[Mb-civic] CBC News - GUANTANAMO INMATE FORCED TO WEAR BRA, ACT LIKE A DOG: REPORT

Wed Jul 13 17:06:06 PDT 2005

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GUANTANAMO INMATE FORCED TO WEAR BRA, ACT LIKE A DOG: REPORT
WebPosted Wed Jul 13 15:40:48 2005

---A suspected terrorist was forced to wear a bra, dance with another man
and behave like a dog during his interrogation at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
military investigators said Wednesday.

The investigators called for Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller to be
reprimanded because he did not oversee the interrogation.

The chief investigator, Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt, said FBI
agents had raised their concerns to Miller about the treatment of Mohamed
al-Qahtani, a Saudi who was captured in December 2001 along the Afghanistan-
Pakistan border.

Schmidt said he should have monitored the situation, but that he
apparently took no action.

Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, commander of U.S. Southern Command, said he
overruled the recommendation that Miller be reprimanded, saying he will
instead refer the matter to the Army's inspector general.

Craddock said Miller did not violate any U.S. laws or policies.

Investigators described their findings before the Senate Armed Services
Committee Wednesday. They were looking into allegations by FBI agents
who say they witnessed abusive interrogation techniques at the
Guantanamo prison.

Schmidt said that to get al-Qahtani to talk, interrogators told him his
mother and sisters were whores, forced him to wear a bra, forced him to
wear a thong on his head, forced him to dance with a male interrogator,
told him he was homosexual and said that other prisoners knew it.

He was also strip searched, threatened with dogs, forced to stand naked
in front of women and forced him onto a leash, to act like a dog.

But Schmidt said no torture occurred and that Al-Qahtani was provided
food, water and medical care.

Al-Qahtani had tried to enter the U.S. in August 2001 but was turned away
by an immigration agent at the Orlando, Fla., airport. Mohamed Atta,
ringleader of the Sept. 11 hijackers, was in the airport at the same
time, officials have said.

In other cases, investigators found that: A female interrogator smeared
fake menstrual blood on a prisoner.

A Navy officer threatened one prisoner by saying he would go after
his family.

An FBI agent said a prisoner was bound on the head with duct tape, his
mouth covered, because he was chanting verses from the Qur'an.