DOJ Official Describes 'Abusive' Interrogation
DOJ Inspector General says Guantanamo interrogation was ineffective and abusive.
WASHINGTON, June 4, 2008— -- The Justice Department's inspector general today detailed what department officials have called the abusive and ineffective interrogation of the suspected "20th hijacker" in the Sept. 11 terror plot.
Inspector General Glenn Fine, testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said interrogators at Guantanamo Bay used dogs to intimidate Mohammad Al Qahtani, used stress positions during 20-hour interrogations and placed women's underwear on his head and showed him pornographic pictures.
Fine's testimony comes a day before Sept. 11 conspirators Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Ramzi bin al Shibh, Ammar al Baluchi, Waleed Bin Attash and Mustafa al Hawsawi are scheduled to be arraigned at military commissions at Guantanamo Bay. Qahtani will not be arraigned because the 9/11-related charges were dropped by the Convening Authority overseeing the military commissions.
Fine elaborated on his recent report, which documented alleged abuses FBI agents have said they witnessed at the facility and highlighted ongoing tensions between the FBI and the military over how to interrogate high-level suspected terrorists.
"The friction between FBI officials and the military over the interrogation plans for Al Qahtani increased, with the FBI advocating a long-term rapport-based strategy and the military insisting on a different, more aggressive approach," he said. "As a result of the interrogations of Al Qahtani and other detainees at Guantanamo, several FBI agents raised concerns with the Department of Defense and FBI headquarters. The concerns related to the legality and effectiveness of DOD techniques and the impact of these techniques on the future prosecution of detainees in court or before military commissions."
The testimony prompted a tense exchange when Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., questioned whether many of these activities were merely pranks or serious instances of torture.
"The things that you are suggesting here were just so unacceptable by this man who was conspiring to kill tens of thousands of American civilians," he said. "They seem more like pranks, hazing pranks from some fraternity than some well-thought-out policy of how do you torture someone and get information from them. I mean, OK, telling -- describing his mother and sister as whores, that's certainly not a nice thing to do."
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