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


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.

http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/S...News/NWELayout