Stuart A. Herrington
Encyclopedia
Stuart A. Herrington, Col, U.S. Army (Ret.) is an author and retired counterintelligence office with extensive interrogation experience in three wars (Vietnam, Operation JUST CAUSE, and Operation DESERT STORM. Herrington's 2003 audit of interrogation practices by US forces in Iraq, including conditions at the Abu Ghraib
prison and other sites, prompted scrutiny of U.S. interrogation efforts in the Global War on Terror.
of a 19-year-old girl, and was shocked into a permanent aversion to torture as an interrogation technique. Herrington then served at the Defense Attache Organization in Saigon as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Delegation, Four Party Joint Military Team, which was charged by the terms of the Paris Agreement (cease-fire) with obtaining information on the dead and missing from the war. At dawn, April 30, 1975, he was one of the last Americans to helicopter off the roof of the United States Embassy, Saigon, when the city fell to the North Vietnamese Army.
, Texas, on the use of non-abusive interrogation techniques.
. Herrington discussed his opposition to Bush-era interrogation practices and his own philosophy of interrogation—a developmental, rapport-based effort—in several public articles and talks. One of his themes was that experienced, skilled interrogators almost unanimously reject the concept of using force and inflicting physical misery on detainees to obtain information. He and numerous other seasoned interrogators from the military, the FBI, and the CIA, collaborated with the organization, Human Rights First, to lobby in Washington on behalf of this philosophy and against "enhanced interrogation techniques," labeling them as ineffective, illegal, morally wrong, and a resort to "amateur hour" tactics.
"Peace with Honor? An American Reports on Vietnam, 1973-1975," Presidio Press, 1983 (Sequel to "Silence Was A Weapon," an account of the cease-fire period ending with the evacuation of Saigon based on the author's tour of duty between Aug 1973 and April 1975) Out of Print
"Stalking the Vietcong: Inside Operation Phoenix," Presidio Press (trade paperback), 1997, A revised edition of "Silence Was A Weapon" containing formerly classified data not included in the original edition, out of print.
"Stalking the Vietcong: Inside Operation Phoenix," Ballantine Books-Random House (paperback), 2004, in print.
"Traitors Among Us: Inside the Spy Catcher's World," Presidio Press (hardbound, out of print), 2004; Same title, trade paperback, in print, Harvest Book, Harcourt, 2000.
"A Tale of Two Families: A Genealogical Memoir of the Herrington Family," Hardbound, Angel Printing, 2009 (not commercially available)
"The Fight for the High Ground: The U.S. Army and Interrogation During Operation Iraqi Freedom, May 2003-April 2004" by Major Douglas A. Pryer, U.S. Army, CGSC Foundation Press, 2009, (Major Pryer's award-winning book, with a Foreword contributed by Colonel (retired) Stuart A. Herrington addressing the interrogation issues of the Bush Administration)
Abu Ghraib
The city of Abu Ghraib in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq is located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000. The old road to Jordan passes through Abu Ghraib...
prison and other sites, prompted scrutiny of U.S. interrogation efforts in the Global War on Terror.
Vietnam
Herrington joined military intelligence in 1967 and served in Berlin before deploying to Vietnam in 1971. In Vietnam, Herrington later wrote, he saw the waterboardingWaterboarding
Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water is poured over the face of an immobilized captive, thus causing the individual to experience the sensation of drowning...
of a 19-year-old girl, and was shocked into a permanent aversion to torture as an interrogation technique. Herrington then served at the Defense Attache Organization in Saigon as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Delegation, Four Party Joint Military Team, which was charged by the terms of the Paris Agreement (cease-fire) with obtaining information on the dead and missing from the war. At dawn, April 30, 1975, he was one of the last Americans to helicopter off the roof of the United States Embassy, Saigon, when the city fell to the North Vietnamese Army.
German and post Cold-War operations
Herrington spent six years during the 1980s in Germany, culminating with a three-year tour as the Commander of the 766th MI Detachment, Army counterintelligence's unit in West Berlin. During his tenure, the Detachment scored a success against the Soviet KGB when three Soviet officers were detained while meeting with an American soldier they believed was a traitor.(Operation Lake Terrace) Transferring to Ft. Meade, Maryland in 1986, he continued his focus on counterintelligence, commanding three Intelligence & Security Command CI/Human Intelligence units there over a period of eight years. His most significant command challenge was as Director, U.S. Army Foreign Counterintellligence Activity (FCA), between January 1988 and May 1992. During his tenure as Director, FCA, the unit pursued and wrapped up two of the most sensitive and significant espionage cases in post WW II history. In a global counterespionage case, FCA, working with the CIA, the FBI, Germany, and several foreign governments, successfully concluded the Clye Lee Conrad espionage investigation, which involved the arrests and/or exposing of eleven participants in a spy ring that had been stealing war plans in Europe and selling them to the Czechs and the Hungarians, who provided them to the Soviet Union. Spy Clyde Conrad, a retired Army NCO, was arrested in August 1988, and eventually given the first and only life sentence for espionage by the German government. Following the Conrad case, Herrington's FCA team successfully handled another sensitive investigation, resulting in the arrest and conviction of Warrant Officer James Hall, his Turkish courier, and four other co-conspirators, all of them soldiers or former soldiers. During his service as Director, FCA, Herrington twice deployed to hostile contingencies, once in Panama (Just Cause-1989-90), the second to Saudi Arabia (Desert Storm). (1991). During both contingencies, Herrington constituted a team from FCA and other assets, then established and led sophisticated interrogation projects targeting high-value detainees from among the prisoner population. His account of these interrogation operations, which did not employ torture, brutality, or any of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" that became famous/infamous during the post-9-11 period, can be found in a major address Herrington delivered in 2009. In June 1992, after giving up command of FCA, Herrington established "Task Force Russia: POW/MIA" at the request of the Chief of Staff, Army, which supported an intensive probe into the fates of unaccounted for personnel from WW II, Korea, Cold War shootdowns, and Vietnam POW/MIA. Initially the TF Director, he became its Deputy Director when the Army determined that the highly-charged nature of the POW/MIA hunt merited the assignment of a general officer as its Director. From June 1992 to June 1993, Herrington and his TF Russia team reestablished the DoD's credibility in POW/MIA matters, and cemented cordial and respectful ties with the families of unaccounted for servicemembers.After Retirement
Herrington retired from the military in 1998 to become the Director, Global Security & Investigations for the Callaway Golf Company, busying himself with protecting the golf company's intellectual property (anti-counterfeiting), and running its corporate security operations. In 2005, he was named "Corporate Security Director of the Year" by Access Control & Security Systems magazine. In March 2002, he was requested by HQ, Department of the Army, to travel to Guantanamo, Cuba, to evaluate the interrogation operations of the newly-established task force (JTF 161) of Global War on Terror detainees. His report to the Task Force's commander strongly recommended the adoption of sophisticated, developmental-based operations along the lines of earlier successful projects Herrington had undertaken in other contingencies. In December 2003, he again was asked by the Army to serve as a consultant, this time by traveling to Baghdad, Iraq to evaluate both interrogation operations and the command's (Combined Joint Task Force-7) conduct with respect to the growing insurgency. As in Guantanamo, Herrington's report was critical of the command's operations, and became controversial when it was leaked to the "Washington Post." In that report, Herrington criticized the command's interrogation practices, and pointed out that command operations, particularly "kinetic" operations in search of Saddam Hussein and insurgents, were counterproductive In 2006, Herrington mentored a class of interrogators at Fort BlissFort Bliss
Fort Bliss is a United States Army post in the U.S. states of New Mexico and Texas. With an area of about , it is the Army's second-largest installation behind the adjacent White Sands Missile Range. It is FORSCOM's largest installation, and has the Army's largest Maneuver Area behind the...
, Texas, on the use of non-abusive interrogation techniques.
Opposition to Use of Force in Interrogations
In 2008, Herrington and other retired military intelligence officers called for a ban on waterboardingWaterboarding
Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water is poured over the face of an immobilized captive, thus causing the individual to experience the sensation of drowning...
. Herrington discussed his opposition to Bush-era interrogation practices and his own philosophy of interrogation—a developmental, rapport-based effort—in several public articles and talks. One of his themes was that experienced, skilled interrogators almost unanimously reject the concept of using force and inflicting physical misery on detainees to obtain information. He and numerous other seasoned interrogators from the military, the FBI, and the CIA, collaborated with the organization, Human Rights First, to lobby in Washington on behalf of this philosophy and against "enhanced interrogation techniques," labeling them as ineffective, illegal, morally wrong, and a resort to "amateur hour" tactics.
Publications
"Silence Was A Weapon: The Vietnam War in the Villages," Presidio Press, 1982 (An account of the Vietnam War in Hau Nghia Province based upon the author's tour of duty between January 1971 and August 1972)."Peace with Honor? An American Reports on Vietnam, 1973-1975," Presidio Press, 1983 (Sequel to "Silence Was A Weapon," an account of the cease-fire period ending with the evacuation of Saigon based on the author's tour of duty between Aug 1973 and April 1975) Out of Print
"Stalking the Vietcong: Inside Operation Phoenix," Presidio Press (trade paperback), 1997, A revised edition of "Silence Was A Weapon" containing formerly classified data not included in the original edition, out of print.
"Stalking the Vietcong: Inside Operation Phoenix," Ballantine Books-Random House (paperback), 2004, in print.
"Traitors Among Us: Inside the Spy Catcher's World," Presidio Press (hardbound, out of print), 2004; Same title, trade paperback, in print, Harvest Book, Harcourt, 2000.
"A Tale of Two Families: A Genealogical Memoir of the Herrington Family," Hardbound, Angel Printing, 2009 (not commercially available)
"The Fight for the High Ground: The U.S. Army and Interrogation During Operation Iraqi Freedom, May 2003-April 2004" by Major Douglas A. Pryer, U.S. Army, CGSC Foundation Press, 2009, (Major Pryer's award-winning book, with a Foreword contributed by Colonel (retired) Stuart A. Herrington addressing the interrogation issues of the Bush Administration)
See also
- Abu GhraibAbu GhraibThe city of Abu Ghraib in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq is located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000. The old road to Jordan passes through Abu Ghraib...
- Clyde Lee ConradClyde Lee ConradClyde Lee Conrad was an U.S. Army non-commissioned officer who, from 1974 until his arrest on August 23, 1988, sold top secret classified information to the People's Republic of Hungary, including top secret NATO war plans...
- GuantanamoGuantánamoGuantánamo is a municipality and city in southeast Cuba and capital of Guantánamo Province.Guantánamo is served by the Caimanera port and the site of a famous U.S. Naval base. The area produces sugarcane and cotton wool...
- Task Force 121Task Force 121Task Force 121 is an example of the United States' 'Joint Task Force' concept of conducting special operations. TF121 is a multi-service force commanded by U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Gregory L. Trebon. The spearhead of the force is a forty-man team made up of operators from the U.S. Army's...
- WaterboardingWaterboardingWaterboarding is a form of torture in which water is poured over the face of an immobilized captive, thus causing the individual to experience the sensation of drowning...