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Tough Interrogation Tactics Were Opposed
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Mallow said in an e-mail dated Dec. 2, 2002 -- the same day Rumsfeld approved harsher techniques -- that his subordinates should raise objections if they saw inappropriate behavior.
"Our folks should make it clear that our participation in dialogues related to the aggressive strategies does not amount to an endorsement of the technique or the interrogation plan," Mallow wrote.
On Dec. 17, 2002, the special agent in charge of the task force unit at Guantanamo Bay raised objections to using interrogation tactics that appeared to be derived from military Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) practices, arguing that they were designed for a "battlefield environment." The agent wrote that "rapport-based" methods -- which encourage a detainee's cooperation through positive reinforcement -- are far more effective.
Within a month, the task force came up with specific instructions against any participation in the questionable activities.
"All deployed CITF personnel are instructed to disengage, stand clear, and report any questionable interrogation techniques," a legal adviser to the task force wrote in a Jan. 15, 2003, memo. "CITF maintains that its personnel will not utilize non-law enforcement techniques or participate, support, advise, or observe aggressive interrogation techniques or strategies."
The legal adviser, whose name was blacked out in the documents, said in the memo that he wrote it "to preserve critical correspondence concerning development of interagency policies involving aggressive interrogation techniques."
Researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
