FBI Agents Protested Harsh Interrogation Methods

by Mary

More declassified documents were released by the Government today regarding the harsh interrogation methods sponsored by the DoD in Guantanamo. Several of these documents had been previously released, but with significant redactions that Senator Levin said he believed were not to protect national security, but were strictly designed to hide the information that the DoD was forcing the FBI to use interrogation methods they thought wrong.

Harsh techniques used by military interrogators on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, produced no better information than traditional law enforcement methods, FBI agents told their superiors in newly declassified portions of e-mails released Monday.

FBI agents assigned to the detention center raised their concerns over the military's interrogation methods with senior commanders and civilian Pentagon officials, but were rebuffed, said one of the excerpts.

In one of the e-mails, an unidentified FBI agent said "conversations got somewhat heated" when he told senior military commanders and Pentagon officials that the information produced by the military's interrogations "was nothing more than what the FBI got using simple investigative techniques."

"DOD (Department of Defense) finally admitted the information was the same info the Bureau obtained," the agent wrote. "It still did not prevent them from continuing the `DOD methods.'"

So why did the DoD insist on harsh interrogation methods? Perhaps for the same reason Volokh salivated at the thought of torturing the bad guys. Respect for human dignity is paid lipservice by those in charge these days.