Secret memo reveals Bush was given humane, legal alternative to harsh interrogation

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John Byrne
May 18, 2009 - Raw Story

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The Bush administration was given clear and unequivocal advice encouraging a detainee interrogation system that followed humane practices that adhered to US and international law, a previously secret memo reveals.

A detailed memorandum authored by a counselor to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2005 also reveals that the Bush Administration was offered a comprehensive alternative to its use of torture techniques. The author, Rice deputy Philip Zelikow (along with then-acting deputy secretary of defense Gordon England), asserted that the adoption of a clear and humane approach to interrogation would pay dividends for the US in the years to come.

The memo was published Thursday at Secrecy News, a blog written by secrecy expert Steven Aftergood. It can be read here in PDF form.

Zelikow acknowledged an argument frequently promulgated by former Vice President Dick Cheney — that the interrogation of detainees could save thousands of lives. But he argued that humane treatment was the only right course for the United States.

"Some [terrorist suspects] have information that may save lives, perhaps even thousands of lives," Zelikow wrote. "They do not fit readily into any existing system of criminal or military justice. And, while balancing the danger these individuals may present, they must be treated humanely, consistent with our values and the values of the free world."

Zelikow and England argued — conscious of the techniques that the Bush administration had already adopted and in an apparent snipe at then-approved standards endorsing torture — that such a program must "pass muster for years to come under American law and relevant standards of international law," and "give workable clear and unambiguous guidelines for the professional and humane conduct expected from those who will operate the system."

And, they said, whether a prisoner was caught in any number of countries abroad, "the treatment of a prisoner should be built on a foundation of common values and basic standards - a system that is reasonably interoperable."

Zelikow recently found himself in the news after alleging that the White House sought to round up and destroy all copies of another memo he wrote that year, which argued explicitly that the Bush administration's interrogation techniques were illegal. According to Zelikow, the "White House attempted to collect and destroy all copies of my memo." In a recent article, Zelikow said his "supposition at the time" was that the office of Vice President Dick Cheney was behind the push.

In the memo released Thursday, the two Bush officials said they believed that the US should effectively give terrorist detainees the rights enumerated under the Geneva Conventions.

In all capital letters, they wrote: "WE ARE NOT SAYING THAT THESE DETAINEES ARE NECESSARILY ENTITLED TO THIS STATUS. TO BE CLEAR: WE ARE GIVING THEM A TEMPORARY STATUS THEY DO NOT DESERVE. BUT WE ARE NOT DOING THIS FOR THEM. WE ARE DOING IT FOR US."

"This interim approach also is one that civilian courts are more likely to understand," they continued. "This interim approach is also one that Americans and the world are more likely to understand and accept as reasonable."

Both also argued for the temporary holding of detainees as opposed to their long-term imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay. They proposed an alternative system whereby individuals would be questioned when information is most current.

"In every country, individuals are held temporarily, away from public scrutiny, often just after they are apprehended, in order to conduct human but effective questioning and gather information while it is most current," they wrote.

"As part of this interim system, and as the number of detainees goes down," they continued, "the US will no longer need to maintain a detention facility in Guantanamo. That facility will close and we expect to transfer remaining detainees to a facility in the United States."

Perhaps most telling was a line penned midway through the memo — a prognostication that has proven eerily true.

"If the US acts as if it has something to hide," the officials wrote, "Americans and the world will assume that it does."