Comment Of Senator Patrick Leahy
Concerning The Review Wednesday Of DVD Videos
Of Certain Initial Reaction Force Incidents
Involving Detainees At Guantanamo
[After news reports in The Guardian of London disclosed the existence of videotapes of incidents with certain detainees in U.S. custody at Guantanamo, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) in May asked Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to provide the videotapes and other information on interrogation methods at that facility to the Congress. He and DOD officials have discussed and negotiated DOD's response to Leahy's request in subsequent meetings and correspondence. On Wednesday, General Jay Hood, the commander of the Guantanamo detention facility (Joint Task Force Gitmo), brought DVDs to a meeting with cleared staff of Senator Leahy and of other Judiciary Committee members in which a small number of the videos were viewed and discussed in a closed briefing. General Hood and his staff also separately briefed the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Leahy now will continue discussions with DOD officials about further review of the available DVDs. Following are Leahy's comments after Wednesday's staff briefing:]
"On Wednesday the United States military commanders at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility briefed Senate Judiciary Committee staff about the conduct of the Initial Reaction Force and the treatment of prisoners.
"I appreciate the subtantial time and effort that went into preparing the briefing, including reviewing and cataloging hundreds of videotapes from the past two years. Unfortunately, because of limited time, staff were able to review only a few of the videotapes of the IRF unit. I am also disappointed that the commanders refused a reasonable request to make samples of the videos available to the public, with appropriate redaction for security considerations and to protect the privacy of those involved.
"The commanders clearly stated that prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are currently being treated humanely and that inappropriate tactics are not being employed by prison guards. Based on the staffs' review of a small number of the videos, it does not appear that prisoners at Guantanamo were subjected to the types of egregious abuses that occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq or at Bagram detention facility in Afghanistan. Questions remain, however, about the IRF and other techniques used during the past two years.
"As we try to fill in the bigger picture in the prison abuse scandal, it also is mystifying why the Department of Defense's procedures for the treatment of detainees vary so dramatically from one facility to another. Why were the procedures and oversight that were designed to prevent abuses at Guantanamo not used at Abu Ghraib and Baghram, where the cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners was routine?
"We will continue to work toward answers to these and other questions."