Press Release
Published on January 21, 2008
Tallahassee, FL– Retired military leaders will discuss U.S. interrogation policy and the importance of the commander-in-chief setting the highest standards for all U.S. personnel in the treatment of prisoners. Questions about the use and legality of waterboarding, which surfaced during confirmation hearings of the Attorney General, and again with the destruction of CIA videotapes, continue to be prominent in the presidential campaign and in the media. The event, co-hosted by Human Rights First and Florida State University’s Center for the Advancement of Human Rights, will take place on January 23rd at 11:30 a.m in the Claude Pepper Auditorium.
Retired military leaders Lieutenant General Harry E. Soyster, the former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Major General Fred E. Haynes, and Brigadier General David R. Irvine will discuss the importance of using interrogation methods that are effective, lawful and humane. They will underscore the need to ensure that interrogation and prisoner treatment policies enhance our national security, protect our troops and are consistent with American laws, values and interests.
The forum participants are part of a larger group of retired generals and admirals who are working to ensure that U.S. policy reflects a single standard of prisoner treatment consistent with the Geneva Conventions. The group has traveled to New Hampshire and Iowa, where they met individually with eight presidential candidates from both parties, and to South Carolina where they participated in forums on the topic of interrogation policy at The Citadel and the University of South Carolina. These retired military leaders are traveling to key states in the presidential campaign because they are committed to ensuring that the next commander-in-chief understands the fundamental importance of prisoner treatment issues to members of the United States Armed Forces and to our national security.
Where: Florida State University, Claude Pepper Center, 636 West Call Street, Broad Auditorium
When: January 23, 2008; 11:30 a.m.
Who: Lieutenant General Harry E. Soyster, Major General Fred E. Haynes, and Brigadier General David R. Irvine
This event is free and open to the public.
Lieutenant General Harry E. Soyster, USA (Ret.)
Lieutenant General Soyster served as Director, Defense Intelligence Agency during DESERT SHIELD/STORM. He also served as Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Department of the Army, Commanding General, U.S. Army, Commanding General, U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command and in the Joint Reconnaissance Center, Joint Chiefs of Staff. In Vietnam he was an operations officer in a field artillery battalion. Upon retirement he was VP for International Operations with Military Professional Resources Incorporated and returned to government as a Special Assistant to the SEC ARMY for WWII 60th Anniversary Commemorations completed in 2006.
Major General Fred E. Haynes, USMC (Ret.)
General Haynes is a combat veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam. He was a captain in the regiment that seized Mt Suribachi, Iwo Jima and raised the American flag there, February 23, 1945. In Korea, he was Executive Officer of the 2nd Bn, 1st Marines. During Vietnam, he commanded the Fifth Marines, and was G-3 of the Third Marine Amphibious Force. During the Kennedy and Johnson eras, he served as Pentagon Director, Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs. As a general officer he commanded the Second and Third Marine Divisions. He was the Senior Member of the United Nations Military Armistice Commission in Korea, and was Deputy Chief of Staff for Marine Corps Research and Development. He is chairman of the Combat Veterans of Iwo Jima, Chairman Emeritus of the American Turkish Council and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Haynes lives in New York and is currently writing a book, We Walk By Faith, the story of Combat Team Twenty-eight and the Battle of Iwo Jima.
Brigadier General David R. Irvine, USA (Ret.)
Brigadier General Irvine enlisted in the 96th Infantry Division, United States Army Reserve, in 1962. He received a direct commission in 1967 as a strategic intelligence officer. He maintained a faculty assignment for 18 years with the Sixth U.S. Army Intelligence School, and taught prisoner of war interrogation and military law for several hundred soldiers, Marines, and airmen. He retired in 2002, and his last assignment was Deputy Commander for the 96th Regional Readiness Command. General Irvine is an attorney, and practices law in Salt Lake City, Utah. He served 4 terms as a Republican legislator in the Utah House of Representatives, has served as a congressional chief of staff, and served as a commissioner on the Utah Public Utilities Commission.
