- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - FBI
agents saw military interrogators use abusive tactics on prisoners at the
naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including a woman interrogator who
grabbed a detainee's genitals, officials said on Monday.
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- The account of incidents in 2002 involving foreign terrorism
suspects held at the base was contained in a July letter from FBI counterterrorism
official Thomas Harrington, to Maj. Gen. Donald Ryder, the Army's provost
marshal, and was confirmed by Pentagon and Justice Department officials.
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- Harrington, who headed a group of investigators which
visited the base, detailed incidents including one in which a female Army
interrogator grabbed a male prisoner's genitals and bent his thumbs backward.
Two other incidents he described included a prisoner who was menaced by
a dog and placed into isolation and another detainee whose mouth was covered
with duct tape.
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- In his letter, Harrington referred to the incidents as
examples of "highly aggressive interrogation techniques" and
asked Ryder, the Army's senior criminal investigator, to take "appropriate
action." Harrington wrote that the FBI told Pentagon lawyers in January
2003 about the abusive treatment, but the matter had not been addressed.
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- "We take all allegations seriously and investigate
each one fully," Army Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, commander of the Guantanamo
prison, said in a statement provided by the U.S. military.
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- "The appropriate actions were taken, and some allegations
are still under investigation. Immediate and appropriate action is always
taken upon all verified allegations. Once investigations are completed,
we report them immediately up the chain of command," Hood added.
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- Lt. Col. Gerard Healy, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon,
declined to identify the woman interrogator but said the allegations about
her conduct were being examined by Army criminal investigators.
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- The Pentagon has denied that detainees have been tortured
at Guantanamo.
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- The U.S. military holds about 550 non-U.S. citizens at
the Guantanamo base, nearly all without charges or access to lawyers. Most
were caught in Afghanistan and many have been held at the base for nearly
three years.
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- Some men who have been released from the prison have
stated they were tortured there. The International Committee of the Red
Cross has accused the United States of using tactics "tantamount to
torture" on Guantanamo prisoners.
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- http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7009512
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