The ACLU"s latest disclosures about the prisoners" mistreatment were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents it obtained contained e-mails between FBI officials whose names the government removed before releasing them.
Several of those e-mails detailed and criticized various interrogation methods they say they witnessed at Guantanamo.
In one of the emails, the writer said he witnessed detainees sitting on the floor of the interview room with an Israeli flag drapped around him, loud music being played and a strobe light flashing.
In another mail, the writer said that he witnessed more than once prisoners chained to the floor in a fetal position, with no food or water. They were often soiled by the Base officers.
On one occasion, the mail described, the temperature in a room was lowered so much to the extent that the barefooted detainees shivered. In another incident, the room was so hot to the extent that a detainee was pulling out his hair before passing out.
Executive director of the ACLU Anthony Romero said that the FBI documents continue to show the US government was torturing individuals and reflect a major rift between FBI agents and the military over proper interrogation techniques.
An e-mail dated May 22 said that Bush personally signed off on harsher methods, which was denied by the White House.
Those techniques included sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation by forcing detainees to wear hoods, the use of military dogs and stress positions such as forced squatting for an extended period, the e-mail said.
"Interrogation methods for military detainees are decisions made by the Department of Defense," an official said on condition of anonymity.
Most of the names in the documents released by the ACLU were crossed out. The name of the FBI author of the May 22 e-mail from Iraq was referred to as "On Scene Commander-Baghdad."
A June 25 FBI memo titled "Urgent Report" to the FBI director, provided details from someone who observed serious physical abuses of civilian detainees in Iraq.
The witness described that such abuses included strangulation, beatings, placement of lit cigarettes into the detainees ears, and unauthorized interrogations, the document stated. The memo also mentioned cover-up of these abuses.
Jameel Jaffer, an ACLU lawyer, said the documents made clear there was no question that prisoner abuse by US forces resulted from policies that were adopted by the highest levels of government.
ajs
No comments:
Post a Comment