TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Pentagon Taps New Centcom Chief Of Staff

ADVERTISEMENT

By BILLY HOUSE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 21, 2008

WASHINGTON - A general whose command of the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from 2004 to 2006 was marked by controversies over the treatment of prisoners is the new chief of staff at U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base.

The Pentagon made the announcement Friday with little fanfare, referring to Army Maj. Gen. Jay W. Hood's new posting in just two sentences midway through a list that also included new assignments for eight other officers.

Hood will serve under Gen. David Petraeus, who is expected to take over as Centcom commander in a few months.

As chief of staff, Hood will be in charge of coordinating and taking up the chain-of-command the efforts and reports of generals heading different aspects of Centcom, ranging from its intelligence to logistics operations.

"Maj. Gen. Jay W. Hood, to chief of staff, U.S. Central Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.," the Pentagon's announcement of his new posting read. "He most recently served as commanding general, First Army Division East, Fort Meade, Md."

There was no mention that Hood, 54, had been assigned as recently as March to become the senior American officer in Pakistan.

But according to published reports, the military decided to cancel that assignment two months later amid an outcry from the Pakistani media regarding Hood's earlier role as commander at the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

The New York Times reported that during Hood's command at the prison in Cuba, American guards used forceful methods in dealing with detainees who engaged in hunger strikes. They strapped them into "restraint chairs," sometimes for more than two hours at a time, to feed them through tubes and prevent them from deliberately vomiting afterward, the newspaper reported.

Also during his tenure, reports that an American guard may have desecrated a Quran stirred wide protests in the Islamic world.

There was controversy over Guantanamo Bay long before Hood arrived. But the week after Hood took command there, the prisoner abuse scandal at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison broke. Hood's predecessor, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, was implicated in the scandal.

PBS' "All Things Considered" reported in March that Hood thinks the events at Abu Ghraib brought added spotlight and scrutiny to Guantanamo, including false accusations.

"There have been so many wild and outrageous statements that have appeared in the media which would indicate that we are an abusive, coercive, torturous sort of group," the program quoted Hood as saying.

Hood did defend the decision to force-feed some of the detainees, the PBS program said, because he did not want to allow any detainee to become "a martyr," thereby creating more pressure to close the camp.

"Imagine, if you will, if we simply allowed them, contrary to U.S. law, to kill themselves," Hood was quoted as saying. "What would that mean to the rest of the Islamic world? You have Muslim men dying at Guantanamo Bay."

In fact, Hood, who took command of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay in March 2004, was credited by some lawyers for the prisoners and human rights groups with having improved the treatment of detainees. The Times said it was soon after he took over that some of the most severe interrogation methods were curtailed.

Still, American military officials said they reluctantly concluded that Hood's effectiveness in Pakistan could be seriously hindered given the anger there, and that his personal safety might even be at risk if he were to take up that post.

It is not known if the Pakistani government asked that his assignment to that country be canceled, but news of his posting there had prompted denouncements from several leading Pakistani military and foreign affairs commentators, the Times reported.

"General Hood is being considered for a different, equally important job in the Centcom headquarters," said Capt. James Graybeal, chief spokesman for the United States Central Command, at the time.

A Centcom spokesman said Friday that Hood, a 33-year Army veteran, has not yet arrived in Tampa to begin his new assignment.

"He is still at Ft. Meade," said Navy Lt. Matthew Allen, who did not know when Hood would arrive at MacDill.

He will succeed Rear Adm. John Miller in the chief-of-staff job.

At the Pentagon, Army spokesman Paul Boyce would not comment directly on why Hood was selected for the post in Tampa, given the recent controversy surrounding him.

"General officers are selected for their military service records, personal expertise and education, leadership and previous professional duties, as well as their potential abilities required to successfully perform the duties expected," Boyce said in an e-mail response.

Reporter Billy House can be reached at (202) 662-7673 or bhouse@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT