FBI Ordered to Shut Down GITMO “War Crimes” File

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

(h/t to GreyHawk for pointing to this story. GH’s post at epluribus media.)

Yes, the FBI kept a “War Crimes” file about GTMO. So reports the NY Times in  Report Details Dissent on Guantánamo Tactics:

WASHINGTON – In 2002, as evidence of prisoner mistreatment at Guantánamo 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.

Ordered closed down by whom exactly?

Don’t worry about these FBI claims and concerns, though. There’s been an exhaustive report, and everything’s cool, per the DoJ Investigator General Glenn A. Fine:

In sum, we believe that while the FBI could have provided clearer guidance earlier, and while the FBI could have pressed harder for resolution of concerns about detainee treatment by other agencies, the FBI should be credited for its conduct and professionalism in detainee interrogations in the military zones in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, and Iraq and in generally avoiding participation in detainee abuse.

From p. 413 of Report (warning! 437 page PDF)

There’s a lot to read in this report; I’ve only had the chance to skim through it, but it basically is another dossier from the files of the Kafka Bureau of Government Operations. A report so focused on detail and process, while completely ignoring the larger questions. Not that it was supposed to be anything else; it’s just another example of the hot-potato game of accountability. The report does detail that there was great pushback and concern over the “enhanced interrogation techniques.” As the NY Times says:

The report, an exhaustive, 437-page review prepared by the Justice Department inspector general, provides the fullest account to date of internal dissent and confusion within the Bush administration over the use of harsh interrogation tactics by the military and the Central Intelligence Agency.

…

The report describes what one official called “trench warfare” between the F.B.I. and the military over the rough methods being used on detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq.

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.

(My emphasis, of course.)

The report deals with this tension and “confusion” simply by explaining that FBI shouldn’t really worry, all of these techniques have been approved by DoD, so everything is just a question of role of FBI interrogators. Nothing is said to address the FBI concerns that these techniques themselves constitute torture or warcrimes:

On December 2, 2002, the Secretary of Defense approved additional techniques on detainees at GTMO, including stress positions for a maximum of 4 hours, isolation, deprivation of light and auditory stimuli, hooding, 20-hour interrogations, removal of clothing, and exploiting a detainee’s individual phobias (such as fear of dogs).

From p. 19 of Report (warning! 437 page PDF)

Indeed, footnote 228 explicitly states:

We did not examine issues related to DOJ Office of Legal Counsel opinions concerning the legality of several interrogations techniques the CIA sought to useon certain high value detainees. Wheile senior FBI and DOJ officials were aware of these opinions, an assessment of the validity of OLC legal opinions was beyond the scope of this review.

(My emphasis, of course.)

Well, goddamn it–whose scope is it in to review the legality of these techniques?! When will all of these war criminals be held to account?

Crucially, as the NY Times reports, FBI was concerned not only with the illegality, but also the counterproductive nature of using torture:

The report describes extensive debate inside the F.B.I. over the next six months over whether it should continue to observe or assist the C.I.A. with interrogations using harsh methods it believed were counterproductive.

F.B.I. officials, including Pasquale D’Amuro, then the bureau’s top counterterrorism officer, believed the physical pressure being used by the C.I.A. was less effective than traditional noncoercive methods, that it would “taint” any future effort at prosecution, and that it “was wrong and helped Al Qaeda in spreading negative views of the United States,” the report says.

(My emphasis)

This should be the key point in all discussions of torture as policy. Torture does not work for information extraction.

President Obama, will you hold these criminals to account? And will you shut down GTMO A.S.A.P?

Unfortunately, Secretary Gates seems to think we are “stuck with” GTMO:

The US is “stuck” with the Guantanamo Bay detention centre even though it wants to close it, Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said.

Mr Gates said the US wanted to send up to 70 prisoners home but countries would either not take them or could not be trusted to.

Well, that’s it from me for now. Please take a look at the NYTimes article, and I’m also sure that the 437 report is sure to generate many future blog posts.

Oh, yeah, and don’t forget to call your congresscritters and demand:

• End to Iraq Occupation.
• Closure of GTMO
• Investigations and indictments of war criminals: BushCo.