Pentagon Interrogators 'Impersonated' FBI- E-Mails

[cal04]

Defense Department interrogators impersonated FBI (news - web sites) agents at the Guantanamo Bay prison to avoid being held accountable when they used "torture techniques" on a prisoner held there in the U.S. war on terrorism, according to FBI e-mails made public on Monday.

Another FBI e-mail made available in the same package said that President Bush (news - web sites) had issued an executive order authorizing a series of harsh methods for interrogations. The White House said no such directive existed and Justice Department (news - web sites) and FBI officials echoed the denial. The documents were made public by the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) which obtained them under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Bush administration has been accused of abusing prisoners in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites) and in the prison at the Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A number of military personnel have been charged. FBI e-mails dating from December 2003 and January 2004 complained of "DOD (Department of Defense (news - web sites)) interrogators impersonating Supervisory Special Agents of the FBI" at Guantanamo.

A Dec. 5, 2003, e-mail said that "these tactics have produced no intelligence of a threat neutralization nature" and that the "techniques have destroyed any chance of prosecuting this detainee."
"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 (by) the 'FBI' interrogators. The FBI will (be) left holding the bag before the public," the e-mail said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041221/pl_nm/security_bush_interrogation_dc_3

[Trajan]

1. You know ? ..

I HATE to be optimistic ....

But I am getting the impression that THIS story is growing from a peep to a whisper to a low moan ....

If this keeps up: someone on the cable news might actually mention something about it ...

Nahhhhh ....

[Sara Beverley]

2. The media of a free America is dead. It died right after Desert Storm

We just have to keep the story pumped. Lots of people read DU but won't admit it.

[Ian David]

6. All today's anti-bush stories are being heavily freeped

[rainbow4321]

10. Well, if chimp insists on winning a fixed election...

then the very least that should happen to him and his followers is to have all of this shit surface...seems like by the time all of this hits the fan and he is exposed, he may be wishing that he had LOST a fair election instead of having "won" a rigged one.
He never has ever been held accountable for ANYthing, not even in Texas.
The TX economy was crashing and burning right at the end of his TX regime when he was running for Prez the first time around..some reporter asked him how he was going to explain all of the bad $$ news happening on his watch when he met with TX lawmakers in Jan 2001--his response: "I hope not to be here then". He may end up wishing he had the same thought this time around on Nov 2nd.

[clydefrand]

3. Well, well, I've seen more of Bush on television in the past week

than I saw him in the last 4 years except for his campaign appearances. I just wonder if he will be man enough to answer a few of the reporters questions tomorrow...if they are men/women enough to ask them. I'd love to see him try to explain some of the emails.

[rainbow4321]

11. More likely: hand to the ear and "can't hear you...whaaaat???

It's a short week...so he will probably skip town, come down to TX and go into a "spending the holiday" at-his-ranch deal for the next 2 weeks.

[zann725]

15. Or another Osama tape will be released.

n/t

[Judi Lynn]

4. I can't live with this, but I've no choice. Is this sick, or not?

From the Yahoo article posted:

The impersonation "was approved by the Dep Sec Def," a Jan. 21, 2004, e-mail stated, referring to Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s No. 2 official.


INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES


Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Wolfowitz "did not approve interrogation techniques." Whitman added, "It is difficult to determine from the second-hand description whether the technique in this e-mail (impersonating the FBI) was permissible or not."


A May 22, 2004, e-mail, sent by an FBI agent in Iraq to senior FBI officials, referred repeatedly to what it said was an executive order signed by Bush, listing some of the methods the order authorized.
(snip)

A senior Bush administration official said, "The FBI agent was mistaken regarding the existence of an executive order on interrogation techniques. No such executive order exists or has ever existed. The Defense Department determines the methods of interrogation of military detainees in the Iraq conflict," said the official, who asked not to be named.
(snip/...)

When WILL these people be asked to explain themselves to the world, the world's children, to history?

[roguevalley]

5. so this is how the "FBI will be holding the bag"

[Solon]

7. Isn't that a Federal Crime?

Gitmo is still U.S. Territory, so jurisdiction isn't an issue, but I thought that impersonating any law officer, whether the local deputy, to the FBI is illegal, and carries stiff penalties. I don't think it matters that the DOD did this at all, they cannot impersonate civilian authority, doing so would have to break a few laws, wouldn't it? The torture is totally sickening, but we all know how much they value human life, but I figure if anything, maybe some of these fuckers can spend a nice long time in Gitmo itself for flashing a fake FBI badge.

[zann725]

17. Maybe this will upset enough FBI...to gather us some support in Ohio

investigation. If the FBI are being made to look bad, and set up for criminal activities...this could definitely be the beginning of some bad times between Bush and the FBI.

[peacetalksforall]

8. The reality is that a few people are using the entire structure of the

U.S. Government as their little chess game and all the citizens who pay for it all are sitting way up in a stadium and trying to see what is going on because each piece and play affects them and their lineage. But, even if they do see a piece and a player using the finest binoculars, they can't say or do anything about the who-how- why-when and they don't know how they got into a situation where there taxes and lost benefits are being eaten up and their rights abused by the chess players. They don't know how or when it all happened, so some deny it and watch a little tv between their feet or discuss the best recipe for something unhealthy.

[zann725]

18. What a great and sobering analogy!

And true.

[peacetalksforall]

9. On Sunday, there was a quote listed in a DU thread of someone saying

that Bush will go down in history as the most reviled President in our country.

It is obvious that CNN NBCs CBS ABC will also go down in history as the most reviled for their turn from responsibility to propaganda for the Bush regime. FOX is excluded because they never morphed - they led from day one in propaganda.

It may not make any difference if our history books are rewritten by Bush revisionists in an Orwell fashion.

[Trillo]

12. Impersonating an FBI agent? Misinformation Pattern?

It's peripheral to this discussion.

According to Warren County, Ohio, election officials, Department of Homeland Security and FBI agents reported a terror threat of a gravely serious nature, resulting in election officials locking the public and press out of the building where votes were being tallied. Officials of the FBI and DHS later reported they had not made any such terror threat warnings to Ohio officials.

edit: typo

[Old Mouse]

16. Good catch n/t

[daleo]

13. Blurring of the distinction between the civilian and military arms

A feature of a police state, or a militarist state if you prefer. If trends under Bush continue there will be no difference between the FBI and DOD. That is what happens when you declare war on an abstract noun, like "terror".

[Old Mouse]

14. an unnamed "senior official" denying

is not actually an official White House denial.

Don't just keep this kicked on Yahoo. Write CNN and ask where the hell this story is.

[Judi Lynn]

19. BBC story on the subject.....

Last Updated: Tuesday, 21 December, 2004, 08:47 GMT


New jail abuse allegations hit US

Some documents post-date the Abu Ghraib scandal
Fresh allegations have emerged of serious mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by US military personnel.
Documents detailing abuses, some dated months after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, were released as part of a legal case against the US government.

Others allege serious mistreatment of detainees at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
(snip)

One of the memorandums released on Monday provided the account of an FBI agent who observed "serious physical abuses" in Iraq. It was dated 24 June - two months after the extent of abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison was revealed - and was marked "urgent" and sent to FBI Director Robert Mueller. It described strangulation, beatings and the placing of lit cigarettes into detainees' ears.

Documents relating to Guantanamo suggests that detainees were shackled to the floor in foetal positions for more than 24 hours at a time, left without food and water and allowed to defecate on themselves.

In memos over a two-year period up to last August, FBI agents said they witnessed the use of growling dogs to intimidate detainees - contrary to previous statements by defence department officials.

One detainee was wrapped in an Israeli flag and bombarded with loud music in an apparent attempt to soften his resistance to interrogation, they said.
(snip/...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4113679.stm

[annabanana]

20. I just heard this story on CBS

Julie Chen on the Morning Show mentioned it.... I just about fell off my chair.