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| Down Under |
| Australian SAS undergo torture training |
| 2005-08-19 |
| AUSTRALIAN soldiers are being blindfolded, stripped naked and menaced by savage dogs for up to three hours in extreme training exercises to prepare them to resist torture. The intensive regime, approved at the highest level of government, is about to be upgraded in response to the growing threat from enemies who do not respect the rules of the Geneva Conventions. Defence Minister Robert Hill has confirmed interrogators are authorised to use threats of physical and sexual abuse during simulated interrogation sessions at the Defence Intelligence Training Centre at Canungra, near the Gold Coast. "When approved by the exercise director, working military dogs that are muzzled and short-leashed may be used during advanced RTI (resistance to interrogation) training, in the presence of RTI trainees (including naked trainees), in order to create realism," Senator Hill said in a written response to a parliamentary question from federal Labor MP Daryl Melham. The use of guard dogs by US soldiers at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail last year to intimidate Iraqi prisoners provoked worldwide outrage and led to prosecutions of American personnel. The Defence Department would not confirm whether Australian troops sent to Iraq had received the training but did confirm that some civilian employees were trained by the military to resist interrogation for postings such as Iraq. Senator Hill detailed how trainees are blindfolded for much of the exercise and can be made to stay naked for a period of up to three hours. "Trainees may be requested to strip naked for the purpose of searching. Nudity only occurs in advanced practical RTI training. Participants in basic practical training are only stripped to their underwear," he said. "In no circumstances are RTI trainees kept naked for a period longer than three hours in aggregate during the RTI exercise." The army's interrogation training manual is being updated for the first time since 2001 to take into account the threat of torture to Australian troops captured in war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan, where a new contingent of 190 Special Air Service soldiers and regular service personnel will be deployed next month. A spokesman for the Defence Department said last night they now "assumed" enemy interrogators might not comply with the Geneva Conventions. "Not all combatants faced by the ADF (Australian Defence Force) abide by the Geneva Convention and the laws of armed conflict," he said. "ADF personnel need to be prepared and made aware of what they may face after capture." Senator Hill acknowledged earlier this year that if the army's training techniques were used on prisoners of war, they would be inbreach of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. "Techniques that would not be permitted by the 1949 Geneva Conventions include personal verbal attack to lower morale and weaken the will to resist, and the employment of ploys and tricks such as impersonation, fake documents, and threat (only) of dire punishment," he said. Australia Defence Association executive director Neil James - a qualified interrogator and the original author of the ADF's interrogation training manual - told The Weekend Australian that the training had three levels and was one of the most strictly controlled exercises in the defence force. He said all soldiers received theoretical training and that troops in combat roles received basic practical training. Mr James said some of the troops in Iraq would have at least received basic practical training. In each session there is a medical officer and a "neutral" umpire who have the ability to stop the training at any time. A former soldier, who had witnessed a training session and spoke to The Weekend Australian on condition of anonymity, detailed how the troops undergoing the training were hauled out of bed at night, stripped naked outdoors and kept awake for hours. "In the one I saw, the soldiers were stripped naked when they arrived at the place of interrogation," the former soldier said. "This was in the middle of winter. They were very cold. One guy nearly went down with hypothermia and had to receive medical attention. "They were put in a stress position, which is essentially squatting with your hands tied behind your back, naked. "At various times, we'd take someone into the interrogation area from the holding area for an hour at a time. "After they interrogate them, they take them back to the holding area and anything from five minutes to four hours later they'll take them back again. "They get repeated questioning, sexual humiliation by officers of the opposite sex. It was an eye-opener. "People react in various ways. The bulk were stoic, some were defiant, and one was a complete basket case by the end of the night." Mr James said that the first resistance to interrogation training was put in place after the Korean War when Australian prisoners of war were kept in inhumane conditions and attempts were made to brainwash them. He said that for many years the military operated a simulated prison camp but it was closed in 1974 by the Whitlam government. "That course has never been resurrected, which to many in the defence force is a stupid decision," he said. He said even a small amount of training to prepare troops for the "shock of capture" made a big difference. "Your ability to resist is increased by some minor commonsense training," he said. NSW Council for Civil Liberties president Cameron Murphy said there should be an independent inquiry into training that had the potential to abuse human rights. "We've got a litany of problems with issues of discipline, cruel and unusual punishments, bastardisation in the military," he said. "The Government needs to stamp out any training techniques that treat our soldiers in a degrading and humiliating fashion. "We've learned nothing from the problems in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and there's no excuse for treating our soldiers in this way." |
| Posted by:Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World |
| #3 Because everybody knows, the Geneva conventions apply only to us, and not to them. So we mustn't train our soldiers to resist. And besides, we must ignore that pesky part of the Geneva conventions that says that they only apply to uniformed combatants of a nation-state. Some guy caught red-handed with a black turban and an AK must receive the benefit of the doubt as to his guilt or innocence. |
| Posted by: gromky 2005-08-19 17:29 |
| #2 Nudity only occurs in advanced practical RTI training. Participants in basic practical training are only stripped to their underwear," We have that here, too. It's called the personals section of the Boston Phoenix. |
| Posted by: Joan Kennedy 2005-08-19 12:36 |
| #1 Hey, "Civil Liberties" douchebag. They're doing it for their own good, you friggin idiot! But I'll bet if they got captured by some Iraqi "freedom fighters" and they were pulling the same shit, you'd have no problem with it, right? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-08-19 12:05 |