US bans physical, mental torture in military interrogations

WASHINGTON—The US Defense Department has issued a broad policy directive prohibiting physical or mental torture during military interrogations, a spokesman said, amid controversy over the treatment of detainees from Afghanistan and Iraq.
The directive calls for humane treatment but does not define it, leaving the issue to a separate directive that is still being debated, said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.
Signed by acting Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England on November 5, the directive sets a broad policy on which a new army field manual on interrogations and other rules will be based, he said. It applies to all US military personnel, civilian defense contractors and other government agencies conducting interrogations of prisoners under US military control, according to the document.
Whitman said it was the first time the Defense Department had issued such a directive articulating policy on interrogations.
“All captured or detained personnel shall be treated humanely, and all intelligence interrogations, debriefings or tactical questioning to gain intelligence from captured or detained personnel shall be conducted humanely, in accordance with applicable law and policy,” the directive states.
“Acts of physical and mental torture are prohibited,” it said. The law of war, relevant international law, US law, and other directives should be applied, it said.
They include a yet to be approved directive on detention policy that will define what is meant by humane treatment, Whitman said.
Debate within the administration has flared over whether humane treatment of prisoners should be defined with language taken directly from the Geneva Conventions.
The United States has long refused to extend Geneva Convention protections to prisoners captured in the war against Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups, while pledging to treat them humanely.
Adding fuel to the torture debate is last week’s revelation by the Washington Post that since September 11, 2001 top Al-Qaeda captives have been held in CIA-run prisons in at least eight countries.—Agencies