We do what we’re told.
Many of the abusive interrogation methods that were being used at Nama were clearly authorized by the command structure at the camp. [“Sgt.] Jeff [Perry”*] told Human Rights Watch that written authorizations were required for most abusive techniques, indicating that the use of these tactics was approved up the chain of command.
There was an authorization template on a computer, a sheet that you would print out, or actually just type it in. And it was a checklist. And it was all already typed out for you, environmental controls, hot and cold, you know, strobe lights, music, so forth. Working dogs, which, when I was there, wasn’t being used. But you would just check what you want to use off, and if you planned on using a harsh interrogation you’d just get it signed off.
I never saw a sheet that wasn’t signed. It would be signed off by the commander, whoever that was, whether it was 03 [captain] or 06 [colonel], whoever was in charge at the time. . . . When the 06 was there, yeah, he would sign off on that. . . . He would sign off on that every time it was done.
[...]
Jeff also said that the commanding officer at Nama would sometimes tell the interrogators that the White House or Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld had been briefed on intelligence gathered by the team, especially intelligence about Zarqawi:
[They’d say:] “Rumsfeld was informed, such and such a report is on Rumsfeld’s desk this morning, read by Secdef . . . it’s a big morale booster for people working 14 hour days. Hey, we got to the White House!”
—No Blood, No Foul:
Soldiers’ Accounts of Detainee Abuse in Iraq
Human Rights Watch, July 2006
Volume Number 18, No. 3(G)
via Talking Points Memo
At this point, many people indicated their desire to stop the experiment and check on the learner. Some test subjects paused at 135 volts and began to question the purpose of the experiment. Most continued after being assured that they would not be held responsible. A few subjects began to laugh nervously or exhibit other signs of extreme stress once they heard the screams of pain coming from the learner.
If at any time the subject indicated his desire to halt the experiment, he was given a succession of verbal prods by the experimenter, in this order:
- Please continue.
- The experiment requires you to continue, please go on.
- It is essential that you continue.
- You have no choice, you must continue.
If the subject still wished to stop after all four successive verbal prods, the experiment was halted. Otherwise, it was halted after the subject had given the maximum 450-volt shock three times in succession.
[...]
There is a little-known coda to the experiment, reported by Philip Zimbardo. None of the participants who refused to administer the final shocks insisted that the experiment itself be terminated, nor left the room to check that the victim was well without asking for permission to leave, according to Milgram’s notes and recollections when he was asked on this point by Zimbardo.
—“Milgram experiment,” Wikipedia
Don’t forget the Stanford Prison Experiment.
Stanford is an explication of what happens, and the psychosexual aspects have a rude slap of familiarity; I’m more concerned (here, at least) with how. This is another damning piece of evidence (on an undeniable, stinking mountain of such evidence) that the authority to do these things was granted from the top on down. Apples don’t make checklists.