Pentagon officials at UC Berkeley to defend prisoner treatment

Pentagon officials at UC Berkeley to defend prisoner treatment: "Pentagon officials at UC Berkeley to defend prisoner treatment


Associated Press

BERKELEY, Calif. - Two Pentagon officials sought to win public support for the Bush administration's detention policies for terror suspects with an appearance at a college campus known for its anti-war demonstrations.

Bryan Del Monte, a detainee policy director at the Pentagon, and Christina Filarowski-Sheaks, a former interrogation trainer at the federal Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, said they wanted to correct public misperceptions about the administration's treatment of prisoners with their speech Thursday at the University of California, Berkeley.

The administration is facing mounting criticism about alleged torture, denial of due process for detainees, and so-called 'disappeared' prisoners who are allegedly being held at secret CIA facilities.

Filarowski-Sheaks said the Pentagon has agreed to abide by the rules of the Geneva Convention even though the United States has declared they do not apply to al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners.

'Torture, cruelty and inhumane and degrading treatment - those things are off the table,' Filarowski-Sheaks said, speaking at the Goldman School of Public Policy.

But some level of coercion is still needed for prisoners who might have information about future terrorist attacks, Filarowski-Sheaks said.

Del Monte said the administration's approach to dealing with suspected terrorists changed after the Sept. 11 attacks, and that fighting a stateless enemy means adjusting how the U.S. treats international prisoners.

'There is a new paradigm,' Del Monte said.

But not everyone was convinced. One skeptical audience member asked how forcibly shaving a Muslim prisoner's beard could be considered humane.
Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle
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