JPRA oversees the military’s Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape (SERE) training which involves exposure to “physical and psychological pressures (SERE techniques) designed to simulate conditions to which [soldiers] might be subject if taken prisoner by enemies that do not abide by the Geneva Conventions.
For those unfamiliar with SERE training, this may be one of the most revealing excerpts from the report:
JPRA is the DoD agency that oversees military Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape (SERE) training. During the resistance phase of SERE training, U.S. military personnel are exposed to physical and psychological pressures (SERE techniques) designed to simulate conditions to which they might be subject if taken prisoner by enemies that did not abide by the Geneva Conventions. As one JPRA instructor explained, SERE training is “based on illegal exploitation (under the rules listed in the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War) of prisoners over the last 50 years.” The techniques used in SERE school, based, in part, on Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean war to elicit false confessions, include stripping students of their clothing, placing them in stress positions, putting hoods over their heads, disrupting their sleep, treating them like animals, subjecting them to loud music and flashing lights, and exposing them to extreme temperatures. It can also include face and body slaps and until recently, for some who attended the Navy’s SERE school, it included waterboarding
The report further explains that two legal opinions were released in August 2002 which redefined torture (this is well known to many at this point).
As the report details, one opinion, the Bybee memo [authorized by then-Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel Jay Bybee] concluded, “[F]or an act to constitute torture as defined in [the federal torture statute], it must inflict pain that is difficult to endure. Physical pain amounting to torture must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death. For purely mental pain or suffering to amount to torture under [the federal torture statute], it must result in significant psychological harm of significant duration, e.g., lasting for months or even years.” And, “Violent acts aren’t necessarily torture; if you do torture, you probably have a defense; and even if you don’t have a defense, the torture law doesn’t apply if you act under the color of presidential authority.”
The full report and further information can be found here.
Sen. John McCain remarked, “The Committee’s report details the inexcusable link between abusive interrogation techniques used by our enemies who ignored the Geneva Conventions and interrogation policy for detainees in U.S. custody. These policies are wrong and must never be repeated.”
Since the report’s release, the cry for prosecution of members of the Bush Administration for war crimes or crimes against humanity has been nil.
Why after a Google News search is it impossible to find President-elect Barack Obama’s reaction to the Rumsfeld Report which Sen. Levin, a former colleague of his in the Senate, and Sen. John McCain, his former opponent and also a former colleague of his in the Senate, signed off on?
Might the lack of response to this report be for reasons related to the fact that Obama is not a transformative or challenging personality? Might it be because he would rather Americans move forward and not engage in actions that might create “partisan” battles which might stall reforms America desperately needs?
Does it really matter what Obama’s excuse may be though? Crimes were committed and accountability and justice is required.
Obama told Salon.com in April this year, “that as president he would indeed ask his new Attorney General and his deputies to "immediately review the information that's already there" and determine if an inquiry is warranted.” While he was worried about engaging in a “partisan witch hunt” “he said that equation changes if there was willful criminality, because "nobody is above the law."
Obama and his transition team know accountability and justice should be pursued. They have been inquiring and asking for documents which the Bush Administration is refusing to let them have access to for no good reason at all.
But, Obama has refused to issue a strong call for prosecutions of members of the Bush Administration. And, he, sadly, has often taken a weaker stance on torture than John McCain.
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