The Senate Armed Services Committee Report on Treating of Detainees in December 2008

The Senate Armed Services Committee conducted an investigation that would delve into the treatment of detainees in U.S custody. Their report concluded an executive summary with several conclusions as to where these techniques originated and as to who and why approved these interrogation techniques. Their investigation presents various factors that contributed to the actions of those soldiers that participated in detainee abuse. These factors include, that harsh techniques were first considered in the White House. A significant amount of the report addresses the use of SERE Techniques and how these techniques were not used as a defensive measure for soldiers but SERE was implemented on detainees, which are proven to only yield false confessions. In fact, it states how General Miller ignored the warning given by the FBI that the strategies used in GITMO were possibly unlawful. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s approvals for harsher interrogation technique led to the abuse of detainees. Finally, the investigation concludes with the authorization to use harsh techniques in Afghanistan and Iraq and its’ consequence. Specifically, it states that “interrogation policies approved by Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez...were a direct cause of detainee abuse in Iraq... Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s December 2, 2002 authorization of aggressive interrogation techniques and subsequent interrogation policies and plans approved by senior military and civilian officials conveyed the message that physical pressures and degradation were appropriate treatment for detainees in U.S. military custody.” The Committee’s report supported that the abuse that occurred in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib was not the sole responsibility of the soldiers, but high ranking officials are also at fault.