Detainee Treatment Remains Key as Officials Weigh Guantanamo’s Future

WASHINGTON --- With both Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and President-elect Barack Obama advocating closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba, the Defense Department is focused on a way forward that protects the American people while also ensuring proper detainee treatment, a senior defense official said today.>> A decision by the convening authority for military commissions that a detainee suspected of being the 20th 9/11 hijacker was submitted to inappropriate interrogation methods does not mean the case against him wont ultimately go forward, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.>> Judge Susan. J. Crawford told the Washington Post in an interview published today that she did not refer the case against Mohammed al-Qhatani to a military commission because she believed his treatment met the legal definition of torture.>> Crawford told the Washington Post she did not refer the case against Qhatani because he had been subjected to so-called special interrogation techniques that were authorized for a brief period in 2002. Instead, she dismissed the case without prejudice, meaning that the prosecution can return to the convening authority at a later time with more evidence to re-swear the charges.>> Some of the aggressive questioning techniques used on al-Qhatani, although permissible at the time, are no longer allowed in the updated Army field manual, Whitman told reporters today. The Army published Field Manual 2-22.3, Human Intelligence Collector Operations, in 2006 to replace the previous manual with clearly worded doctrinal guidance on conducting military interrogations within U.S. and international law.