Inquiry Finds Abuses at Guantánamo Bay -NYT

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON, April 30 - A high-level military investigation into accusations of detainee abuse at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has concluded that several prisoners were mistreated or humiliated, perhaps illegally, as a result of efforts to devise innovative methods to gain information, senior military and Pentagon officials say.

The report on the investigation, which is still a few weeks from being completed and released, will deal with accounts by agents for the Federal Bureau of Investigation who complained after witnessing detainees subjected to several forms of harsh treatment.

The F.B.I. agents wrote in memorandums that were never meant to be disclosed publicly that they had seen female interrogators forcibly squeeze male prisoners' genitals, and that they had witnessed other detainees stripped and shackled low to the floor for many hours.

Although the Pentagon has issued other reports about accusations of abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo, the new investigation, by Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt of the Air Force, is intended to be the first major inquiry devoted solely to determining what interrogation practices were used at Guantánamo. The investigation was initiated in response to the disclosure of F.B.I. messages that especially concerned Pentagon officials because the bureau's complaints carried great credibility......

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/national/nationalspecial3/01gitmo.html?ex=1272600000&en=8b4ed600594e8d5d&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

[mediaman007]

1. Can't say I'm surprise by the substance, only by the source!

How did this guy get so far in today's military and still keep his honor? (edit for punctuation)

[mom cat]

2. So, torture is now dubbed: "innovative methods to gain

information"?:wtf:

[gratuitous]

3. A bunch of Oregon National Guard folks just came back from Cuba

The emphasis on the local news was (1) how happy they were to be back home (duh!); and (B) how mean the inmates at Guantanamo were to them -- some of them even flinging shit at our heroic men and women in uniform!

Missing from the coverage was any sense that the people being held captive at Guantanamo hadn't been processed, hadn't been accused of any crime, hadn't had access to any system that could even remotely be considered justice, and had no prospect for the swift or eventual resolution of their situations. But they threw shit at our heroes!

[struggle4progress]

4. kick

[Wizard777]

5. How many thumbs up grining idiots at Gitmo?

They have them in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib, and the British Army has them too. So of course this not from a coalition handbook. It must be some new pandemic virus with symptoms akin to "smilitis." Smilitis (Smile-i-tis)is caused by winning the Maryland State Lottery. It leaves the aflicted with with a huge smile. But the smile goes away as the money does. I will have to check to see if smilitis effects the thumbs.

[harpo]

6. we will investigate it...just like all the other investigations that die