Geodog

But it's not torture?

From the Washington Post report on the torture memos released today:

On Oct. 11, 2002, for example, the commanding general at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, Maj. Gen. Michael Dunlavey, asked his commander to approve the use of death threats against detainees and their families, wrapping a detainee in wet towels to "induce the misperception of suffocation," stress positions, exposing them to cold weather and water, and using dogs.

These techniques had been reviewed and deemed legal under the Geneva Conventions by Dunlavey's legal adviser, Lt. Col. Diane Beaver, who wrote that they would be permissible "so long as there is an important governmental objective" and the tactics are not used "for the purpose of causing harm or with the intent to cause prolonged" mental or physical suffering.

Maj. Gen. Michael Dunlavey and Lt. Col. Diane Beaver should have been involuntarily retired on October 12, 2002. Kudos to Gen. James T. Hill for not going along with the worst of these abuses. Still, is it any wonder why the whole world is suspicious of what is happening at the prison in Guantanamo?