- Fresh allegations have emerged of serious mistreatment
of Iraqi prisoners by US military personnel.
-
- Documents detailing abuses, some dated months after the
Abu Ghraib prison scandal, were released as part of a legal case against
the US government.
-
- Others allege serious mistreatment of detainees at the
US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
-
- The American Civil Liberties Union brought the case to
determine whether the US was mistreating prisoners.
-
- ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said the documents
meant top officials could no longer avoid public scrutiny and blame
low-ranking
troops acting on their own.
-
- Last week the case threw up fresh revelations of abuse
in Iraq by US marines, 13 of whom have been convicted and some
jailed.
-
- Strangulation and beatings
-
- One of the memorandums released on Monday provided the
account of an FBI agent who observed "serious physical abuses"
in Iraq.
-
- It was dated 24 June - two months after the extent of
abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison was revealed - and was marked
"urgent"
and sent to FBI Director Robert Mueller.
-
- It described strangulation, beatings and the placing
of lit cigarettes into detainees' ears.
-
- Documents relating to Guantanamo suggests that detainees
were shackled to the floor in foetal positions for more than 24 hours at
a time, left without food and water and allowed to defecate on
themselves.
-
- In memos over a two-year period up to last August, FBI
agents said they witnessed the use of growling dogs to intimidate detainees
- contrary to previous statements by defence department officials.
-
- One detainee was wrapped in an Israeli flag and bombarded
with loud music in an apparent attempt to soften his resistance to
interrogation,
they said.
-
- There were also allegations that military interrogators
impersonated FBI agents, apparently to avoid possible blame in subsequent
inquiries.
-
- The Pentagon has not commented on the latest allegations,
but has said in relation to previous cases that it did not tolerate abusive
tactics.
-
- It added that some allegations in the documents were
under investigation.
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- © BBC MMIV
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- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4113679.stm
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