[Media-watch] FBI email refers to Bush authorising inhumane interrogation techniques - ACLU - 20/12/2004

Tue Dec 21 10:29:11 GMT 2004

http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=17216&c=206

FBI E-Mail Refers to Presidential Order

Authorizing Inhumane Interrogation Techniques

December 20, 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: media at aclu.org

Newly Obtained FBI Records Call Defense Department's Methods "Torture," 
Express Concerns Over "Cover-Up" That May Leave FBI "Holding the Bag" for 
Abuses

NEW YORK -- A document released for the first time today by the American 
Civil Liberties Union suggests that President Bush issued an Executive Order 
authorizing the use of inhumane interrogation methods against detainees in 
Iraq. Also released by the ACLU today are a slew of other records including 
a December 2003 FBI e-mail that characterizes methods used by the Defense 
Department as "torture" and a June 2004 "Urgent Report" to the Director of 
the FBI that raises concerns that abuse of detainees is being covered up.

"These documents raise grave questions about where the blame for widespread 
detainee abuse ultimately rests," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. 
Romero. "Top government officials can no longer hide from public scrutiny by 
pointing the finger at a few low-ranking soldiers."

The documents were obtained after the ACLU and other public interest 
organizations filed a lawsuit against the government for failing to respond 
to a Freedom of Information Act request.

The two-page e-mail that references an Executive Order states that the 
President directly authorized interrogation techniques including sleep 
deprivation, stress positions, the use of military dogs, and "sensory 
deprivation through the use of hoods, etc." The ACLU is urging the White 
House to confirm or deny the existence of such an order and immediately to 
release the order if it exists. The FBI e-mail, which was sent in May 2004 
from "On Scene Commander--Baghdad" to a handful of senior FBI officials, 
notes that the FBI has prohibited its agents from employing the techniques 
that the President is said to have authorized.

Another e-mail, dated December 2003, describes an incident in which Defense 
Department interrogators at Guantánamo Bay impersonated FBI agents while 
using "torture techniques" against a detainee. The e-mail concludes "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 [sic] the 'FBI' 
interrogators. The FBI will [sic] left holding the bag before the public."

The document also says that no "intelligence of a threat neutralization 
nature" was garnered by the "FBI" interrogation, and that the FBI's Criminal 
Investigation Task Force (CITF) believes that the Defense Department's 
actions have destroyed any chance of prosecuting the detainee. The e-mail's 
author writes that he or she is documenting the incident "in order to 
protect the FBI."

"The methods that the Defense Department has adopted are illegal, immoral, 
and counterproductive," said ACLU staff attorney Jameel Jaffer. "It is 
astounding that these methods appear to have been adopted as a matter of 
policy by the highest levels of government."

The June 2004 "Urgent Report" addressed to the FBI Director is heavily 
redacted. The legible portions of the document appear to describe an account 
given to the FBI's Sacramento Field Office by an FBI agent who had "observed 
numerous physical abuse incidents of Iraqi civilian detainees," including 
"strangulation, beatings, [and] placement of lit cigarettes into the 
detainees' ear openings." The document states that

"[redacted] was providing this account to the FBI based on his knowledge 
that [redacted] were engaged in a cover-up of these abuses."

The release of these documents follows a federal court order that directed 
government agencies to comply with a year-old request under the Freedom of 
Information Act filed by the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, 
Physicians for Human

Rights, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans for Peace. The New York Civil 
Liberties Union is co-counsel in the case.

Other documents released by the ACLU today include: An FBI email regarding 
DOD personnel impersonating FBI officials during interrogations. The e-mail 
refers to a "ruse" and notes that "all of those [techniques] used in these 
scenarios" were approved by the Deputy Secretary of Defense. (Jan. 21, 2004)

Another FBI agent's account of interrogations at Guantánamo in which 
detainees were shackled hand and foot in a fetal position on the floor. The 
agent states that the  detainees were kept in that position for 18 to 24 
hours at a time and most had "urinated or defacated [sic]" on themselves. On 
one occasion, the agent reports having seen a detainee left in an 
unventilated, non-air  conditioned room at a temperature "probably well over 
a hundred degrees." The agent notes: "The detainee was almost unconscious on 
the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally 
pulling his own hair out throughout the night." (Aug. 2, 2004) An e-mail 
stating that an Army lawyer "worked hard to cwrite [sic] a legal 
justification for the type of interrogations they (the Army) want to 
conduct" at Guantánamo Bay. (Dec. 9, 2002) An e-mail noting the initiation 
of an FBI investigation into the alleged rape of a juvenile male detainee at 
Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. (July 28, 2004) An FBI agent's account of an 
interrogation at Guantánamo - an interrogation apparently conducted by 
Defense Department personnel - in which a detainee was wrapped in an Israeli 
flag

and bombarded with loud music and strobe lights. (July 30, 2004)

The ACLU and its allies are scheduled to go to court again this afternoon, 
where they will seek an order compelling the CIA to turn over records 
related to an internal investigation into detainee abuse. Although the ACLU 
has received more than 9,000 documents from other agencies, the CIA refuses 
to confirm or deny even the existence of many of the records that the ACLU 
and other plaintiffs have requested. The CIA is

reported to have been involved in abusing detainees in Iraq and at secret 
CIA detention facilities around the globe.

The lawsuit is being handled by Lawrence Lustberg and Megan Lewis of the New 
Jersey-based law firm Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione, P.C. 
Other attorneys in the case are Jaffer, Amrit Singh and Judy Rabinovitz of 
the ACLU; Art

Eisenberg and Beth Haroules of the NYCLU; and Barbara Olshansky and Jeff 
Fogel of CCR.

The documents referenced above can be found at:

http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/fbi.html

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