Videotapes confirm the findings of the Inspector General's report that detainees held as part of a post-9/11 terrorism roundup at a federal prison in Brooklyn were abused:

The Justice Department's inspector general announced yesterday that investigators had found hundreds of prison videotapes that confirm reports of serious physical and verbal abuse of immigrants detained after the Sept. 11 attacks. Inspector General Glenn Fine found that "some officers slammed and bounced detainees against the wall, twisted their arms and hands in painful ways, stepped on their leg-restraint chains and punished them by keeping them restrained for long periods of time," according to a report released yesterday.

The report also found that jail personnel improperly taped meetings between detainees and lawyers and overused strip searches. Fine's office concluded that as many as 20 guards at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, N.Y., were involved in the abuse and recommended discipline or counseling for 12 of those who remain employed there. Four guards no longer work at the prison, but the report said their new employers should be told of the Justice Department findings. The inspector general could not identify the others involved.

The Inspector General's report is available here. The Justice Department is considering action against the guards:

Department spokesman Mark Corallo said the agency's civil rights division and the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York will review the report and the videotapes to see if anyone should be prosecuted. "We agree with the inspector general that even the intense emotional atmosphere surrounding the attacks, particularly in New York City where smoke was still rising from the rubble of Ground Zero, is no excuse for abhorrent behavior by Bureau of Prisons personnel," Corallo said.

Two Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee, Reps. John Conyers of Michigan and Jerrold Nadler of New York, asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to punish the guards and to take steps to prevent a repeat of the abuse. "Actions such as these not only constitute a disservice to the department but seriously undermine our war against terror," they said in a letter.

Update: Patriot Watch reminds us of Ashcroft's arrogant and dismissive response to the original DOJ IG report:

"our actions are fully within the law and necessary" and "under these unprecedented and extraordinary circumstances, the law was scrupulously followed and respected"