Harry Harris
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Rear Admiral Harry Harris is commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo and Guantanamo Bay detainment camp commander.
[edit] Early life
Rear Admiral Harry B. Harris, Jr., was born in Yokosuka, Japan, and reared in Tenn. and Fla. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1978. After flight training, he was assigned to VP-44, homeported in Brunswick, Maine. His subsequent operational tours include assignment as a Tactical Action Officer onboard USS Saratoga (CV-60), when CV-60 participated in the Achille Lauro incident and strikes against Libya; Operations Officer in VP-4 during Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm; and three tours with Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing 1/CTF57/CTF 72, homeported in Kami Seya, Japan. In 2002, he reported to Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, serving as ACOS for Operations, Plans, and Pol-Mil Affairs (N3/N5) where he was responsible for the planning and execution of the Naval component’s portion of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
His command assignments include VP-46 at Whidbey Island, Wash., and Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing 1/CTF57/CTF 72 at Kami Seya, Japan. While in command of Wing 1, Task Force 57 was heavily involved in Operation Enduring Freedom, flying nearly 1,000 combat sorties over Afghanistan.
Rear Adm. Harris’ shore assignments include Aide and Flag Lieutenant to the Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Japan, in Yokosuka, Japan; duty on the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations as a strategist in the Strategy and Concepts Branch; and Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
His education assignments include selection for the Navy’s Harvard/Tufts Program, where he graduated with a master's of Public Administration from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1992. Subsequently selected as an Arthur S. Moreau Scholar, he studied international relations and ethics of war at Oxford and Georgetown Universities, earning a master of Arts in National Security Studies from the latter in 1994. While at Georgetown, he was also Fellow in the School of Foreign Service.
[edit] 2004 to the Present
In August 2004, in his first Flag assignment, he reported to the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations as Director, Information, Plans and Security Division, responsible for Navy current operations and anti-terrorism/force protection policy.
In March 2006, he assumed command of Joint Task Force Guantanamo in Cuba.
Rear Adm. Harris has logged 4400 flight hours, including over 400 combat hours, in U.S. and foreign maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft. His personal decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit (3 awards), the Bronze Star (2 awards), the Meritorious Service Medal (4 awards), the Air Medal, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal (5 awards), the Navy Achievement Medal, and various campaign and unit decorations.
Harris gave a long interview to ABC nightline host Terry Moran on June 27, 2006.[1]
- Harris characterized the Combatant Status Review Tribunals as "a very rigorous procedure".
- In answer to the question: "So no man who ever came to Guantanamo Bay came there by mistake was innocent?" Harris replied he believed this to be true.
- Harris assured Moran that no detainees had ever been tortured at Guantanamo.
- Harris said he did not regret calling the three suicides reported on June 10, 2006, "an act of asymmetric warfare."
- Harris acknowledged that he had read the detainee's suicide notes, and, in his opinion, it would be fine to release them, once the Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation had concluded. But he said the decision to release the notes did not lay within his authority.
