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Guantanamo interrogations ineffectual<br><br>
Tuesday 22 March 2005 1:24 AM GMT <br><br>
<br>
<b>Aggressive interrogation of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay
yields information that is suspect at best, a new FBI document
says.<br><br>
</b></font><font size=2>Besides making the admission, an internal FBI
email dated 10 May 2004 also said Pentagon officials had been reminded by
the FBI "of its success for many years in obtaining confessions via
non-confrontational interviewing techniques".<br><br>
The document was released on Monday by Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan
Democrat. <br><br>
Portions that had previously been blacked out were released to Levin
after he and Senator Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat, asked the
Justice Department to reconsider. <br><br>
But substantial portions of the document remain blacked out, even in the
newly released version. <br><br>
<b>Casting doubts<br><br>
</b>Among the newly released passages was the statement that law
enforcement agencies at the Guantanamo concentration camp "were of
the opinion that results obtained from these interrogations were suspect
at best". <br><br>
This memo did not describe the interrogation techniques and did not say
which results were considered suspect. <br><br>
It added that the Justice Department had made its concerns known to
Pentagon officials, who sometimes were at odds with the FBI over
acceptable methods of interrogation at Guantanamo Bay, particularly in
late 2002. <br><br>
At that time the military was holding what it considered high-value
al-Qaida members and military officials sought permission to use
interrogation techniques that were harsher than allowed under standard
military practice. <br><br>
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved the use of some harsher
techniques in December 2002 but rescinded the authority in January 2003
after some inside the military questioned whether they were appropriate.
<br><br>
Rumsfeld then convened a committee that eventually set clearer
guidelines. <br><br>
Another FBI email, also dated 10 May 2004, said that in weekly Justice
Department meetings, officials had often discussed the military's
interrogation techniques and "how they were not effective or
producing intelligence that was reliable".<br><br>
<b>Mystery author<br><br>
</b>Both of those 10 May 2004 email messages were originally labelled
secret and were addressed to Thomas Harrington, an FBI counter-terrorism
expert who led a team of investigators to Guantanamo Bay. <br><br>
The name of the author of the memos was blacked out. <br><br>
Levin said in a statement on Monday that the newly released information
highlights the fact that Justice Department attorneys had expressed
concerns about the military's interrogation techniques. <br><br>
"Today we were able to obtain some information that had previously
been blacked out in an FBI document critical of Department of Defence
(DOD) interrogation practices," Levin said. <br><br>
"As I suspected, the previously withheld information had nothing to
do with protecting intelligence sources or methods, and everything to do
with protecting DOD from embarrassment."<br><br>
<br><br>
</font><font size=3>You can find this article at:<br>
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A30F9611-876F-4A6E-83B9-397E1EDE9D2B.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A30F9611-876F-4A6E-83B9-397E1EDE9D2B.htm</a>
<br><br>
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(415) 863-9977<br>
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