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Special Ops Threatened Govt Government Agents Who Saw Detainee Abuse

by ACLU / US GOV
Breaking: Special Ops Task Force Threatened Government Agents Who Saw Detainee Abuse in Iraq, Documents Obtained by ACLU Reveal
"The public must know the full truth about the U.S. government’s involvement in this scandal."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media (at) aclu.org

Iraqi Detainees Had Burn Marks and Bruises; Harsh Techniques Appear to Have Continued Even After Abu Ghraib Scandal

NEW YORK - Documents released today by the American Civil Liberties Union reveal that a special operations task force in Iraq sought to silence Defense Intelligence Agency personnel who observed abusive interrogations and that the Department of Defense adopted questionable interrogation techniques at Guantanamo over FBI objections.

"The more the government is forced to reveal, the more we learn that individuals in U.S. custody, many of whom have not been accused of wrongdoing, were tortured and abused," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "These documents tell a damning story of sanctioned government abuse -- a story that the government has tried to hide and may well come back to haunt our own troops captured in Iraq."

The release of these documents follows a federal court order that directed the Defense Department and other government agencies to comply with a year-old request under the Freedom of Information Act filed by the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans for Peace. The New York Civil Liberties Union is co-counsel in the case.

The documents the ACLU released today, posted online at http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia, include:

A June 25, 2004 memo from Vice Admiral Lowell E. Jacoby, Defense Intelligence Agency chief, entitled "alleged detainee abuse by TF 62-6," describing how DIA personnel who complained about abuses were threatened, had their car keys confiscated and e-mails monitored, and were ordered "not to talk to anyone in the U.S." or leave the base "even to get a haircut."
The June 25 memo also describes how the task force’s officers punched a prisoner in the face "to the point he needed medical attention," failed to record the medical treatment, and confiscated DIA photos of the injuries. The date of the incident is unclear.
FBI emails showing a rift between the Department of Defense and the FBI on the use of harsh interrogation techniques on detainees. One email notes that Major General Miller "continued to support interrogation strategies [the FBI] not only advised against, but questioned in terms of effectiveness." Another e-mail to Thomas Harrington, an FBI counterterrorism expert who led a team of investigators to Guantanamo, records "somewhat heated" conversations with Pentagon officials in which they admitted that DOD’s harsh interrogation methods did not yield any information not obtained by the FBI. A December 2003 e-mail notes that the FBI’s Military Liaison and Detainee Unit (MLDU), which "had a long standing and documented position against use of some of DOD’s interrogation practices," had requested certain information "be documented to protect the FBI."
Notes describing 15 interviews of FBI personnel who were at Abu Ghraib prison between Oct.-Dec. 2003, some of whom observed nudity, sleep deprivation and humiliation of detainees. A summary of these interviews was previously released.
E-mail from an FBI Behavioral Analysis Advisor who observed "aggressive" and "extreme interrogation practices" at GTMO, noting that he and his colleagues had summarized these observations in communications between October and May of 2002.
These and other documents were released by the ACLU one day after the Associated Press reported on a detailed letter from FBI counter-terrorism expert Thomas Harrington to Maj. Gen. Donald J. Ryder describing "highly aggressive" interrogations and mistreatment of terror suspects at Guantanamo as far back as 2002. The AP also reported on the Harrington e-mail indicating a rift between DOD and the FBI over interrogation methods.

"While these documents confirm the systemic nature of detainee abuse, it appears that the government is still withholding many more documents that shed light on which high-ranking officials are responsible for that abuse," said ACLU attorney Amrit Singh. "The public must know the full truth about the U.S. government’s involvement in this scandal."

The disclosures come in response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and other civil liberties and human rights organizations after the Defense Department and other federal agencies failed to release records in response to FOIA requests. The requests sought records concerning the interrogation and treatment of detainees and the extrajudicial "rendition" of detainees to countries known to use torture.

Singh said the ACLU is continuing to press the government to disclose more documents and will return to court if necessary to ensure that every relevant document is released.

The lawsuit is being handled by Lawrence Lustberg and Megan Lewis of the New Jersey-based law firm Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione, P.C. Other attorneys in the case are Singh, Jameel Jaffer, and Judy Rabinovitz of the ACLU; Art Eisenberg and Beth Haroules of the NYCLU; and Barbara Olshansky and Jeff Fogel of CCR.


Records Released in Response to Torture FOIA Request NEW! Log of Select Documents Received from DIA/DOS/FBI (released by the ACLU 12/07/04, released by the government 11/8/04


Embedded hotlinks in this article available at:

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Latest CCNWON Headlines:

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Yesterday's CCNWON Headlines:


http://mparent7777.blog-city.com/index.cfm?d=6&m=12&y=2004

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - U.S. special operations forces accused of abusing prisoners in Iraq warned defense intelligence personnel not to talk about the alleged mistreatment they saw, according to a government memo to a top adviser of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

In the memo written June 25 after the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal had gone public, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency complained about the harassment of DIA personnel, including one case where special forces confiscated photos of a prisoner they punched.

Defense intelligence workers also had their e-mails monitored and were ordered by a special operations task force "not to talk to anyone" about what they saw, said the memo, which was among internal documents released Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Prisoners arriving at a detention center in Baghdad had "burn marks on their backs" as well as bruises and some complained of kidney pain, Vice Admiral Lowell E. Jacoby, the defense intelligence chief, wrote to Stephen Cambone, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence.

Jacoby also told Cambone that special operations task force members also confiscated the car keys of defense intelligence personnel and ordered them not to leave the base.

FBI agents also reported seeing detainees at Abu Ghraib subjected to sleep deprivation, humiliation and forced nudity between October and December 2003 - when the most serious abuses allegedly took place in a scandal that remains under investigation.

The release of the ACLU documents came a day after The Associated Press reported that a senior FBI official wrote a letter to the Army's top criminal investigator complaining about "highly aggressive" interrogation techniques at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay dating back to 2002 - more than a year before the scandal broke at the Iraqi prison.

The memos and letter reveal behind-the-scenes tensions between the FBI and U.S. military and intelligence task forces running prisoner interrogations at Guantanamo and in Iraq as the Bush administration sought better intelligence to fight terrorists and the deadly Iraq insurgency.

"These documents tell a damning story of sanctioned government abuse - a story that the government has tried to hide and may well come back to haunt our own troops captured in Iraq," said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the New York-based ACLU.

The documents were released only after a federal court ordered the Pentagon and other government agencies to comply with a year-old request filed under the Freedom of Information Act filed by the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans for Peace.

A spokesman for U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida, which directs special military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, declined to comment on specific allegations.

"We take all issues of detainee abuse very seriously and where there is the potential that these abuses could have taken place, we investigate them," Navy Lt. Cmdr. Nick Balice said.

Balice refused to describe the task force, which could include Army Rangers, Delta Force, Navy SEALs and other special operations forces soldiers working with CIA operatives.

Joe Navarro, a retired FBI agent who teaches interrogation techniques to the military and is familiar with interrogations at Guantanamo, said using threats only stands to taint information gleaned from the sessions.

"The only thing that torture guarantees is pain," Navarro told the AP Tuesday. "It never guarantees the truth."

Other memos released by the ACLU detail FBI interviews with detainees at Guantanamo who described CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann's death in Afghanistan Nov. 25, 2001.

One detainee said Spann was "was jumped by an Arab or Pakistani male, but the armed man (Spann) shot the prisoner. People began running and chaos ensued." Another detainee said "There was an explosion ... from a grenade."

There have been scant details so far of Spann's death at the prison riot in Mazar-e-Sharif.

Many memos refer to Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, whose mission as head of the Guantanamo prison from October 2002 was to improve the intelligence gleaned from terror suspects. In August 2003, Miller was sent to Iraq to make recommendations on interrogation techniques there. He was posted to Abu Ghraib in March 2004.

One FBI e-mail released by the ACLU said Miller "continued to support interrogation strategies (the FBI) not only advised against, but questioned in terms of effectiveness."

Miller left Iraq on Tuesday for a new assignment in Washington, with responsibility for Army housing and other support operations, and could not be reached for comment.

The Pentagon said the government "condemns and prohibits torture."

"There have been eight major reviews, investigations, inspections and assessments based on more than 950 interviews and 15,000 pages of information," Pentagon spokesman Maj. Michael Shavers said. "Three more reports still remain to be completed. There have been more than 18 congressional hearings and 39-plus congressional staff briefings."

It was not clear what cases mentioned in the documents, if any, were under investigation or had been part of congressional briefings.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1078&dept_id=151021&newsid=13515526&PAG=461&rfi=9
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