[News] CIA report alleges detainee abuse

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/08/2009824194527984688.html

Tuesday, August 25, 2009
00:59 Mecca time, 21:59 GMT


CIA report alleges detainee abuse

Report is here in its entirety (sic) HIGHLY REDACTED
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/24/torture-report-from-2004_n_267565.html

Panetta says that he will defend any CIA 
employees exposed in the new release of a 2004 report [AFP]

US intelligence officials interrogating terrorism 
suspects at secret prisons staged mock executions 
and threatened detainees with guns and electric 
drills, according to previously classified details in a CIA report.

The CIA interrogators also threatened to kill the 
children of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who 
masterminded the September 11 attacks, the 
documents, which were released on Monday, said.

Some US intelligence officials also fired a gun 
in a room adjacent to where a prisoner was being 
held, to make him believe another suspect had 
been executed, the report, which was authored in 
2004 by the CIA inspector-general, said.

Under US law it is illegal to threaten a detainee with imminent death.

Investigation launched

As the report was released, Eric Holder, the US 
attorney-general, selected John Durham, a federal 
prosecutor, to investigate cases of alleged 
abuses by the CIA and its contractors.

That followed a recommendation by the US justice 
department to consider re-opening several cases 
of prisoner abuse alleged to have been carried 
out by CIA employees in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But Jayne Huckerby, research director at the 
Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice at New 
York University, said that Holder has not made 
the scope of the investigation wide enough.

"The attorney-general has indicated that it will 
be a preliminary review into whether federal law 
was violated in respect of specific 
interrogations of particular detainees overseas," she told Al Jazeera.

"On its very terms, [Holder] has limited the 
scope of the inquiry. Added to the concerns of 
who will be testifying, what documents will be 
accessed, it is very concerning that the inquiry will be limited.

"That is a particularly stark concern, given the 
other thing that happened today - the release of 
the 2004 CIA inspector-general's report into 
secret detention facilities and the interrogation 
techniques that were used there."

Interrogation unit

Also on Monday, Barack Obama, the US president, 
approved the formation of a White 
House-supervised unit that will interrogate terrorism suspects.

"The president ... did put in place a new group, 
the High Value Interrogation Group, which will be 
housed at the FBI," Bill Burton, the deputy White 
House spokesman, said on Monday.

The interrogation unit, which will answer to the 
National Security Council, will adhere to 
guidelines on questioning terrorism suspects 
based on the US army field manual – a break with 
the policies of the Bush administration.

The US Central Intelligence Agency will no longer 
handle the questioning of people suspected of 
planning or carrying out attacks, Burton confirmed.

"The president's view is that intelligence 
gathering is best left to the intelligence community," Burton said.

Fresh details from the report released by Holder 
could expose CIA employees and contractors to 
prosecution for their treatment of suspects.

Obama has said that those who interrogated 
suspects on legal guidelines written by the Bush 
administration should not face legal action, but 
Burton acknowledged that Holder has the final say.

"The president has said repeatedly, he thinks 
that we should be looking forward, not backward," Burton said.

"But, ultimately, the decisions on who is 
investigated and who is prosecuted are up to the attorney-general."
  Source: Agencies




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