The US Department of Justice has opened a wide-ranging investigation into reports from the FBI about the military's use of coercive and abusive tactics against prisoners held in US custody at Guantanamo Bay and in Iraq, officials announced on Thursday.
The investigation, initiated recently by the inspector-general at the Justice Department, will examine not only how reports of abuse witnessed by FBI agents at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Iraq were handled, but also whether FBI agents themselves took part in any improper methods of interrogation at the prisons, which are run by the military.
Investigators "want to look at what happened to these complaints, and also did FBI agents participate in the abuse?" said a senior law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Were they more than simply witnesses?"
The Justice Department inquiry parallels a separate investigation by the military into the tactics used by its interrogators at Guantanamo Bay.
A raft of documents, released to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) under the Freedom of Information Act, has revealed concerns by FBI agents stationed at the Guantanamo Bay prison who said in e-mail messages and memos that they had witnessed military interrogators using "coercive tactics," beating prisoners, and grabbing their genitals.
Chained
FBI personnel also told of detainees being chained for up to 24 hours and left on the cold floor to urinate and defecate on themselves.
In one case, an agent said, a detainee who was nearly unconscious had pulled out much of his hair during the night.
Some FBI personnel reported their deep concerns about the tactics to senior agency personnel, including the director, Robert Mueller.
One component of the inspector-general's inquiry will be to determine how those internal concerns were handled within the FBI and whether they were relayed to proper authorities in the military and elsewhere in the administration.
The documents obtained by the ACLU suggest the possibility that some FBI agents may have acquiesced in or ignored abusive military tactics at Guantanamo Bay at times, but they do not appear to offer evidence of specific abuses carried out by anyone at the FBI.
Full Cooperation
A senior official at the FBI said on Thursday that he was unaware that any complaints of abuse carried out by its agents at Guantanamo Bay had been submitted, but he pledged the bureau's full cooperation with the inspector-general's investigation.
"This is a healthy process," the official said of the review.
"We'll bend over backwards to help and do whatever needs to be done," he said.
In a letter to the Justice Department inspector-general on Dec. 21, after the first batches of documents from the ACLU became public, Representative John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, and five other lawmakers, all Democrats, made an "urgent request" for the office to investigate the reports of torture and to determine how presidential or military directives played into such tactics.
Glenn Fine, inspector-general at the Justice Department, responded on Jan. 4, saying that his office had already begun "examining the involvement of Federal Bureau of Investigation staff in either observing or participating in the alleged abuse of detainees at the Guantanamo facility and at Abu Ghraib," according to a copy of the letter provided by a member of Congress to the New York Times.
The inspector-general's office began investigating the treatment of prisoners before the ACLU documents became public, officials said.
It was not clear whether an internal complaint or separate concerns had led the inspector general's office to launch the investigation.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from