We also know that, even after the supposed banning of some measures
that had been previously approved by the Secretary of Defense, these techniques
continued at the detention center at Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, and probably other
prisons, even while the Inspector General was putting a seal of approval on the
whole affair.
As Josh White wrote in the Washington Post last Friday:
At least 17 detainees held at Guantanamo
Bay were subjected to a program that
moved them repeatedly from cell to cell to cause sleep deprivation and
disorientation as punishment and to soften detainees for subsequent
interrogation, according to U.S.
military documents.
Defense Department investigations of abuse had previously revealed that the
program was used in a limited manner and only on high-value detainees, but the
documents indicate that the program was far more widespread and that the technique
was still used months after it was banned at the facility in March 2004.
Detainees were moved dozens of times in just days and sometimes more than a
hundred times over a two-week period.
Military police logs for cell blocks at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
show that guards used the program -- dubbed the "frequent flyer"
program in official documents -- on numerous detainees and noted the program in
their 2003 and 2004 records. The logs, reviewed by The Washington Post, also
indicate that the frequent cell movements took place on the same days a Navy
admiral was visiting Guantanamo
to assess possible detainee abuses.