JURIST - Paper Chase: NCIS threatened to end Guantanamo participation over detainee abuse

[JURIST] The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) [official website] threatened to remove itself from Guantanamo Bay interrogations due to the abuse of detainees in late 2002, forcing the Pentagon to review interrogation techniques approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld [official biography], according to a classified Defense Department report. Excerpts of the report were read by Senator Carl Levin during a Senate Armed Services Committee [official website] hearing [witness list and prepared testimony]. According to the DoD report prepared by Vice Adm. Albert Church, the Navy's top lawyer warned Pentagon general counsel in 2002 that some interrogation techniques used at Guantanamo Bay were "unlawful and unworthy of the military services." The Church report refers to a December 2002 memo by the Navy's general counsel that documents NCIS Director David Brant's concerns that "one or more detainees were "being subjected to physical abuse and degrading treatment." UPI has more.

In other Guantanamo Bay [JURIST Hot Topic archive] news, Reuters reported Thursday that none of the 65 detainees transferred to their home countries have been convicted of any crimes yet. About a third of the 65 have since been released by their governments, while the rest are awaiting trial or are still being held without charge. An attorney for several detainees still held at Guantanamo Bay said he though the lack of charges was due to little evidence against the detainees. However, Defense Department spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Flex Plexico said the detainees had yielded intelligence that was vital to preventing terrorist attacks against the US. The Pentagon has reported that since detainees were sent to Guantanamo in January 2002, 146 have been released, 65 transferred to other countries, and 545 remain in detention. The Defense Department said that governments that released detainees transferred to them risked them posing future threats, citing 12 cases where that had happened. The Defense Department has more on detainees at Guantanamo. Reuters has more.

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