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)

Share This: Digg!

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.

< In Oregon, Obama Lost Working Class Voters | How Do You Pretend 2 Million People Did Not Vote? >

Legal

Nothing on this site should be construed as legal advice. TalkLeft does not give legal advice.

TalkLeft is not responsible for and often disagrees with material posted in the comments section. Read at your own risk.

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

Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment

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) (#4)
by BarnBabe on Wed May 21, 2008 at 10:29:43 AM EST

I doubt that it was quite as nice as you presented.


: The point (none / 0) (#13)
by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Wed May 21, 2008 at 12:40:19 PM EST

is that we really don't know. All we have is someone describing the situation in a selfserving manner in the most alarming terms. I was just pointing out that quite normal living conditions could be described as in a way that made them sound quite bad. For example, the purpose of air conditioning is to provide a space that is colder than it would be otherwise. Yes, if you are forced to live in that space, you will of necessity have to endure the cold.
BTW, I have had to endure cold for longer periods than I would like. Ditto heat. So almost certainly have you. It is the rare person that is spot on the temterature they like the best all of the time.

Abdul pops up (5.00 / 1) (#12)
by jondee on Wed May 21, 2008 at 11:53:49 AM EST

every now and then to make sure no one tries to pry his Bush from his cold, dead, fingers.


Stories like this... (none / 0) (#7)
by Artoo on Wed May 21, 2008 at 10:53:13 AM EST

...are why I found the comments by Reverend Wright not so ridiculous in the first place. As someone who believes in God, I believe that we, as a nation, will be judged harshly by a God who believes in justice for what our government has done in these cases.

This is absolutely shameful.

: Yep.... (none / 0) (#10)
by kdog on Wed May 21, 2008 at 11:24:51 AM EST

Wright is right...if there is a god, we are surely damned.
I hope our re-sellers of plastic Chinese pieces o' crap are getting an extra 5% off in exchange for us torturing Chinese suspects prior to their interrogation by Chinese g-men.
And so much for any kind of official protest of the Beijing Olympics...if it didn't look foolish beore, it certainly would now.

What are the implications for prosecution under (none / 0) (#8)
by jawbone on Wed May 21, 2008 at 10:55:48 AM EST

international law? I realize we did not sign on to the international criminal court, but, for individuals involved in authorizing and enabling this sort of thing, is there risk of being arrested if they go overseas?

Or are the nations most likely to go after such criminals too intimidated by the US? Too dependent on trade, etc.?

Will having a Democratic president tend to mitigate the desire to bring such people to some kind of justice in this country? If Iran-Contra is any indication, Dems are more than willing not only let sleeping dogs lie (and lie and lie and lie), but also to then confirm them into Republican administrations.

Which is disgusting.

This report doesn't suprise me, but it sure disgusts me.

We owe them half a trillion bucks (none / 0) (#15)
by Dadler on Wed May 21, 2008 at 03:15:15 PM EST

Gotta give them something in the meantime. Seriously, how twisted is this whole thing? We're entirely in bed with well known totalitarians, f*cking each other raw to destroy other nations far away, while virulently calling out those who simply suggest we should talk to, say, Iran or Syria or Sudan or whomever. And they call these folks out while giving a speech in the Knesset, and then the next day the Israeli government admits it's holding talks with, gasp, Syria. We're in the middle of this perverse house of mirrors and glass walls, bumping and shattering our way to a bloody face, bloodying everyone else as we go, then at the last mirror we catch sight of our own butchered appearance and just kind of say "Huh? I don't get it." Malevolent abusurdism at its finest. Pirandello with 'roid rage.

Wait, I'm supposed to be on vacation. Oops.

Hypocritial (none / 0) (#18)
by bowchikabowbow on Wed May 21, 2008 at 03:50:08 PM EST

How can the US government that always berates China for mistreating its minorities like the Uighurs and the Tibetans now be helping them. This is outrageous and there shoudl be a congressional investigation and all the uighurs should be let go.

Thanks for finally posting something that unrelated to the elections.

i think you have to look at (none / 0) (#19)
by cpinva on Wed May 21, 2008 at 06:22:31 PM EST

the positive side of this: the US and China have found common ground, kind of like nixon's trip there. well, ok, maybe not.

perhaps they shared "interrogation" techniques, sort of a "lessons learned" thing. after all, the chinese have been torturing people for nearly 2,000 years, i feel certain they've developed some very sophisticated methods of getting information out of uncooperative people.

we could probably learn a few things from them.