Major General Geoffrey Miller, Donald Rumsfeld, Ricardo Sanchez and Interrogation Techniques

General Geoffrey Miller established a system at Guantanamo Bay that was based on getting information from detainees using harsh interrogation techniques.  With Donald Rumsfeld's approval, interrogation techniques were ramped up in order to gain vital information in America's war on terror.  An action memo, signed by Rumsfeld on  December 2, 2002, called for restraint when handling interrogations but many of Rumsfeld's critics claim that Rumsfeld was giving a nod to torture when he asked the question why prisoners were only being made to stand for four hours at a time when he himself stood for eight to ten hours per day.  Rumsfeld did not believe the reports from "human rights organizations" that torture was going on at Gitmo.

General Geoffrey Miller

General Miller was sent to Iraq in August of 2003 to see if he could help interrogators obtain better information and immediately called for tougher treatment of detainees.  At the end of General Miller's visit, General Richardo Sanchez issued a memo for extreme interrogation techniques to start being employed.  Prison guards remember a change at Abu Ghraib about this time.  Prisoners were left naked and handcuffed for long periods of time, sometimes standing on boxes or in compromising positions.

Oftentimes prisoners were kept with sandbags on their heads.  The main reason was to keep them or their captors identity hidden.  The sandbags also kept the detainees disillusioned and appeared to the guards to be somewhat cruel.