WASHINGTON - FBI agents complained repeatedly, beginning in 2002, about the harsh tactics that military and CIA interrogators were using in questioning terror suspects, such as making them parade naked in front of female soldiers, but their complaints appear to have had little effect, according to an exhaustive report released Tuesday by the Justice Department's inspector general.
The report describes major and repeated clashes between FBI agents and their counterparts over the methods being used on detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq -- some of which, the inspector general said, may have violated the Defense Department's policies at the time.
It also provides new insight into the intense debates at senior levels of the Justice Department, the Defense Department and the National Security Council over what should be allowed -- a debate in which the Defense Department prevailed.
For instance, FBI agents expressed "strong concerns" about the abusive treatment by the CIA in 2002 of Abu Zubaydah, a senior Al-Qaida figure, leading to tense discussions between senior officials over how such important prisoners should be handled.
Still, the bureau "had not provided sufficient guidance to its agents on how to respond when confronted with" techniques not permitted by the FBI, the report said.
Jameel Jaffer, who tracks detainee issues for the American Civil Liberties Union, said, the report documents "a failure of leadership" at the bureau.
Former Attorney General John Ashcroft declined to be interviewed by the inspector general's office of the department he headed, an unusual refusal that hampered investigators, the report said. A Pentagon spokesman had no comment on the report.
NEW YORK TIMES
