Washington D.C. May 12, 2004: CIA
interrogation manuals written in the 1960s and 1980s
described "coercive techniques" such as those used
to mistreat detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in
Iraq, according to the declassified documents posted
today by the National Security Archive. The Archive
also posted a
secret 1992 report written for then
Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney warning that
U.S. Army intelligence manuals that incorporated the
earlier work of the CIA for training Latin American
military officers in interrogation and
counterintelligence techniques contained "offensive
and objectionable material" that "undermines U.S.
credibility, and could result in significant
embarrassment."
The two CIA manuals,
"Human
Resource Exploitation Training Manual-1983"
and "KUBARK
Counterintelligence Interrogation-July 1963,"
were originally obtained under the Freedom
of Information Act by the Baltimore Sun in
1997. The KUBARK manual includes a detailed section
on "The Coercive Counterintelligence Interrogation
of Resistant Sources," with concrete assessments on
employing "Threats and Fear," "Pain," and
"Debility." The language of the 1983 "Exploitation"
manual drew heavily on the language of the earlier
manual, as well as on Army Intelligence field
manuals from the mid 1960s generated by "Project
X"-a military effort to create training guides drawn
from counterinsurgency experience in Vietnam.
Recommendations on prisoner interrogation included
the threat of violence and deprivation and noted
that no threat should be made unless the questioner
"has approval to carry out the threat." The
interrogator "is able to manipulate the subject's
environment," the 1983 manual states, "to create
unpleasant or intolerable situations, to disrupt
patterns of time, space, and sensory perception."
After Congress began investigating reports of
Central American atrocities in the mid 1980s,
particularly in Honduras, the CIA's "Human Resource
Exploitation" manual was hand edited to alter
passages that appeared to advocate coercion and
stress techniques to be used on prisoners. CIA
officials attached a
new
prologue page on the manual stating:
"The use of force, mental torture, threats, insults
or exposure to inhumane treatment of any kind as an
aid to interrogation is prohibited by law, both
international and domestic; it is neither authorized
nor condoned"-making it clear that authorities were
well aware these abusive practices were illegal and
immoral, even as they continued then and now.
Indeed, similar material had already been
incorporated into seven Spanish-language training
guides. More than a thousand copies of these manuals
were distributed for use in countries such as El
Salvador, Guatemala, Ecuador and Peru, and at the
School of the Americas between 1987 and 1991. An
inquiry was triggered in mid 1991 when the Southern
Command evaluated the manuals for use in expanding
military support programs in Colombia.
In March 1992 Cheney received an investigative
report on
"Improper Material in Spanish-Language Intelligence
Training Manuals." Classified SECRET,
the report noted that five of the seven manuals
"contained language and statements in violation of
legal, regulatory or policy prohibitions" and
recommended they be recalled. The memo is stamped: "SECDEF
HAS SEEN."
The Archive also posted a declassified
memorandum of conversation with a
Southern Command officer, Major Victor Tise, who was
responsible for assembling the Latin American
manuals at School of the Americas for
counterintelligence training in 1982. Tise stated
that the manuals had been forwarded to DOD
headquarters for clearance "and came back approved
but UNCHANGED." (Emphasis in original)
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Document 1
CIA, KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation,
July 1963
Part 1
(pp. 1-60) -
Part
II (pp. 61-112) -
Part
III (pp. 113-128)
This 127-page report, classified Secret, was
drafted in July 1963 as a comprehensive guide for
training interrogators in the art of obtaining
intelligence from "resistant sources." KUBARK--a CIA
codename for itself--describes the qualifications of
a successful interrogator, and reviews the theory of
non-coercive and coercive techniques for breaking a
prisoner. Some recommendations are very specific.
The report recommends, for example, that in choosing
an interrogation site "the electric current should
be known in advance, so that transformers and other
modifying devices will be on hand if needed." Of
specific relevance to the current scandal in Iraq is
section nine,
"The
Coercive Counterintelligence Interrogation of
Resistant Sources," (pp 82-104). Under
the subheading, "Threats and Fears," the CIA authors
note that "the threat of coercion usually weakens or
destroys resistance more effectively than coercion
itself. The threat to inflict pain, for example, can
trigger fears more damaging than the immediate
sensation of pain." Under the subheading "Pain," the
guidelines discuss the theories behind various
thresholds of pain, and recommend that a subject's
"resistance is likelier to be sapped by pain which
he seems to inflict upon himself" rather than
by direct torture. The report suggests forcing the
detainee to stand at attention for long periods of
time. A section on sensory deprivations suggests
imprisoning detainees in rooms without sensory
stimuli of any kind, "in a cell which has no light,"
for example. "An environment still more subject to
control, such as water-tank or iron lung, is even
more effective," the KUBARK manual concludes.
Document 2
CIA, Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual
- 1983
Part I (pp. 1-67) -
Part II (pp. 68-124)
This secret manual was compiled from sections of
the KUBARK guidelines, and from U.S. Military
Intelligence field manuals written in the mid 1960s
as part of the Army's Foreign Intelligence
Assistance Program codenamed "Project X." The manual
was used in numerous Latin American countries as an
instructional tool by CIA and Green Beret trainers
between 1983 and 1987 and became the subject of
executive session Senate Intelligence Committee
hearings in 1988 because of human rights abuses
committed by CIA-trained Honduran military units.
The manual allocates considerable space to the
subject of "coercive questioning" and psychological
and physical techniques. The original text stated
that "we will be discussing two types of techniques,
coercive and non-coercive. While we do not stress
the use of coercive techniques, we do want to make
you aware of them." After Congress began
investigating human rights violations by
U.S.-trained Honduran intelligence officers, that
passage was hand edited to read "while we deplore
the use of coercive techniques, we do want to make
you aware of them so that you may avoid them."
Although the manual advised methods of coercion
similar to those used in the Abu Ghraib prison by
U.S. forces, it also carried a prescient
observation: "The routine use of torture lowers the
moral caliber of the organization that uses it and
corrupts those that rely on it…."
Document 3
DOD, Improper Material in Spanish-Language
Intelligence Manuals, SECRET, 10 March 1992
This "report of investigation" was sent to then
Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney in March 1992,
nine months after the Defense Department began an
internal investigation into how seven
counterintelligence and interrogation manuals used
for years by the Southern Command throughout Latin
America had come to contain "objectionable" and
prohibited material. Army investigators traced the
origins of the instructions on use of beatings,
false imprisonment, executions and truth serums back
to "Project X"-a program run by the Army Foreign
Intelligence unit in the 1960s. The report to Cheney
found that the "offensive and objectionable material
in the manuals" contradicted the Southern Command's
priority of teaching respect for human rights, and
therefore "undermines U.S. credibility, and could
result in significant embarrassment." Cheney
concurred with the recommendations for "corrective
action" and recall and destruction of as many of the
offending manuals as possible.
Document 4
DOD, USSOUTHCOM CI Training-Supplemental
Information, CONFIDENTIAL, 31 July, 1991
This document records a phone conversation with
Major Victor Tise, who served in 1982 as a
counterintelligence instructor at the School of the
Americas. Tise relates the history of the
"objectionable material" in the manuals and the
training courses at SOA. A decade of training
between 1966 and 1976 was suspended after a
Congressional panel witnessed the teaching program.
The Carter administration then halted the
counterintelligence training courses "for fear
training would contribute to Human Rights violations
in other countries," Tise said, but the program was
restored by the Reagan administration in 1982. He
then obtained training materials from the archives
of the Army's "Project X" program which he described
as a "training package to provide counterinsurgency
techniques learned in Vietnam to Latin American
countries." The course materials he put together,
including the manuals that became the subject of the
investigations, were sent to Defense Department
headquarters "for clearance" in 1982 and "came back
approved but UNCHANGED." Although Tise stated he
removed parts he believed to be objectionable,
hundreds of unaltered manuals were used throughout
Latin America over the next nine years.
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