FBI Memos Describe Prison Abuses

Pentagon officials are investigating new allegations by a civil liberties group that military interrogators at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay used abusive tactics to question detainees under the guise of friendlier FBI agents. The American Civil Liberties Union released e-mails that showed FBI officials disapproved of the practice and suggested the military interrogators were trying to take advantage of the rapport the FBI had established with some detainees at the prison in Cuba. The e-mails, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, also describe some harsh interrogation techniques in Iraq, and suggest they were approved by President Bush. The White House denied a suggestion in an FBI e-mail dated May 22, 2004, that Bush personally signed off on certain interrogation techniques in an executive order. A report on torture techniques used in Iraq dated June 25, 2004 and sent to FBI director Robert Mueller warned a witness had seen abuses including "strangulation, beatings, placement of lit cigarettes into the detainees' ear openings and unauthorized interrogations." The military operation at Guantanamo Bay has come under increased scrutiny as former prisoners have alleged they were tortured. The Pentagon maintains it runs a humane operation there, and says all allegations of abuse are investigated. The ACLU's latest disclosures primarily constitute e-mails between FBI officials whose names the government removed before releasing them. In several, the writers describe and criticize various interrogation techniques they say they witnessed at Guantanamo. While military interrogators are performing much of the questioning at Guantanamo, the FBI and CIA also have operations there. In one message, dated from August, the writer reports more than once witnessing prisoners chained to the floor in a fetal position, with no food or water.  [more]