Linkmeister

JAG Corps speaks

By virtue of six memos newly released to the public, we now know that most of the military lawyers who were consulted about the legality of interrogation techniques proposed and used in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib strongly disagreed with the use of those techniques.

The documents include one written by the deputy judge advocate general of the Air Force, Maj. Gen. Jack L. Rives, advising the task force that several of the "more extreme interrogation techniques, on their face, amount to violations of domestic criminal law" as well as military law.

General Rives added that many other countries were likely to disagree with the reasoning used by Justice Department lawyers about immunity from prosecution. Instead, he said, the use of many of the interrogation techniques "puts the interrogators and the chain of command at risk of criminal accusations abroad."

Any such crimes, he said, could be prosecuted in other nations' courts, international courts or the International Criminal Court, a body the United States does not formally participate in or recognize.

Other senior military lawyers warned in tones of sharp concern that aggressive interrogation techniques would endanger American soldiers taken prisoner and also diminish the country's standing as a leader in "the moral high road" approach to the laws of war.

The memorandums provide the most complete record to date of how uniformed military lawyers were frequently the chief dissenters as government officials formulated interrogation policies.

"These military lawyers were clearly disturbed by the proposed techniques that were deviations from past practices that were being advocated by the Justice Department," said Senator Graham, himself a former military lawyer.

The JAG people have been a lot more professional and honest than anyone else in this mess, that's for damn sure. American lives would have been saved and America's image would be far better off had they been listened to.

Ten years from now a lot of people are going to look at this period in American history and say "How could they do that to themselves, and why do we have to clean up after them?"

If you want to read the documents, here's a link.

Posted by Linkmeister at July 29, 2005 12:01 AM | TrackBack