Prometheus 6

Guantánamo Reprimand Was Sought, an Aide Says
By DAVID S. CLOUD

WASHINGTON, July 12 - A high-level military investigation into accusations of abuse of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, recommended a reprimand for the former commander of the prison, but his superior declined to admonish him, said a Congressional aide who has read a report on the inquiry.

Investigators found that Maj. Gen. Geoffrey C. Miller, who was in charge of Guantánamo in 2002 and 2003, failed to oversee the interrogation of a so-called high-value detainee who was subjected to abusive treatment but not tortured, the aide said. Instead of reprimanding General Miller, Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, commander of the United States Southern Command, referred the matter to the Army inspector general, according to an account by the aide, who took detailed notes on the report and spoke on condition of anonymity because it had not been released yet.

General Craddock decided that General Miller had not violated the law or Pentagon policy.

General Miller was deeply involved in the handling of detainees, first at Guantánamo, where he earned credit for improving interrogation techniques and for the treatment of prisoners, and later in Iraq, where he was sent in August 2003 to suggest ways to improve interrogations immediately before the worst abuses at Abu Ghraib prison. In 2004, he was appointed to oversee all detainee operations in Iraq. Multiple investigations have cleared him of wrongdoing.

Over all, the investigation by Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt of the Air Force found there was no evidence that prisoners were tortured or treated inhumanely, the aide said. Only three acts by military personnel at Guantánamo were violations of the Army Field Manual and the Geneva Conventions, the report concluded. The aide said interrogators threatened one high-value prisoner by saying they would go after his family, a violation of United States military law.