W. House ignored FBI concerns on prisoner abuse -probe
By Randall Mikkelsen
WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) – Top Bush administration security officials ignored FBI concerns over abusive treatment of terrorism suspects, which one agent called “borderline torture,” a four-year Justice Department probe found.
The FBI, alarmed by interrogation techniques such as the use of snarling dogs, sexual provocation and forced nudity, clashed with the Defense Department and CIA over their use, said the 370-page report, released on Tuesday by the Justice Department’s inspector general.
Critics say the techniques employed by the CIA and U.S. military in questioning terrorism suspects captured after the Sept. 11 attacks amounted to torture. The report covers late 2001 to the end of 2004.
FBI agents joined in terrorism interrogations and still do, but bureau Director Robert Mueller directed agents in 2002 to not participate in coercive questioning, the report said.
The FBI and Justice Department officials raised concerns with the National Security Council, which comprises top security-agency officials, and with officials at the Guantanamo Bay detention center for terrorism suspects. They argued the abusive interrogations were counterproductive.
“Ultimately, neither the FBI nor the DoJ had a significant impact on the practices of the military with respect to the detainees,” the report said.
The National Security Council at the time was headed by President George W. Bush, and included Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, now secretary of state.
“What it means is, the White House, the Defense Department, and the CIA were ignoring advice that was coming from people who were charged with enforcement of the law,” Chris Anders, senior legislative council of the American Civil Liberties Union, said about the report.
Anders said the Justice Department report is the first to show a role by Rice, now secretary of state, in the prisoner-abuse issue.
The White House had no immediate comment on the report but has said the United States does not practice torture.
Congress in 2005 banned the inhumane treatment of prisoners, and the CIA says it has not used “waterboarding,” a form of simulated drowning, in five years. But Bush in March vetoed legislation that would ban the CIA from using waterboarding and other abusive techniques.
WATERBOARDING
The new report quotes an FBI agent as objecting that the CIA’s interrogation of suspected senior al Qaeda commander Abu Zubaydah was “borderline torture,” and said at one point an agent helped care for him in the hospital “even to the point of cleaning him up after bowel movements.”
Specific interrogation techniques for Abu Zubaydah were blacked out in the report as classified information, but the CIA has acknowledged he was one of three suspects subjected to waterboarding.
The report cites techniques used in Guantanamo or Iraq including a sleep disruption, prolonged “short shackling” of hands and feet or wrapping a detainee’s head in duct tape. It cited an instance in which a female interrogator at Guantanamo grabbed a detainee’s genitals and a guard explained her purpose was “to cause him pain.”
It also said a U.S. Marine captain questioning suspected Sept. 11 conspirator Mohammed al-Qahtani squatted over a Koran, which provoked Qahtani to lunge at the Marine and the holy book before he was quickly subdued.
In 2004 FBI agents were required to report abusive conduct. But agents told Justice Department investigators they often did not know what techniques the military authorized.
The report also said there are problems with the FBI’s continued involvement in interrogations of prisoners who have been interviewed by the CIA, which has fewer restraints on interrogation techniques.
CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said in a statement, “The interrogation methods that the CIA has used in its terrorist detention program were examined and found lawful by the Department of Justice itself. That’s not at issue. They have been employed only when traditional means of questioning — things like rapport-building — were ineffective. That was the case with Abu Zubaydah, as President Bush noted publicly.”
(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
