Oral history interview with V. Stuart Couch, 2012.

Biographical Note

Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired.

Scope and Contents

Born: April 20, 1965, Durham, North Carolina; Education: B.A., Duke University; J.D., Campbell University; Career: Chief Prosecutor, Cherry Point Marine Corps base; Immigration Judge, Executive Office of Immigration Review; Military Commission Prosecutor of Detainees, Guantánamo Bay detention camp; Judge, Navy-Marine Court of Criminal Appeals; Reminiscences: Marine aircraft crash in Aviano, Italy; personal experience on September 11; friendship with hijacked 9/11 pilot Mike Horrocks; appointment as a military commission prosecutor in Guantánamo Bay; early impressions of Guantánamo Bay conditions; 2002 parachute sabotage case at Camp Lejeune; evaluation of terrorism suspects with Reason to Believe [RTB] determinations; interrogation and prosecution process of Guantanamo Bay detainees; use of SERE [Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape] program techniques in Guantánamo interrogations; rumors of CIA black sites; biography, intelligence reports, and torture of Mohamedou Ould Slahi; reaction to torture at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib; resignations of prosecutors from military commissions; request for case history about Mohammed al-Qahtani; Discussions: Bush administration denial of Geneva Convention protections to Guantánamo detainees; rules of prisoner treatment under Uniform Code of Military Justice [UCMJ]; concept of a global battlefield in the apprehension of terrorism suspects; Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006) Supreme Court case; resignation from prosecution of Mohamedou Ould Slahi; Schmidt-Furlow investigation; March 2007 Wall Street Journal article detailing resignation; Department of Defense command forbidding testimony before congressional committee; violence between U.S. military and Afghanistan security forces in Afghanistan, recommendation for withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan; risk assessment of keeping open/closing Guantánamo Bay; security policy differences between Bush and Obama administrations; critique of legal decisions by John Yoo; fallacy of ticking time bomb scenario.

Subjects

• Capital punishment--United States.
• Combatants and noncombatants (International law)
• Couch, V. Stuart--Interviews.
• Detention of persons--Cuba--Guantánamo Bay Naval Base.
• Farber, Myron A., interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
• Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp.
• Guantánamo Bay oral history project.
• Habeas corpus--United States.
• Horrocks, Mike.
• Horrocks, Mike.
• Human rights--United States.
• Interviews.
• Lawyers--United States--Interviews.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Prisoners--Legal status, laws, etc.--United States.
• Prisoners of war--Legal status, laws, etc.--Cuba--Guantánamo Bay Naval Base.
• Rule of law--United States.
• Slahi, Mohamedou Ould.
• Torture--Cuba--Guantánamo Bay Naval Base.
• United States. Supreme Court.
• Unlawful combatants--Legal status, laws, etc.--United States.
• Yoo, John.

Access Conditions

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