U.S. Allowed Chinese to Interrogate and Abuse Gitmo Prisoners

By Jeralyn, Section Terror Detainees
Posted on Wed May 21, 2008 at 12:18:00 PM EST
Tags: Guantanamo, Detainees (all tags)

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Buried in the DOJ's Inspector General Report yesterday: The Pentagon allowed Chinese officials to visit and interrogate Gitmo prisoners. It even softened them up for the interrogation.

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.

Attaturk at Firedoglake has more.

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U.S. Allowed Chinese to Interrogate and Abuse Gitmo Prisoners | 18 comments (18 topical)

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disgusting! (5.00 / 4) (#1)
by Josey on Wed May 21, 2008 at 10:19:48 AM EST

but ever since Obama's declaration last summer that Bush and Cheney
had not committed impeachable offenses - I've had little faith that as president he would confront atrocities and corruption promoted by the Bush admin.

Why isn't this seen as a dent in the armor (5.00 / 1) (#3)
by BarnBabe on Wed May 21, 2008 at 10:23:55 AM EST

So in the end, we are no better off than those countries we condemn. We were just able to keep it secret longer. This will go down in history as not one of America's finest hour.


: Hypocrites (5.00 / 1) (#6)
by talex on Wed May 21, 2008 at 10:44:26 AM EST

Nov. 20, 2005
BEIJING - Amid concern over a crackdown on dissidents, President Bush pressed China on Sunday to expand religious, political and social freedom...
[Rice] also expressed disappointment with China's response to a U.S. request in September for action on specific human rights cases -- a list Bush described bluntly as "dissidents that we believe are unfairly imprisoned."
Sure! Get tough Human Rights. But in the dark of the dungeons it is Medieval Madness.

Is this what you are referring to? (5.00 / 1) (#9)
by jawbone on Wed May 21, 2008 at 11:09:52 AM EST

I found this USA Today article that reports the following:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama laid out list of political shortcomings he sees in the Bush administration but said he opposes impeachment for either President George W. Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney.
Obama said he would not back such a move, although he has been distressed by the "loose ethical standards, the secrecy and incompetence" of a "variety of characters" in the administration.

"There's a way to bring an end to those practices, you know: vote the bums out," the presidential candidate said, without naming Bush or Cheney. "That's how our system is designed."

He went on to say:
"I think you reserve impeachment for grave, grave breaches, and intentional breaches of the president's authority," he said.


: yes, that's it (none / 0) (#14)
by Josey on Wed May 21, 2008 at 02:42:43 PM EST

and AFAIK not reported in other media or press.

And ever since.... (none / 0) (#17)
by kdog on Wed May 21, 2008 at 03:41:28 PM EST

Obama and Clinton have failed to slow the Bush admin's march to tyranny and perpetual war, before and after their complicit party had control of the Senate, I've lost what little faith I had left that mainstream Democrats are good for anything.


We are now outsourcing torture. (5.00 / 2) (#5)
by madamab on Wed May 21, 2008 at 10:32:44 AM EST

G-D Bless America.

[head in hands]

: Outsourcing, it has so many applications..... (none / 0) (#16)
by vicndabx on Wed May 21, 2008 at 03:25:40 PM EST

Yet another example of how big business (oh yeah, the US Gov't is big business) is striving to do everything quicker and cheaper in order to appease the shareholder/taxpayer and maximize ROI. (/s) Global economy at it's finest.

Abuse or normal living conditions? (none / 0) (#2)
by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Wed May 21, 2008 at 10:22:22 AM EST

...kept awake for long periods, deprived of food and forced to endure cold for hours on end,...

If you are awake for 16 hours a day and sleep 8, live in an air conditioned space in tropical Cuba, and are denied snacks any time you want, thats abuse! What a joke.

: I hope this was snark (5.00 / 1) (