Abu Graib Abuse Began at Guantanamo
A new report released by the military shows that the tactics used in the abuse of Abu Ghraib prisoners began at Guantanamo.
Interrogators at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, forced a stubborn detainee to wear women's underwear on his head, confronted him with snarling military working dogs and attached a leash to his chains, according to a newly released military investigation that shows the tactics were employed there months before military police used them on detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
The techniques, approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld for use in interrogating Mohamed Qahtani -- the alleged "20th hijacker" in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- were used at Guantanamo Bay in late 2002 as part of a special interrogation plan aimed at breaking down the silent detainee
....The report's findings are the strongest indication yet that the abusive practices seen in photographs at Abu Ghraib were not the invention of a small group of thrill-seeking military police officers. The report shows that they were used on Qahtani several months before the United States invaded Iraq.
The investigation also supports the idea that soldiers believed that placing hoods on detainees, forcing them to appear nude in front of women and sexually humiliating them were approved interrogation techniques for use on detainees.
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) issued a statement today (received by e-mail) stating :
“Many aspects of the report made public today are troubling as well. This is yet another report that fails to examine the decisions made by Administration officials related to torture policy. The report did not review the legality of abusive interrogation techniques that the Secretary of Defense explicitly approved. It did not address objections by the FBI – the government’s leading experts in conducting proper interrogations – that these techniques are unconstitutional and ineffective. Instead, the investigation engaged in circular reasoning – if an interrogation technique was approved by the Department of Defense, this report found such a technique does not constitute abuse. In other words, the Secretary of Defense decides what the law is.”
As Durbin says, the report fails to address the FBI’s objections to the policies explicitly approved by Secretary Rumsfeld. According to an FBI memo that has been publicly released, the FBI believes interrogation techniques that were approved by the Defense Secretary “are not permitted by the U.S. Constitution.”
According to another FBI memo, the FBI and the Defense Department had “differing views on the propriety of the harsher techniques.” The FBI also believes DOD’s interrogation techniques were “not effective or producing Intel that was reliable.”
At least 26 FBI agents complained about abuses that they witnessed at Guantanamo and 17 of these agents were complaining about “DOD approved interrogation techniques.”
In other words, the FBI was not complaining about the actions of bad apples or rogue soldiers. They were complaining about tactics that were approved by the Bush Administration.
Update: Armando at Daily Kos really speaks his mind about this. More reaction is available at Left Coaster and Balloon Juice.
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