U.S. Southern Command

U.S. Southern Command enters the account through the 2003 planning and authorization process for the special interrogation of Mohamedou Ould Slahi. The documented role is specific: its commander received the plan from General Geoffrey Miller and forwarded it to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, placing the command between the plan’s development at Guantánamo and its subsequent approval at the Defense Department.

Role in the Interrogation Plan

In July 2003, while special interrogation sessions were underway, General Miller submitted Slahi’s Special Interrogation Plan to General James Hill, then commander of U.S. Southern Command. Hill forwarded it to Rumsfeld on July 18. This sequence identifies SOUTHCOM as a point of institutional review and transmission in the plan’s route, rather than as its originator or ultimate authorizing authority.

Approval and Responsibility

The plan proceeded beyond SOUTHCOM: Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz approved it on July 28, and Rumsfeld signed it on August 13. The dates distinguish the command’s forwarding role from the later decisions that formally authorized the plan. The record therefore shows SOUTHCOM participating in the administrative chain without establishing that Hill approved the plan or determined its interrogation methods.

The Plan in the Public Record

Later accounts of the plan describe a staged transfer intended to make Slahi believe he had been taken away from Guantánamo, followed by placement at Camp Echo in an isolated setting. The Senate Armed Services Committee reported that the transfer ultimately took the form of a boat ride on August 25, rather than the helicopter movement described in the original plan. These details illuminate the plan that passed through SOUTHCOM’s command channel, while the evidence presented here does not assign the command a separate operational role in carrying out those measures.