'Borderline Torture'
Mueller agreed with D'Amuro and issued what became a "bright line rule" barring FBI agents from participating in CIA and military interrogations involving such methods. The action by Mueller is one of a number of moves that Fine praises by the FBI in distancing themselves from the actions of other agencies.
But the issue arose again later that year with the treatment of Mohammed al-Qahtani, another Al Qaeda suspect picked up in Pakistan who was shipped to Guantánamo and subsequently identified as the so-called 20th hijacker. (He had been identified by fingerprints as the Saudi national who tried to fly into Orlando International Airport in August 2001 and was turned away by immigration officials while lead hijacker Muhammad Atta was waiting for him.)
The report provides new details about the frustration of U.S. military and law-enforcement officials in 2002 when Qahtani refused to cooperate with interrogators. (According to the report, he insisted that he had tried to come to the United States because he wanted to sell used cars.) This led the Guantánamo commander at the time, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, to order a "relentless" and "sustained attack" to break Qahtani. Among the methods ultimately used against him—over the repeated objections of FBI agents—were the use of growling dogs, repeatedly pouring water on his head, tying a dog leash to his chain and forcing him to perform dog tricks and manipulaton of the air conditioner in his cell to make him uncomfortable. Qahtani was also subjected to attempts at sexual humiliation: women's underwear was placed over his head and a bra placed over his clothing. He was stripped naked in the presence of a woman and held down while a female interrogator straddled him. (The use of these and other techniques against him have been previously documented in two Defense Department reports.)
The new Justice report discloses that at one point one of the FBI agents on the scene learned that Qahtani was hospitalized for hypothermia during these interrogations. Although these methods were subsequently stopped after strong clashes between the military and FBI agents on the scene, a top FBI lawyer, Spike Bowman, later wrote a strong e-mail to senior bureau officials protesting what was being done to the prisoner.
"Beyond any doubt, what they are doing (and I don't know the extent of it) would be unlawful were these Enemy Prisoners of War (EPW)," Bowman, a former U.S. military lawyer, wrote in the July 1, 2003, e-mail to top bureau officials. He expressed concern that the FBI would be "tarred by the same brush" and asked for input about whether the FBI should refer to the matter to the DoD Inspector General. "Were I still on active duty, there is no question in my mind that it would be a duty to do so," Bowman wrote in his e-mail.
Terror Watch appears weekly on Newsweek.com
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Member Comments
Posted By: Ramos5 @ 05/28/2008 9:17:30 AM
Comment: Hipocrit is one wno wants others do what they don't going to do. You can cal yourself Christian and kill your neighbor, Lie, and stole. Honesty is be truthfull, do what is right, what is good for everybody, what is natural. You can't go for all the world killing everybody only because they dont act acording your intere$. You can't said same sex marriage is natural, legal and aproved for God, That's unnatural, antinatural, and show some kind of mental sickenes. Even the animals don't do this. This is anti natura.
Posted By: pwilso24 @ 05/21/2008 3:37:01 PM
Comment: al-Nashiri planned the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.
Abu Zubaydah was the mastermind of the foiled millennium terrorist attacks, which had Los Angeles airport as one of its targets.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed directed the September 11 attacks, and has claimed to have personally beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl.
They are also the ONLY U.S. detainees to have been waterboarded. That fact, publicly confirmed by CIA Director Michael Hayden, shreds whatever is left to the so-called torture narrative, according to which the Bush Administration has engaged in widespread, needless and systematic torture of detainees.
Instead, we have sworn public testimony that the waterboarding was conducted against the three individuals best positioned to know about impending terrorist atrocities.
The interrogations took place when a second major terrorist attack was widely seen as inevitable. And we know that the waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah helped lead to the capture of KSM, and to the foiling of an active terrorist plot against the United States.
The waterboarding was conducted by intelligence professionals who understood they were operating not only with the approval of the Justice Department but also the informed consent of key Congressional leaders, including Democrat Jay Rockefeller, then the ranking minority Member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
So when will the Congressional Committee question Democrats Jay and Nancy ?
Posted By: coalpines @ 05/21/2008 11:39:34 AM
Comment: When are we going to let the CIA do there job? Are we such fools that we can stand by and let our enemys laugh at us be cause of our concern for someon's comfort. Lets not forget the detanees that we have released that have gone on to kill our troops. We must exibit strength and if that includes waterboarding so be it. It has no long term effects which cannot be said for having your head cut off on camera.