WASHINGTON, June 22 (UPI) -- The White House released hundreds of pages of documents Tuesday in an unprecedented effort to detail the administration's policies concerning the treatment of prisoners and detainees.
The released documents include a Feb. 7, 2002, presidential memorandum outlining permissible interrogation techniques for al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners, and an April 16, 2003, Defense Department memo detailing allowed interrogation techniques for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Both reports say U.S. forces must treat detainees humanely, "to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, in a manner consistent with the principles of the Geneva Conventions."
Other documents detail the exact interrogation measures U.S. forces are authorized to use both in Guantanamo and Iraq.
"We are releasing these documents to highlight the policies that were in fact authorized," White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales said at a Tuesday briefing. "The United States has never authorized torture."
Several documents related to the treatment of U.S prisoners and detainees have leaked to the press, and administration sources said Tuesday's uncommon document release is an effort to clear up confusion sparked by partial information.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., issued a statement in response to the released documents, which the White House made public in the face of requests from Abu Ghraib defense lawyers for interviews with top Defense Department officials and six ongoing U.S. investigations, saying, "Now, responding to public pressure, the White House has released a small subset of the documents that offers glimpses into the genesis of this scandal. All should have been provided earlier to Congress, and much more remains held back and hidden away from public view."
The Senate Judiciary Committee, of which Leahy is the ranking minority member, has received three of 23 documents that Democratic members have sought to subpoena, according to a statement by committee Democrats. A Democrat-backed subpoena motion did not pass in the committee June 17.
Responding to questions about the potential that some of the information released today could make U.S. interrogations less effective by tipping off terrorists to the techniques that might be used against them, Defense Department General Counsel William Haynes said, "Under the circumstances, this was the right thing to do."
Haynes said releasing the detailed information might make some interrogations less effective but added that misconceptions about U.S. interrogation policies are also an important problem.
The newly public April 16 memorandum, signed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, was sent to the commander of U.S. Southern Command to explain the exact interrogation measures to be allowed at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, which houses several hundred enemy combatants and suspected terrorists.
In addition to 17 standard military interrogation techniques including instilling fear in a prisoner and using "good-cop-bad-cop" methods to encourage cooperation, the April 16 memo authorizes seven additional measures, some of which require the personal approval of the secretary of defense.
The special measures included in the April 16 memo allow interrogators to switch detainees from hot to cold rations, move them to less or more pleasant surroundings, make their environment moderately uncomfortable (e.g. adjusting temperature or creating a bad smell), adjust their sleeping patterns, convince them they are being detained by a country other than the United States or place them in isolation.
Dan Dell'Orto, the Pentagon's principal deputy general counsel, said Rumsfeld has authorized the interrogation techniques that require his permission "less than a handful" of times.
Dell'Orto said the April 16 document is a revision of earlier Guantanamo Bay interrogation procedures that were suspended Jan. 15, 2003, after they sparked controversy within the military.
Dell'Orto stressed that the interrogation procedures at Guantanamo had nothing to do with the alleged abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
"There was never any misunderstanding or any thought that what we were (considering permitting at Guantanamo Bay) was going to be done in Iraq," he said.
Responding to questions about Major General Geoffrey Miller, who worked first at Guantanamo and later made recommendations at Abu Ghraib, Lt. General Keith Alexander said Miller helped Abu Ghraib change in a number of ways but did not transfer Guantanamo's procedures wholesale to Iraq.
Alexander said Miller made recommendations regarding the organization of Abu Ghraib, ways intelligence analysts and interrogators can work together, potential interrogation techniques and general detention operations.
Further questions focused on soldiers' understanding of U.S. interrogation policies and what effect separate policies for Guantanamo detainees might have had on soldiers' understanding of military policy in Iraq.
Alexander said the distinction between Iraq and Guantanamo was clear, adding, "The actions that took place at Abu Ghraib were not in any of these (released) documents."
All administration sources repeated that President Bush has clearly stated his opposition to torture.
Asked to explain what measures constitute torture and which could be acceptable interrogation techniques, Haynes said, "Techniques cannot be considered in isolation." He said the simultaneous use of multiple techniques and the particular type of prisoner and detention can all affect whether or not a particular technique constitutes torture.
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