FBI email embroils Bush in
jail abuse
The Australian
Correspondents in Washington
December 23, 2004
THE White House says it expects new documented accounts of
torture at Guantanamo Bay to be "fully investigated", but has
denied claims George W. Bush personally approved the use of
abusive methods against detainees at the US prison camp.
Responding to documents obtained by the leading US civil
liberties group, White house spokesman Scott McClellan said any
allegations of torture had to be taken seriously.
"People need to be held accountable and brought to justice if
they're involved in wrongdoing," he said.
"Preventive measures and corrective measures must be put in
place to prevent it from happening again."
He rejected claims the US President had issued an order
allowing inhuman interrogation methods against detainees in Iraq
and elsewhere, saying there was "no executive order relating to
interrogation techniques. When it comes to military detainees and
interrogation methods, those are determinations made by the US
Department of Defence".
But the American Civil Liberties Union released copies of a
two-page FBI email dated May 22 that refers repeatedly to an
executive order signed by Mr Bush which, according to the ACLU
statement, "states the President directly authorised
interrogation techniques including sleep deprivation, stress
positions, the use of military dogs, and sensory deprivation
through the use of hoods".
The FBI email was sent to a number of senior FBI officials
from "On Scene Commander -- Baghdad". It states that the bureau
had prohibited its agents from employing the techniques Mr Bush
had authorised.
Other documents made public by the ACLU under freedom of
information legislation include:
# A heavily edited "Urgent Report" in June addressed to FBI
director Robert Mueller, mentioning that an FBI agent "observed
numerous physical abuse incidents of Iraqi civilian detainees",
including "strangulation, beatings, and placement of lit
cigarettes into the detainees' ear openings".
The document states that "(blanked out) was providing this
account to the FBI based on his knowledge that (blanked out) were
engaged in a cover-up of these abuses".
# An August 2 email from another FBI agent who witnessed
Guantanamo detainees under interrogation shackled hand and foot
in a fetal position on the floor for 18 to 24 hours at a time,
and most had "urinated or defecated" on themselves.
One detainee was held in an unventilated room at a temperature
"probably well over 100 degrees (38C)".
"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," the agent wrote.
# A July 30 FBI agent's account of an interrogation at
Guantanamo "apparently conducted by Defence Department personnel
-- in which a detainee was wrapped in an Israeli flag and
bombarded with loud music and strobe lights".
# Suggestions two US army officers were involved in the deaths
of at least two detainees in Iraq.
AFP
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