Your Government at Work: Gitmo Torture and Beyond

 The American Civil Liberties Union has undertaken the task of obtaining declassified documentation of prisoner abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (Gitmo).

The documents were obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request (the FOIA is a federal law that allows the public access to documents and other information from the federal government) on Oct. 7, 2003, and the ACLU has been releasing the documents to the public as they’ve received them. The collection of documents contains 35,000 pages of information.

The documents paint a picture of prisoner abuse that goes way beyond the “isolated” incidents at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. In fact, what we find are instead widespread allegations of abuse. Of course, George W. Bush’s defenders like to pretend that even if there was prisoner abuse, it wasn’t that bad (Rush Limbaugh famously likened the abuse at Abu Ghraib to a fraternity hazing. You know, the hazing that involves stripping someone naked, or withholding food for hours, or the use of attack dogs to terrify the young pledge, or sodomizing that pledge with a glow-stick. Those fraternity rituals. Oh, and raping of the fraternity pledge. Those wacky college kids!), why…look at all of those mass graves in Iraq! Saddam Hussein was much worse! Which, while true, doesn’t change the fact that, as of September 30, 2004, the Pentagon had investigated 187 allegations of prisoner abuse. Apparently, the right wing’s definition of the word “isolated” is a bit different than the commonly accepted use of the word.

One of the FBI memos obtained by the ACLU discuss the alleged impersonation of FBI agents by Department of Defense interrogators. It is dated December 5, 2003 (some of the FBI abbreviations used: “EC” is “Electronic Communication”; “CTD” is “Counterterrorism Division; “MLDU” is “Military Liaison and Detainee Unit”; “CITF” is “Criminal Investigation Task Force) and states:

"I am forwarding this EC up the CTD chain of command. MLDU requested this information be documented to protect the FBI. MLDU has a long standing and documented position against use of some of DOD's interrogation practices, however we were not aware of these latest techniques until recently...of concern, DOD interrogators impersonating Supervisory Special Agents of the FBI told a detainee (blacked out)...these tactics have produced no intelligence of a threat neutralizing nature to date at CITF believes that techniques have destroyed any chance of prosecuting this detainee. If this detainee is ever released or his story made public in any way, DOD interrogators will not be held accountable because these torture techniques were done (by) the "FBI" interrogators. The FBI will (be) left holding the bag before the public."

Now, why would a Department of Defense interrogator impersonate an FBI agent? As we can see from the memorandum, the answer is pretty clear: the interrogators used forms of torture not approved by the FBI. Which probably goes beyond a fraternity hazing, and perhaps edges closer to the techniques employed by Saddam Hussein’s regime.

As far as allegations that a copy of the Quran had been flushed in a toilet, the Associated Press reported on May 26 that the prisoner who made the claim had since retracted his story. But military investigators did uncover five instances where the Quran was “mishandled.” Brig. Gen. Jay W. Wood, the commander of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, told reporters that a military investigation did uncover five instances where the Quran was mishandled: four by guards, and one time by an interrogator.

The FBI documents outline other allegations of abuse at Gitmo, including detainee reports of being beaten by guards, and in one instance, the sexual assault of a detainee. In April 2003, a detainee reported that a female guard had fondled his genitals while male guards held him down. The female guard told the detainee that she was having her menstrual period and proceeded to wipe blood on the detainee.

Aren’t we supposed to be better than this? Prisoner abuse is something done by our enemies, not us. And yet, in every instance where someone from the Bush administration tried to explain away the abuse as “isolated,” we discover that the abuse was not isolated, and if the FBI documents are any indication, the abuse is widespread and frequent. Yet no one from the Department of Defense or Justice Department are being held accountable for the abuse of prisoners. And probably never will. After all, the Bush administration had its “accountability” moment in the 2004 election; top-level officials have nothing to worry about. And we can all pretend that the most important issues of the day are the appointment of a handful of President Bush’s judicial nominees to various courts. We’ll just look the other way when it comes to torture and violations of the Geneva Convention. Oh, and Social Security, that’s a pretty important national discussion. Prisoner abuse? Who cares? Give me the remote control; it’s time to watch the latest news on the Michael Jackson trial.

About the Author

Scott C. Smith is a freelance writer from Beaverton, Oregon. Scott is a columnist for the web site Counterbias.com

Scott's columns have also appeared at the popular liberal web sites The Democratic Underground and The Smirking Chimp.

In addition to his column, Scott writes about media and politics at his blog, "What’s In Scott’s Head," at Scottcsmith dot net.

 Scott C. Smith

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