Pentagon won't hide interrogation tactics - Yahoo! News: "Pentagon won't hide interrogation tactics By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
39 minutes ago


WASHINGTON - Under pressure from Congress, the Pentagon has dropped plans to keep some interrogation techniques secret by putting them in a classified section of a military manual, defense officials said Tuesday.
ADVERTISEMENT

Two senior officials said there will not be a classified section in the long-awaited revision of the Army Field Manual. One of the officials said descriptions of interrogation techniques initially planned for the classified section are either being made public or are being eliminated as tactics that can be used against prisoners. The officials requested anonymity because the manual has not been completed.
One human rights group hailed the decision.
'I think this is huge,' said Elisa Massimino, Washington director of Human Rights First. 'It's a very significant step toward creating the kind of clarity in the rules that military personnel have said that they lack and that led to a lot of the abuses.'
Military leaders have argued that disclosing all the interrogation techniques public would make it easier for enemy prisoners to resist questioning.
The military's treatment of detainees has been under increased scrutiny since the Abu Ghraib prisoner scandal in Iraq became known two years ago. Photographs that surfaced at the time showed U.S. troops beating, intimidating and sexually abusing prisoners.
Human rights groups have also called for the Bush administration to close the detention center at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where three detainees committed suicide late last week.
Defense "