Hood Comes to Pakistan

Thursday, March 20, 2008

By Shireen M Mazari

ISLAMABAD: According to the US Department of Defence News Release of
March 13, 2008, Major General Jay W. Hood has been posted as the
Chief, Office of the Defence Representative, Pakistan.

General Hood is a former commanding general of Guantanamo Bay prison
and according to US National Public Radio (NPR), General Hood's tenure
at Guantanamo was marred by a series of scandals and growing
controversies relating to policies on detention and interrogation.
While controversy has always surrounded Guantanamo, it reached new
heights when Hood was there - especially in the aftermath of the
scandal breaking out publicly on detentions in Iraq at Abu Ghraib.
Interestingly, it was General Miller, Hood's predecessor at
Guantanamo, who was implicated in Iraq.

Hood came under intense criticism when he decided to force feed
prisoners with the use of a restraining chair. The gruesome means of
force feeding have compelled the US to censor a drawing by a
Guantanamo Bay detainee where he depicted himself as a skeleton with
his head double-strapped down, a tube in his nose, a black mask over
his mouth, no eyes visible only giant cheekbones. The detainee, Sami
Al Haj is a Sudanese cameraman who worked for Al Jazeera television
and the self-sketch was to mark his 431st day on hunger strike at
Guantanamo Bay.

It was also during Hood's service at Guantanamo Bay that the Pentagon
released details of five confirmed cases of US personnel abusing the
holy Quran. In a story published in the Washington Post on 4 June
2005, the US military admitted that soldiers and interrogators had
kicked the holy Quran, got copies wet and stood on the holy Book
during an interrogation and also sprayed urine on another copy. This
was well established by the Pentagon after General Hood, as Commander
of Joint Task Force Guantanamo completed an inquiry into these cases
of abuse of the holy Quran. Yet Hood chose to describe these incidents
as "largely inadvertent".

The inquiry tried to cover up deliberate abuses of the holy Book that
detainees had been reporting to their lawyers, including lawyer Tom
Wilner who was representing 11 Kuwaiti detainees. He declared that the
number and persistence of reports of the Quran abuse from detainees
revealed a much broader problem than indicated by the Hood inquiry.
Clearly Hood's main intent was to cover up as much as could be done in
the wake of increasing revelations on the issue of Quran abuse.

It is unfortunate that the US Army Chief of Staff has chosen to
appoint such a controversial officer to Pakistan, especially given his
record and linkage to abuse of prisoners and the Holy Quran at
Guantanamo. Guantanamo Bay itself has become a symbol of injustice,
torture and abuse of Islam and sending a commanding officer from there
to Islamabad begs the question: What is the message coming out of the
Pentagon for Pakistanis by this insensitive act?

Equally important, given that host governments always have a choice of
refusing a nominee - and many Western countries have exercised that
right in the diplomatic nominees of the Pakistan Government - why has
the Pakistan government chosen to silently accept what the US military
dishes out, with no thought to the sensitivities of its own people?

When asked, a US Embassy spokesperson said:

"Major General Hood was nominated by the US Army and approved through
the highest levels of the Department of Defense. His assignment to
Pakistan is not related to his previous assignment but rather is a
reflection of his standing as a senior military officer.

He was chosen for the assignment to Pakistan because he is a highly
qualified officer at the Major General level. Assigning an officer at
this level to this position reflects the continued US goal of
cooperation with the Armed Forces of Pakistan. He is the second
consecutive Major General assigned as Chief of the Office of the
Defense Representative Pakistan."