This oughta go over well in Iraq

We find the following report about interrogation techniques approved April 2003 for use at Guantanamo by the Defense Department to be startling familiar.

In April 2003, the Defense Department approved a list of interrogation techniques for use at the Guantanamo Bay prison that permits making a detainee disrobe entirely for questioning, reversing normal sleep patterns and exposing them to heat, cold and "sensory assault," including loud music and bright lights, according to defense officials.

The more aggressive techniques require approval from senior Pentagon officials, and in some cases, the secretary of defense. Interrogators must justify that harshest treatment is "militarily necessary," according to the document, parts of which were cited by an official who possessed the document. Once approved, harsher treatment must be accompanied by "appropriate medical monitoring."

"We wanted to find a legal way to jack up the pressure," said one lawyer who helped write the guidelines. "We wanted a little more freedom than in a U.S. prison, but not torture."

The classified list of roughly 20 techniques was approved at the highest levels of the Pentagon and Justice Department and represents the first known documentation of an official policy permitting interrogators to use physically and mentally stressful methods during questioning.

Oh. This is mindblowing. These were officially approved techniques at Guantanomo.

To know that the new guy in charge at Abu Ghraib came from Guantanamo seems like having the fox guard the henhouse. We find this statement :

"Miller said that in part he used his experience at Guantanamo to help reshape the interrogation process. "

Anybody else have trust issues here?