FBI agents objected to interrogation tactics

[ViolaLee]

FBI agents objected to interrogation tactics

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — FBI agents assigned to interview key terrorism suspects repeatedly objected to harsh — and possibly illegal — interrogation tactics used by other U.S. officials two years before abuse of detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison became public in 2004, a Justice Department review found.
Shortly after the 2002 captures of Abu Zubaydah and Ramzi Binalshibh, both detained as alleged principal planners in the Sept. 11 attacks, FBI agents passed on their objections to the highest levels of the Justice Department. FBI Director Robert Mueller advised agents not to participate in coercive interrogations, the report said.

The review by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine is the most detailed account of the FBI's involvement with terrorism suspects, some of whom were subjected to waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning. The report credits FBI agents with communicating their concerns to superiors and refusing to participate in abusive sessions.

"We believe that while the FBI could have provided clear guidance earlier and … could have pressed harder for resolution of concerns … the FBI should be credited for its conduct and professionalism," the report concludes.
It says the controversial treatment of detainees by the military and U.S. intelligence officers persisted because of a view "at a very high level that this was a military situation and the military approach should prevail." The CIA has acknowledged using waterboarding.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said yesterday, "While I take comfort in knowing that, for the most part, FBI field agents followed the agency's policies regarding interrogations, I find it very disturbing that many senior FBI and DOJ officials failed to take strong action after identifying interrogation abuses."

An FBI statement said the report confirms that agents abided by guidelines that prohibit coercive interrogation techniques.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-05-20-fbi_N.htm

I've known since Abu Gharaib that it wasn't just rogue assholes torturing people. The same torture techniques were used at Gitmo too. That wasn't a coincedence. Only the low ranking troops were incarcerated for this un-American and international law violation of torturing people. Now we know it was ordered from the top.

Disgusting. And my question is, why isn't the Bush admin, who ordered this torture, being held accountable for their war crimes?

[ViolaLee]

The White House ignored warnings of torture. I think it's because they WANTED to torture people.

Top White House officials waved off early warnings from the FBI that interrogation tactics being used on detainees might be illegal, according to a new report from the Justice Department's inspector general. http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/s0805/final.pdf (http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/s0805/final.pdf]%20according)

"Reports that Guantanamo detainees were being subjected to extreme temperatures, religious abuses and nude interrogation were conveyed at White House meetings of senior officials in 2003, yet these questionable tactics remained in use, a lengthy report by the Justice Department's inspector general concluded.

"In one instance, colleagues of then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft reported that he personally aired concerns about Defense Department strategy toward a particular detainee with Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, while other Justice managers shared similar fears with the council's legal adviser in November 2003, the report said.

"Ashcroft declined to be interviewed by investigators, so it remains uncertain how aggressively he pressed the issue, according to the report. Other senior Justice officials told investigators that no changes were made in interrogations at Guantanamo Bay even after these and other complaints filtered up to the National Security Council."

Eric Lichtblau and Scott Shane write in the New York Times: "In 2002, as evidence of prisoner mistreatment at Guant¿namo Bay began to mount, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents at the base created a 'war crimes file' to document accusations against American military personnel, but were eventually ordered to close down the file, a Justice Department report revealed Tuesday. . . .

"The report says that the F.B.I. agents took their concerns to higher-ups, but that their concerns often fell on deaf ears: officials at senior levels at the F.B.I., the Justice Department, the Defense Department and the National Security Council were all made aware of the F.B.I. agents' complaints, but little appears to have been done as a result.
"The report quotes passionate objections from F.B.I. officials who grew increasingly concerned about the reports of practices like intimidating inmates with snarling dogs, parading them in the nude before female soldiers, or 'short-shackling' them to the floor for many hours in extreme heat or cold.

"Such tactics, said one F.B.I. agent in an e-mail message to supervisors in November 2002, might violate American law banning torture."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/05/21/BL2008052100638.html

[PatrickHenry]

There are some valid conspiracy theories in this.

Since it is evident that 9/11 was an inside job, the use of torture is obviously a means of creating a torture force that can be used against the domestic population in the coming purge...