Alberto J. Mora

“ If a person being forced to stand for hours decided to lie down, it probably would take force to get him to stand up again and stay standing. In contrast to the civilian law enforcement personnel present at Guantanamo, who were trained in interrogation techniques and limits and had years of professional experience in such practices, the military interrogators were typically young and had little or no training or experience in interrogations. ”

“ As a component under the operational control of other commands, NCIS has had gone worldwide involvement on issues of detainee custody, treatment, and criminal interrogations and, specifically, those involving the Guantanamo detainees. As a result, I gained a measure of insight into detainee treatment and interrogation practices commensurate with NCIS's scope and degree of involvement. Third, in December 200, I received a report of detainee abuse occuring at Guantanamo Naval Base, Cuba, and complaints about interrogation guidelines pertaining to those detainees. ”

“ Also, the threats against the United States came from many directions and many different potential consequences. Does the threat by one common criminal against the life of one citizen justify torture or lesser mistreatment? If not, how many lives must the threat jeopardize? Where does one set the threshold, if at all? In any event, this was not for us to decided in the Pentagon; these were issues for national debate.
My recollection is that I raised the following additional points with Mr. Haynes:
Mr. Haynes said little during our meeting. ”

“ Taylor provided me with a copy of a composite document (ATT 2) capped by an Action Memo from DoD General Counsel William Raynes to the Secretary of Defense entitled "Counter-Resistance Techniques." The memo, which I had not seen before, [3] evidenced that on December 2, 2002, Secretary Rumsfeld had approved the use of certain identified interrogation techniques at Guantanamo, including (with some restrictions) the use of stress positions, hooding, isolation, "deprivation of light and auditory stimuli," and use of "detainee-individual phobias (such as fear of dogs) to induce stress." ”

“ In addition, the consequences of such practices were almost incalculably harmful to U.S. foreign, military, and legal policies. Because the American public would not tolerated such abuse, I felt the political fallout was likely to be severe. I provided RADM Lohr with a copy of the December 2nd Memo and requested that Navy JAG prepare a legal analysis of the issues. I also decided to brief Secretary of the Navy Gordon England and take my objections to DOD GC Haynes as quickly as possible. ”

“ This, I felt, was a clearly erroneous conclusion that was at variance with applicable law, both domestic and international, and trends in constitutional jurisprudence, particularly those dealing with the 8th Amendment substantive due process protections that prohibited conduct "shocking to the conscience." ”

“ Moreover, this discontent was not limited to NCIS; law enforcement and military personnel from other services were also increasingly disturbed by the practice.
Director Brant also repeated that NCIS had been informed that the coercive interrogation techniques did not represent simply rogue activiity limited to undisciplined interrogators or even practices sanctined only by the local command, but had been reportedly authorized at a "high level" in Washington. ”

“ On this and the following day, I reviewed the product of research that had been begun almost immediately following the news of the detainee abuse, in particular a memorandum of law prepared under RADM Lohr's direction by Navy JAG attorneys. (ATT 5) In addition, I reviewed a letter (Att 6) dated December 26, 2002, from Kenneth Roth, the Executive Director of Human RIghts Watch, a prominent human rights organiation, to President Bush. The letter, which contained legal analysis I considered largely accurate, had been dited in a Washington Post article published on the same date. ”

“ This term describes the observed tendency among interrogators who rely on force. If some force is good, these people come to believe, then the application of more force must be better. Thus, the level of force applied against an uncooperative witness tends to escalate such that, if left unchecked, force levels, to include torture, could be reached. Dr. Gelles was concerned that this phenomenon might manifest itself at Guantanamo.
Director Brant reiterated his previous statements that he and the NCIS personnel at Guantanamo viewed any such abusive practices as repugnant. ”

“ This responds to your request at reference (a) for a statement that chronicles any involvement by the Department of the Navy Office of the General Counself (OGC) or me personally in the development of the "interrogation rules of engagement" (IROE) for Operation Enduring Freedom. The following narrative adopts a slightly broader focus. It seeks to describe any such knowledge or involvement as OGC or I had on any impact of the interrogation techniquest used of contemplated following September 11, 2001, including participation in legal analysis or discussion of such issues. ”

“ Navy OGC was assigned the task ot develop a paper on the applicability of the 5th, 8th, and 14th Amendments to detainee interrogations. Early in this process, the Working Group was advised that the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in the Department of Justice would be developing a comprehensive legal memorandum that was to serve as definitive guidance on the issues addressed by it. [9] I appointed LtCol Rick Schieke to serve as the OGC representative to the Working Group. [10]
I met with NCIS Chief Psychologist Dr. Michael Gelles and senior NCIS senior NCIS Special Agent Mark Fallon. ”

“ In addition, the speed of the Working Group process and the division of responsibility among the various Services made it difficult to prepare detailed comments or objections to those sections not assigned to OGC. My intent at this stage was to review the final draft report when it was circulated for clearance but, based on the unacceptable legal analysis contained in the early draft versions that were likely to be retained in the final version, I anticipated that I would non-concur with detailed comments. ”