Some Military Resisted: Lehnert vs. Rumsfeld
A lot has been written about Guantanamo. But Karen Greenberg's amazing page turner of a book The Least Worst Place on the first 100 days of Guantanamo is unique. No other book describes the struggle by some military people, particularly the head of the Joint Task Force running the camp, Michael Lehnert, to adhere to law and humane treatment. When he was told that the Geneva Conventions, did not protect the detainees he still tried to apply their provisions. When he was told that the detainees were the "worst of the worst," he was still willing to treat them humanly and concluded that many should not have been there at all and were not terrorists. He even brought a Muslim chaplain to the camp. It is not that Guantanamo was so wonderful under his leadership, but within the confines of what was possible once Rumsfeld and others had sent the detainees to an off shore penal colony, he was able to lessen some of its harshness.
The book describes the struggle between Lehnert on the one hand and Rumsfeld, Haynes (DOD counsel) and other DOD personnel who wanted all of the rules thrown out including the Geneva Conventions. This was anathema to many career military people. Sadly, within a few months Lehnart was gone and the genuine brutality we correctly associate with Guantanamo was let loose. Karen's book demonstrates that many within the military were shocked and tried to fight back against the lawlessness. If you want an inside look at Guantanamo from the perspective of those given the job in the first 100 days, read this book.
You know what it was all really about, don't you? All this talk about "ticking time bomb" scenarios was baloney. This was all about Cheney's sick fascination with a "modern" kind of torture. It was all a big experiment, Clockwork Orange style. The two sadistic military psychologists who brought Cheney this new torture plan were enamored of a form of mind-control called "learned helplessness."
Here the goal wasn't to torture a guy until he answered a specific question. No. The goal was to torture a guy without even bothering with questions, over and over, for extended periods of time, until he was finally "broken." Only at that point would the questions begin, and he'd tell you anything you wanted to hear.
That's why KSM and Zubaydah were waterboarded an absurd 266 times between them, and why Jose Padilla was so broken by the time his case came up for trial that he was judged incapable of comprehending the case against him.
There is no other explanation for what happened to these people that makes any sense whatsoever. And the damage done to these detainees from these kinds of "learned helplessness" experiments is nearly always permanent.
They love Big Brother now.
April 28, 2009 11:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm proud of BGen Lehnert's efforts.
And having served with him, I'm not surprised.
I would also like to add that as a retired Marine officer I have been disappointed in most of the the military's senior leadership on issues such as this during the last 7 1/2 years, especially the last two Chairmen of the JCS, and retired Gen Colin Powell.
On the other hand, most of the Marine senior officers (other than Gen Peter Pace) have shown an attention to duty and adherence to the oath that they took as commissioned officers.
Readers should know that not all members of the military see themselves as lackeys of whichever Republican President occuppies the Oval Office.
April 28, 2009 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would like to endorse the above comments. My experience was that most of us military officers, the large majority, did what was right and followed Geneva Conventions regardless of what those above us decided with regards to rules and the status of detainees. But I also believe there is more than a few bad apples and there is ample evidence to show that quite a few military officers did not live up to their oath of office and followed unlawful orders. The first source I'll cite is the FBI Inspector General's report on their involvement in interrogations (http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/s0805/final.pdf). It lists hundreds of violations of Geneva Conventions in all three theaters -- Guantanamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan -- as witnessed by FBI agents. Consider that they are only present for perhaps 5% of all interrogations and you can comprehend that the abuse of prisoners was more widespread than a few bad apples.
April 28, 2009 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink