Major General Geoffrey Miller, Donald Rumsfeld, Ricardo Sanchez & Interrogation Techniques

In 2003, Rumsfeld sent Geoffrey Miller out to “Gitmo-ize” Abu Ghraib. “General Miller had turned Guantanamo from a conventional military prison that would abide by the laws of war into a kind of ad hoc behavioral laboratory for the introduction and use of extreme techniques,” said Alfred McCoy. Miller’s techniques were much harsher and were completely oriented towards getting results without respect for tradition or how things had been done. Rumsfeld not only supported Miller’s techniques when he asked permission to use such things as extended stress positions, like standing, he thought that the stress positions should be allowed for longer periods of time. He was eager to get behind what Miller was doing, and he was eager to see what Miller could do in the same spirit in Iraq.

When Miller arrived at Abu Ghraib in August of 2003, Ricardo Sanchez issued a memo approving many harsh interrogation techniques, even though Abu Ghraib was officially under the Geneva Conventions. These new techniques were at odds with the treatment of prisoners under the Geneva Convention. Though Sanchez soon rescinded his memo, Miller made it clear from his arrival that he believed that if the detainees were not treated very poorly, they would not be amenable to interrogation and wouldn’t know who’s “in charge”. The nudity and shackling of the prisoners became an everyday occurrence according to some of the military personnel at Abu Ghraib. The prisoners themselves learned that the torture was connected to the interrogations.

There were so many changes to policy that many of the military guards and interrogators found it confusing. These military personnel found it perplexing and some found it upsetting what they began to see. Some of the techniques seen were prisoners put in degrading positions while naked and left chained or handcuffed there for extended periods of time, sometimes with underwear on their heads. There seemed to be a sense of things getting uglier, but some soldiers complained that when asking directly what was allowed and what wasn’t they would never get a straight answer.