Prisoners tortured and abused at Guantanamo Bay, FBI memos show

The White House said it expected a full investigation of prisoner abuses in Guantanamo Bay. File picture / Reuters

WASHINGTON - New evidence from FBI memos has emerged detailing the torture and abuse of prisoners being held by the US at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Some were shackled to the floor for up to 24 hours forcing many of them to defecate and urinate on themselves. There is also fresh evidence that prisoners in Iraq were abused by US troops who beat and choked detainees and placed lit cigarettes in their ears.

The White House said it expected a full investigation of prisoner abuses in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.

"If there is abuse that occurs, we expect it to be investigated fully and people to be held accountable, and measures taken to make sure that it doesn't happen again," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

He said the Defence Department was investigating "a number of allegations that have been made," and added: "We expect them to get to the bottom of it."

The White House was responding to newly released FBI emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. One email suggested that an Iraqi prisoner was draped in the Israeli flag and subjected to loud music and strobe lights.

The correspondence obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) adds to a growing body of evidence of abuse and torture of prisoners by US troops involved in the so-called war on terror.

While the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad - evidenced by video footage and photographs that was released earlier this year - was perhaps the most shocking, there have been numerous accounts of such abuse ever since the US vowed to "take the gloves off" in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks.

"There is a growing body of evidence of torture and abuse," said Louise Christian, a British lawyer who represents two of four British citizens held at Guantanamo Bay.

"There is a level of disbelief among the lawyers involved that [there has not been a public outcry]. The problem is that the US media and the US public do not care because there are no US citizens involved...The UK media does not do enough - it should be front-page news that the UK government is sitting on its hands while British citizens are being tortured by its closest ally."

The emails obtained by the ACLU include a report by a FBI agent who witnessed "numerous physical abuse incidents of Iraqi civilian detainees".

In addition to the beating, choking and lit cigarettes, one prisoner was left overnight in an unventilated room where the temperature was more than 100f degrees.

"The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his own hair out throughout the night," wrote the FBI agent.

In addition to the abuse, the emails reveal that military personnel posed as FBI agents during interrogation sessions with prisoners - something banned by Pentagon rules.

The ACLU also obtained a report that was addressed "Urgent" and marked for the attention of the Director of the FBI - a suggestion that details of the abuse and torture have reached the highest levels within the Bush administration.

"These documents raise grave questions about where the blame for widespread detainee abuse ultimately rests," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero.

"Top government officials can no longer hide from public scrutiny by pointing the finger at a few low-ranking soldiers."

The four Britons held at Guantanamo Bay - Feroz Abbasi, Martin Mubanga, Richard Belmar and Moazzam Begg - have also made claims of abuse, as did five other Britons released without charge from the prison earlier this year. The four have spent much of their time in solitary confinement.

Last month another British lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, visited Mr Begg at Guantanamo Bay. Mr Stafford Smith is banned by the Pentagon from providing details of what he saw and heard.

In a recent letter to the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, he wrote of his client: "He is no more an enemy combatant than I am. Every moment he spends in Guantanamo Bay is an offence against humanity and an indictment of our government's inability to help a citizen in need."

The US Supreme Court ruled in the summer that the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have the right to challenge their incarceration in the courts - something the Bush administration has so far blocked.

On Monday President Bush claimed the administration was not acting illegally. "The law is working to determine what Presidential powers are available and what's not available. We're reviewing the status of the people in Guantanamo on a regular basis," he said.

- THE INDEPENDENT and REUTERS