Army interrogation manual needs revisions to prevent torture, advocates warn
Kyle Rempfer
An Army field manual that guides all national security interrogations needs revisions to prevent Americans from engaging in torture, such as an explicit ban on notorious CIA techniques used in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, advocates said in a recent letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other key officials.
The revisions are not needed to curb any currently known activities, but they would prevent future administrations from finding the kind of legal loopholes that allowed torture during the George W. Bush years, according to Scott Roehm, Washington director for the Center for Victims of Torture.
“What happens when the U.S. faces the next crisis? Will somebody take a look at this [Army field] manual and try to lawyer around it in the same way we saw what was done with the ‘torture memos’ in the aftermath of 9/11?” Roehm said by telephone Monday.
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2021/05/25/army-interrogation-manual-still-leaves-opening-for-torture-advocates-warn/
