Abu Ghraib Abuse Video
Rumsfeld has been under fire over the abuse allegations in Iraq
Rumsfeld agreed prisoner threats
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3831399.stm
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved the use of aggressive tactics to frighten Guantanamo Bay detainees, according to newly-released documents.
The US has been criticised over conditions at Guantanamo Bay
These included stripping prisoners, forcing them into stress positions and harassing them with dogs.
But the methods, approved in December 2002, were rescinded weeks later.
The Bush administration has released hundreds of secret documents which it says show interrogation methods in Cuba fell well short of torture.
The White House says the documents show permission was never given to torture prisoners.
They chronicle exchanges between Mr Rumsfeld, military commanders and the Pentagon on how suspected al-Qaeda members being held at the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba should be treated during interrogation.
Legal advisers to US President George W Bush said that although aggressive interrogation techniques were approved, they stopped short of torture.
"We do not condone torture. I have never ordered torture. I will never order torture," Mr Bush told reporters.
U.S. President Bush Ordered Torture of Thousands - War Crime
http://www.talkaboutrecovery.com/group/alt.sexual.abuse.recovery/messages/111552.html
Policy pullback
The two inch (5cm) thick pile of documents includes material from the defence department, White House and justice department - many of them declassified secret documents.
The BBC's Rob Watson in Washington says the release of the documents reflect the deep concern at the White House over the damage done by the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
But the documents appear to shed little light on the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal, referring instead to the methods used in Cuba.
The US has been sharply criticised by human rights groups and the International Red Cross for the treatment of the al-Qaeda detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
The released documents show that in December 2002, Mr Rumsfeld approved harsh interrogation techniques for Taleban and al-Qaeda suspects at Guantanamo, only to rescind many of those weeks later and approve less aggressive techniques in April 2003, reportedly after military lawyers claimed they went too far.
The methods he originally approved included forcing a prisoner to stand for up to four hours, light deprivation, isolation from others for up to 30 days and interrogations lasting as long as 20 hours.
He also approved the forced shaving of facial hair, stripping prisoners naked and the use of dogs to induce fear - tactics of particular interest as they were later used in Abu Ghraib.
Opposition claim
The softer set of techniques that were approved in April 2003 permitted significantly increasing the fear level in a detainee, "sleep adjustment," "changing the diet of a detainee" with no intended deprivation of food or water, and isolation of prisoners.
According to defence department documents, Mr Rumsfeld refused a request for the use of more severe methods such as allowing "water boarding", in which water and soaked towels are used to make the prisoner feel as it they are suffocating.
In releasing the documents the White House has been accused of trying to paper over the cracks rather than actually address the problem of prisoner abuse.
Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont accused the Bush administration of releasing a "self-serving selection" of documents.
"The stonewalling in the prison abuse scandal has been building to a crisis point," he said.
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