JURIST - Paper Chase: FBI documents describe military impersonation of agents, allege Presidential OK for abusive interrogations

[JURIST] FBI records released late Monday by the ACLU pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request include complaints in 2004 about military impersonation of FBI agents while using "torture technqiques" against prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and allege that there was direct Presidential authority in the form of an Executive Order for the use of interrogation techniques such as sleep deprivation, stress positions, the use of military dogs, and "sensory deprivation through the use of hoods, etc." Read the ACLU press release on the documents here, and review the text of the FBI documents themselves here. The FBI e-mail from "On Scene Commander - Baghdad" to senior FBI officials describing the purported contents of the Executive Order authorizing abusive interrogation techniques (and noting that the the FBI has prohibited its agents from employing those techniques) is here [PDF], and is reproduced below:

The White House has denied the existence of any such Executive Order, but the FBI e-mail clearly indicates an understanding that "abusive" techniques against prisoners were authorized by senior officials. AP has more.

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