Guantanamo inmate forced to wear bra, act like a dog: report

Last Updated: Wednesday, July 13, 2005 | 11:03 PM ET

CBC News

A suspected terrorist was forced to wear a bra, dance with another man and behave like a dog during his interrogation at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military investigators said Wednesday.

The investigators called for Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller to be reprimanded because he did not oversee the interrogation.

The chief investigator, Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt, said FBI agents had raised their concerns to Miller about the treatment of Mohamed al-Qahtani, a Saudi who was captured in December 2001 along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller (AP file photo)

Schmidt said he should have monitored the situation, but that he apparently took no action.

Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, commander of U.S. Southern Command, said he overruled the recommendation that Miller be reprimanded, saying he will instead refer the matter to the Army's inspector general.

Craddock said Miller did not violate any U.S. laws or policies.

Investigators described their findings before the Senate Armed Services Committee Wednesday. They were looking into allegations by FBI agents who say they witnessed abusive interrogation techniques at the Guantanamo prison.

Schmidt said that to get al-Qahtani to talk, interrogators told him his mother and sisters were whores, forced him to wear a bra, forced him to wear a thong on his head, forced him to dance with a male interrogator, told him he was homosexual and said that other prisoners knew it.

He was also strip searched, threatened with dogs, forced to stand naked in front of women and forced him onto a leash, to act like a dog.

But Schmidt said no torture occurred and that Al-Qahtani was provided food, water and medical care.

Al-Qahtani had tried to enter the U.S. in August 2001 but was turned away by an immigration agent at the Orlando, Fla., airport. Mohamed Atta, ringleader of the Sept. 11 hijackers, was in the airport at the same time, officials have said.

In other cases, investigators found that:

• A female interrogator smeared fake menstrual blood on a prisoner.
• A Navy officer threatened one prisoner by saying he would go after his family.
• An FBI agent said a prisoner was bound on the head with duct tape, his mouth covered, because he was chanting verses from the Qur'an.