Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Wall Street Journal
May 1, 2008
Pg. 6
By Yochi J. Dreazen
WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers have delayed a top general's nomination for a key position assisting the Joint Chiefs of Staff because of questions about detainee abuse by forces under his command, according to the Pentagon and people familiar with the matter.
The impasse involves Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a fast-rising officer who oversaw the secretive Special Operations units, including the Army's storied Delta Force, responsible for hunting high-ranking Islamic militants in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gen. McChrystal had been talked about as a possible successor to Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Baghdad. In February, he was nominated to be the director of the Joint Staff, a powerful Pentagon job.
The appointment has been stalled by lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee who want more information about the treatment of detainees by Army Rangers, Navy Seals and other Special Operations troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to people familiar with the matter.
Staffers for Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.), who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said there were no formal "holds" -- a technical procedure that allows anonymous senators to block nominations or legislation -- on Gen. McChrystal's nomination and declined to comment about why no confirmation hearing had been scheduled. "We're still looking at the nomination," said Tara Andringa, a spokeswoman for Sen. Levin.
One Republican aide said the odds were "55-45%" that the officer would eventually be confirmed.
The nomination of Navy Rear Adm. William McRaven to succeed Gen. McChrystal as commander of the military's Joint Special Operations Command has also been held up, according to people familiar with the matter.
Through a spokesman, Defense Secretary Robert Gates confirmed the delay and urged lawmakers to quickly move ahead on Gen. McChrystal's nomination. The spokesman, Geoff Morrell, said Gen. McChrystal "served the Army and the nation with honor and distinction" and at "great personal risk."
Ken McGraw, a spokesman for the Special Operations Command, said officers there hadn't been notified of any delay to the two nominations or received any congressional requests for more information related to them.
Elite forces "take all allegations of abuse seriously, thoroughly investigate allegations immediately, and take appropriate action based on the results of the investigations," he added.
The military has investigated dozens of allegations of detainee abuse by elite troops, including deaths involving members of the Navy Seals and the Army's Fifth Special Forces Group. In one of the Army-related cases, military investigators later concluded that an Iraqi military officer in American custody died of "blunt force injuries and asphyxia."
Mr. McGraw said that 64 service personnel assigned or attached to Special Operations units had been disciplined for detainee abuse between early 2004 and the end of 2007.
Investigators from the ACLU and human-rights organizations have long charged that elite forces received written directives from higher-ranking officers allowing them to use physical interrogation techniques that were off-limits to conventional forces.
Capt. Carolyn Wood, an operations officer with the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion, mentioned such a directive in a 2004 sworn statement to military investigators probing abuse allegations. Capt. Wood told the investigators that she put together guidance for her unit about how to question detainees that drew from the "TF-121 IROE," the interrogation rules of engagement that had been given to the members of Task Force 121, a Special Operations unit.
The ACLU and other groups have pressed the military to declassify and release the elite forces' "interrogation directives," but the military has yet to do so.
On Wednesday, the ACLU released documents from an internal Pentagon investigation which revealed for the first time that military psychologists helped Special Operations troops question detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.
May 1, 2008
Pg. 6
By Yochi J. Dreazen
WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers have delayed a top general's nomination for a key position assisting the Joint Chiefs of Staff because of questions about detainee abuse by forces under his command, according to the Pentagon and people familiar with the matter.
The impasse involves Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a fast-rising officer who oversaw the secretive Special Operations units, including the Army's storied Delta Force, responsible for hunting high-ranking Islamic militants in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gen. McChrystal had been talked about as a possible successor to Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Baghdad. In February, he was nominated to be the director of the Joint Staff, a powerful Pentagon job.
The appointment has been stalled by lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee who want more information about the treatment of detainees by Army Rangers, Navy Seals and other Special Operations troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to people familiar with the matter.
Staffers for Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.), who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said there were no formal "holds" -- a technical procedure that allows anonymous senators to block nominations or legislation -- on Gen. McChrystal's nomination and declined to comment about why no confirmation hearing had been scheduled. "We're still looking at the nomination," said Tara Andringa, a spokeswoman for Sen. Levin.
One Republican aide said the odds were "55-45%" that the officer would eventually be confirmed.
The nomination of Navy Rear Adm. William McRaven to succeed Gen. McChrystal as commander of the military's Joint Special Operations Command has also been held up, according to people familiar with the matter.
Through a spokesman, Defense Secretary Robert Gates confirmed the delay and urged lawmakers to quickly move ahead on Gen. McChrystal's nomination. The spokesman, Geoff Morrell, said Gen. McChrystal "served the Army and the nation with honor and distinction" and at "great personal risk."
Ken McGraw, a spokesman for the Special Operations Command, said officers there hadn't been notified of any delay to the two nominations or received any congressional requests for more information related to them.
Elite forces "take all allegations of abuse seriously, thoroughly investigate allegations immediately, and take appropriate action based on the results of the investigations," he added.
The military has investigated dozens of allegations of detainee abuse by elite troops, including deaths involving members of the Navy Seals and the Army's Fifth Special Forces Group. In one of the Army-related cases, military investigators later concluded that an Iraqi military officer in American custody died of "blunt force injuries and asphyxia."
Mr. McGraw said that 64 service personnel assigned or attached to Special Operations units had been disciplined for detainee abuse between early 2004 and the end of 2007.
Investigators from the ACLU and human-rights organizations have long charged that elite forces received written directives from higher-ranking officers allowing them to use physical interrogation techniques that were off-limits to conventional forces.
Capt. Carolyn Wood, an operations officer with the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion, mentioned such a directive in a 2004 sworn statement to military investigators probing abuse allegations. Capt. Wood told the investigators that she put together guidance for her unit about how to question detainees that drew from the "TF-121 IROE," the interrogation rules of engagement that had been given to the members of Task Force 121, a Special Operations unit.
The ACLU and other groups have pressed the military to declassify and release the elite forces' "interrogation directives," but the military has yet to do so.
On Wednesday, the ACLU released documents from an internal Pentagon investigation which revealed for the first time that military psychologists helped Special Operations troops question detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.