Impure Tactics

• Share

(2 of 2)

The military has acknowledged that two female interrogators were reprimanded in 2003 for improper, sexually tinged behavior at Guantánamo. In one case, an interrogator took off her uniform top, revealing a T shirt underneath, sat in a detainee's lap and ran her fingers through his hair. A supervisor monitoring the session immediately stopped it and gave the woman a written rebuke. Another female interrogator received a verbal warning after she wiped red dye on a detainee's shirt, saying it was blood.

How common such practices were at Guantánamo, a prison with a reputation for being more tightly run than those in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, may be partly answered in the reports of two formal Pentagon investigations that are expected next month. One is a review of U.S. detention and interrogation practices worldwide that is being conducted by Vice Admiral Albert Church. A separate report, on allegations of abuse at Guantánamo made by FBI agents present there, is being prepared by the Southern Command.

A Washington source familiar with the preliminary outlines of the Church report says that while it corroborates cases of abuse, including sexual humiliation of prisoners, it finds no fault with top military leaders at the facilities or the Pentagon. "Commanders get demoted or even fired for 'command climate' failures, but no top officer has been held accountable in these situations," says the source. "It is up to commanders in the field to make policies crystal clear, but a series of commanders allowed the lines to erode." --With reporting by Sally B. Donnelly/Washington

Erik Saar and Viveca Novak's book about Guantánamo, Inside the Wire, will be published by Penguin Press in May