remember it.
At least 500 men
01:26:15.000 --> 01:26:19.999
have been freed from the off-shore
prison with no explanation
01:26:20.000 --> 01:26:24.999
for their years behind bars.
01:26:25.000 --> 01:26:29.999
More than 250 are still held there,
01:26:30.000 --> 01:26:34.999
most of them in solitary confinement.
01:26:35.000 --> 01:26:39.999
[music]
01:26:40.000 --> 01:26:44.999
Mohamedou Slahi is one who remains.
01:26:45.000 --> 01:26:49.999
In his seventh year at Guantanamo, no
charges have been filed against him.
01:26:50.000 --> 01:26:54.999
In 2006,
01:26:55.000 --> 01:26:59.999
Abu Zubaydah was transferred
from a CIA black site to
01:27:00.000 --> 01:27:04.999
the island prison. After almost
seven years in U.S. custody,
01:27:05.000 --> 01:27:09.999
no charges have been filed against him.
01:27:10.000 --> 01:27:14.999
In May, 2008, without explanation,
01:27:15.000 --> 01:27:19.999
the Pentagon dropped all charges
against Mohamed al-Qahtani.
01:27:20.000 --> 01:27:24.999
He is, according to his lawyer,
01:27:25.000 --> 01:27:29.999
\"paranoid, incoherent, cracked.\"
01:27:30.000 --> 01:27:34.999
[sil.]
01:27:35.000 --> 01:27:39.999
He remains in U.S. custody.
01:27:40.000 --> 01:27:44.999
On June 12th, 2008, the Supreme
Court once again rebuked
01:27:45.000 --> 01:27:49.999
the Administration, ruling that
Guantanamo’s prisoners have
01:27:50.000 --> 01:27:54.999
the constitutional right to
challenge their detention. None of
01:27:55.000 --> 01:27:59.999
the prisoners will be automatically
or quickly released.
01:28:00.000 --> 01:28:04.999
But the White House will now have
to publicly defend their treatment
01:28:05.000 --> 01:28:09.999
and its practices in U.S. federal courts.
01:28:10.000 --> 01:28:14.999
I have become an old man here.
01:28:15.000 --> 01:28:19.999
Death in this situation is
better than being alive
01:28:20.000 --> 01:28:24.999
and staying here without hope.
01:28:25.000 --> 01:28:30.000
[sil.]
01:29:15.000 --> 01:29:19.999
To order a DVD of this program
and to learn more about
01:29:20.000 --> 01:29:25.000
the inside story go to
www.torturingdemocracy.org.
01:29:30.000 --> 01:29:35.000
[sil.]
Distributor: Bullfrog Films
Length: 90 minutes
Date: 2009
Genre: Expository
Language: English
Grade: 10-12, College, Adult
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
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