AP: FBI Letter Sites Guantanamo Abuse

[maddezmom]

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - FBI (news - web sites) agents witnessed "highly aggressive" interrogations and mistreatment of terror suspects at the U.S. prison camp in Cuba starting in 2002 — more than a year before the prison abuse scandal broke in Iraq (news - web sites) — according to a letter a senior Justice Department (news - web sites) official sent to the Army's top criminal investigator.



In the letter obtained by The Associated Press, the FBI official suggested the Pentagon (news - web sites) didn't act on FBI complaints about the incidents, including a female interrogator grabbing a detainee's genitals and bending back his thumbs, another where a prisoner was gagged with duct tape and a third where a dog was used to intimidate a detainee who later was thrown into isolation and showed signs of "extreme psychological trauma."


One Marine told an FBI observer that some interrogations led to prisoners "curling into a fetal position on the floor and crying in pain," according to the letter dated July 14, 2004.


Thomas Harrington, an FBI counterterrorism expert who led a team of investigators at Guantanamo Bay, wrote the letter to Maj. Gen. Donald J. Ryder, the Army's chief law enforcement officer who's investigating abuses at U.S.-run prisons in Afghanistan (news - web sites), Iraq and at Guantanamo.

more: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=4&u=/ap/20041206/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guantanamo_abuse

[Rose Siding]

1. Where are those agents now?

How could this not have leaked even a little during the Abu Ghraib white wash? Damn

[Judi Lynn]

2. These writers are crazy. This, itself defies understanding!

From the article:

The U.S. military says prisoners are treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit violence, torture and humiliating treatment of combatants. Still, at least 10 incidents of abuse have been substantiated at Guantanamo, all from 2003 or this year. They range from a guard hitting a detainee to a female interrogator climbing on a prisoner's lap.


Those incidents pale in comparison to alleged abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, a scandal that erupted when photographs surfaced of U.S. troops forcing Iraqi prisoners to strip and pose in sexually humiliating positions. Some prisoners were bound and hooded.
(snip)

Old Paisley Dodds claims the abuse at Abu Ghraib is "alleged" even when they've got the photos.

He also claims the Guantamo incidents "pale in comparison" with Abu Ghraib. Why? They've got no photos yet! Jeezus H. Criminy. They sound EXACTLY THE SAME.

CNN has also made that claim concerning the photos which surfaced from the Navy showing Seals or whatever with bloody prisoners. They claimed the problems were caused by "a few rogue" people. I thought at the time, "Jeez, you take a few rogue guys at Abu Ghraib, a few at Guantanamo, a few in the Navy photos, a few in Afghanistan, and soon, you've got LOTS of rogue people beating the hell out of prisoners."

[Pachamama]

3. Wait...I thought this is what was happening on an "isolated" basis in Iraq

I thought it was just a bunch of bad apples in Iraq letting off steam in some Fraternity Pranks gone bad? How did it happen at Gitmo too?

:eyes:

[ze_dscherman]

4. Kick n/t

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[Supersedeas]

5. Ashcroft probably wonders whose side is the FBI on?