House holds Guantanamo hearings as 9/11 trial set to begin

Jun 4, 2008, 23:21 GMT

A file picture dated 09 October 2007, screened and cleared by the US Department of Defence officials, shows a US soldier standing in a guard tower that overlooks Camp Delta on US Naval Base, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. EPA/SHAWN THEW

Washington - US legislators Wednesday investigated aggressive interrogation techniques by the US military in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as the prison's most infamous inmate and alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks prepared to face trial.

The House of Representatives heard details of a Justice Department report issued last month that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had challenged the military on its interrogation methods and outlined the tough conditions and treatment of detainees held at Guantanamo.

'Over 200 FBI agents said they had observed or heard about military interrogators using a variety of harsh techniques on detainees,' Glenn Fine, inspector general of the Department of Justice, told a House committee on human rights.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is one of five suspects facing the death penalty on charges of organizing the September 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. Their trial before a controversial military tribunal set up to try terrorism detainees begins Thursday at the remote US naval base.

The CIA has admitted subjecting Mohammed to tough interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, while holding him at a secret prison for three years before transferring him to Guantanamo in 2003.

Fine recounted the stories of various FBI agents that worked at Guantanamo over the past years, who expressed concerns over the treatment of its captives, raised questions about its legality, effectiveness, and whether any information gleaned from the interrogations could ever be used in court.

'We found no evidence that these concerns influenced (Pentagon) interrogation policies,' Fine said.

Techniques that were witnessed or reported included sleep deprivation, long periods of isolation, using dogs to intimidate detainees and holding them in rooms of extreme temperatures, subjecting them to pornography or 'using a female interrogator to touch or provoke a detainee in a sexual manner.'

Congressmen charged that Guantanamo had damaged the US' reputation and led to the imprisonment of many innocent people.

'Guantanamo has single-handedly dealt a blow to our image in the world that will take decades to address,' said Bill Delahunt, a Democrat from Massachusetts who chairs the House committee.