excuseme
07-14-2005, 02:44 AM
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2005-07-13T024421Z_01_N12603962_RTRIDST_0_USREPORT-SECURITY-GUANTANAMO-DC.XML
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Military investigators who looked into FBI accounts of Guantanamo Bay detainee abuse urged that a former commander of the prison for foreign terrorism suspects be reprimanded, but U.S. Southern Command declined to do so, sources familiar with the probe said on Tuesday.
The probe also faulted a female interrogator for smearing fake menstrual fluid on a prisoner, but said the matter should not be pursued because it happened too long ago, the sources said.
The report on the investigation, announced in January by Miami-based Southern Command which oversees the Guantanamo base in Cuba, was due to be released at a hearing on Wednesday of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The investigators recommended that Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the former Guantanamo commander, receive a formal reprimand, which would have made him the highest-ranking military officer to be punished over detainee mistreatment, the sources said.
But the head of Southern Command, Army Gen. Bantz Craddock, declined and forwarded the matter to the Army's inspector general's office.
The report said Miller should be punished for failing to oversee the degrading and abusive interrogation of a "high-value" prisoner, but found that the interrogation did not rise to the level of inhumane treatment, the sources said.
The investigation, headed by Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall Schmidt and Army Brig. Gen. John Furlow, also corroborated incidents in which American interrogators abused prisoners.
The investigation followed the release by the American Civil Liberties Union of FBI documents describing alleged prisoner abuses by Defense Department personnel at Guantanamo. The documents were obtained by court order under the Freedom of Information Act.
The FBI documents described prisoners at Guantanamo being shackled hand and foot in a fetal position on a floor for 18 to 24 hours, and left to urinate and defecate on themselves. Others said Pentagon interrogators impersonated FBI agents at the base and used "torture techniques" on a prisoner.
The report found that the shackling was not authorized, but the investigators could not find corroboration for the FBI account, the sources said.
The Pentagon declined comment on the report before its official release.
About 520 men are being detained at the Guantanamo camp at a U.S. naval base in southeastern Cuba, which opened in January 2002. Many of them were detained in Afghanistan and have been held for more than three years. Only four have been charged.
If you're at the bottom of the chain of command, you're being punished. If you're at the top, you're let go, even in this case overriding an Air Force general's recommendation," said Christopher Anders, legislative counsel for the ACLU.
The highest-ranking officers punished by the military after being linked to detainee abuse were Col. Thomas Pappas, the former U.S. military intelligence chief at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the former top officer at Abu Ghraib. Both were relieved of command and Karpinski was demoted in rank.
The United States has classified the detainees as "enemy combatants" and denied them rights accorded to prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.
Human rights activists have criticized the indefinite detention of prisoners at Guantanamo, while the Bush administration has asserted that the U.S. government can legally hold the men "in perpetuity."
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Military investigators who looked into FBI accounts of Guantanamo Bay detainee abuse urged that a former commander of the prison for foreign terrorism suspects be reprimanded, but U.S. Southern Command declined to do so, sources familiar with the probe said on Tuesday.
The probe also faulted a female interrogator for smearing fake menstrual fluid on a prisoner, but said the matter should not be pursued because it happened too long ago, the sources said.
The report on the investigation, announced in January by Miami-based Southern Command which oversees the Guantanamo base in Cuba, was due to be released at a hearing on Wednesday of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The investigators recommended that Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the former Guantanamo commander, receive a formal reprimand, which would have made him the highest-ranking military officer to be punished over detainee mistreatment, the sources said.
But the head of Southern Command, Army Gen. Bantz Craddock, declined and forwarded the matter to the Army's inspector general's office.
The report said Miller should be punished for failing to oversee the degrading and abusive interrogation of a "high-value" prisoner, but found that the interrogation did not rise to the level of inhumane treatment, the sources said.
The investigation, headed by Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall Schmidt and Army Brig. Gen. John Furlow, also corroborated incidents in which American interrogators abused prisoners.
The investigation followed the release by the American Civil Liberties Union of FBI documents describing alleged prisoner abuses by Defense Department personnel at Guantanamo. The documents were obtained by court order under the Freedom of Information Act.
The FBI documents described prisoners at Guantanamo being shackled hand and foot in a fetal position on a floor for 18 to 24 hours, and left to urinate and defecate on themselves. Others said Pentagon interrogators impersonated FBI agents at the base and used "torture techniques" on a prisoner.
The report found that the shackling was not authorized, but the investigators could not find corroboration for the FBI account, the sources said.
The Pentagon declined comment on the report before its official release.
About 520 men are being detained at the Guantanamo camp at a U.S. naval base in southeastern Cuba, which opened in January 2002. Many of them were detained in Afghanistan and have been held for more than three years. Only four have been charged.
If you're at the bottom of the chain of command, you're being punished. If you're at the top, you're let go, even in this case overriding an Air Force general's recommendation," said Christopher Anders, legislative counsel for the ACLU.
The highest-ranking officers punished by the military after being linked to detainee abuse were Col. Thomas Pappas, the former U.S. military intelligence chief at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the former top officer at Abu Ghraib. Both were relieved of command and Karpinski was demoted in rank.
The United States has classified the detainees as "enemy combatants" and denied them rights accorded to prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.
Human rights activists have criticized the indefinite detention of prisoners at Guantanamo, while the Bush administration has asserted that the U.S. government can legally hold the men "in perpetuity."