Senator Richard Durbin
accused the military of Nazi-like behavior.

BACKGROUND:
In our first article, we reported on Senator Durbin's original remarks on the Senate floor where he compared our military to Nazis, terrorist holding facilities to gulags, and the military's conduct to the Pol Pot regime. We then wrote a petition and published it online demanding that Senator Durbin release his evidence for all to see. We feel it is important that these allegations be investigated and if true, swift action be taken against all those involved. Since his remarks on June 14, 2005, Senator Durbin first stood by his remarks and then apologized. Despite the apology, we here at 'The Public View' still want to see the evidence which caused the remarks in the first place.

THE FBI REPORT/MEMO/EMAIL(?):
In his speech in the Senate, which you can read here, he described the source evidence as a report from an FBI agent. We called Senator Durbin's offices in Illinois and Washington DC. At first contact, one of Senator Durbin's office employees told us he would provide us a copy of the report. After three days and three calls, we still hadn't received the report. It was then we were referred to the Washington DC office and Mr. Nadeam Elshami who never returned our calls.

We did find a copy of an FBI email which had the exact wording Senator Durbin used for his Senate speech. It is at American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) web site section titled 'Government Documents on Torture'. You can read the entire email sequence here. For your convenience, we are including a summary:

• July 12, 2004 - An FBI Special Agent (SA) in Boston sends an email in reply to a "request for feedback on aggressive treatment and inappropriate interview techniques used on GTMO detainees".
• July 29, 2004 - Someone replies, asking for a short summary of what was observed.
• Aug 02, 2004 - A response is provided using the exact wording in Senator Durbins speech.

A Google search revealed that "The Washington Post" published a frontpage story on December 21, 2004 titled, "FBI Agents Allege Abuse of Detainees at Guantanamo Bay". Contained within the article is the same wording used by Senator Durbin and found in the FBI memo:

Detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanimo Bay, Cuba, were shackled to the floor in fetal positions for more than 24 hours at a time, left without food and water, and allowed to defecate on themselves, an FBI agent who said he witnessed such abuse reported in a memo to supervisors, according to documents released yesterday.

Our next call was to the FBI. We called the Boston office and spoke to the Public Relations Officer. She claimed no knowledge of the memo, who wrote it, or any investigation into detainee treatment. She was fairly certain that Boston remains in Massachusetts, however. One name listed in this email and in several others is Valerie Caproni. We discovered that Ms. Caproni is the head of the Office of the General Counsel for the FBI. She was not available for comment, but we did speak to someone in her office. She had no comment and suggested we send a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act, (FOIA).

FILING THE FOIA:
For help, we called our Congressman, Cliff Stearns, and our two Florida Senators, Mel Martinez and Bill Nelson. Rather than fill out the standard FOIA form, we decided to put our request in a letter. We wrote a request to both Senator Durbin and Valerie Caproni, Office of the General Counsel at the FBI. You can read both letters here. We will publish any reply we receive for all to see. Sources who have had experience with getting information from politicians have advised we not hold our breath.

ACCORDING TO THE ACLU:
As a result of the general research into these FBI memos, "The Public View" discovered a news release from the ACLU. According to the news release:

Documents released today reveal that many of the FBI's earlier descriptions of abuses came in response to a specific request dated July 9, 2004 from Steve McCraw, the Assistant Director of the FBI's Office for Intelligence. The e-mail asked more than 500 agents who had been stationed at Guantanamo Naval Base to report whether they had observed "aggressive treatment, interrogations or interview techniques" that violated FBI guidelines.

According to subsequent e-mails noting the status of the "special inquiry," 478 responded and 26 reported observations of detainee mistreatment by personnel of other agencies. The 26 summaries were reviewed by FBI General Counsel Valerie Caproni, who determined 17 to pertain to "approved DOD techniques."

For unknown reasons, Caproni declined further investigation of the abuses that she considered to follow approved DOD interrogation techniques. Instead, she focused only on those abuses that were not approved by even the DOD's permissive rules. As a result, only nine reported incidents were tagged for follow-up investigation.. The ACLU has received no information about the follow-up investigation, and a final FBI report about the matter is apparently being withheld.
ACLU Says Key Documents Are Being Withheld

THE MILITARY:
No investigation of this nature would be complete without asking the military for a comment. We were able to find two sources assigned to work with civilian inquiries such as ours. One office works exclusively with the media and the other private citizens. Both gave us direct phone numbers and promised to find an appropriate contact within Southern Command knowledgeable about any investigation from these FBI emails. We were cautioned that all information on an ongoing investigation would be considered confidential and no comment would be made. Any completed investigation could be discussed.

The Department of Defense has made a short documentary on the history and conditions at Camps X-Ray and Delta in Guantanimo Bay. You can view it on the DOD Internet Channel at: Inside the Wire

Of interest in the documentary is a segment on the ongoing legal proceedings that will eventually determine many of the rights of enemy combatants and procedures to deal with them.

WHAT WE HAVE SO FAR:
To date, we do not have much. But what is not said can tell us as much as what is said. We have a Senator who accused the American Military of torture alá Nazi Germany. The Senator refers to an FBI report which the FBI will not corroborate. Nor will the Senator's own office cooperate in releasing the report.

The ACLU has released a series of documents from the FBI. One of which has the same wording as used by Senator Durbin. According to the ACLU, the emails were a result of a blanket request for any information on torture seen by any FBI agent. This can not be confirmed either. Is it that unreasonable to want more detail on such strong allegations? Why would Senator Durbin stonewall the release of information he refers to on the Senate Floor? Why is the FBI being so reluctant to cooperate. A simple reply as to the authenticity of the report would go a long, long way. Are they afraid of embarrassing the Senate's number two Democrat?

We will continue to investigate. Our aim is to find the truth about Senator Durbin's allegations. If there is indeed a pattern of ongoing torture, alá Nazi Germany, then we will demand those involved be prosecuted and join the criminals from Abu Ghraib. If not, we will ask why Senator Durbin made such reckless allegations, to the benefit of the terrorist propagandists, with such little research.

PETITION TO SEE THE EVIDENCE:
To help get to the bottom of this we have published an on-line petition demanding that Senator Durbin release all the information he has on this case. We want the American public to see and decide for themselves if abuses are practiced. If not, Senator Durbin should be required to apologize in person and in writing to every military member at Guantánamo Bay.

You can read the petition here.

THE PUBLIC VIEW