U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals
Spanish titles | No. of pages |
English titles |
---|---|---|
Manejo de Fuente | 174 | Handling of Sources |
Contrainteligencia | 310 | Counterintelligence |
Guerra Revolucionaria e Ideología Comunista | 128 | Revolutionary War and Communist Ideology |
Terrorismo y Guerrilla Urbana | 175 | Terrorism and the Urban Guerrilla |
Interrogacion | 150 | Interrogation |
Inteligencia de Combate | 172 | Combat Intelligence |
* Analisis I | 90 | * Analysis I |
Total pages: | 1169 | |
* No questionable or objectionable statements found. |
The U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals are seven controversial military training manuals which were declassified by the
Army manuals
These manuals were prepared by the U.S. military and used between 1987 and 1991 for intelligence training courses at the U.S. Army
The Pentagon press release accompanying the release stated that a 1991–92 investigation into the manuals concluded that "two dozen short passages in six of the manuals, which total 1169 pages, contained material that either was not or could be interpreted not to be consistent with U.S. policy."
The Latin America Working Group criticized this: "The unstated aim of the manuals is to train Latin American militaries to identify and suppress anti-government movements. Throughout the eleven hundred pages of the manuals, there are few mentions of democracy, human rights, or the rule of law. Instead, the manuals provide detailed techniques for infiltrating social movements,
After this 1992 investigation, the Department of Defense discontinued the use of the manuals, directed their recovery to the extent practicable, and destroyed the copies in the field. U.S. Southern Command advised governments in Latin America that the manuals contained passages that did not represent U.S. government policy, and pursued recovery of the manuals from the governments and some individual students.[8] Notably, David Addington and Dick Cheney retained personal copies of the training manuals.[9]
Soon after, the U.S. Army issued the
CIA manuals
The first manual, "KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation", dated July 1963, is the source of much of the material in the second manual. KUBARK was a U.S.
The second manual, "Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual – 1983", was used in at least seven U.S. training courses conducted in Latin American countries, including Honduras, between 1982 and 1987. According to a declassified 1989 report prepared for the Senate intelligence committee, the 1983 manual was developed from notes of a CIA interrogation course in Honduras.[11]
Both manuals deal exclusively with interrogation.[12][13] Both manuals have an entire chapter devoted to "coercive techniques". These manuals recommend arresting suspects early in the morning by surprise, blindfolding them, and stripping them naked. Suspects should be held incommunicado and should be deprived of any kind of normal routine in eating and sleeping. Interrogation rooms should be windowless, soundproof, dark and without toilets.
The manuals advise that torture techniques can backfire and that the threat of pain is often more effective than pain itself. The manuals describe coercive techniques to be used "to induce psychological regression in the subject by bringing a superior outside force to bear on his will to resist." These techniques include prolonged constraint, prolonged exertion, extremes of heat, cold, or moisture, deprivation of food or sleep, disrupting routines, solitary confinement, threats of pain, deprivation of sensory stimuli, hypnosis, and use of drugs or placebos.[14]
Between 1984 and 1985, after congressional committees began questioning training techniques being used by the CIA in Latin America, the 1983 manual went through substantial revision. In 1985 a page advising against using coercive techniques was inserted at the front of Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual. Handwritten changes were also introduced haphazardly into the text. For example, "While we do not stress the use of coercive techniques, we do want to make you aware of them and the proper way to use them", has been altered to, "While we deplore the use of coercive techniques, we do want to make you aware of them so that you may avoid them." (p. A-2) But the entire chapter on coercive techniques is still provided with some items crossed out.[11]
The same manual states the importance of knowing local laws regarding detention but then notes, "Illegal detention always requires prior HQS [headquarters] approval." (p. B-2)
The two manuals were completely declassified and released to the public in May 2004, and are now available online.[10]
The 1983 manual and Battalion 3-16
In 1983, the Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual – 1983 methods were used by the U.S.-trained Honduran Battalion 3-16.[6]
On January 24, 1997, KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation and Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual - 1983 were declassified in response to a
In the June 11 to 18, 1995 four-part series, The Baltimore Sun printed excerpts of an interview with Florencio Caballero, a former member of Battalion 3-16. Caballero said CIA instructors taught him to discover what his prisoners loved and what they hated, "If a person did not like cockroaches, then that person might be more cooperative if there were cockroaches running around the room"
The manual gives the suggestion that prisoners be
The "Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual -- 1983" gives the suggestion that interrogators show the prisoner letters from home to give the prisoner the impression that the prisoner's relatives are in danger or suffering.[11]
The Baltimore Sun reported that former Battalion 3-16 member Jose Barrera said he was taught interrogation methods by U.S. instructors in 1983: "The first thing we would say is that we know your mother, your younger brother. And better you cooperate, because if you don't, we're going to bring them in and rape them and torture them and kill them."[11]
See also
- Project MKUltra
- Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare
- Torture and the United States
- Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation
- White torture
References
- ^ "Fact Sheet Concerning Training Manuals Containing Materials Inconsistent With U.S. Policy From the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense/Public Affairs Office". gwu.edu. Retrieved November 7, 2007.
- ^ Jones, Arthur; Dorothy Vidulich (October 4, 1996). "Pentagon admits use of torture manuals: training books used for Latin Americans at Ft. Benning school". National Catholic Reporter.
- ISBN 9781136485565.
Called 'torture manuals'...
- ^ Peter Foster (11 December 2014). "Torture report: CIA interrogations chief was involved in Latin American torture camps". The Telegraph.
...which served as the basis of the so-called 'torture manuals' that were provided by the CIA to at least seven Latin American countries in the 1980s.
- ^ ISBN 978-0275972509.
- ^ a b Hodge, James; Cooper, Linda (November 5, 2004). "Roots of Abu Ghraib in CIA Techniques: 50 Years of Refining, Teaching Torture Found in Interrogation Manuals". National Catholic Reporter. Archived from the original on October 24, 2019.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ISBN 0-8223-3392-9.
Priest, Dana (September 21, 1996). "U.S. Instructed Latins On Executions, Torture; Manuals Used 1982–91, Pentagon Reveals". The Washington Post. p. A01. Archived from the original on 2010-01-08. - ^ "Fact Sheet Concerning Training Manuals Containing Materials Inconsistent With U.S. Policy". From the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense/Public Affairs Office. August 27, 1992.
- ^ Wheeler, Marcy (2009-05-18). "The 13 people who made torture possible". Salon.com. Retrieved 2012-08-19.
- ^ a b c "Prisoner Abuse: Patterns from the Past". National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 122. Retrieved 2006-09-05.
- ^ a b c d e f g Cohn, Gary; Ginger Thompson; Mark Matthews (27 January 1997). "Torture was taught by CIA; Declassified manual details the methods used in Honduras; Agency denials refuted". The Baltimore Sun.
- ^ "CIA, Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual – 1983". National Security Archive. Retrieved 2006-09-05.
- ^ "CIA, KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation, July 1963". National Security Archive. Retrieved 2006-09-05.
- ^ "Kubark Counterintelligence Interrogation". parascope.com. Archived from the original on 2006-06-15. Retrieved 2006-09-05.
- ISBN 1-85984-719-6.p. 358
External links
Government files
- "Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual – 1983".
- "KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation – July 1963".
- Prisoner Abuse: Patterns from the Past, U.S. National Security Archive, May 12, 2004.
- Fact Sheet Concerning Training Manuals Containing Materials Inconsistent With U.S. Policy from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense/Public Affairs Office. From the National Security Archive.
- CIA Interrogation Training Manual, Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual 1983.
- State Department page referring to KUBARK stations
- Kubark Counterintelligence Interrogation
- CIA manuals used in Latin America, Latin America Working Group, February 18, 1997.
Other links
Baltimore Sun series:
- Torturers' confessions, Baltimore Sun, June 13, 1995, Gary Cohn and Ginger Thompson, accessed April 14, 2007.
- Glimpses of the 'disappeared', Baltimore Sun, June 11, 1995, Gary Cohn and Ginger Thompson, accessed April 14, 2007.
- When a wave of torture and murder staggered a small U.S. ally, truth was a casualty, Baltimore Sun, June 11, 1995, Gary Cohn and Ginger Thompson, accessed April 14, 2007.
- A survivor tells her story, Baltimore Sun, June 15, 1995, Gary Cohn and Ginger Thompson, accessed April 14, 2007.
- A carefully crafted deception, Baltimore Sun, June 18, 1995, Gary Cohn and Ginger Thompson, accessed April 14, 2007.
- Former envoy to Honduras says he did what he could, Baltimore Sun, December 15, 1995, Gary Cohn and Ginger Thompson, accessed April 14, 2007.