A new report by the Department of Justice alleges that soldiers at Guantanamo Bay engaged in abuse against Chinese nationals in order to “soften them up” for the arrival of members of Chinese intelligence.
According to the report by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine, an FBI agent reported a detainee belonging to China’s ethnic Uighur minority and a Uighur translator told him Uighur detainees were kept awake for long periods, deprived of food and forced to endure cold for hours on end, just prior to questioning by Chinese interrogators.
[…]
According to Fine’s report, the FBI agent said the Uighur detainee told him that the night before his interrogation by Chinese officials, “he was awakened at 15-minute intervals the entire night and into the next day.” The detainee also allegedly said he was “exposed to low room temperatures for long periods of time and was deprived of at least one meal.”
“The agent stated that he understood that the treatment of the Uighur detainees was either carried out by the Chinese interrogators or was carried out by U.S. personnel at the behest of Chinese interrogators,” the report by the Department of Justice inspector general stated.
What can I say now that hasn’t been said about this sort of thing already? Bad enough that the United States of America is torturing and abusing its prisoners of war. Now we’re assisting the Chinese in their campaign of repression against the Uighurs? I’m just speechless at this point, so let me just close this with a quote from Theodore Roosevelt in response to allegations of abuse and torture by American troops in the early part of the 20th Century:
“Great as the provocation has been in dealing with foes who habitually resort to treachery, murder and torture against our men, nothing can justify or will be held to justify the use of torture or inhuman conduct of any kind on the part of the American Army.”
If only we still upheld that principle.
(link via Matt Welch)
