Stuart A. Herrington
Stuart Arthur Herrington, Col, U.S. Army (Ret.) is an author and retired counterintelligence officer with extensive interrogation experience in three wars (
For his experience in the Vietnam War, he was interviewed in Ken Burns's series about the war.
Military and Intelligence Assignments
Vietnam
Herrington joined military intelligence in 1967 training at the US Army Intelligence School at Fort Holabird and then served in West Berlin for 2 years.[3]
He then trained as a military adviser at
Herrington then served at the
German and post Cold-War operations
Herrington spent six years during the 1980s in
In a global counterespionage case, FCA, working with the CIA, the FBI, Germany, and several foreign governments, successfully concluded the Clyde Lee Conrad espionage investigation, which involved the arrests and/or exposing of eleven participants in a spy ring that had been stealing war plans in Europe and selling them to the Czechs and the Hungarians, who provided them to the Soviet Union. Conrad, a retired Army NCO, was arrested in August 1988, and eventually given the first and only life sentence for espionage by the German government. Following the Conrad case, Herrington's FCA team successfully handled another sensitive investigation, resulting in the arrest and conviction of Warrant Officer James Hall, his Turkish courier, and four other co-conspirators, all of them soldiers or former soldiers.[7]
During his service as Director, FCA, Herrington twice deployed to hostile contingencies, first in Panama (
After Retirement
Herrington retired from the military in 1998 to become the Director, Global Security & Investigations for the
In March 2002, he was requested by HQ,
Opposition to Use of Force in Interrogations
In 2008, Herrington and other retired military intelligence officers called for a ban on waterboarding.[14] Herrington discussed his opposition to Bush-era interrogation practices and his own philosophy of interrogation—a developmental, rapport-based effort—in several public articles and talks. One of his themes was that experienced, skilled interrogators almost unanimously reject the concept of using force and inflicting physical misery on detainees to obtain information. He and numerous other seasoned interrogators from the military, the FBI, and the CIA, collaborated with the organization, Human Rights First, to lobby in Washington on behalf of this philosophy and against "enhanced interrogation techniques," labeling them as ineffective, illegal, morally wrong, and a resort to "amateur hour" tactics.[15][16]
Publications
Silence Was A Weapon: The Vietnam War in the Villages, Presidio Press, 1982 (An account of the Vietnam War in Hau Nghia Province based upon the author's tour of duty between January 1971 and August 1972).
Peace with Honor? An American Reports on Vietnam, 1973-1975, Presidio Press, 1983 (Sequel to Silence Was A Weapon, an account of the cease-fire period ending with the evacuation of Saigon based on the author's tour of duty between Aug 1973 and April 1975) Out of Print
Stalking the Vietcong: Inside Operation Phoenix Presidio Press (trade paperback), 1997, A revised edition of Silence Was A Weapon containing formerly classified data not included in the original edition, out of print.
Stalking the Vietcong: Inside Operation Phoenix Ballantine Books-Random House (paperback), 2004, in print.
Traitors Among Us: Inside the Spy Catcher's World Presidio Press (hardbound, out of print), 2004; Same title, trade paperback, in print, Harvest Book, Harcourt, 2000.
A Tale of Two Families: A Genealogical Memoir of the Herrington Family Hardbound, Angel Printing, 2009 (not commercially available)
The Fight for the High Ground: The U.S. Army and Interrogation During Operation Iraqi Freedom, May 2003-April 2004 by Major Douglas A. Pryer, U.S. Army, CGSC Foundation Press, 2009, (Major Pryer's award-winning book, with a Foreword contributed by Colonel (retired) Stuart A. Herrington addressing the interrogation issues of the Bush Administration)
See also
- Abu Ghraib
- Clyde Lee Conrad
- Guantanamo
- Task Force 121
- Waterboarding
References
- ^ Tom Ricks's Inbox, The Washington Post, November 11, 2007
- ^ Eric Schmitt and Carolyn Marshall, Task Force 6-26: In Secret Unit's 'Black Room,' a Grim Portrait of U.S. Abuse," The New York Times, March 19, 2006
- ^ ISBN 978-0939526123.
- ^ Herrington, Silence was a Weapon, Presidio Press, 1982)
- ^ Herrington, Peace with Honor? An American Reports on Vietnam 1973-1975, Presidio Press, 1982.
- ^ "Traitors Among Us: Inside the Spy-Catcher's World."
- ^ Herrington, Traitors Among US: Inside the Spy Catcher's World, Harcourt, 1999.
- ^ ("The Interrogation Perfect Storm," Remarks, Fort Leavenworth Ethics Symposium, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 16–18 November 16–18, "Proceedings" 2009
- ^ "Report of the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs," April 2001
- ^ "Newsweek" June 1993
- ^ "Access Control & Security Systems" Sept 2005
- ^ "Washington Post," Dec 1, 2004
- ^ Ricks, Thomas (2006). Fiasco: The American Military Intervention in Iraq. Penguin. pp. 258–60.
- ^ "Top Interrogators Declare Torture Ineffective in Intelligence Gathering," Human Rights First, press release, June 24, 2008
- ^ Herrington, "Effectively Interrogating Terrorism Suspects: Lessons from the Field," Panel discussion, Center for Strategic and International Studies, 18 June 2008.
- ^ "The Fight for the High Ground, The U.S. Army and Interrogation During Operation Iraqi Freedom, May 2003-April 2004," by Major Douglas A. Pryer, Foreword by Col Stuart A. Herrington. 2009