|
INQUIRY INTO THE TREATMENT OF DETAINEES IN U.S. CUSTODY-- REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES, UNITED STATES SENATE |
|
VI. JPRA's Assistance to Another Government Agency (U) [Delete] As the disagreement continued at GTMO about interrogation techniques being used by military interrogators in the Khatani interrogation, JPRA was developing another training session on the use of physical pressures and other interrogation techniques for [delete] interrogators. [690] [Big delete] [Delete] [delete] A Joint Staff Action Processing Form shows that [delete] request was endorsed by JPRA, JFCOM, Joint Staff, and the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy's office and approved on November 12, 2002. [693] The Chief of JPRA's Operational Support Office (OSO) Christopher Wirts "received the approved requirement [for training] from JFCOM DSSO [Defense Sensitive Support Office] and [Joint Staff] DSSO" and subsequently informed three JPRA personnel that the requirement for training included a lesson in "physical pressures, techniques used in DoD [SERE] training" and "practical exercise[s] in interrogation and physical pressures." [694] [Delete] The training took place at the [delete] facility in mid-to-late November 2002. [695] Three JPRA personnel conducted the multi-day training session and Mr. Wirts attended part of a one day session. [696] According to Joseph Witsch, the JPRA instructor who led the training, the instructors followed the JFCOM and Joint Staff-approved requirement and instructed [delete] interrogators on physical pressures used on students at SERE school. [697] [Delete] The training session also included a demonstration of physical pressures. [698] This was in accordance with the requirement, approved by JFCOM and Joint Staff, for "practical exercise[s] in interrogation and physical pressures." [699] Mr. Witsch recalled that he "participated in a couple of those demonstrations," which included role play sessions, where JPRA personnel demonstrated the SERE physical pressures in "mock interrogation[s]." [700] Another JPRA instructor, Terrence Russell, recalled that [delete], rather than JPRA, led the demonstration of physical pressures. [701] [Delete] According to Mr. Russell, in the demonstration of one of those physical pressures, a [delete] suggested that to "enhance ... the pain threshold" of a detainee being placed in a [big delete]" [702] According to Mr. Russell: "I thought that would be improper" because "[i]t would cause physical damage, permanent physical damage to an individual. And I think that that would be totally inappropriate to do to anybody, whether it's an American or a foreign detainee. We would not do something that would cause permanent physical damage." [703] The JPRA training team said they raised that concern with their superiors when they returned from the trip. [704] The senior SERE psychologist, Dr. Gary Percival, who also participated in the training session later described it as a "fiasco" and said that the [delete] [delete] and interrogators did not understand the concepts being taught. [705] [Delete] JPRA personnel also instructed [delete] interrogators on how to perform waterboarding. [706] In his testimony to the Committee, Mr. Witsch said that the JPRA instructors "mentioned [waterboarding to [delete] and how it's done, [and described] basic steps in order to do it." [707] [Delete] None of the JPRA personnel at [delete] training had performed waterboarding or were qualified to teach others how to perform the technique. [708] In fact, Mr. Witsch, who described the technique to [delete] at the training, testified that he did not recall all of the safety limitations associated with waterboarding. [709] For example, he testified that he was not aware that students at the U.S. Navy's SERE school could not be subjected to waterboarding for more than twenty seconds, if a cloth is placed over the student's face. [710] The twenty second time limit was emphasized in bold and in all capital letters in the Navy SERE school's instruction manual. [711] [Delete] [delete] After Mr. Witsch described how to waterboard, [delete] interrogators proceeded to perform the technique on each other. [712] Another JPRA trainer, Terrence Russell, said that it was a requirement that [delete] interrogators experience the sensation of waterboarding and that [delete] staff ran "everybody through a small experience with the waterboard, in that they were [Big delete] " [713] According to Mr. Russell, nobody endured the waterboard for "very long." [714] The experience was "purely voluntary," and [delete] interrogators "stayed there five seconds, ten seconds, thirty seconds," but not longer than that. [715] Mr. Russell said that if the interrogators ''wanted to get off, they hopped off. But they had to experience the sensation. That was [delete] requirement." [716] _______________ Notes: 690. Email from Christopher Wirts to Joe Witsch, Gary Percival, and Terry Russell (November 12, 2002). 691. [Big delete] 692. Ibid. 693. Joint Staff Action Processing Form (November 12, 2002). 694. Email from Christopher Wirts to Joe Witsch, Gary Percival, and Terry Russell (November 12, 2002). 695. Committee staff interview of Christopher Wirts (January 4, 2008). 696. Ibid. 697. Testimony of Joseph Witsch (September 6, 2007) at 37. 698. Testimony of Terrence Russell (August 3, 2007) at 85. 699. Ibid. 700. Testimony of Joseph Witsch (September 6, 2007) at 38. 701. Testimony of Terrence Russell (August 3, 2007) at 85. 702. Ibid. at 128, 86. 703. Ibid. at 129. 704. Testimony of Joseph Witsch (September 6, 2007) at 41. 705. Committee staff interview of Dr. Gary Percival (July 25, 2001). 706. Testimony of Joseph Witseh (September 6, 2001) at 107. 707. Ibid. at 109. 708. Committee staff interview of Christopher Wirts (January 4, 2008); Testimony of Joseph Witsch (September 6, 2001) at 113-14 709. Testimony of Joseph Witsch (September 4,2001) at 112-113. 710. [Delete] FASO Detachment Brunswick Instruction 3305.C, p. E-5 (January 1, 1998) (emphasis in original) ("Water Board ***** The student is subjected to interrogation while strapped to a specially rigged, flat, wooded surface about four by seven feet with quick release bindings which will neither chafe nor cut when the student is strapped to the board. Two canteen cups (one pint each) of water may be slowly poured directly onto the student's face from a height of about twelve inches throughout the interrogation. No attempt will be made to direct the stream of water into the student's nostrils or mouth. NO CHEST OR STOMACH pressure may be used to compel the student to breath in any water. If a cloth is placed over the student's face, it will remain in place for a maximum time of TWENTY seconds, with a hospital corpsman instructor holding the face cloth in place. The cloth may be applied only twice in this manner to any given student. A student may be threatened at a later time with the water board and may even be strapped to the board again but under no circumstances may water actually be applied. The Watch Officer and a designated 9505 hospital corpsman shall be present whenever the water board is being used. The water board demonstrates omnipotence of the captor. Once the tactic is used on a student, it may be used as a credible threat.")
|