Say Anything Blog

Washington Times - Military investigators did not substantiate major charges of prisoner abuse contained in one FBI agent's e-mail that was read on the Senate floor by Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin as an example of U.S.-sanctioned torture at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The unnamed FBI agent wrote that she saw one al Qaeda suspect lying in his own excrement, that he had pulled out his own hair and that he had no food and water. The female agent also said he was shackled to the floor and subjected to loud rock music and to extreme temperatures.

Mr. Durbin, of Illinois and the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, read the e-mail June 14 in a speech attacking the Bush administration. He then likened Guantanamo interrogation techniques to the Nazis, Josef Stalin's prisoner gulag, Pol Pot and the internment of Japanese during World War II. He later issued an apology on the Senate floor.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner, Virginia Republican, rebuked Mr. Durbin in a Senate debate for reading, as fact, a raw FBI report, the charges in which had not yet been investigated.

That investigation was completed last week by Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt, who commands the 12th Air Force, the air component of U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the 520-inmate prison at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo.

Gen. Schmidt wrote in his report, "Another FBI agent stated she witnessed a detainee short shackled and lying in his own excrement. The [investigation] was unable to find any documentation, testimony, or other evidence corroborating the third agent's recollection to this allegation or her e-mail allegation that one of the detainees had pulled his hair out while short shackled."

The Schmidt report also said, "We discovered no evidence to support the allegation that the detainees were denied food and water."

In all, Gen. Schmidt said he found no evidence of torture, but did find cases of aggressive interrogations of reputed al Qaeda and Taliban members captured in Afghanistan.

Don't expect an apology from Durbin any time soon.

Joe Shoemaker, Mr. Durbin's spokesman, said Friday it is inaccurate to say the charges were disproved because investigators never talked to the FBI agent who wrote the e-mail or to some jail personnel who have since left active duty and declined to talk.

In short, because the investigation found no evidence to disprove the allegations in the email read by Durbin the accusations should stand. Because, apparently in the mind of Durbin and his ilk, the burden of proof is on the accused and not the accusers.