FBI Documented Possible Gitmo Mistreatment

More Than Two Dozen Incidents Revealed In Report Including Guards Wrapping Detainee's Head In Duct Tape

(CBS/AP)  FBI agents documented more than two dozen incidents of possible mistreatment at the Guantanamo Bay military base, including one detainee whose head was allegedly wrapped in duct tape for chanting the Quran and another reported to have pulled out his hair after hours in a sweltering room.

Documents released Tuesday 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 face. Another interrogator reportedly bragged to an FBI agent about dressing as a Catholic priest and “baptizing” a prisoner.

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.

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Click here to read the FBI's full report.

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The documents were released in response to a public records request by the American Civil Liberties Union, 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.

In response to the allegations, the Defense Department plans no action, a spokesman said Wednesday, asserting there is nothing new in the report.

"The idea that this is new is misguided and misleading," said the department spokesman, Bryan Whitman. "These are things the department has thoroughly investigated and where allegations have been substantiated, disciplinary action has been taken," he said.

The treatment of detainees has long been a volatile subject, especially between the administration and the Democratic lawmakers slated to assume the majority when the 110th Congress convenes on Thursday.

Last October, a Marine officer reported that she listened as guards at Guantanamo Bay bragged about beating detainees and described it as a common practice. The Marine, a paralegal who was at the U.S. Navy station in Cuba, alleged that several guards she talked to at the base club said they routinely hit detainees.

Also in October, the White House denied that Vice President Dick Cheney was an advocate of torture after he told a radio host that dunking terrorism suspects in water during interrogations was a "no-brainer."

One incoming chairman served notice Tuesday that the issue is a top priority. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., notified Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that his panel's first oversight hearing of the new Congress would focus on two documents Leahy is seeking about the interrogation methods of another agency, the CIA.

The Justice Department has refused to hand over the documents, saying their contents are “extremely sensitive” and could help terrorists plot more attacks.

President Bush signed legislation in October 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 100-degree 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.”

Another agent said he heard several “thunderclaps” then saw a detainee lying on the floor with a bloody nose. Interrogators told the agent the man was upset and had thrown himself to the floor.

In one report, an agent said he saw a detainee draped in an Israeli flag in a room with loud music and strobe lights. A note on the report said the Israeli flag “may be over the top but not abusive.” The words “may be” were then crossed out and replaced with “is.”

Carpenter, the Pentagon spokesman, said the Guantanamo detainees “include some of the world's most vicious terrorist operatives.”

“The Department of Defense policy is clear,” Carpenter said. “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.”

The FBI reports do not say whether any laws were broken. They said nothing employees observed rose to the level of abuse seen at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

FBI spokesman Richard J. Kolko said all the information in the reports was passed on to the Pentagon's inspector general.

A federal judge is considering whether to allow the ACLU's lawsuit against Rumsfeld to go forward. Government officials are normally shielded from personal lawsuits related to their jobs.

[randalds]

The men in Guantanamo Bay prison have been convicted of nothing. They have not even been formally charged with any crimes. yet they have been held for more then 3 years and abused and humiliated for no other reason then Bush says they should be. That's it. No other reason at all. Bush should be arrested, charged with kidnapping and false imprisonment and sent to prison himself. I'm sure that once the innocent men he has imprisoned falsely are set free there will be plenty of room at Gitmo for him, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, just for starters.

[teddebare]

Blackchild & Rusty50: Both of you would pray for The Geneva Convention rules if you were captured. During WWII, Korea and Vietnam many of our POWs survived due to our enenmy conforming to the rules set up this convention. Were they always conformed to? No!

Unfortunately too many on this post are only dealing with the tip of the iceberg, the contemporary. This situation in the Middle East is much larger than what we currently experiencing. Both the challenges and solutions are manifold. It took decades to get this deteriorated conditions and it will take decades to resolve and get a full peace.

From the Crusading days on through the colonial period should researched by all before making these emotional and ignorant comments. But I know the latter is easier to do and at that pace the problem will persist.

Do your research dig into the years before. Especially look into the colonizing period how Israel was created by the UN with the blessings of most western nations.

Read my fellow bloggers before you make your vicious and misinformed comments.

[beenthere61]

Take a close look at our lawmakers people. They would like to give the prisoners a job for income (more taxes to spend) and a nice apartment if they could get a vote out of it or line their pockets. Left up to politicians they would release them to prey on our very foundation of life as we know it, we already have 14% of the population telling the rest how to worship and when they cant. These people have no fear of dieing, for their warped sense of the hearafter rewards them for killing. We cant baby these people all they know is self pleasure. They would be greatfull and happy for a bullet in the head. I think we should satisfy them...End of problem and everyone is happy. This country is headed for a hard fall folks and it will be politicians that drag it down..

[syrigos]

Sure, when in battle, that is the case. Kill or be killed. But, when the enemy is already captured and in prison, I don't see the purpose of treating them as only a savage would...

[blackchild4]

From THe Back Of The Bus
War is Hell the purpose of war is to kill as many of them before they kill you. We are trying to clean up war and make it presentable. What our military do in the time of way should not be on national news. We tell everything, and when the enemy refuse to tell us information we need we are suppose to pat him on the back . In war how can we defend human rights, in war there are only two rights, the right to live and the right to die. As I said before war is hell, to survive you must live by the laws of war. Kill them all and let God sort it out.

[syrigos]

Being from Greece, I come from a country were I don't care much for the Arabs and I certainly do not condone their savage practices and the fact that these people want to impose their religion and way of life to the rest of the world.

Nevertheless, when the U.S. are -allegedly- abusing these people at Gitmo (regardless of whether they are using psychological violence instead of physical), aren't they essentially violating the very principles they are supposedly standing up for?

We, in the western world, are supposed to be better, more civilized than the Arabs and, we ought to practice our civilazation, not only to boast about it.

Yannis
Athens, Greece

[carlylaine]

Rusty50

I feel the same way you do....

I only wish these treatments were in place for these wonderful outstanding world citizens.

President Bush signed legislation in October that authorized aggressive interrogation tactics but did not define them,

He signed a blank check?

[beenthere61]

Well it beats the hell out of beheading or a shot in the head, these people have no rules of war to follow,they are wild animals, no Geneva convention why are these bleedingghearts, trying to tie the hands of the GI's who are standing between the terroist's and their families. If the bleading hearts are so worried about them I suggest they all take at least one prisoner home with them and teach them how to love us all take them to church and let them have the run of the house and your family. Uniform or not they are prisoners of war and if we went by their rules and their actions we wouldent have them to worry about would we?

[beenthere61]

Well it beats the hell out of beheading or a shot in the head, these people have no rules of war to follow,they are wild animals, no Geneva convention why are these bleedingghearts, trying to tie the hands of the GI's who are standing between the terroist's and their families. If the bleading hearts at CBS and the Red Cross are so worried about them I suggest they all take at least one prisoner home with them and teach them how to love us all take them to church and let them have the run of the house and your family. Uniform or not they are prisoners of war and if we went by their rules and their actions we wouldent have them to worry about would we?