Fresh claims of prisoner abuse cover-up

Fresh claims of a prisoner abuse cover-up in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay hit the US military today.

Intelligence officials who questioned harsh interrogation tactics in Iraq were threatened into silence by Special Forces soldiers, according to newly-obtained documents.

And FBI objections to questionable interrogation methods at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were dismissed by the Pentagon.

The new documents were released by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which obtained them under the Freedom of Information Act.

They are the latest piece of a jigsaw, which human rights campaigners say proves that the US had adopted a policy of abusing or torturing prisoners for information.

Among the new disclosures are claims that Iraqi prisoners were seen to have burn marks on their backs.

Another detainee was punched in the face so many times that he needed medical treatment, according to a memo.

The papers show that a special operations task force in Iraq sought to silence Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) personnel who saw abusive interrogations.

A memo from Vice Admiral Lowell Jacoby, DIA chief, of June 25, 2004, was entitled “alleged detainee abuse by TF 62-6”.

It described how DIA personnel who complained about prisoner abuses were threatened, had their car keys confiscated and e-mails monitored, and were ordered “not to talk to anyone in the US” or leave the base “even to get a haircut”.

The same memo described how the task force’s officers punched a prisoner in the face “to the point he needed medical attention”.

DIA photos of the injuries were confiscated by the task force officers and it is unclear whether the man in question ever had medical aid.

Emails, meanwhile, showed a rift between the FBI and the Pentagon over questioning methods.

One message claims that Major General Geoffrey Miller, who ran Guantanamo before being moved to oversee Iraqi prisons, “continued to support interrogation strategies [the FBI] not only advised against, but questioned in terms of effectiveness”.

The documents were obtained by the ACLU and other rights groups after a legal battle. The groups made requests under the Freedom of Information Act, but the Pentagon failed to respond.

The documents were finally released following a court order.

“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 lawyer Amrit Singh.

ACLU executive director Anthony Romero added: “The more the government is forced to reveal, the more we learn that individuals in US custody, many of whom have not been accused of wrongdoing, were tortured and abused.

“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.”