Copper Green is reportedly one of several

code name A code name, call sign or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in industrial c ...

s for a

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

black ops A black operation or black op is a covert or clandestine operation by a government agency, a military unit or a paramilitary organization; it can include activities by private companies or groups. Key features of a black operation are that it i ...

program in which coercive psychological and physical measures were used on detainees in military prisons. Investigative journalist

Seymour Hersh Seymour Myron "Sy" Hersh (born April 8, 1937) is an American Investigative journalism, investigative journalist and political writer. Hersh first gained recognition in 1969 for exposing the My Lai Massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam Wa ...

reported on the term in an article in the May 24, 2004 issue of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''. According to Hersh, the task force was formed with the direct approval of Secretary of Defense

Donald Rumsfeld Donald Henry Rumsfeld (July 9, 1932 – June 29, 2021) was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under president Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under Presi ...

during the

U.S. invasion of Afghanistan In late 2001, the United States and its close allies invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban government. The invasion's aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda, which had executed the September 11 attacks, and to deny it a safe base of operation ...

, and run by Deputy Undersecretary Stephen Cambone. Hersh claims the Special Access Program (SAP) members were told "Grab whom you must. Do what you want." The program allegedly designed physical coercion and sexual humiliation techniques for use against

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

men specifically, to retrieve information from suspects, and to

blackmail Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to fa ...

them into becoming informants. According to the article, the sexual humiliation techniques were based on the book, ''

The Arab Mind ''The Arab Mind'' is a non-fiction cultural psychology book by Hungarian-born, Jewish cultural anthropologist and Orientalist Raphael Patai. He also wrote ''The Jewish Mind''. The book advocates a tribal-group-survival explanation for the driving ...

'', written by

cultural anthropologist Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portman ...

Raphael Patai Raphael Patai (Hebrew רפאל פטאי; November 22, 1910 − July 20, 1996), born Ervin György Patai, was a Hungarian-Jewish ethnographer, historian, Orientalist and anthropologist. Family background Patai was born in Budapest, Austria-Hu ...

in 1973. The book claimed to be a "study of Arab culture and psychology". According to Hersh's anonymous intelligence source, the Patai book was "the bible of the

neocons Neoconservatism is a political movement that began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party and with the growing New Left and ...

on Arab behavior", which gave life to two themes: "One, that Arabs only understand force and, two, that the biggest weakness of Arabs is shame and humiliation". Hersh claims to have spoken to a senior

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

official who said the program was designed by Rumsfeld to wrest control of information from the CIA, and place it in the hands of

the Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a metony ...

. According to Hersh's sources, the program was so successful in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, that Cambone decided to introduce the SAP program to operations during

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

, eventually leading to the use of common soldiers instead of using special ops forces exclusively. In Hersh's view, the program was used on detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison, leading directly to the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal.

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

spokesperson

Lawrence Di Rita Lawrence Thomas Di Rita (born March 12, 1958) is an American political advisor who served as an aide to United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. He has also worked as a spokesman for Bank of America. Early life and education Born i ...

issued a statement about the accusations, referring to them as "outlandish, conspiratorial, and filled with error and anonymous conjecture". Senators on Capitol Hill, most notably the former

POW A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...

, promised to investigate the reported claims, "regardless of where it leads".

In popular culture

Copper Green was mentioned in author JD Wallace's debut novel, ''Silent Cats: Deadly Dance''. The male hero, who is based on a real person who the author claims to know personally, was an interrogator who worked on the Copper Green task force, among other task force groups. Copper Green was mentioned in Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer's memoir, ''

Operation Dark Heart __NOTOC__ ''Operation Dark Heart: Spycraft and Special Ops on the Frontlines of Afghanistan and the Path to Victory'' is a 2010 memoir by retired United States Army Reserve intelligence officer Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer. The book details Shaffer' ...

'' on page 257: "The interrogation program, called Copper Green, was authorized, but a lot of us felt it wasn't appropriate and just wasn't right." The Pentagon blacked out the words "Copper Green" in the second printing."Dark Contrast"
September 29, 2010,

Federation of American Scientists The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is an American nonprofit global policy think tank with the stated intent of using science and scientific analysis to attempt to make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1946 by scientists who wo ...

References

Iraq War Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse Secret military programs {{Iraq-War-stub