When he began his federal service in 1983, little did he know he would become the Defense Department’s go-to person for detainee policy.
J. Alan Liotta, DoD’s principal director of detainee affairs, retired yesterday in a Pentagon ceremony after 32 years of federal service.
Liotta, a native of Whippany, New Jersey, began his career in the intelligence community, but spent most of his career overseeing DoD policy and implementation of the Guantanamo Bay and Parwan detention facilities.
Correcting Detainee Policies
Liotta came into the position following Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison controversy.
“We spent the next year trying to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it, [and not] make those mistakes again,” Liotta said yesterday.
The department made sure the next detainee encampments would be managed correctly, he added.
“We made sure the policies today are in large part because of the work we did in that timeframe and I’m very proud of it,” he said. “The military learns from its mistakes and then puts in place policies and procedures to make sure it will never happen again.”
The U.S. military today has a “very strong detention policy that will carry us forward for years to come in any kind of conflict we have,” Liotta said.
The United States has transferred control of the facility at Parwan to the Afghan government, and Guantanamo’s detainee numbers are shrinking as detainees are moved to other countries’ facilities. Today, 127 detainees are held at Guantanamo -- the lowest number since 2002, said Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Col. Myles Caggins. At its highest population in 2003, the prison held 656 detainees.
Recovering the Missing
Liotta made his mark in detainee facility policy and implementation, but he was also responsible for other historical achievements.
Liotta is credited with negotiating to recover remains of those missing in action in wars as far back as World War II, Vietnam and Korea.
He took nine trips in four to five years to North Korea – the first such trips by an American official since 1953, he said.
His work in North Korea comprised negotiations for U.S. Marines to gain access and recover the missing from the Korean War.
Liotta also was successful in bringing home remains of MIAs in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, between 1996 and 2004.
Liotta said that of his many achievements at DoD, the North Korea recovery is the most significant to him.
“[North] Korea was almost more meaningful because it was the hardest nut to crack,” he said. “It’s a country that still regards us as an enemy.”
Another major accomplishment on Liotta’s DoD resume was his insistence on identifying Vietnam service members’ remains in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.
Working with the families of the deceased, Liotta said only one family of 10 sets of remains chose to not participate.
Bringing closure to the families who experienced losses in Vietnam was important to Liotta.
“That was a big highlight for me,” he said.
(Follow Terri Moon Cronk on Twitter: @MoonCronkDoD)