Sen. Reed to ex-Pentagon counsel: 'You did a disservice to soldiers'

U.S. Sen. Jack Reed had a sharp exchange this afternoon with a former Pentagon official during Senate testimony on the continuing revelations about the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Cuba by U.S. military personnel.

The former Pentagon legal counsel, William "Jim’’ Haynes, appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee as the panel aired more dramatic findings alleging official tolerance of abusive interrogations at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, the Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba, and elsewhere.

At one point in a long and tense exchange about the direction of the soldiers who conducted interrogations of suspected terrorists, Haynes said, "They were supposed to stop if anything came up. There were all sorts of conditions’’ on their questioning techniques.

"Where in this memorandum is the reference of conditions?’’ the Rhode Island Democrat demanded.

Haynes replied in part that Reed’s questions "malign’’ the "training and the integrity of the soldiers.’’

West Point graduate Reed replied this way: "I object strenuously to that. You did a disservice to the soldiers of this nation. You empowered them to violate basic conditions which every soldier respects, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the Geneva Convention.

"Here's what soldiers do. You said the Geneva Convention doesn't apply, and they ask: What does apply? And the only thing you sent them was: These techniques apply -- no conditions, nothing. So don't go around with this attitude of you're protecting the integrity of the military. You degraded the integrity of the United States military.’’