2006年VOA标准英语-Guantanamo Officials Say They Use Friendly

By Al Pessin
Washington
24 February 2006

There has been renewed controversy¹ during the past week about conditions at the U.S. military detention² center at Guantanamo Bay.  A panel of United Nations experts called for the facility to be closed.  A former Defense³ Department lawyer said he had opposed abusive interrogations at Guantanamo three years ago.  And on Thursday, a memo⁴ was made public indicating that agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation⁵ tried and failed to stop military officers from using such tactics during the same period.  U.S. officials say such practices were never authorized⁶ by official policy, and that abuses were stopped when senior officials learned about them.  On a recent visit to Guantanamo, VOA Pentagon Correspondent Al Pessin found officials eager to make the point that whatever may have happened in the past, their approach now is different from what has been reported.

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On the media tour of Guantanamo's newest climate-controlled detention facility called Camp Five, the sergeant⁸ in charge, who does not want his name published, opens a door at the end of a hallway lined with cells.

SERGEANT: "This is one of the interrogation rooms that we have here at Camp Five.  Inside the small room are several hard chairs, a small table, a Middle Eastern carpet and a plush easy chair.

SERGEANT: "The detainee would be sat across from the interrogator⁹.  In this room, it happens to be this Lazy-Boy right here."

Guantanamo Interrogation Room  
  
A Lazy-Boy is a brand of cushioned chair that reclines.  This particular one is covered with a soft, velvet-like light blue fabric¹⁰.  The room could be a small den⁷ anywhere in America, except for the cinder¹¹ block walls and the shackle¹² on the floor where a prisoner's restraints can be attached.  The sergeant is asked whether all the interrogation rooms have Lazy-Boy recliners for the detainees.

SERGEANT: "Each interrogation room is a little bit different in what is put in it, whether it's chairs or a couch or DVD player or television."

A DVD player?  A television?  It doesn't sound, or look, like a place where prisoners would be beaten, put in stress positions or subjected to other abuses, as has been charged by some detainees and former officials.  But a senior military officer says the comfortable interrogation rooms are part of a plan.

COLONEL: "We find that the interrogators that have the best rapport¹³ and show the most respect to the folks they're working with will elicit¹⁴ the most information."
 

Detainee restraints  
  
This U.S. Army Lieutenant¹⁵ Colonel also does not want her name used.  She is a psychologist who works as a consultant¹⁶ to the interrogation teams.  And she says her main message to the interrogators is not to abuse, belittle¹⁷ or lie to the detainees, but rather to become their friends.

COLONEL: "We work with interrogators to elicit information, so whatever might be effective.  And what we know works best here is building rapport.  Oftentimes, when folks are starting out they need a little more coaching, a little more training on more effective ways to do that."

Washington lawyer Thomas Wilner says that was not always the case.  He represents several detainees at Guantanamo, and visits them from time to time.

"My clients at Guantanamo have been there now for four years," he says. "And at the beginning, a number of them said that they were subjected to very harsh physical abuse.  Several of them were beaten up when they first arrived at Guantanamo.  Others were punched a lot during interrogation.  That, I think, has ended long ago."

Mr. Wilner and other lawyers charge that some types of abuse continue, including painful medical procedures that they say helped convince many detainees to end their hunger strike in recent weeks, after several months of less painful force feeding.

But Mr. Wilner says the more flagrant types of abuse connected to interrogations ended about two years ago for two main reasons.

"It probably ended in part because of the revelations of Abu Ghraib," Mr. Wilner says. "I think it ended in part because in June, 2004 the Supreme¹⁸ Court said that Guantanamo was not a place beyond the law and that the courts could look at what was going on down there.  And I think that some of the cloak over Guantanamo was taken away."

U.S. officials say there was never a policy of abuse, and that when it happened it was stopped as soon as senior officials became aware of it, and the perpetrators were punished.  But this week U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged that a memo he signed in December of 2002 allowing some pressure tactics in interrogations sparked concern among some department lawyers, one of whom recently retired¹⁹ and has gone public with his story.

 
Donald Rumsfeld (r) and General Peter Pace  
  
"Within four, five, six weeks we heard that there was concern about that, in which case we stopped it immediately and then undertook an investigation and consulted with the people who were in the judge advocate (military lawyer) offices," Rumsfeld says. "In which case, then it was revised in some ways and sent back out.

Secretary Rumsfeld said he does not believe his original memo sent a signal to interrogators that abuse was allowed.

These days, relatively²⁰ few of the nearly 500 detainees at Guantanamo are interrogated²¹.  Officials say the rest either had no useful information or have already told what they know.  But the detention facility's commander, Major General Jay Hood²², says some of the detainees were in key positions in terrorist organizations and still have useful information.

"There is hardly a week that goes by that we don't learn something about how members of terrorist organizations recruited, trained, transported,financed commanded and controlled their organization," he says.

Camp Five Gate at Guantanamo Bay  
  
And the general says the techniques the interrogators are using are working, helped perhaps by a breakdown²³ in resistance over the years.

"In many cases, portions of the detainee population who were very resistant²⁴ to interrogations for a significant period of time after their capture have, over time, begun to communicate with us," general Hood says. "The communications flow, I think, is more open and more clear now than it ever has been in the past."

U.S. officials say they will continue to keep detainees at Guantanamo as long as they provide useful information, and pose a potential threat to the United States and its allies.  And they say they provide safe, humane²⁵ detention.  The detainees' lawyers dispute that, and say the detainees should have access to U.S. courts to seek their freedom.  That debate will go on, and in the meantime, so will the interrogations, but apparently²⁶ under different conditions than in the past.

1 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

2 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

3 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

4 memo   

n.照会，备忘录；便笺；通知书；规章

参考例句：

• Do you want me to send the memo out?您要我把这份备忘录分发出去吗？
• Can you type a memo for me?您能帮我打一份备忘录吗？

5 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

6 authorized   

a.委任的，许可的

参考例句：

• An administrative order is valid if authorized by a statute.如果一个行政命令得到一个法规的认可那么这个命令就是有效的。

7 den   

n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室

参考例句：

• There is a big fox den on the back hill.后山有一个很大的狐狸窝。
• The only way to catch tiger cubs is to go into tiger's den.不入虎穴焉得虎子。

8 sergeant   

n.警官，中士

参考例句：

• His elder brother is a sergeant.他哥哥是个警官。
• How many stripes are there on the sleeve of a sergeant?陆军中士的袖子上有多少条纹？

9 interrogator   

n.讯问者；审问者；质问者；询问器

参考例句：

• No,I was not mad, but my interrogator was furious. 不，我没疯，只是质问我的人怒不可遏。 来自互联网
• Miss Fan lacked such an interrogator with whom she could whisper intimately. 范小姐就缺少这样一个切切私语的盘问者。 来自互联网

10 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

11 cinder   

n.余烬，矿渣

参考例句：

• The new technology for the preparation of superfine ferric oxide from pyrite cinder is studied.研究了用硫铁矿烧渣为原料，制取超细氧化铁红的新工艺。
• The cinder contains useful iron,down from producing sulphuric acid by contact process.接触法制硫酸的矿渣中含有铁矿。

12 shackle   

n.桎梏，束缚物；v.加桎梏，加枷锁，束缚

参考例句：

• He's too young to shackle himself with the responsibilities of a family.他还太年轻，不能用家庭责任来束缚自己。
• This issue always is a shackle which confines the brand building of industry product.这个问题一直是限制工业品品牌塑造的桎梏。

13 rapport   

n.和睦，意见一致

参考例句：

• She has an excellent rapport with her staff.她跟她职员的关系非常融洽。
• We developed a high degree of trust and a considerable personal rapport.我们发展了高度的互相信任和不错的私人融洽关系。

14 elicit   

v.引出,抽出,引起

参考例句：

• It was designed to elicit the best thinking within the government. 机构的设置是为了在政府内部集思广益。
• Don't try to elicit business secrets from me. I won't tell you anything. 你休想从我这里套问出我们的商业机密, 我什么都不会告诉你的。

15 lieutenant   

n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员

参考例句：

• He was promoted to be a lieutenant in the army.他被提升为陆军中尉。
• He prevailed on the lieutenant to send in a short note.他说动那个副官，递上了一张简短的便条进去。

16 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

17 belittle   

v.轻视，小看，贬低

参考例句：

• Do not belittle what he has achieved.不能小看他取得的成绩。
• When you belittle others,you are actually the one who appears small.当你轻视他人时， 真正渺小的其实是你自己。

18 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

19 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

20 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

21 interrogated   

v.询问( interrogate的过去式和过去分词 )；审问；（在计算机或其他机器上）查询

参考例句：

• He was interrogated by the police for over 12 hours. 他被警察审问了12个多小时。
• Two suspects are now being interrogated in connection with the killing. 与杀人案有关的两名嫌疑犯正在接受审讯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

22 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

23 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。

24 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

25 humane   

adj.人道的，富有同情心的

参考例句：

• Is it humane to kill animals for food?宰杀牲畜来吃合乎人道吗？
• Their aim is for a more just and humane society.他们的目标是建立一个更加公正、博爱的社会。

26 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。