PRISONERS
New F.B.I. Files Describe Abuse of Iraq Inmates
By NEIL A. LEWIS and DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: December 21, 2004
 ASHINGTON,
Dec. 20 - F.B.I. memorandums portray abuse of prisoners by American
military personnel in Iraq that included detainees' being beaten and
choked and having lit cigarettes placed in their ears, according to
newly released government documents.
The documents, released
Monday in connection with a lawsuit accusing the government of being
complicit in torture, also include accounts by Federal Bureau of
Investigation agents who said they had seen detainees in Guantánamo
Bay, Cuba, being chained in uncomfortable positions for up to 24 hours
and left to urinate and defecate on themselves. An agent wrote that in
one case a detainee who was nearly unconscious had pulled out much of
his hair during the night. | Advertisement
| |
One
of the memorandums released Monday was addressed to Robert S. Mueller
III, the F.B.I. director, and other senior bureau officials, and it
provided the account of someone "who observed serious physical abuses
of civilian detainees" in Iraq. The memorandum, dated June 24 this
year, was an "Urgent Report," meaning that the sender regarded it as a
priority. It said the witness "described that such abuses included
strangulation, beatings, placement of lit cigarettes into the
detainees' ear openings and unauthorized interrogations." The
memorandum did not make clear whether the witness was an agent or an
informant, and it said there had also been an effort to cover up the
abuses. The writer of the memorandum said Mr. Mueller should be aware
of what was occurring because "of potential significant public, media
and Congressional interest which may generate calls to the director."
The document does not provide further details of the abuse, but
suggests that such treatment of prisoners in Iraq was the subject of an
investigation conducted by the bureau's Sacramento office. Beyond
providing new details about the nature and extent of abuses, if not the
exact times or places, the newly disclosed documents are the latest to
show that such activities were known to a wide circle of government
officials. The documents, mostly memorandums written by agents
to superiors in Washington over the past year, also include claims that
some military interrogators had posed as F.B.I. officials while using
harsh tactics on detainees, both in Iraq and at Guantánamo Bay. In
one memorandum, dated Dec. 5, 2003, an agent whose name is blanked out
on the document expressed concern about military interrogators' posing
as F.B.I. agents at the Guantánamo camp. The agent wrote that
the memorandum was intended as an official record of the interrogators'
behavior because, "If this detainee is ever released or his story made
public in any way, D.O.D. interrogators will not be held accountable
because these torture techniques were done by 'F.B.I.' interrogators.
The F.B.I. will be left holding the bag before the public." D.O.D. is
an abbreviation for the Department of Defense. Asked about the
possible impersonation of F.B.I. agents by military personnel, Bryan
Whitman, the deputy Pentagon spokesman, said Monday that "It is
difficult to determine from the secondhand description whether the
technique" was permissible. The Pentagon did not offer any fresh
reaction to the descriptions of alleged abuse. But it said in response
to other recent disclosures that the Defense Department did not
tolerate abusive tactics and that some of the allegations contained in
such documents were under investigation. The documents were in
the latest batch of papers to be released by the government in response
to a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and other
groups to determine the extent, if any, of American participation in
the mistreatment of prisoners. The documents are the most recent in a
series of disclosures that have increasingly contradicted the
military's statements that harsh treatment of prisoners happened only
in limited, isolated cases. Anthony D. Romero, the executive
director of the A.C.L.U., said the documents meant that "top government
officials can no longer hide from public scrutiny by pointing the
finger at a few low-ranking soldiers."
|
