Report: U.S. Soldiers Did 'Dirty Work' for Chinese Interrogators
Alleges Guantanamo Personnel Softened Up Detainees at Request of Chinese Intelligence
By JUSTIN ROOD May 20, 2008
U.S. military personnel at Guantanamo Bay allegedly softened up detainees at the request of Chinese intelligence officials who had come to the island facility to interrogate the men -- or they allowed the Chinese to dole out the treatment themselves, according to claims in a new government report.
Buried in a Department of Justice report released Tuesday are new allegations about a 2002 arrangement between the United States and China, which allowed Chinese intelligence to visit Guantanamo and interrogate Chinese Uighurs held there.
According to the report by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine, an FBI agent reported a detainee belonging to China's ethnic Uighur minority and a Uighur translator told him Uighur detainees were kept awake for long periods, deprived of food and forced to endure cold for hours on end, just prior to questioning by Chinese interrogators.
Susan Manning, a lawyer who represents several Uighurs still held at Guantanamo, said Tuesday the allegations are all too familiar.
U.S. personnel "are engaging in abusive tactics on behalf of the Chinese," she said Tuesday. When Uighur detainees refused to talk to Chinese interrogators in 2002, U.S. military personnel put them in solitary confinement as punishment, she said.
"Why are we doing China's dirty work?" Manning said. "Surely we're better than that."
An official authorized to speak on behalf of the Defense Department but who declined to be named confirmed it was Pentagon policy to allow officials from other countries to have access to interview their nationals at Guantanamo but declined to discuss the specifics alleged in the report.
According to Fine's report, the FBI agent said the Uighur detainee told him that the night before his interrogation by Chinese officials, "he was awakened at 15-minute intervals the entire night and into the next day." The detainee also allegedly said he was "exposed to low room temperatures for long periods of time and was deprived of at least one meal."
"The agent stated that he understood that the treatment of the Uighur detainees was either carried out by the Chinese interrogators or was carried out by U.S. personnel at the behest of Chinese interrogators," the report by the Department of Justice inspector general stated.
U.S. forces captured roughly three dozen Uighurs in eastern Afghanistan shortly after invading the country in October 2001. The men said they were working there to earn money for families back home and to evade the Chinese government, which is known for taking a harsh and uncompromising line with separatist Uighurs.
The U.S. State Department has found China to have suppressed the religious freedom of Uighurs, who are Muslim, and has accused the Chinese government of persecuting, even executing, those who advocate Uighur independence.
In 2006, after the United States released five Uighurs from Guantanamo, China asked for them to be repatriated so they could be prosecuted as terrorists. The United States declined to do so, out of concern they would not be treated humanely. Instead they transferred the men to Albania, which was the only country out of 90 approached by the U.S. government who would take them.
The Pentagon says it is trying to release and resettle the majority of the 17 Uighurs who remain in Guantanamo, although it says it still considers them enemy combatants and a threat.
actually sounds like survival training, not that I am condoning this but I dont think this is classified as torture. I do think we should not be a party to anything another nation does within our jurisdiction.
In 2006, after the United States released five Uighurs from Guantanamo, China asked for them to be repatriated so they could be prosecuted as terrorists. The United States declined to do so, out of concern they would not be treated humanely. Instead they transferred the men to Albania, which was the only country out of 90 approached by the U.S. government who would take them.
Sounds like the Chinese interrogators didnt get any answers and asked the guards (who happened to be US soldiers - this just in - Gitmo currently being used as a US prison... who would have thought the guards would be US also????) to escort them to solitary, and forget a meal.
I just thought it was interesting that the Chinese government is perceived as being a cruel, repressive regime, yet we're the ones "softening up" detainees for them.
According to Fine's report, the FBI agent said the Uighur detainee told him that the night before his interrogation by Chinese officials, "he was awakened at 15-minute intervals the entire night and into the next day." The detainee also allegedly said he was "exposed to low room temperatures for long periods of time and was deprived of at least one meal."
...sounds like Ranger School.
BTW, if you want to make money for your family back home don't go to Taliban controlled Afghanistan...especially when you have more in common with the folks living across the border in better conditions in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. I'm not buying that they were in Afghanistan trying to find better life opportunities.
Oh yeah, China has created this Uighur problem on their own -- just so you don't think I'm on anyone's "side."
Posts: 548 | Location: Washington, DC | Registered: Tue July 31 2007
You don't have to believe that everything we do is right, but you should at least be able to acknowledge between sleep deprivation as a method to extract information versus using power tools and feeding your prisoners maggot infested rice.
Torture is bad, agreed, but there is still a big difference between the way WE treat our prisoners compared to the enemies of democracy. If you don't believe that then you are living in the wrong country. Don't know what else to tell you.
Posts: 548 | Location: Washington, DC | Registered: Tue July 31 2007
Originally posted by Aloysius: I just thought it was interesting that the Chinese government is perceived as being a cruel, repressive regime, yet we're the ones "softening up" detainees for them.
I see what you're saying, but I still think it's more of a case of Imperial Guards on the Death Star as opposed to Storm Troopers on Endor's moon.
Vader speaks, they both listen.
Posts: 2527 | Location: Virginia | Registered: Fri August 03 2007
We're gathering some pretty horrific stories, man, including cruel torture, murder, randomly pulling people from their homes... all the stuff the bad guys do.
We aren't good guys. I don't know what else to tell you.
I didn't move here to show my support for illegal governments or their misdeeds. I was born here. It belongs to me, not them.
And you believing I live in the wrong country makes me believe you live in the wrong country.
Originally posted by 橄榄球迷: You don't have to believe that everything we do is right, but you should at least be able to acknowledge between sleep deprivation as a method to extract information versus using power tools and feeding your prisoners maggot infested rice.
Torture is bad, agreed, but there is still a big difference between the way WE treat our prisoners compared to the enemies of democracy. If you don't believe that then you are living in the wrong country. Don't know what else to tell you.
Agree. Civilians don't understand the hardships of fighting in a war, the living conditions, the hardships. It's easy to sit in your expansive living room, sipping a wine and watching your 70 inch HDTV about the evil americans who are mistreating the poor Al Queda.
Posts: 1789 | Location: Cuyahoga County | Registered: Mon September 18 2006
We're gathering some pretty horrific stories, man, including cruel torture, murder, randomly pulling people from their homes... all the stuff the bad guys do.
We aren't good guys. I don't know what else to tell you.
I respect your point of views, Shep. I really do.
However, what you are referencing is not in the context of this thread. I thought we were talking about "torture" and other techniques used by both sides to obtain information. You shifted from torture and interrogation to insurgency and counter-insurgency fighting, which is inherently messy -- always has been and always will be. I am dissatisfied with our leaders too for putting us into a situation we didn't necessarily have to be in. They certainly had never read the Marine Corps' Manual for Small Wars or understood the nature of the enemy, but that is not what this thread was about...or so I thought.
I still think, no I KNOW, that there is a big, big difference between the way we treat prisoners and enemy combatants and the way the enemies of America (China, Al Qaeda, etc.) treat theirs. That is all I am saying.
Posts: 548 | Location: Washington, DC | Registered: Tue July 31 2007
And it isn't even just the tactics... but the goals and strategies. There's nothing particularly heroic about our purpose on the world stage.
We make most of our decisions based on what serves the puppeteers, which is the biggest of big business. Some sleep better at night saying that what's best for Enron is best for me.
And it isn't even just the tactics... but the goals and strategies. There's nothing particularly heroic about our purpose on the world stage.
We make most of our decisions based on what serves the puppeteers, which is the biggest of big business. Some sleep better at night saying that what's best for Enron is best for me.
I see that very clearly now. I can function.
Man are you depressing. I see where you are coming from, but I don't look at things that way. I work and come into contact with great Americans everyday. They are the ones that inspire me. I work for them. The Enron-types that you refer to...they'll get theirs in time.
I see too many positives everyday to let myself get consumed by the negatives, but perhaps my view of the world is a little narrower than yours. I guess I live on hope, faith and the belief that things can always get better. Especially the things that I can control.
Posts: 548 | Location: Washington, DC | Registered: Tue July 31 2007
