US military investigates Guantanamo abuse charges

US military officials will investigate charges of abuse against terrorist suspects being interrogated at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, authorities announced.

The US Army’s Southern Command in Miami assigned Army Brigadier General John T Furlow to lead the investigation, which could begin this week, a spokesman said.

The announcement followed publication of FBI documents alleging that some aggressive interrogation techniques amounted to torture and came as a new batch of FBI memos on interrogations at the remote Cuban base were released.

The military maintains most incidents detailed in FBI memos occurred in 2002, when the mission began, and that some techniques are no longer used.

“It will be fully investigated,” Guantanamo’s commanding Army Brigadier General Jay Hood said.

He said a military team independent of the Guantanamo mission was needed to find and interview people who had left the post and were no longer under his command.

Furlow will lead a small team including a lawyer. A report to Southern Command Army General Bantz J Craddock should be submitted in February, the statement said.

FBI documents released yesterday show the FBI’s earlier descriptions of abuses came in response to a July 9, 2004, message from Steve McCraw, the assistant director of the FBI’s Office for Intelligence. The email asked more than 500 agents who had been at Guantanamo to report whether they had observed “aggressive treatment, interrogations or interview techniques” that violated FBI guidelines.

In response, out of 478, 26 reported viewing alleged mistreatment by people who were not FBI agents. They were reviewed by FBI lawyer Valerie Caproni who determined 17 of the 26 described techniques approved by the US Department of Defence.

Caproni declined further investigation of the allegations she considered to follow approved Dept of Defence rules, the documents indicated. Instead, she focused only on non-conforming incidents, leading to nine cases tagged for pursuit.

Human rights groups were not happy with that.

“These documents raise more questions than they answer,” said attorney Jameel Jaffer of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Rights groups have called for an independent investigation into abuse at Guantanamo Bay, where some 550 detainees from nearly 40 countries are accused of links to Afghanistan’s ousted Taliban regime or al-Qaida terror network. Some have been held for three years without access to a lawyer or charges.

“Although more transparency is always welcome we’re way past the point where internal inquiries can be considered sufficient,” said Alistair Hodgett, a spokesman for London-based Amnesty International.

Documents published last month show FBI agents sent to Guantanamo warned the government about abuse and mistreatment when the first prisoners arrived in 2002 - more than a year before a scandal over abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison.

One letter, written by a senior Justice Department official, suggested the Pentagon failed to act on the FBI complaints and indicated conflict between the FBI and the Department of Defence.

The ACLU last month also released emails, obtained by a court order demanding the government respond to a Freedom of Information Act, in which the FBI accused military interrogators of posing as FBI agents and humiliating and abusing detainees. Techniques included inserting lit cigarettes in prisoners’ ears and shackling them into foetal positions for up to 24 hours.

The Department of Defence previously has said that military officials at Guantanamo Bay were investigating allegations of abuse. Yesterday, officials there said they were instigating an independent investigation.

For some 550 prisoners, only 23 tribunals remain and, so far, only two men have been ordered released or transferred as non-enemy combatants.

Nearly half of the detainees have refused to attend their tribunals, and the US military refuses to publish their reasons.

No lawyers are present during the proceedings. Prisoners are only told unclassified portions of the allegations against them.

Most of the 478 FBI agents who reported their Guantanamo Bay experiences said they saw no abuse of prisoners.