Geoffrey D. Miller

Geoffrey D. Miller (born c. 1949) is a retired United States Army major general who commanded the US detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Iraq.

Detention facilities in Iraq under his command included Abu Ghraib prison, Camp Cropper, and Camp Bucca.

He is noted for having trained soldiers in using torture, or "enhanced interrogation techniques" in US euphemism, and for carrying out the "First Special Interrogation Plan," signed by the Secretary of Defense, against a Guantanamo detainee.

Miller was born in Gallipolis, Ohio.

He attended Ohio State University, where he earned an undergraduate degree in History, following this with a Master of Science in Education Administration at the University of Southern California.

Miller is the nephew of Bob Evans, of Bob Evans Restaurants, franchiser from Rio Grande, Ohio.

Miller joined the US Army in 1972 and was trained in field artillery and army command.

He spent time in Germany before being stationed in Korea in 1980.

There, he rose to become assistant chief of staff for operations in Korea.

Miller later returned to the United States to become the deputy chief of staff for personnel and installation management for the U.S. Army.

In November 2002, Miller was given command of Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO), where he served into late 2004.

He ran the US detention facilities known as Camp X-Ray, Camp Delta, and Camp Echo in the US Naval Base at Guantanamo, Cuba.

In 2002 Miller claimed that two-thirds of the 600 prisoners had confessed to being involved in terrorism and were giving "actionable intelligence."

The U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on December 2, 2002, authorized in writing the "First Special Interrogation Plan," listing 17 techniques to be used on the detainee Mohammed al-Qahtani.

These were developed in consultation with Miller, who carried them out.

It was later revealed that such techniques were used more widely against other prisoners as well.

Miller advocated the use of extreme torture.

At the time, the Red Cross was denied access to detainees.

Yoo had also been involved in drafting what came to be known as the Torture Memos of August 2002, which had been issued to the CIA.

On September 22, 2003, Miller ordered the arrest of James Yee, an Army captain who served as a chaplain for the Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo.

Miller accused Yee of stealing classified documents and smuggling them out of the prison, but those charges were later dropped.

In 2008, as a result of a joint Senate investigation by the Intelligence and Armed Services Committees, it was revealed that on March 14, 2003, John Yoo of the Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice, issued a legal opinion to William Haynes, General Counsel of the Department of Defense, in which he concluded that federal laws related to the use of torture and other abuse would not apply to US interrogators overseas.

This was five days before the US invasion of Iraq began on March 19, 2003.

In August 2003, Miller was sent to Iraq by the Department of Defense to advise on "more productive" interrogations of Iraqi prisoners.

In September, Miller submitted a report that recommended "GTMO-ising" their approach – combining the detention and interrogation units at Abu Ghraib prison into the Theater Joint Interrogation and Detention Center.

Specifically, Miller suggested that prison guards be used to "soften up" prisoners for interrogations.

In his final report on the prison abuse at Abu Ghraib the following year, General Antonio Taguba blamed Miller's recommendations for the abuse.

He said that using military police or guards for interrogation was a breach of official policy.

Miller denies that he specifically ordered guards to torture prisoners to get information.

Captain Yee was honorably discharged on January 7, 2004.

It is believed that no evidence of espionage was found, but records on the case have been sealed.

In June 2004, Jack Goldsmith, then head of OLC, advised Defense and the CIA not to rely on these memos.

After the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse story broke in April 2004, Brigadier General Janis Karpinski was suspended.

Miller was appointed as the deputy commanding general for detainee operations for Multinational Forces in Iraq.

In this role, Miller reported directly to Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez.

Miller vowed to reduce the number of prisoners in Abu Ghraib, adhere to military laws as well as the Geneva Convention, investigate allegations of abuse, and reform the Iraqi prison system.

He banned the use of hoods on prisoners during transport and set up a new system to allow prisoners to have visitors.

Since the investigation of abuses at Abu Ghraib, some have suggested that Miller had earlier encouraged abusive tactics.

In an interview with BBC Radio, Janis Karpinski, the former prison commander, claimed that Miller had told her to treat prisoners "like dogs," saying, "if you allow them to believe at any point that they are more than a dog then you've lost control of them".

Major General Miller denies the statement.