Isn't the world lucky that the Bush team wants to export this kind of democracy? Sounds more like the dictatorships that we're supposed to be overthrowing.
U.S. special forces accused of abusing prisoners in Iraq threatened Defense Intelligence Agency personnel who saw the mistreatment, according to U.S. government memos released Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The special forces also monitored e-mails sent by defense personnel and ordered them "not to talk to anyone" in the United States about what they saw, said one memo written by the Defense Intelligence Agency chief, who complained to his Pentagon bosses about the harassment.
Prisoners arriving at a detention center in Baghdad had "burn marks on their backs" as well as bruises and some complained of kidney pain, according to the June 25, 2004 memo.
FBI agents also reported seeing detainees at Abu Ghraib subjected to sleep deprivation, humiliation and forced nudity between October and December 2003 — when the most serious abuses allegedly took place in a scandal that's remains under investigation.
Joe Navarro, a retired FBI agent who teaches interrogation techniques to the military and is familiar with interrogations at Guantanamo, said using threats during interrogations only stands to taint information gleaned from the sessions.
"The only thing that torture guarantees is pain," Navarro told AP Tuesday. "It never guarantees the truth."
One FBI e-mail released by the ACLU said [Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D.] Miller "continued to support interrogation strategies (the FBI) not only advised against, but questioned in terms of
effectiveness."
