FBI ignores Defense Department abuse policies

FBI agents documented more than two dozen incidents of possible mistreatment at the Guantánamo Bay military base, including one detainee whose head was allegedly wrapped in duct tape for chanting the Koran and another reported to have pulled out his hair after hours in a sweltering room. Documents released on Jan. 2 by the FBI offered new details about the harsh interrogation practices used by military officials and contractors when questioning so-called "enemy combatants." The reports describe a female guard who detainees said handled their genitals and wiped menstrual blood on their faces. In a previously unreported allegation, one interrogator bragged to an FBI agent that he had forced a prisoner to listen to "Satanic black metal music for hours and hours," then dressed as a Catholic priest before "baptizing" him. One agent reported being told that while questioning male captives, female interrogators would sometimes wet their hands and touch detainees' faces in order to interrupt their prayers. Such actions would make some Muslims consider themselves unclean and unable to continue praying. FBI agents at Guantánamo also saw a military interrogator squat over the Koran in order to offend a prisoner. The FBI report also revealed that captives at Guantánamo Bay were chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor for 18 hours or more, urinating and defecating on themselves. Some military officials and contractors told FBI agents that the interrogation techniques had been approved by the Defense Department, including directly by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. One document quotes an FBI agent saying that he was told that 24-hour interrogations "may have come from Secretary Rumsfeld. On several occasions when questioned about the techniques utilized, [name redacted] said it had been approved by 'the Secretary.'" The documents were released in response to a public records request by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which is suing Rumsfeld and others on behalf of former military detainees who say they were abused. Many of the incidents in the FBI documents have already been reported and are summarized in the ACLU's lawsuit. Last October, a Marine officer reported that she listened as guards at Guantánamo Bay bragged about beating detainees and described it as a common practice. The Marine, a paralegal who was at the US Navy station in Cuba, alleged that several guards she talked to at the base club said they routinely hit detainees. President Bush signed legislation in October 2006 that authorized aggressive interrogation tactics but did not define them. ACLU lawyer Jameel Jaffer said the court documents show that stricter congressional oversight is needed. "If you just authorize in a vague way, there's no end to the abusive methods the interrogators will come up with," Jaffer said. The records were gathered as part of an internal FBI survey in 2004 and are not part of a criminal investigation. The agency asked 493 employees whether they witnessed aggressive treatment that was not consistent with the FBI's policies. The bureau received 26 positive responses, including some from agents who were troubled by what they saw. "I did observe treatment that was not only aggressive but personally very upsetting," one agent wrote, describing seeing a man left in a 100º Fahrenheit room with no ventilation overnight. "The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently literally been pulling his own hair out throughout the night." One witness said he saw a barefoot detainee shaking with cold because the air conditioning had brought the temperature close to freezing. On another occasion, an agent was asked by a "civilian contractor" to come and see something. "There was an unknown bearded longhaired [detainee] gagged w/duct tape that had covered much of his head," the FBI document said. When the FBI officer asked if the detainee had spit at interrogators, the "contractor laughingly replied that [the detainee] had been chanting the Koran non-stop. No answer how they planned to remove the duct tape," the report said. In one report, an agent said he saw a detainee draped in an Israeli flag in a room with loud music and strobe lights. After the FBI received these responses from its own personnel describing detainee abuse by military interrogators and military police, the agency apparently made a deliberate decision not to conduct follow-up interviews, citing the fact that the techniques reported were expressly authorized by Defense Department policies. "The FBI appears to have turned a blind eye to the very abuses that most need investigating–those abuses that were expressly authorized by Defense Department policy," said Jaffer, the ACLU attorney. Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement in response to the new reports that "the Department of Defense policy is clear–we treat detainees humanely. The United States operates safe, humane and professional detention operations for enemy combatants who are providing valuable information in the war on terror." As of November 2006, out of 775 detainees who have been brought to Guantánamo, approximately 340 have been released, leaving 435 detainees. Of those 435, 110 have been labelled as ready for release. Of the other 325, only about 70 will face trial by military commissions, criminal courts run by the US armed forces. That leaves about 250 who may be held indefinitely.