Michael E. Dunlavey Explained

Michael E. Dunlavey
Birth Date:1945 12, df=yes
Birth Place:Buffalo, New York, United States
Nationality:American
Known For:A camp commandant at Guantanamo
Occupation:General officer, Judge

Michael E. Dunlavey (born 12 December 1945)[1] is a former major general in the United States Army.[2] [3] Following his retirement from the Army he was elected a State Judge in Erie Pennsylvania.[4] [5]

Dunlavey is on record as requesting authorization for interrogators to use controversial interrogation techniques derived from reverse-engineering the SERE training special forces soldiers go through so they can withstand torture, when he was the camp commandant of the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[6] [7] [8]

Dunlavey's speciality in the military was military intelligence, and it was in that capacity that he was appointed the commander of Joint Task Force 170, a position he held from February through November 2002. Dunlavey was the sole commander of JTF 170, a unit created to interrogate individuals held in Guantanamo Bay detention camp, in Cuba. Generals Lehnert and Baccus commanded Joint Task Force 160, a unit created to handle the detention of individuals held in Guantanamo. Dunlavey clashed with his Lehnert and Baccus, claiming they were undermining the efforts of his command through treating them humanely, allowing them to be visited by representatives of the Red Cross, and allowing them to be advised of their rights under the Geneva Conventions. He also clashed with the FBI, when its agents reported JTF 170 was using illegal interrogation techniques. In October 2002 Dunlavey wrote a memo to his superiors, requesting formal authorization to use extended interrogation techniques, that included sleep deprivation, beatings, sensory deprivation and overload. In November 2002 Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld created Joint Task Force Guantanamo with the combined responsibilities of both Task Force 160 and Task Force 170, and appointed Geoffrey D. Miller to its command.

According to a 11 September 2011, profile in the Erie Times-News, a local paper, Dunlavey has defended the use of these controversial interrogation techniques.[4]

Dunlavey no longer discusses his involvement. In a previous interview with the Erie-Times News, he said that detainees at Guantanamo were "not prisoners of war the way we were trained for, or the (kind the) Geneva Convention envisions." However, he has said he believes the tactics developed for their interrogations were "consistent with the Geneva Convention."

In 2004 four United Kingdom citizens sued Dunlavey for his role in their detention.[9] In 2007 Freedom of Information Act requests revealed that Dunlavey told military investigators investigating the use of torture at Guantanamo that his orders came directly from Secretary of Defense Rumseld.[10] [11]

In 2011 Dunlavey sent out an email joke, for which he felt he should apologize the next day.[12]

Dunlavey announced his intention to retire in May 2012, due to health problems.[13] Dunlavey had been undergoing treatment for after-effects of his service during the 1991 Gulf War since 2002, and had been diagnosed with cancer in the fall of 2011.

According to the Erie Times News Dunlavey had been an early advocate of establishing veterans courts.[14] The article compared special veteran's courts to mental health courts.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Erie County Annual Report 2010. Erie Court of Common Pleas. 21 January 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20151129194114/http://www.yourerielawyers.com/General-Library/2010_Erie_County_Annual_Report.pdf. 29 November 2015. dead.
  2. News: Can the '20th hijacker' of Sept. 11 stand trial? . https://web.archive.org/web/20140319003708/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15361462/. dead. 19 March 2014. NBC News. Bill Dedman. 2006-10-26. 2012-09-26.
  3. News: Maj. Gen. Michael E. Dunlavey appointed to Reserve Forces Policy Board. US Department of Defense. 1997-12-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20100301232741/http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=1536. 2010-03-01. 2014-04-08. live . Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen has announced the designation of Maj. Gen. Michael E. Dunlavey as the Army Reserve member of the Reserve Forces Policy Board effective Dec. 1, 1997. Dunlavey currently serves as assistant deputy chief of staff for Intelligence (IMA), Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Washington, D.C. .
  4. News: Individuals with Erie ties leave mark on post-9/11 era. Go Erie. Jim Martin. 2011-09-11. 2012-09-27. Erie County Judge Michael E. Dunlavey has also faced challenges to his reputation and questions about his judgment as a result of his service. That service began within days of the 2001 terrorist attacks when Dunlavey, a two-star general in the U.S. Army Reserve, was pressed into service to oversee global anti-terrorism operations..
  5. News: Roles of 2 Erie soldiers serve as bookends in terrorism debate. Erie Times-News. Pat Howard. 2009-01-25. 2012-09-27. Dunlavey, a retired two-star general in the U.S. Army Reserve, was called up in the wake of 9/11. While serving at Guantanamo, he played a role in shaping what Vandeveld encountered years later..
  6. News: The fight for the high ground: The U.S. Army and interrogation during Operation Iraqi Freedom I, May 2003 – April 2004. https://web.archive.org/web/20160303234719/http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a502354.pdf. live. 3 March 2016. U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. Douglas A. Pryer. 2009. 49, 55, 59, 204. 2012-09-27. When finalized, the list of techniques drafted by these two scientists would serve as the basis of an October 11, 2002, memo sent from Major General Dunlavey to his superior, General James Hill, the commander of U.S. Southern Command. In this memo, Dunlavey explicitly requested approval for techniques that derived from 'U.S. military interrogation resistance training' (SERE schools). Hill forwarded this documentation on October 25, 2002, to General Richard Myers, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for approval..
  7. News: Investigation into FBI Allegations of Detainee Abuse at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Detention Facility. Department of Defense. 2005. 2012-09-27. Interrogation operations at GTMO began in January 2002. Initially interrogators relied upon the interrogation techniques contained in FM 34-52. These techniques were ineffective against detainees who had received interrogation resistance training. On 11 Oct 2002, Major General Michael E. Dunlavey, the Commander of Joint Task Force (JTF) 170, the intelligence task force at GTMO, requested that the CDR USSOUTHCOM, GEN James T. Hill, approve 19 counter resistance techniques that were not specifically listed in FM 34-52..
  8. Book: George W. Bush, War Criminal?: The Bush Administration's Liability for 269 War Crimes. ABC-CLIO. Michael Haas. 2009. 64. 9780313364990. 2014-04-08. Major General Michael Dunlavey, commanding officer of the prison at Guantanamo, sent a memo on October 11, 2001, proposing four categories of techniques (Table 4.1). Whereas his memo appears to be a request to upgrade the harshness of interrogation, International lawyer Philippe Sands infers that he was pressured to author the document by those higher up the chain of command..
  9. News: Dunlavey sued in torture: Ex-Guantanamo detainees blame Erie judge, Rumsfeld, 9 others. Erie Times-News. Lisa Thompson. 2004-10-29. 2014-04-08. The suit claims Dunlavey, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and nine other American military leaders were personally responsible for their torture. Dunlavey, a retired two-star general in the U.S. Army Reserve, oversaw interrogations at Naval Base Guantanamo Bay between March and November 2002..
  10. News: Orders from the top. Erie Times-News. Lisa Thompson. 2007-11-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20140409014949/http://www.goerie.com/article/2007711020374. 2014-04-09. 2014-04-08. live . In a statement Dunlavey provided to a U.S. Air Force lieutenant general investigating FBI reports of detainee abuses at Guantanamo Bay, Dunlavey explains that as leader of interrogations at Guantanamo, he reported directly to President Bush and then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld..
  11. News: SUMMARIZED WITNESS STATEMENT OF MG (RETIRED) MIKE DUNLAVEY Summarized Witness Statement of MG (Retired) Mike Dunlavey. Department of Defense. 2005. 2014-04-09.
  12. News: Erie County judge apologizes for e-mail joke. Erie Times. Lisa Thompson. 2011-06-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20140408091158/http://www.goerie.com/article/2011306039884. 2014-04-08. live . It read: 'It was announced today that Buckwheat, of Our Gang fame, has converted to the Muslim faith and changed his name to Kareem of Wheat. I just hope he doesn't become a cereal killer.'.
  13. News: Erie County Judge Michael Dunlavey Announces His Retirement. WSEE. Emily Matson. 2012-05-07. https://web.archive.org/web/20120512150601/http://www.erietvnews.com/story/18163929/erie-county-judge-michael-dunlavey-announces-his-retirement. 2012-05-12. 2014-04-08. live . He was diagnosed with cancer late last fall, and has been under treatment since 2002, for other medical issues, in connection with his military service in the Middle East..
  14. News: Our View: Erie's veterans' court is right move . . 2014-04-07 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140408080932/http://www.goerie.com/article/20140408/OPINION01/304089993/Our-View%3A-Erie%27s-veterans%27-court-is-right-move . 2014-04-08 . dead . Erie County Judge Michael E. Dunlavey advocated for a veterans' court before he retired in August 2012. A U.S. Army Vietnam War veteran, Dunlavey also helped to oversee interrogations of suspected terrorists at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba after 9/11. .

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