New F.B.I. Files Describe Abuse of Iraq Inmates
Published: December 21, 2004
(Page 2 of 2) Another
message sent to F.B.I. officials including Valerie E. Caproni, the
bureau's top lawyer, recounted witnessing detainees chained in
interrogation rooms at Guantánamo, where about 550 prisoners are being
held. The agent, whose name was deleted from the document,
wrote on July 29, 2004: "On a couple of occasions, I entered interview
rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to
the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they had urinated
or defecated on themselves and had been left there for 18 24 hours or
more." The
agent said that on another occasion, the air-conditioning had been
turned up so high that a chained detainee was shivering. The agent said
the military police had explained by saying that interrogators from the
previous day had ordered the treatment and "that the detainee was not
to be moved." The agent also wrote: "On another occasion, the A/C
had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room
probably well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on
the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been
literally pulling his own hair out throughout the night." As in
previously released memorandums in the case, F.B.I. officials expressed
their deep concerns about seeing the use of interrogation techniques
that they are prohibited from using in their own investigations. The
Dec. 5, 2003, memorandum in which an agent frets about the F.B.I. being
left "holding the bag," also asserted that the threats and abuses of
one detainee did not produce any intelligence that could help thwart an
attack. Further, the memorandum said other bureau officials believed
that the harsh interrogation techniques would have meant that any
chances of prosecuting the individual were destroyed because the
evidence would have to be thrown out in court because it was coerced. The
issue of military interrogators' impersonating F.B.I. agents was
especially troubling to bureau officials, according to the memorandums,
not least because they seem to have been unsuccessful in persuading the
military to stop the practice. Guantánamo Inmate to Be Freed
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 (AP) - A military review has determined
that a second prisoner held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is wrongly
classified as an enemy combatant and will be released to his home
country soon, the Navy secretary said Monday.
Navy Secretary Gordon England refused to provide the man's name or nationality.
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