Senator Slams General's Torture Testimony

June 17, 2009— -- Obama's new pick to oversee U.S. forces in Afghanistan misled Congress about his role in the use of so-called "enhanced interrogation" by U.S. Special Operations forces in 2003 and 2004, a senior Democratic senator has charged.

Sen. Russell Feingold (D-WI) said late last week that then-Special Operations commander Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal was not direct with lawmakers at his confirmation hearing regarding his approval of harsh interrogations by personnel under his control.

"[T]his testimony appears to be incomplete, at best," Feingold said in a statement published in the Congressional Record June 11. For that reason and others, he said he opposed Obama's nomination of McChrystal to lead the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan.

Despite Feingold's comments, he did not object when the Senate approved McChrystal under unanimous consent to his new post June 10. The senator's comments were first reported by the Secrecy News newsletter.

Under McChrystal, Special Forces personnel helped operate prisoner camps in Iraq that generated some of the most serious allegations of detainee abuse of the post-9/11 era, including severe beatings with rifle butts, burning and more. But during his Senate confirmation hearing last week, McChrystal characterized himself as "uncomfortable" with harsh interrogation methods, and said he worked to end their use.

Harsh and sometimes-abusive treatment of prisoners was reportedly widespread among Special Forces personnel in Iraq at the time McChrystal became their chief, and reports indicate things changed little after he took the helm.

In August 2003, one month before McChrystal assumed command of Joint Special Operations Command, the CIA reportedly barred its officers from working at Camp Nama, a JSOC-operated facility in Iraq for holding and interrogating so-called "high value" terrorism targets, because military personnel there had become so aggressive with prisoners.

The camp, located at Baghdad International Airport, was reportedly posted with signs reading "No Blood, No Foul." Its name, according to defense personnel, reportedly stood for "Nasty *ss Military Area."