A high-level U.S. military investigation into accusations of detainee abuse at Guantanamo Bay has concluded that several prisoners were mistreated or humiliated, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions.
Citing senior military and Pentagon officials, the Times said a report, still a few weeks away from being completed and released, had found that prisoners were abused, perhaps illegally, as a result of efforts to devise innovative methods to gain information.
The report is partly based on accounts by FBI agents who complained after witnessing detainees subjected to several forms of harsh treatment, the Times said.
The agents wrote in memorandums that were never meant to be disclosed publicly that they had seen female interrogators squeeze male prisoners’ genitals, and that they had witnessed other detainees stripped and shackled low to the floor for hours at a time, the newspaper reported.
The investigation by Air Force Lt.-Gen. Randall Schmidt is intended to be the first major inquiry devoted solely to determining what interrogation practices were used at Guantanamo, the Times said. It was initiated in response to the disclosure of FBI messages.
The Times said it was still unclear how high up the chain of command the report would assign responsibility for the abuse.
A senior Pentagon official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the inquiry centered on what procedures were used at Guantanamo and why interrogators thought they were acceptable, the Times said.
While the official said there was no evidence of physical mistreatment, investigators were examining whether interrogators improperly humiliated prisoners or used psychological abuse.
The official also said the Schmidt report found that some interrogators devised plans that they thought were legal and proper, but that in hindsight might have been found to violate permissible standards. “People determined which interrogation technique they would use, made interrogation plans and wrote them out,” the Times quoted the official as saying.