4-24-05, 9:54 am

Allegations of mistreatment of US-held prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have prompted numerous lawsuits since 2002 by civil liberties groups in the US, demanding full disclosure by the Pentagon of what has happened there over the last two years.

Testimony and statements by released prisoners speak of beatings, threats, isolation, use of chemical irritants as interrogation aids, and other forms of mistreatment that clearly violate various international conventions against prisoner abuse and torture, including the Geneva Conventions.

Most recently, Associated Press has followed up with its own lawsuit demanding the Pentagon release documents related to military tribunals held at Guantanamo Bay's detention facilities. Some 500 prisoners were designated as 'enemy combatants,' a status that in the Bush administration's view allowed them to sidestep legal obligations embodied in the Geneva Conventions regarding prisoners of war and to thwart US Constitutional protections for people held in government custody.

'Enemy combatants' the administration argued could be held indefinitely without trial, evidence, or access to legal counsel or their families. Civil liberties organizations convinced the courts that this premise violated basic Constitutional protections.

Since several court decisions have shredded the legality of so-called 'enemy conbatant' status almost 300 hundred prisoners held in Cuba since 2002 have been released as no evidence for involvement with terrorism has been produced in most cases. Some prisoners have been released into the custody of other governments.

The UNCHR's refusal to address the use of torture by US military officials came just days after the Washington Post reported that newly released official documents show that Army intelligence officials circulated e-mails in November 2003 requesting 'wish lists' of brutal interrogation methods that interrogators might want to use on prisoners held in US-run prisons in Iraq.

Army intelligence officers, in an effort to produce more intelligence wanted to expand acceptable interrogation techniques, despite evidence that mistreatment and abuse does not produce quality intelligence. Some of the things they asked for and received included 'open-hand strikes, closed-fist strikes, using claustrophobic techniques and a number of 'coercive' techniques such as striking with phone books, low-voltage electrocution and inducing muscle fatigue,' writes the Post.

These wish list were compiled into an official Army memo approved by Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez then the commander of the US forces in Iraq.

Sanchez's memo was developed in the same time frame that a memo written by Justice Department lawyers and approved by now Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was regarded as the administration's policy on interrogation and torture.

The Gonzales memo argued that the US was not obligated to abide by the Geneva Conventions with regard to prisoners captured in wars in Afghanistan or Iraq. It further argued that international agreements on torture were too narrow.

The internationally condemned activities revealed by leaked photos from Abu Ghraib would not be construed as torture by the standards of the Gonzales memo.

This memo was then circulated to Pentagon officials who then worked out a set of interrogation guidelines based on Gonzales’ arguments. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ultimately admitted to approving the Pentagon's policy.

Recently released public documents show that at least two prisoners died as a result of the methods approved by top Army, Pentagon, and Justice Department officials due to excessive beatings and suffocation, according to the Post.

At least one Army interrogator regarded the Army's policy of discarding the Geneva Convention as morally wrong. This unidentified person wrote in an e-mail: 'It comes down to standards of right and wrong -- something we cannot just put aside when we find it inconvenient. BOTTOM LINE: we are American soldiers, heirs of a long tradition of staying on the high ground. We need to stay there.'

This interrogator’s sentiment didn't make it into the official policy.

Commenting on the new evidence of torture as an official administration policy, ACLU attorney Amrit Singh said, 'These documents provide further evidence that the chain of command in Iraq approved and even encouraged the abuse of detainees held in US custody.'

Singh added, 'Instead of holding that chain of command accountable for systemic detainee abuse, the US government continues to thwart efforts to bring the full truth about who was ultimately responsible to light.'

So far the Bush administration hasn't added any new comment to its claim that torture and prisoner abuse was the work of a 'few bad apples.' In fact, investigations controlled by the Pentagon and the US Army have 'exonerated' top Pentagon officials and Army generals. Brig. General Karpinski, former commander of Abu Ghraib prison, received only a written reprimand, according to the BBC.

Several enlisted soldiers have been tried and convicted of mistreatment of prisoners and dereliction of duty.