US forces move to limit interrogation tactics

Members of the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps (ICDC) frisk two Iraqi men at a checkpoint outside Baghdad's Shia neighbourhood of Sadr City yesterday. ICDC and US forces were distributing leaflets in Sadr City urging people to sell their weapons to the US-led coalition. They offer 25 US dollar for a Kalashnikov and 200 dollar for a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG). PHOTO: AFP

The Pentagon says Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez is letting military intelligence chiefs know that their requests for such methods, which had been allowed with specific permission, will be turned down. Sanchez issued the order Thursday.

In its most comprehensive outline to date of methods that interrogators can use to question detained Iraqis, the Pentagon said Friday that Sanchez had approved 25 requests to isolate prisoners for interrogation since mid-October.

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He had turned down three requests to put prisoners into uncomfortable positions to get them to talk, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Senior military officials also insisted that all interrogation techniques that have been approved have been allowable under international law.

Seven soldiers are facing military charges related to the abuse and humiliation of prisoners captured by the now-infamous photographs at Abu Ghraib, a prison in Baghdad. The soldiers and their lawyers have said military intelligence officials running the interrogations told military police assigned as guards to abuse the prisoners to make interrogations easier.

Direct questioning without any physical contact and other such techniques are still permitted without approval from high-level officers, said the officials, who help draft and approve such rules in Iraq.

Until Thursday, more stressful techniques were allowed with Sanchez's approval, such as depriving detainees of sleep for more than 72 hours or forcing them into "stress positions" making them kneel or stand uncomfortably for more than 45 minutes.

Sanchez told military intelligence officers Thursday that he would not approve any stressful techniques other than putting prisoners alone in cells or in segregated units with only a small number of other detainees.

Critics say the interrogation rules, first laid out in September after a visit to Iraq by the then-commander of the prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, amounted to a green light for abuse. Pentagon officials heatedly deny that, saying prisoners always are treated under guidelines of the Geneva Conventions.