Guantanamo Detainee "Baptized"
IslamOnline.net & Newspapers
The documents also showed that US jailers
wrapped a Muslim prisoner in an Israeli flag during interrogation sessions to
"incense" him.
CAIRO — In a new embarrassment to the Bush administration, an FBI probe
indicated that detainees at the notorious Guantanamo detention camp were
"baptized" and wrapped in Israeli flags, the Washington Post reported on
Wednesday, January 3.
A US interrogator bragged to an FBI agent that he forced a Muslim detainee to
listen to "Satanic black metal music" for hours, according to documents turned
over as part of an ongoing lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Then, the US interrogator dressed as a Catholic priest before "baptizing" the
detainee, it added.
The FBI internal probe into abuse accusations at Guantanamo revealed 26 cases
of mistreatments of the Muslim detainees.
The documents also showed that US jailers wrapped a Muslim prisoner in an
Israeli flag during interrogation sessions to "incense" him.
Other aggressive questioning techniques used included subjecting detainees to
extreme heat and cold and using strobe lights.
The tactics were allowed under aggressive Pentagon detention policy place at
the time, according to the probe.
The US has been holding hundreds of detainees at the notorious detention
facility, mostly arrested in Afghanistan after the toppling of Taliban
following the 9/11 attacks.
Guantanamo buildings hide behind multiple rows of 12-foot chain-link fences
covered in green tarpaulins and topped with tight spirals of barbed wire.
Old wooden and newer steel watchtowers dot the perimeter.
Religiously-oriented
FBI agents also reported mistreatment of the Noble Qur'an by Guantanamo
jailers.
An agent said that a Marine captain squatted over a copy of the Muslim holy
book in October 2002, while questioning a detainee who was enraged by the abuse.
A second FBI agent described similar events, but it was unclear from the
documents whether it was a separate case.
The desecration of the Qur'an was first reported in 2005, prompting deadly
protests in the Muslim world.
At the time, the US military conducted an investigation that confirmed five
cases of "mishandling" the Muslim holy book.
It acknowledged that soldiers and interrogators had kicked the Qur'an, had
stood on it and, in one case, had sprayed urine on it.
The new documents also unveiled repeated desecration of the Noble Qur'an, in
a "religiously oriented tactic" against the Muslim detainees.
An FBI agent said he was asked female interrogators to wet their hands and
touch detainees' faces, prompting them to consider themselves unclean and
unable to continue praying.
US interrogators also wrapped a bearded inmate's head in duct tape "because
he would not stop quoting the Qur'an," according to an FBI agent.
The agent, whose account was corroborated by a colleague, said that a
civilian contractor laughed about the treatment and was eager to show it off.
Root Causes
"More comprehensive investigation is neededÂ… into the root
causes and policies that led to those incidents," said Jaffer The new abuse
revelation sparked calls for comprehensive investigations into the practices
used at Guantanamo.
"More comprehensive investigation is needed, not only into the scope of
abuses but into the root causes and policies that led to those incidents," said
Jameel Jaffer, deputy director of the ACLU's National Security Program.
Jaffer questioned how aggressively the FBI pursued accusations by its agents,
because authorities conducted follow-up interviews in only nine of the 26 cases.
An FBI memorandum that accompanied the new documents said that none of the
incidents involved FBI or Justice Department employees.
The memo said that the reports concerned personnel from other government
agencies or outside contractors.
The Pentagon said the issues and facts raised in the documents "are not new".
Amnesty International has called Guantanamo the "gulag of our time" and said
it has become a "symbol of abuse and represents a system of detention that is
betraying the best US values and undermines international standards."
A growing chorus of world dignitaries and politicians, including former US
presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and incumbent British Foreign
Secretary Margaret Beckett have pressed for the closure of Guantanamo.
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